Contemporary research: Numerical cognition Linguistic
Relativity: meaning and thought (From last week)
Slide 3
The number sense Semantics -- LIN 1180 Rationale: 1. Suppose
language L2 only distinguishes quantities in a very basic way e.g.
one vs. many 2. Then, we can ask whether speakers of L2 are capable
of abstract quantitative reasoning like other speakers. 3. If not,
then there must be an influence of language over mathematical
cognition.
Slide 4
Peter Gordons work Semantics -- LIN 1180 Gordon (2004):
investigated these questions among the Piraha tribe in the Amazon
Piraha distinguishes one, two and many. No terms for twenty,
thirty-three No recursive devices for forming complex numbers (one
hundred and one etc)
Slide 5
Some observations on Piraha Semantics -- LIN 1180 The three
words for one, two and many are used as prototypes: hi (one):
typically for one objects, but often also used for a few ho (two):
typically for 2 objects, but also for a relatively small quantity
greater than hi aibaagi (many): for any number of objects which are
a lot
Slide 6
Experimental task (example) Semantics -- LIN 1180 7
participants in a matching task Experimenter sits opposite
participant places a linear array of objects on a table participant
has to match the array with his own objects (a kind of substitute
for counting)
Slide 7
Matching task: results Semantics -- LIN 1180 If the array
consisted of between 1 and 3 objects, participants were reasonably
accurate. With greater numbers, performance became increasingly
inaccurate. Tendency became more pronounced with more complicated
versions of the task.
Slide 8
Gordons conclusions Semantics -- LIN 1180 The results of these
studies show that the Pirahas impoverished counting system limits
their ability to enumerate exact quantities when set sizes exceed
two or three items. (2004, p. 498)
Slide 9
Some reflections on Gordon (2004) Semantics -- LIN 1180 Gordons
study was restricted to a small set of individuals. Not very
controlled environment. It has sparked off a considerable debate
about: whether all languages are equal whether language has a
conditioning effect on thought: Can we not think things which we
cannot name?
Slide 10
Some reflections on Gordon (2004) Semantics -- LIN 1180 Gordons
work goes beyond words: languages like English have simple number
words (one, two) but also grammatical systems which allow these
words to be combined (one hundred and one.) If Gordons observations
are correct, then grammar may have a role to play in thinking:
grammar may be a way of combining simple concepts into complex
ones.
Slide 11
The domain of lexical semantics Part 1
Slide 12
Goals of this lecture By now, we have introduced some of the
major concepts and positions in semantic theory. This lecture
begins our incursion into Lexical Semantics: Word meaning The
structure of the mental lexicon Lexical relations
Slide 13
Knowledge of words What does it mean to know a word? Iltqajt ma
ziti (I met my aunt) Iltqajt ma mara (I met a woman) Zija/Aunt
entails woman/mara anni qatel lil Pietru (John murdered Peter)
Pietru miet (Peter died) Qatel lil x / kill x entails x miet/x died
These entailment relations suggest that when we know a word, we
also know several connections to other words. Part of the concern
of lexical semantics is to characterise this knowledge.
