Semantics

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• sense The conceptualization of things/meanings in our minds
• connotation The part of meaning that expresses a speaker’s attitudes
• polysemy An expression has two or more related meanings/senses.
• compositionality The meaning of an expression is the combination of the meanings of its parts
• denotation All the possible referents for a word/expression
• referent Thing in the world we “point to” by using language
• symbol spoken words, written words, or signs within signed languages
• sense, referent, symbol semiotic triangle
• idiomaticity non-compositional expressions / ambiguous meaning
• ostension Alligator snapping turtle = [points to a reptile]
• typical example automobile = ‘Volvo, Volkswagen, Toyota, Ford, et
• definition by context Love = ‘the feeling when you really like someone’
• synonymy tiny = ‘very small
• genus & differentia bird = ‘animal with feathers’
• substitutability test of definition
• cognitive definition Aims at providing an understanding of the concept and enabling the word to be used correctly (salt = ‘white substance added to food to give flavor, savory taste)
• extentional definition Aims at delimiting the concept so that there is no ambiguity about the word’s denotation. salt = ‘any compound resulting from the neutralization of an acid by a base, such as sodium chloride, potassium chloride, or calcium carbonate’
• real definition The essence of the thing (more of a philosophical concept) ”a polygon with three sides, three angles, and the sum of its internal angles is 180 degrees…”
• nominal definition The meaning of a word (linguistic or conventional use of the word) triangle= "a three-sided polygon”
• reference the act of symbols to refer to things in the world
• antonymy A relation of words where their senses have opposite sets of values.
• gradeable antonyms hot-cold, tall-short, old-young, fast-slow, fat-slim, good-bad, easy-difficult, big-small
• non-gradeable antonyms king-queen; married-unmarried
• complementaries dead-alive, pass-fail, true-false
• autoantonymy The situation in which a single word has two antonymous meanings (ex. fast, temper))
• hyponymy Tthe lexical relation described in English by the phrase “kind/type/sort of”
• hyponymy apple-fruit, bee-insect, bear-animal
• hyperonym The opposite term from hyponym is ...
• taxonymy Applies to hierarchy of terminology, involving multiple levels of classification. (bilogical spieces)
• taxonymy Animal-Mammal-Canine-Dog / Swamp white oak is a type of white oak; white oak is a type of oak….
• meronymy Describes the relation of ”part to whole” / part of something larger.
• meronymy hand-arm, food-leg, wheel-car, leaf-tree, keyboard-computer
• holonym The opposite term for meronym is...
• holonym Car - wheel, engine, door...
• synonymy The situation where two expressions have (roughly) the same meaning
• monosemy The situation where a word has a single meaning
• monosemy appendectomy / orrery
• polysemy deer = animal / deer = meat
• homonymy The situation where two unrelated senses happen to be expressed by the same symbol (pronunciation and/or spelling)
• homonymy bank (’riverbank’ vs. ’financial institution’)
• homophones ’two words that sound the same’
• homographs ’two words that are spelled the same’
• definitional, logical, linguistic Tests for multiple senses
• ostension Defining a word by pointing out the things in the world that the word stands for.
• synonymy Defining a word by providing words that “mean the same thing
• definition by context Defining a word by describing the context in which its referent typically occurs
• definition by typical example Defining a word by specifying a typical example
• genus & differentia Defining a word by specifying the broader class and then showing the distinguishing feature which distinguishes it from the other members of this broader class
• autoantonym a word that has two opposite meanings

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