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Lexical Semantics and Sentence Semantics: A Comprehensive Guide, Apuntes de Filología Inglesa

Universidad de Sevilla (US)Filología Inglesa

Units of the subject Semantics and Pragmatics of English Language.

Tipo: Apuntes

2021/2022

Subido el 28/10/2023

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UNIT 3: LEXICAL SEMANTICS AND SENTENCE
SEMANTICS
INDEX
1. SENTENCE MEANING.
1.1. COMPOSITIONAL MEANING VS. NON-COMPOSITIONAL
MEANING.
1.2. IDIOMATICITY: COLLOCATIONS, IDIOMS, AND PROVERBS.
1.2.1. COLLOCATIONS.
1.2.2. IDIOMS.
1.2.3. PROVERBS.
2. DIATHESIS ALTERNATIONS.
2.1. LEXICAL UNITS.
2.1.1. PREDICATES AND ARGUMENTS.
2.1.2. SEMANTIC ROLES.
2.1.3. ABOUT DICTIONARIES.
2.1.4. ALTERNATION-BASED APPROACH.
1. SENTENCE MEANING.
• Semantic constituents:
o The meaning of a typical sentence in a natural language is
complex in that it results from the combination of meanings
which are in a sense simpler. These simpler meanings are
carried by identifiable parts of a sentence; and the way they must
be combined to yield the global meaning of the sentence is
indicated by the syntactic structure of the sentence.
o Any constituent part of a sentence that bears a meaning which
combines with the meanings of the other constituents to give the
overall meaning of the sentence will be termed a semantic
constituent.
o Thus, the meaning of “The cat sat on the mat” is the + cat + sat +
on + the + mat.
▪ They are called minimal semantic constituents and
they cannot be segmented into more elementary
semantic constituents.
▪ These combine in the ways signalled by the syntactic
structure to form semantic constituents.
▪ Thus, on the mat is a semantic constituents of the cat sat
on the mat, but not a minimal one.
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UNIT 3: LEXICAL SEMANTICS AND SENTENCE

SEMANTICS

INDEX

1. SENTENCE MEANING.

1.1. COMPOSITIONAL MEANING VS. NON-COMPOSITIONAL

MEANING.

1.2. IDIOMATICITY: COLLOCATIONS, IDIOMS, AND PROVERBS.

1.2.1. COLLOCATIONS.

1.2.2. IDIOMS.

1.2.3. PROVERBS.

2. DIATHESIS ALTERNATIONS.

2.1. LEXICAL UNITS.

2.1.1. PREDICATES AND ARGUMENTS.

2.1.2. SEMANTIC ROLES.

2.1.3. ABOUT DICTIONARIES.

2.1.4. ALTERNATION-BASED APPROACH.

1. SENTENCE MEANING.

  • Semantic constituents: o The meaning of a typical sentence in a natural language is complex in that it results from the combination of meanings which are in a sense simpler. These simpler meanings are carried by identifiable parts of a sentence; and the way they must be combined to yield the global meaning of the sentence is indicated by the syntactic structure of the sentence. o Any constituent part of a sentence that bears a meaning which combines with the meanings of the other constituents to give the overall meaning of the sentence will be termed a semantic constituent. o Thus, the meaning of “The cat sat on the mat” is the + cat + sat + on + the + mat. ▪ They are called minimal semantic constituents and they cannot be segmented into more elementary semantic constituents. ▪ These combine in the ways signalled by the syntactic structure to form semantic constituents. ▪ Thus, on the mat is a semantic constituents of the cat sat on the mat , but not a minimal one.

o The term semantic constituent is not used to refer to a meaning only, but to a form-plus-meaning complex; that is to say, a semantic constituent is a meaningful form with a determinate grammatical function.