Slide 14
Representing lexical knowledge (Reminder from previous
lectures) The word aunt is somehow related to the word woman:
Theory of necessary and sufficient conditions: WOMAN is part of the
meaning of the definition of AUNT in our mental lexicon Lexical
taxonomies: There is a hierarchical relationship, where WOMAN is
the superordinate of AUNT
Slide 15
The units of analysis: words If were going to talk about word
meaning, we need to identify what a word actually is... Not as easy
as it seems Preliminary semantic definition: A word represents a
unit of meaning
Slide 16
Definition of a word (I) Orthographic: Anything we write
separated by whitespace Phonological: Any string of sounds which
has some internal structure that distinguishes it from other parts
of a speech signal E.g. We often find pauses at word
boundaries
Slide 17
Definition of a word (II) Grammatical definition: Words are the
basic input to syntax. They are the minimum free form (Bloomfield
1933) Words can occur in isolation They can differ according to
their grammatical category and inflectional features kiel
eat-3MSg-Perf. kilt eat-1Sg-Perf kielet eat-3FSg-Perf
kielueat-3Pl-Perf In English, all these different forms would
qualify as a single grammatical word I/He/She/They ate
Slide 18
Definition of a word (III) An intuition: The words
kilt/kiel/kielet etc are all different forms of a single semantic
word, meaning the action of eating By convention, Maltese uses the
3rd Person Sg. Masc as citation form: kiel English uses the
infinitive or ing form: to eat/eating One way to capture the
grammatical/semantic distinction is by distinguishing types and
tokens kilt/kiel/kielet etc are tokens of the same type kiel,
meaning EAT
Slide 19
Problems with identifying words Semantic definition is
problematic: English puce = Maltese vjola ar Maltese ng id =
English I say Not every semantic word in one language is a semantic
word in another Grammatical definition might be better but: There
are things that dont occur in isolation which speakers still
classify intuitively as words: Is the Maltese definite article a
word? Il- is phonologically dependent on the noun (a clitic) Were
just going to assume that we know what a word is, but be mindful of
the pitfalls!
Slide 20
Words, word senses and context Part 2
Slide 21
Word senses Consider: I hurt my foot bodypart the foot of the
mountain bottom of high incline Or: Kiser spalla minnhom (he broke
a shoulder) bodypart G amlet sajjetta u faqqg et spalla mis-si ra
(a lightning bolt broke off the main branch of a tree) main branch
of a tree These are different senses, but they are related: they
both denote to the base of something Again, related: the tree sense
is derived from the bodypart sense.
Slide 22
Word senses (II) Different senses of a word are semantically
related Grouped together in a traditional dictionary, in one
lexical entry Spalla n.f. (pl. spalel) 1. shoulder 2. one of the
main branches in a tree (Aquilina, J. Concise Maltese-English
Dictionary ) Foot n. (pl. feet) 1. part of the leg below the ankle.
2. base or bottom of something
Slide 23
Word Senses (III) Lexicographers make these entries using a
number of conventions: Parts of the entry have the same grammatical
category Senses in a lexical entry share a number of semantic
properties. Different senses may be historically related. spalla (=
tree branch) is derived from spalla (= shoulder)
Slide 24
Problems with pinning down senses Its not always clear whether
a word: has different senses, as in the case of foot has only one
sense, but exhibits shades of meaning Part of the problem is that
word meanings have contextual dependencies
Slide 25
Context (I): Collocation Context can distinguish words with
nearly identical meaning (near-synonyms) E.g. the adjectives big,
large, great A traditional dictionary (OED online): large adj. of
considerable or relatively great size, extent, or capacity big adj.
of considerable size, physical power, or extent great adj. of an
extent, amount, or intensity considerably above average
Slide 26
Context (I): Collocation Typical contexts of use for big: with
concrete nouns: big man, big house with descriptive adjectives: big
black rat Typical contexts of use for large: with abstract nouns:
large number, large scale, large ratio, large amount Typical
contexts for great: great importance, great deal, great variety NB:
some of these contexts are shared. But some adjectives occur more
frequently in some contexts.
Slide 27
Context (I): Collocation Word combinations exhibit degrees of
collocational strength Often a result of frequency of usage. The
adjective great became more strongly collocated with deal than
large or big This is a kind of fossilisation: Two words have
(apparently) the same meaning, but their patterns of usage become
fixed over time.
Slide 28
Context (II): Meaning shift Sometimes, the same word can
display different shades of meaning in different contexts Consider
the patterns of occurrence of qawwi (strong or powerful) Can you
think of examples which show differences in meaning?
Slide 29
Context (II): Meaning shift The word qawwi in different
contexts: ra el qawwi = big man ba ar qawwi = rough sea te qawwi =
strong tea investiment qawwi = a substantial investment maltemp
qawwi = very stormy weather ebel tal-qawwi = a kind of limestone
These contexts seem to pull apart different meanings of the same
word.
