SEMANTICS

Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning of morphemes, words, phrases and sentences.
Subfields of semantics are;
Lexical Semantics is concerned with the meaning of words, and the meaning relationships
among words.
Phrasal or Sentential Semantics is concerned with the meaning of syntactic units larger
than the word.
Pragmatics is the study of how context and situation affect meaning.
MEANING
Conceptual Meaning: Conceptual meaning covers those basic, essential components of
meaning that are conveyed by the literal use of a word. It is the type of meaning that
dictionaries are designed to describe. Some of the basic components of a word like needle in
English might include thin, sharp, steel instrument.
Associative Meaning is the type of meaning that people might connect with the use of
words. The associative meaning of an expression has to do with individual mental
understandings of the speaker. Different people might have different associations or
connotations attached to a word like needle. They might associate it with pain, or illness,
or blood, or drugs, or thread, or knitting, or hard to find (especially in a haystack),
and these associations may differ from one person to the next. These types of associations
are not treated as part of the words conceptual meaning.
TRUTH- CONDITINAL SEMANTICS
Truth-conditional semantics is a theory of meaning that takes semantic knowledge of
knowing when sentences are true or false as basic. It is the study of conditions under which a
statement can be judged true or false. It is also called compositional semantics because it
calculates the truth value of a sentence by composing, or putting together, the meaning of
smaller units. The study of truth or truth conditions in semantics falls into two basic
categories:
1. The study of different types of truth embodied in individual sentences:
a) Tautologies (Analytic Sentences)
b) Contradictions
c) Synthetic Sentences
2. The study of different types of truth relations that hold between sentences.
a) Entailment
b) Contradictory Sentences
TAUTOLOGIES (ANALYTIC SENTENCES)
Tautology is a sentence that is true in all situations; a sentence true from the meaning of its
words alone. These sentences are always true regardless of the circumstances. Their truth is
guaranteed solely by the meaning of their parts and the way they are put together. We dont
need to check on the outside world to verify the truth of these sentences. Tautologies are
sometimes referred to as analytic sentences or linguistic truths. Examples;
A person who is single is not married.
Circles are round.
Elephant is an animal.
Kings are not female.
My brother is male.
CONTRADICTIONS
Contradiction describes a sentence that is false by virtue of its meaning alone, irrespective
of context. Contradictions are opposite of analytic sentences. While analytic sentences are
always true, contradictions are always false as a result of words in them. Examples;
Circles are square.
A bachelor is married.
Kings are female.
A blue gas is colorless.
In each case, we know the sentence is false because we know the meaning of words in
sentences. It is not necessary to refer to the outside world in order to judge their truth values.
SYNTHETIC SENTENCES
A synthetic statement is one which is not analytic or contradictory, but which may be true or
false depending on the context. Synthetic sentences are based on our sensory data and