  • Semantic contrast: o Recurrent semantic contrast: a part X of a grammatically well- formed and semantically normal sentence S1 is a semantic constituent of S1 if: ▪ X can be replaced by another element Y , what then forms a new grammatically well-formed and semantically normal sentence S2 (similar in syntax, but distinct in meaning). ▪ There exists at least one other grammatically well-formed and semantically normal sentence S3, containing X , but otherwise having no other elements in parallel syntactic positions in common with S1, in which X is similarly omissible or replaceable by Y , yielding a syntactically identical but semantically distinct sentence S4. ▪ The semantic contrast between S1 and S2 is identical to that between S3 and S4.
  • Syntagmatic and paradigmatic: o In discourse , words acquire relations based on the linear nature of language because they are chained together. Combinations supported by linearity are syntagms. In the syntagm a term acquires its value only because it stands in opposition to everything that precedes or follows it, or to both. o Outside discourse , on the other hand, words acquire relations of a different kind. Those that have something in common are associated in memory, resulting groups are marked by diverse relations.

1.2. IDIOMATICITY: COLLOCATIONS, IDIOMS, AND PROVERBS

  • Definition of idiomaticity: Idiomaticity is the tendency of phrases to take on meanings that go beyond the meanings of their parts. That is, idiomaticity is in opposition to compositionality. The aspects of meaning are not derivable from the parts of the phrase and speakers and hearers are expected to know these expressions’ meaning by itself, keeping it stored in the lexicon.
  • There are 3 main degrees of opacity: collocations, idioms or lexicalized expressions, and proverbs. o Collocations: ▪ Originally, the term “collocation” was introduced by Firth (1951) as one of the “levels” of meaning. He distinguished “meaning by collocation” from both the “conceptual or idea approach to the meaning of words” and “contextual meaning”. ▪ Firth’s notion of collocation: “meaning by collocation is an abstraction at the syntagmatic level and is not directly concerned with the conceptual or idea to the meaning of words”. ▪ Choueka’s notion of collocation: “a collocation is defined as a sequence of two or more consecutive words, that has characteristics of a syntactic and semantic unit, and whose exact and unambiguous meaning cannot be derived directly from the meaning or connotation of its components”. (Choueka, 1988). ▪ Definition of collocation: Collocation refers to sequences of lexical items which habitually co-occur, but which are nonetheless fully transparent in the sense that each lexical constituent is also a semantic constituent. ▪ For example: fine weather | torrential rain | high winds | eat food | blond hair | dog’s bark | different from | different than | different to | example of | typical of | hard work | heavy drinker | heavy smoker. o Idioms or lexicalized expressions: ▪ They cannot be segmented. They are expressions or phrases whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meanings of their parts.

▪ For example: It’s raining cats and dogs | She was pulling my leg | black and white. ▪ In other words, an idiom is an expression whose meaning cannot be accounted for as a compositional function of the meanings its parts have when they are not parts of idioms. ▪ Any expression which is divisible into semantic constituents will be regarded as non-idiomatic or semantically transparent. ▪ As Cruse pointed out in 1986, most idioms probably started life as metaphors. That is, they describe the analogy of one object or event to another one. ▪ For example: In “He kicked the bucket”, which is an expression that means “to die”, “to be dead” is like “having kicked the bucket”.

  • As may be obvious from this example, however, the analogy is sometimes lost, because we are dealing with so called “dead metaphor”. ▪ Most idioms are homophonous with grammatically well- formed transparent expressions. A few are not in this sense well-formed, although some grammatical structure is normally discernible. Such cases are often called asyntactic idioms. ▪ For example: by and large | far and away. o Proverbs: ▪ They are complete sentences whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meanings of their parts. ▪ A proverb is a short sentence that people often quote, which gives advice or tells you something about life. ▪ For example: A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush (más vale pájaro en mano que ciento volando)| the enemy of my enemy is my friend (el enemigo de mi enemigo es mi amigo) | Never look a gift horse in the mouth (a caballo regalado no le mires el diente)| The early bird catches the worm (a quien madruga, Dios le ayuda)| Birds of a feather flock together (Dios los cría y ellos se juntan).