Slide 30
Context (II): meaning shift The 6 different uses of qawwi: Are
these different semantic words? Are they five senses of the same
word? (Aquilina lists 13 different senses) Different uses have a
lot in common: Qawwi always carries a notion of strength
Slide 31
Ambiguity and vagueness Part 3
Slide 32
Ambiguity A word is ambiguous if it has several distinct
senses. Example 1 (English): 1. I built a run for my chickens. 2. I
go for a run before work. 3. I hit a home run during the cricket
match. Example 2 (Maltese): 1. Kibt id-da la tal-ktieb. (= I wrote
the introduction to the book) 2. Hemm da la fil-bajja. (= The bay
has an inlet) 3. Qed jirrestawraw id-da la tal-Birgu. (= Theyre
restoring the entrance/city gate of Birgu) 2 & 3 both involve
the physical act of running. Example 1 has a specialised meaning 2
& 3 both denote some kind of entrance. Example 1 has a
specialised meaning.
Slide 33
Ambiguity vs. Vagueness (I) In context, a word can seem to have
several distinct senses. Some may appear more related than others.
In our example: run 1 = physical act of running run 2 = place where
fowl are kept So run is 2-ways ambiguous (2 senses) But run 1
exhibits vagueness between a general sense of running, and the more
specialised sense used in cricket.
Slide 34
Ambiguity vs. vagueness (II) Similarly: da la 1 = entrance or
inlet da la 2 = introduction to a text 2-ways ambiguous da la 1 is
vague between the sense of entrance and that of inlet
Slide 35
Ambiguity vs. vagueness (III)...and for another example: Theres
a mole in my garden mole 1 = small, furry animal living underground
Theres a mole in the CIA mole 2 = a spy We can say that mole is
2-ways ambiguous
Slide 36
Ambiguity vs. vagueness (IV) Ambiguity: In this case, the
context will select one of the meanings/senses We often dont even
notice ambiguity, because context clarifies the intended meaning.
Vagueness: Context adds information to the sense. Therefore the
sense of the word itself doesnt contain all the information. It is
underspecified.
Slide 37
Tests for ambiguity and vagueness There are some tests to
decide whether meaning distinctions involve ambiguity or vagueness.
The do-so test of meaning identity The synonymy or sense-relations
test
Slide 38
The do-so test: preliminary example I ate a sandwich and Mary
The do-so construction is interpreted as identical to the preceding
verb phrase Similar constructions in Maltese: Kilt bi a ob u anka
Marija Kilt bi a ob u Marija g amlet hekk ukoll. did so too did
too
Slide 39
The do-so test and meaning identity Main principle: if a
particular sense is selected for a word in a verb phrase, it will
also be the same sense in the do-so phrase Therefore, very useful
to test if two meanings are two distinct senses.
Slide 40
Do-so examples Lili g o bitni d-da la u lil Jimmy wkoll (I
liked the entrance/introduction and so did Jimmy) Suppose da la
here = introduction Is it possible that I liked the introduction
and Jimmy liked the entrance? If not, then these are two distinct
senses or da la I made a run and so did Priscilla If I made a run =
I ran, then Priscilla cannot have made a run for her chickens...
So, again, these are two distinct senses of run.
Slide 41
The sense relations test Basic principle: Words exhibit
synonymy or similarity of meaning to other words. Therefore, if a
word is ambiguous, we can substitute it for a similar word in the
same context, and see if the meaning stays roughly the same.
Slide 42
Sense relations examples Recall: run 1 = physical act of
running (similar word: jog) run 2 = a closed space for animals
(similar word: enclosure) Pete went for. We cant substitute one set
of words for another and still keep the same meaning. a run a jog
*an enclosure
Slide 43
Summary Started off with different definitions of a word:
semantic, grammatical... Introduced the notion of a word sense
Discussed the notions of ambiguity (several word senses) and
vagueness (single sense, with slight variations in context)
Slide 44
Next lecture We continue our investigation of lexical semantics
by delving into lexical relations