experience. The truth value of a synthetic statement cant be figured out solely by logic.
Examples;
My oldest cousin is female.
The table in the kitchen is round.
My brother is tall.
We cannot judge whether these sentences are true or false by looking at the words in them.
We must verify the truth or falsity of these sentences.
ENTAILMENT
Entailment is the relationship between two sentences, where the truth of one necessitates
the truth of the other. For example; if you know that the sentence Jack swims beautifully is
true, then you also know that the sentence Jack swims must also be true. We say that Jack
swims beautifully entails Jack swims. Generally, entailment goes only in one direction
(unidirectional). So while the sentence Jack swims beautifully entails Jack swims, the reverse
is not true. Knowing merely that Jack swims is true does not necessitate the truth of Jack
swims beautifully. Jack could be a poor swimmer. On the other hand, negating both sentences
reverses the entailment. Jack doesnt swim entails Jack doesnt swim beautifully.
CONTRADICTORY SENTENCES
Contradictory: Mutual negative entailment: the truth of one sentence necessarily implies
the falseness of another sentence, and vice versa. Two sentences are contradictory if,
whenever one is true, the other is false. For example, the sentences Jack is alive and Jack is
dead are contradictory because if the sentence Jack is alive is true, then the sentence Jack is
dead is false, and vice versa. In other words, Jack is alive and Jack is dead have opposite truth
values. Two sentences are contradictory if one entails the negation of the other. For instance,
Jack is alive entails the negation of Jack is dead, namely Jack is not dead. Similarly, Jack is
dead entails the negation of Jack is alive, namely Jack is not alive. The notions of contradiction
(always false) and contradictory (opposite in truth value) are related in that if two sentences
are contradictory, their conjunction with and is a contradiction. Thus Jack is alive and Jack is
dead is a contradiction; it cannot be true under any circumstances.
AMBUGITY
Our semantic knowledge tells us when words, phrases or sentences have more than one
meaning, that is, when they are ambiguous. In structural ambiguity the same sequence of
words has two or more meanings. The boy saw the man with a telescope is an instance of
structural ambiguity. It is ambiguous because it can mean that the boy saw the man by using
a telescope or that the boy saw the man who was holding a telescope. The sentence is
structurally ambiguous because it is associated with two different phrase structures, each
corresponding to a different meaning. Lexical ambiguity arises when at least one word in a
phrase has more than one meaning. For example the sentence The fisherman went to the
bank is ambiguous; because the word "bank" has distinct lexical definitions, including
"financial institution" and "edge of a river".
Our knowledge of lexical and structural ambiguities reveals that the meaning of a
linguistic expression is built both on the words it contains and its syntactic structure.
PRINCIPLE OF COMPOSITIONALITY
The Principle of Semantic Compositionality (sometimes called Freges Principle) is the
principle that states that the meaning of a complex word, phrase or sentence is determined
by the meaning of its parts and how they are combined structurally. When it becomes difficult
or impossible to understand the meaning of a word, phrase or sentence by the meaning of its
parts compositionality breaks down. If one or more words in a sentence do not have a
meaning, then obviously we will not be able to compute a meaning for the entire sentence.
Moreover, even if the individual words have meaning but cannot be combined together as
required by the syntactic structure and related semantic rules, we will also not get to a
meaning. We refer to these situations as semantic anomaly. This is what happens in
metaphors and idioms.
Anomaly
Anomaly is a violation of semantic rules resulting in expressions that seem nonsense. The
semantic properties of words determine what other words they can be combined with. A
sentence widely used by linguists illustrates this fact:
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

The sentence obeys all the syntactic rules of English. The subject is colorless green ideas and
the predicate is sleep furiously. It has the same syntactic structure as the sentence Dark
green leaves rustle furiously. However, there is obviously something semantically wrong with
the sentence. The meaning of colorless includes the semantic feature without color, but it is
combined with the adjective green, which has the feature green in color. How can
something be both without color and green in color? Such sentences are semantically
anomalous (semantically ill-formed).
Other English sentences make no sense at all because they include words that
have no meaning; they are uninterpretable. They can be interpreted only if some
meaning for each nonsense word can be dreamt up. Lewis Carrolls Jabberwocky is
probably the most famous poem in which most of the content words have no meaning
they do not exist in the lexicon of the grammar. Still, all the sentences sound as if
they should be or could be English sentences:
Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Semantic violations in poetry may form strange but interesting aesthetic images, as in Dylan
Thomass phrase a grief ago. Ago is ordinarily used with words specified by some temporal
semantic feature:
a week ago
*a table ago
an hour ago
but not
*a dream ago
a month ago
*a mother ago
a century ago
When Thomas used the word grief with ago, he was adding a durational feature to grief for
poetic effect, so while the noun phrase is anomalous, it evokes certain feelings.
The fact that we are able to understand, or at least interpret, anomalous expressions,
and at the same time recognize their anomalous nature, demonstrates our knowledge
of the semantic system and semantic properties of the language.
Metaphors
Metaphor is a figure of speech in which a comparison is made between two unlike things.
When what appears to be an anomaly is nevertheless understood in terms of a meaningful
concept, the expression becomes a metaphor. Technically, metaphors are anomalous, but the
nature of the anomaly creates the salient meanings that metaphors usually have. Metaphors
may have a literal meaning as well as their metaphorical meaning.
To interpret a metaphor we need to understand the individual words, the literal meaning of
the whole expression, and facts about the world. To understand the metaphor Time is Money it
is necessary to know that in our society we are often paid according to the number of hours or
days worked. Many expressions now taken literally may have originated as metaphors, such
as the fall of the dollar, meaning its decline in value on the world market. Many people
wouldnt bat an eyelash (another metaphor) at the literal interpretation of saving or wasting
time. Metaphor is one of the factors in language change. Metaphorical use of language is
language creativity at its highest.
Idioms
An idiom is an expression whose meaning does not conform to the principle of
compositionality, that is, may be unrelated to the meaning of its parts. Languages contain
many idioms whose meanings are not predictable on the basis of the meanings of the
individual words. Most idioms originate as metaphorical expressions that establish themselves
in the language and become frozen in their form and meaning. Idioms have fixed meanings
that must be learned. They are similar in structure to ordinary phrases except that they tend
to be frozen in form and do not readily undergo rules that change word order or substitution of
their parts.
She put her foot in her mouth. We cant change this expression as Her foot was put in her
mouth.
Idioms, grammatically as well as semantically, have special characteristics. They must be
entered into the lexicon or mental dictionary as single items with their meanings specified,
and speakers must learn the special restrictions on their use in sentences.

