SEMANTICS

Semantics features: the smallest units of meaning in a word

Ex: father: [+human], [+male], [+mature], [+parental], [+maternal]
SFs can clarify how certain words relate to others

Anomaly: When semantics rules are broken: contrast, incompatible, contradictory

Ex: This suitcase killed me.
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
- This sentence is grammatically and syntactically correct, but semantically incorrect:
+ "Colorless" [-color] & "green" [+color]
+ "Sleep" [-conscious] & "furiously" [+conscious]
+ "Ideas" [+abstract] & "sleep" [+concrete]
→ Semantically anomalous

Semantic violations: may form a strange but interesting asthetic images

Semantic field: a set of words with identifiable semantic affinities. The organization of
related words in a system shows their relationship to one another.

Denotation and Connotation

Denotation (denotative meaning): the core, central, referential meaning of the word found
in a dictionary.
Connotation (connotative meaning): the additional meaning (emotions, attitudes,
affective/evaluative associations, social/political class, culture, language users’ family,
educational background,…)
Ex: child
Denotation: [+human], [-mature], [+-male]
Connotation: pos: [+innocent], [+affectionate], neg: [+irritating], [+noisy]
 Literal and Figurative meaning

Literal meaning: the basic or usual meaning

Figurative meaning:
- Create mental images to readers/listeners
➔ Figures of speech
➔ Simile: sự so sánh, metaphor: ẩn dụ, metonymy: hoán dụ, hyperbole: nói quá,
personification: nhân hóa

Sentence and Utterance meaning

Sentence: a string of words put together in a particular order. (determined by the language
system)
Utterance: a piece of language used by a speaker on a particular occasion. (determined by the
will of individual speakers, the circumstances, the particular occasion)
Ex: A said to B: “Your clothes are becoming tighter.”
- Sentence meaning: B’s clothes are so tight.
-> what a sentence means
- Utterance meaning: B is so fat
-> what a speaker means to say when making utterance
=> Speakers can convey meaning vividly by using sentences.

Propositions: that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative sentence which
describes some state of affairs: tình trạng. (Who + actions)
- Same proposition as declarative sentence
The persons or things referred to the situation or action they are involved in.
- Including a subject (S) and a word that adds some properties to the subject.
+ Who does that action?
+ What is that action?
+ The things or persons that are affected by that action? (roles in doing the action)
+ Where that action happen?
+ How is that action done?
- Propositions can appear in declaratives, imperatives and interrogatives.
- Propositions can be TRUE or FALSE; True propositions correspond to FACTS.
 SENSE and REFERENCE
Reference (nghĩa quy chiếu):
- The relationships between language and the world
- The speaker indicates which things / persons in the world are talking about.
Referent: object, thing,... in real world that is referred to a language.

Types of references
1. Variable references: the same reference refers to different referents.
Depends on time, place, occasion, topic, background, knowledge,…

2. Constant references: the same referent (ONE thing) in normal everyday conversations
Ex: The Sun, the Moon, the Earth,…

3. Co-reference: different expressions refer to the same referent

Ex: my dog, your dog,…
Sense:
- is the indispensable core of meaning
- The relationships inside the language: synonymy, hyponymy, polysemy, antonymy,…
- Shows semantic relationships between expressions in the language
- Provides the information needed to complete the association, to suggest properties the
referent may have.
The relationship between SENSE and REFERENCE
REFERENT: often a thing or a person
SENSE: an abstract notion: khái niệm trừu tượng

Sense cannot include words only, but phrases and sentences additionally.
The same word, in some cases, can have more than one sense.
E.g.9. the word "bank"
9.1. I have an account at the Bank of Scotland
9.2. We steered the raft to the other bank of the river.
⇒ "Bank" has a number of different senses
NOTE
Conjunctions / prepositions / adv / adj => NOT used to refer

Referring expression
- Used to refer to sth or so (use with a particular referent in mind)
- Depends on the linguistic context and circumstances of the utterance

Equative sentences and Generic sentences

EQUATIVE:
- Two referring expressions have the same referent => EQUATIVE
- The order of 2 referring expressions can often be reversed without loss of acceptability
GENERIC:
- A whole unrestricted class of individuals, as apposed to any particular individual =>
GENERIC
 DEIXIS and DEFINITENESS
DEIXIS:
- Most words mean that they mean
- A small set of words whose meanings vary systematically according to: WHO use,
WHEN and WHERE are used
=> Deitic words
A deitic word: takes some elements of its meaning from the context or situation of the
utterance in which it is used