2.1.2. SEMANTIC ROLES.

  • Actor: The actor is the doer of an action. o For example: The wind blew down the tree | The wind blew down the tree on purpose | The earthquake destroyed the whole city | The earthquake destroyed the city on purpose. o When the actor has an intention to act, she or he became to be agent. ▪ Agent is the one who intentionally initiated the action expressed by the predicate. - For example: The dog chased the cat | The dog chased the cat on purpose. o Sometimes there is a problem identifying if the subject is an agent or an actor. In these cases, the context is obligatory to determine the intentionality or unintentionality of the action. 2.1.3. ABOUT DICTIONARIES.
  • The WordNet: The WordNet is a large lexical database of English. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are grouped into sets of cognitive synonyms ( synsets ), each expressing a distinct concept. Synsets are interlinked by means of conceptual-semantic and lexical relations. WordNet’s structure makes it a useful tool for computational linguistics and natural language processing.
  • According to what Fellbaum exposed in 1998, the WordNet is most widely used hierarchically organized lexical database for English.
  • There are different semantic relations in the WordNet which are: o Synonymy. o Antonymy. o Hyperonymy and Hyponymy. o Meronymy and Holonymy.

o The farmer dumped the cart with apples (No) → The farmer dumped apples into the cart.

  • We have to agree there are subtle differences in meaning associated with alternate expressions of a verb’s arguments. o The sentence “The farmer loaded the cart with apples” suggest that the cart is full. → This sentence could not be used to describe a cart that is half-full of apples. o The sentence “The farmer loaded apples into the cart” need not suggest this. → This sentence could be used to describe a cart that is half-full of apples. ▪ This is the much discussed holistic/partitive effect.
  • We should also know that a verb may participate in one of various transitive alternations found in English. o For example: Although the verb break shows transitive ( cause- to-break transitive ) and intransitive ( cause-to-break intransitive ) uses the so-called causative/inchoative alternation , which is not available for the verb appear. o The verb appear cannot be used transitively to mean cause-to- appear intransitive. ▪ The window broke (inchoative variant). ▪ The little boy broke the window (causative variant). ▪ The magician appeared a rabbit out of his hat (No) → A rabbit appeared out of the magician’s hat.
  • Causative/Inchoative Alternation: o The transitive variant is causative, whereas the intransitive variant is inchoative. o For example : ▪ John broke the window (SVO). ▪ The window broke (SV). ▪ Mary opened the door (SVO). ▪ The door opened (SV). o Transitive variant: explicit ergative element which causes the action to take place. The object of this transitive variant is affected by the action identified by the verb. o Intransitive variant: affected element in subject position and the ergative element does not appear at all. ▪ In this inchoative variant , the action from the point of view of the affected element and not from the point of view of the ergative element.
  • Middle Alternation: o The middle alternation is very similar to the inchoative one, with the difference that it requires an obligatory adverbial. So, as well as the inchoative alternation , it is intransitive, but it is not monovalent but bivalent (SVA).

o For example : ▪ My little brother broke the crystal vase. ▪ Crystal vases break easily. ▪ This sweater washes well. ▪ The new BMW handles beautifully. o If we delete the adverbial, the sentence will become ungrammatical. For example : This sweater washes. o There are some verbs, like break , that allow the two alternations, inchoative and middle , but some verbs will only allow one of them. ▪ For example: John broke the bottle | The bottle broke | Bottles break easily.

  • Conative Alternation: o The conative alternation is also a transitive alternation, but unlike the middle and inchoative alternations, the subject of the transitive variant and intransitive variant bears the same semantic relation to the verb. ▪ For example: - The girl hit the man. - The girl hit at the man. → This sentence means something like “The girl tried to hit the man”. o In the conative construction, the argument corresponding to the object of the transitive variant is expressed in a prepositional phrase headed by at. o The conative construction is set apart by its meaning. o There is no entailment that the action denoted by the verb was completed.
  • Subject-Instrument Alternation: o This alternation involves verbs that have agent subjects, but that alternatively may take as subjects noun phrases that can be expressed in some type of prepositional phrase when the verb takes its canonical agent subject. o Such subjects have been referred to as Oblique Subjects because certain prepositional phrases, particularly those expressing non-subcategorized arguments, are sometimes referred to as oblique phrases. o When the verb takes the oblique subject, the agent is no longer expressed. o For example: David broke the window with the hammer | The hammer broke the window. (Intermediary instrument).
  • Locative Alternation: o The locative alternation is found with certain verbs that relate to putting substances on surfaces or things in containers, or to removing substances from surfaces of things from containers.