LEXICAL SEMANTICS (WORD MEANINGS)

The meaning of a phrase or sentence is partially a function of the meanings of the words it
contains. Similarly, the meaning of morphologically complex words is a function of their
component morphemes. However, there is a fundamental difference between word meaning
or lexical semanticsand sentence meaning. The meaning of entries in the mental lexicon
be they morphemes, words, compound words, idioms, and so onis conventional; that is,
speakers of a language implicitly agree on their meaning, and children acquiring the language
must simply learn those meanings outright. On the other hand, the meaning of most
sentences must be constructed by the application of semantic rules. Although the agreedupon meaning of a word may shift over time within a language community, we are not free as
individuals to change the meanings of words at will; if we did, we would be unable to
communicate with each other. All the speakers of a language share a basic vocabularythe
sounds and meanings of morphemes and words. Each of us knows the meanings of thousands
of words. . This knowledge permits us to use words to express our thoughts and to understand
the thoughts of others. The meaning of words is part of linguistic knowledge. Your mental
storehouse of information about words and morphemes is what we have been calling the
lexicon.

REFERENCE
Reference (Extension) is the relation between the linguistic expression and the entity it
denotes in the real world. For example when you say Jack you refer to the person whose name
is Jack.
Referent is the concrete object or concept that is designed by a word or expression. For
example;
Princess Diana is the referent of Rose of England.
The relationship between Princess Diana and Rose of England is called reference.
Co-reference is the relationship between two noun phrases that refer to same entity. For
example;
Mark Twain and Samuel Langhorne Clemens are co-referential as they refer to same
person.
The morning star and the evening star are co-referential because they both refer to
Venus.
Antecedent is a noun phrase with which a pronoun is co-referential. For example;
The young boy watched the bluebird until he saw the babies.
Antecedent of pronoun he
The man who is eating bit himself.
Antecedent of pronoun himself
Pronoun- Antecedent Agreement:
A pronoun should clearly refer to one clear noun, or else it causes faulty or
vague pronoun reference.
Samuel called Steve twelve times while he was in London. [The pronoun he can refer either to
Samuel or Steve]
After putting the disk in the cabinet, Jerry sold it. [The pronoun it can refer to either to disk or
cabinet]