Tense: time of utterance / event

DEFINITENESS:
- A feature of a noun phrase
- Be chosen by the speaker to convey his assumption that hearer will be able to identify
its referent
- It is unique and generally recognized
- It is only thing of its kind in the context
 SENSE RELATIONS BETWEEN WORDS

SYNONYMY:
- A sense between words having the same sense
- Synonyms often differ in their connotative meaning

HYPONYMY:
- A sense relation between words that the meaning of 1 word is included in the meaning
of the other
- Superordinate (Hypernym): higher, more general
- Hyponym: specific
Synonymy is a special case of hyponymy
Symmetric hyponymy (two-way hyponymy)

ANTONYMY:
1. Binary antonyms
- Come in pairs
- Exhaust all the relevant possibilities between them
=> MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
Ex: true – false, dead – alive, same – different, married – unmarried
2. Converse
- Express relationship in 2-opposite way (the opposite order)
=> parent – child, borrow – lend, buy – sell
3. Multiple incompatibles (fixed)
- Sets of more than 2 members covering entire semantic fields mutually incompatible
(non-binary antonym)
=> liquid – solid, gas,…/ dog – cat,…/ lunch – breakfast,…
4. Gradable antonyms
- 2 expressions at opposite ends of a continuous scale of values (the scale which can vary
according to the context of use)
- Allow for comparatives, superlatives, equatives/ very, how, how much/ DEG
HOMONYMY: (từ đồng âm)
- Ambiguous words
- Sense are apart from each other, not obviously related
=> mere accident or coincidence
Ex:
- bank₁ (noun): the side of something, especially a river or a stream
- bank2 (noun): the financial institution people often have some activities such as withdrawal,
transaction, etc.

POLYSEMY: (từ đa nghĩa)

- A word has several related sense
Ex:
- Face (original meaning): the front of the head where the eyes, nose and mouth are
- Face (converted meaning): the face of table, watch (≈ those parts are the front parts)

SENSE PROPERTIES; SENSE RELATIONS BETWEEN SENTENCES

ANALYTICITY:
- An analytic sentence is one that necessarily TRUE, as a result of the sense of the words
in it
Ex: That man is human
SYNTHETICITY: potentially informative
- A synthetic sentence which is not analytic, may be TRUE or FALSE, depending on the
way the world is
Ex: That man is tall/ The elephant is old.
CONTRADICTORINESS:
- A contradiction (or contradictory sentence) is a sentence that is necessarily FALSE, as a
result of the sense of the words
- A contradiction is the opposite of an analytic sentence
ENTAILMENT:
- A proposition X entails Y if the truth of Y follows necessarily from the truth of X
Ex:
John ate the sandwiches (X)
John ate something (Y)
=> X entails Y
John killed Bill (X)
Bill died (Y)
=> X entails Y
The Basic Rule of Sense Inclusion
- If X is a hyponym of Y, then A (contain X) entails B (contain Y)
Negative/All: B entails A
Ex: B entails A
He is not planting a tulip (A)
He is not planting a flower (B)

Entailment in sentences with gradable words

If two sentences have the gradable words, then the entailment rule will not exist.
(X): John saw a big mouse (hyponym)
(Y): John saw a big animal (hypernym)

PARAPHRASE: 2-way entailment

A sentence which expresses the same proposition as another sentence (despite minor
differences in emphasis, style, formality)

AMBIGUITY
Sense relation between HOMONYMY and POLYSEMY
Structural ambiguity:
The ambiguity is caused by the interaction and relation of the words, the elements within a
sentence in different ways.
Ex: The sentence: the man attacked the woman with a stick
- Interpretation 1: The man attacked the woman who brings along a stick.
- Interpretation 2: The man used the stick to attack the woman.
Lexical ambiguity: (do homonymy/ polysemy)
Ex: The sentence: They saw a tree; "saw" is an ambiguous word (homonymous word)
- Interpretation 1: They came across a tree.
- Interpretation 2: They use a chainsaw to divide the tree into small parts.
Before, after, until: prepositions
Khi có it và có VP -> S3 có thể là extraposed subject
Restrictive modifies NOM
Non-restrictive modifies NP