The supervisors told the workers that they would receive a bonus. [The pronoun they can refer
either to workers or supervisors.]
The candy dish was empty, but we were tired of eating it anyway. [The reader of this sentence
might think that the dish was being eaten because dish appears to be the antecedent for the
pronoun it. The sentence can be fixed as, "We were tired of eating candy."]
Although Mrs. Smith was wealthy, she made poor use of it. [In this example, the pronoun it
has no antecedent to which it can refer. The reader knows that Mrs. Smith is "wealthy," but it
cannot refer to wealthy because wealthy is not a noun. Pronoun it must be replaced by a
noun; Although Mrs. Smith was wealthy, she made poor use of her wealth]
The suitcase was on the plane, but now it's gone. [What is gone? The suitcase or the plane?]
The pronoun must agree in number singular/plural with the thing to
which it refers. The indefinite pronouns anyone, anybody, everyone, everybody,
someone, somebody, no one, and nobody are always singular. The same is true of
either and neither, which are always singular even though they seem to be referring to
two things.
I never go to that place because they have stale bread. (What does they refer to?
Both I and place are singular.)
I never go to that place because it has stale bread. [Correct]
Every student must have their pencils. [Both every and student are singular;
therefore, his, her, or his or her must be used. Their is plural and cannot refer to a
singular noun]
Somebody has left their bag on the floor. [Somebody is singular, therefore cant be
antecedent of their. The sentence can be corrected as; Somebody has left his or her
bag on the floor]
Incorrect: No American citizen should lose their right to vote.
Incorrect: No American citizen should lose his right to vote.
Corrected: No American citizen should lose his or her right to vote
SENSE
If meaning were reference alone, then the meaning of words and expressions would be
entirely dependent on the objects pointed out in the real world. For example, the meaning of
dog would be tied to the set of canine objects. An obvious problem for such a theory,
however, is that speakers know many words that have no real-world referents (e.g., hobbits,
unicorns etc.).Yet speakers do know the meanings of these expressions. Similarly, what realworld entities would function words like of and by, or modal verbs such as will or may refer to?
A further problem is that two expressions may refer to the same individual but not have the
same meaning. For example, Barack Obama and the President currently refer to the same
individual, but the meaning of the NP the President is, in addition, something like the head of
state, which is an element of meaning separate from reference and more enduring. This
element of meaning separate from reference is often termed sense.
Sense is the inherent part of an expressions meaning that together with context,
determines its referent. For example, knowing the sense of a noun phrase such as the
president of the United States in the year 2010 allows one to determine that Barack Obama is
the referent. Sense is what you grasp when you understand an expression. It includes the
properties that an expression has which distinguishes that expression from other expressions.
For example sense of a chair is a seat with four legs and a back, sense of aunt is parents
sister etc.
Unicorns and hobbits have sense but no reference (with regard to objects in the real
world). Proper names typically have reference, but no sense. A name like Chris Jones may
point out a certain person, its referent, but has little linguistic meaning beyond that.
LEXICAL RELATIONS

Lexical relations are the relationships of meaning between words. Words are semantically
related to one another in a variety of ways:
SYNONYMY
Synonymy is used to mean sameness of meaning. Synonyms are words with the same or
similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of
being a synonym is called synonymy. Synonyms can often, though not always, be
substituted for each other in sentences. We should keep in mind that the idea of sameness
of meaning used in discussing synonymy is not necessarily total sameness. It has been said
that there are no perfect synonymsthat is, no two words ever have exactly the same
meaning. There are many occasions when one word is appropriate in a sentence, but its
synonym would be odd. For example, whereas the word answer fits in the sentence Sandy had
only one answer correct on the test, the word reply would sound odd. Synonymous forms may
also differ in terms of formal versus informal uses. The sentence My father purchased a large
automobile has virtually the same meaning as My dad bought a big car, with four synonymous
replacements, but the second version sounds much more casual or informal than the first.
Jog/run
Fall/Autumn
Conceal/hide
Broad/wide
Freedom/liberty
buy/purchase

Fast/quick
Couch/sofa
big/large
car/automobile
outgoing/friendly
cab/taxi

Garbage/trash
dangerous/risky
fertile/fruitful
hard/difficult
Lazy/idle
intelligent/clever

Infant/baby
little/small
ready/alert
rich/wealthy
mad/crazy
Present/gift

ANTONYMY
Antonyms are words with opposite or nearly opposite meanings. There are several kinds of
antonyms.
A. Gradable Antonyms
Gradable antonyms represent points on a scale that are roughly equal in distance from the
middle of the scale. Two words are gradable antonyms if they are at the opposite ends of a
continuous scale.
Richwell-to-dopoor
Oldmiddle-agedyoung
Openajarclose
Hotwarmcoolcold
Beautifulgood-lookingplainugly
Loveattachmentlikingindifferenceantipathyhate
Happy/sad
Long/short

Easy/difficult
Clean/dirt

Big/small
Early/late

Fast/slow
Good/bad

Gradable antonyms can be used in comparative constructions like Im bigger than

you and A pony is smaller than a horse.
The negative of one member of a gradable pair does not necessarily imply the other.
For example, the sentence My car isnt old, doesnt necessarily mean My car is
new.
Another characteristic of certain pairs of gradable antonyms is that one is marked and
the other unmarked. The unmarked member is the one used in questions of degree. We
ask, ordinarily, How high is the mountain? (not How low is it?). We answer Ten
thousand feet high but never Ten thousand feet low. Thus high is the unmarked
member of high/low. Similarly, tall is the unmarked member of tall/short, fast the
unmarked member of fast/slow, and so on.
B. Non-Gradable Antonyms (Binary Antonyms-Complementary Pairs)
Non-gradable antonyms (also called complementary pairs or binary antonyms) are
direct opposites. They represent opposed states that cannot be measured on a scale.
There is no continuum or middle ground between the two sides.
Non-gradable antonyms cannot be used in comparative constructions and dont
allow adverbs like very to qualify them. For example; we cant say John is
deader than Tom or He was more alive than I was. Non- gradable antonyms

are so opposed to each other that they do not admit any possibilities between
them.
Non-gradable antonyms are complementary in that the negation of one is the
meaning of the other. For example; not dead = alive, not true=false and so on.
Alive/dead
Married/single
True/false
Off/on
Present/absent

Accidental/intentiona
l
Same /different
Vacant/occupied
Fail/pass
Awake/asleep

Against/for

Male/female

Right/wrong
Forget/remember
Hit/miss
Day/night

Sink/float
Man/woman
Boy/girl
Thaw/freeze

C. Converses (Relational Opposites)

Relational antonyms are sometimes considered a subcategory of complementary
antonyms. The difference is that relational antonyms indicate a relationship between
two (or more) words that one of them cannot be used without suggesting the other.
There is a relationship between two words which seem to be opposites of each other
but in fact actually imply each other. One exists only because the other exists.
Brother/sister
Mother/father
Husband/wife
Parent/child
Own/belong
Above/below
Fraction/whole
Teacher/student
Buy/sell
Give/receive
Predator/prey
King/subject
Slave/master
Employer/employee
Lend/borrow
Doctor/patient
Teach/learn
Offense/defense
Lead/follow
Come/go
East/west
South/north
Win/lose
Left/right
In/out
Inside/outside
Front/back
Over/under
Behind/ahead
Before/after
Up/down
Floor/ceiling
There is a relationship in which the two opposites must both exist. We can accept
conversive antonyms as representing the same situation from two points of view. For
example, if Tarzan is Janes husband, then Jane is Tarzans wife, if someone is selling
something, there must be someone buying it. If a picture is above the sofa, then the
sofa is below the picture. "A owns B" is the same as "B belongs to A". If someone
wins, someone must lose. If there is a fraction, there must be a whole. If X gives
something to Y, then Y receives something from X. If John is Sarahs teacher, then
Sarah is Johns student.
D. Reversives
Reversives are antonyms in which the meaning of one is the reverse action of the other.
Reversives are a form of relational opposites. They represent movement or change in
opposite directions.
Appear/disappea
r
Rise/fall
exhale/inhale
Dress/undress
Wrap/unwrap

Come/go
Fill/empty
Connect/disconne
ct
Explode/implode
Enter/exit

Shorten/lengthe
n
Pack/unpack
Progress/regress

Raise/lower

Tie/untie

Zip/unzip
Lock/unlock

Do/undo
Cover/uncover

Get on/get off

Open/close

Button/unbutton
Ascend/descend

Inflate/deflate
Build/demolish

E. Autoantonyms
An auto-antonym or contronym (also spelled contranym), is a word with multiple
meanings, one of which is defined as the reverse of one of its other meanings. Thus
auto-antonyms are their own opposites.
Temper means both to harden and to soften
Cleave can mean "to cling" or "to split".
Dust can mean to remove dust (cleaning a house) or to add dust (dust a cake with
powdered sugar).

Fast can mean "moving quickly" as in "running fast," or it can mean "not moving" as in
"stuck fast."
Skin means "to cover with skin" (as in to skin a drum) as well as "to strip or peel off" (as
in to skin an animal).
Overlook can mean "to inspect" or "to fail to notice".
Resign can mean "give up or quit" or "continue".
Sanction can mean "to permit" or "to punish".
Terrific can mean "very good" or "very bad".
F. Antiautonyms
An antiautonym is one of a pair of words which mean the same thing, although one
word seems, for some reason, as though it should be the "opposite" of the other. This
concept is related to, but different than, an autoantonym, which is a single word which
means both one thing and its opposite. In English there are several ways to form
antonyms. You can add the prefix un-: likely/unlikely, able/unable, fortunate/unfortunate
or you can add non-: entity/nonentity, conformist/nonconformist or you can add in-:
tolerant/intolerant, discreet/indiscreet, decent/indecent. These strategies occasionally
backfire, however. Pairs such as loosen and unloosen; flammable and inflammable;
valuable and invaluable, and a few other antiautonyms actually have the same or
nearly the same meaning despite looking like antonyms.
HYPONYMY
When the meaning of a word is included in the meaning of another the relationship is
described as hyponymy. Hyponyms are words whose meanings are specific instances of a
more general word. For example; red, blue, yellow are hyponyms of the word color. Hyponyms
contain the meaning of a general word known as superordinate (or hypernym sometimes
spelled as hyperonym). Thus, red, blue and yellow are hyponyms of superordinate color. Two
or more words that share the same superordinate term are co-hyponyms. Thus, red, blue
and yellow are co- hyponyms.

COLOR

SUPERORDINA
TE

RED

BLUE

YELLOW

[hyponym]

[hyponym]

[hyponym]

[co-hyponyms]

In general there are a number of hyponyms for each subordinate. These hyponyms
contain feature value of the superordinate, but they also have additional features. For
example, boar, piglet and sow contain the meaning of the superordinate pig. But they

differ in their additional features, boar (male, adult), sow (female, adult), and piglet
(baby pig).
Hyponymy is sometimes referred to as inclusion in that the meaning of a word is
included in the meaning of another. If an object is a rose, then it is necessarily a flower,
so the meaning of flower is included in the meaning of rose. The relationship of
hyponymy captures the concept of is a kind of as when we give the meaning of a
word by saying rose is a kind of flower, blue is a kind of color, oak is a kind of or sow is
a kind of pig.
Words such as punch, shoot and stab, describing actions can all be co-hyponyms of the
superordinate term injure.

PROTOTYPES
Prototype is the most characteristic instance of a category. While the words canary,
cormorant, dove, duck, flamingo, parrot, pelican and robin are all equally co-hyponyms of the
superordinate bird, they are not all considered to be equally good examples of the category
bird. According to some researchers, the most characteristic instance of the category bird
is robin. The concept of a prototype helps explain the meaning of certain words, like bird, not
in terms of component features (e.g. has feathers, has wings), but in terms of
resemblance to the clearest example. Given the category label furniture, we are quick to
recognize chair as a better example than bench or stool. Given clothing, people recognize
shirts quicker than shoes, and given vegetable, they accept carrot before potato or tomato. It
is clear that there is some general pattern to the categorization process involved in
prototypes and that it determines our interpretation of word meaning.
MERONYMY (PARTONYMY)
A meronym means part of a whole. It denotes a constituent part of, or a member of
something. Meronymy describes a part whole relationship between words. For example;
Car/wheel, hand/arm, house/kitchen, head/hair
FACE

FOREHEAD

EYES

NOSE

CHIN

MOUTH

METONYMY
In metonymy a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something
intimately associated with that thing or concept. Connection between the words can be based
on a containercontents relation (bottle/water, can/juice), a wholepart relation (car/wheels,
house/roof) or a representativesymbol relationship (king/crown, the President/the White
House). It is our familiarity with metonymy that makes it possible for us to understand He
drank the whole bottle; although it sounds absurd literally (i.e. he drank the liquid, not the
glass object). We also accept The White House has announced or Downing Street
protested ... without being puzzled that buildings appear to be talking. We use metonymy
when we talk about filling up the car, answering the door, boiling a kettle, giving someone a
hand, or needing some wheels. Making sense of such expressions often depends on context,
background knowledge and inference.
COLLOCATION
Corpus (plural corpora) is a collection of language data gathered from spoken or written
sources used for linguistic research and analysis. It is a large and structured set of texts
(nowadays usually electronically stored and processed). Corpus Linguistics is the study of
language based on examples of "real life" language use stored in corpora -computerized

databases created for linguistic research. Corpus linguistics can then use the database to find
out how often specific words or phrases occur and what types of collocations are most
common. In corpus linguistics, collocation defines a sequence of words or terms that cooccur more often than would be expected by chance. A collocation is made up of two or more
words that are commonly used together. Collocations are word pairings that are expected to
come together. Good collocation examples of this type of word pairing are combinations with
'make' and 'do'. You make a cup of tea, but do your homework.
save

earn

spend

invest

mone
y
waste make

a
difference
a friend

an
effort
make

a mistake

a fortune

a noise

a phone
call

a decision

HOMOPHONES AND HOMONYMS

A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning.
Meat/meet
To/too/two
Buy/bye/by
Knew/new
Root/route
Mask/ masque
Foreword/forward
Fair/ fare
Weather/ whether
Sweet/suite
Saw/ soar/sore
Dear/deer
Knot/not

Flour/flower
Bare/bear
Here/hear
Principal/principle
Which/ witch
Lessen/lesson
Forth/ fourth
Sole/soul
Wood/would
Some/sum
Sea/ see
Where/wear
Knight/night

Right/write /wright
Be/bee
Rain/reign
Rest/wrest
Steal/steel/still
Mail/male
Farther/father
Tale/tail
Waive/wave
Son/ sun
Born/ borne
Cue/queue

Pail/pale
aye/Eye/I
Plain/plane
stationary/stationery
Sale/sail
Flea/flee
Die/dye
Waist/waste
There, their, they're
Seas/ sees/ seize
Peace/piece
Weight/wait

A homonym is one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same
pronunciation but have different meanings
Bank (of a river) bank (financial institution)
Bat (flying creature) bat (used in sports)
Mole (on skin) mole (small animal)
Pupil (at school) pupil (in the eye)
Race (contest of speed) race (ethnic group)
Ball (as a round object used in game) - ball (as a gathering of people for dancing)
Bear (to tolerate)- bear (animal)

Homographs (literally "same writing") are usually defined as words that share the
same spelling, regardless of how they are pronounced. If they are pronounced the same
then they are also homophones (and homonyms) for example, bark (the sound of a
dog) and bark (the skin of a tree). If they are pronounced differently, then they are also
heteronyms for example, bow (the front of a ship) and bow (a ranged weapon).

Homophones (literally "same sound") are usually defined as words that share the
same pronunciation, regardless of how they are spelled. If they are spelled the same
then they are also homographs (and homonyms); if they are spelled differently, then

they are also heterographs (literally "different writing"). Homographic examples

include rose (flower) and rose (past tense of rise). Heterographic examples include to,
too, two, and there, their, theyre.

Heteronyms (literally "different name") are the subset of homographs (words that
share the same spelling) that have different pronunciations (and meanings). Such
words include desert (to abandon) and desert (arid region); row (to argue or an
argument) and row (as in to row a boat or a row of seats - a pair of homophones).
Heteronyms are also sometimes called heterophones (literally "different sound").

Polysemes are words with the same spelling and distinct but related meanings. The
distinction between polysemy and homonymy is often subtle and subjective, and not all
sources consider polysemous words to be homonyms. Words such as mouth, meaning
either the orifice on one's face, or the opening of a cave or river, are polysemous and
may or may not be considered homonyms.

Capitonyms are words that share the same spelling but have different meanings when
capitalized (and may or may not have different pronunciations). Such words include
polish (to make shiny) and Polish (from Poland); march (organized, uniformed, steady
and rhythmic walking forward) and March (the third month of the year in the Gregorian
Calendar). However, both polish and march at the beginning of sentences still need to
be capitalized.

Term

Meaning

Spelling

Pronunciation

Homonym

Different

Same

Same

Homograph

Different

Same

Same or different

Homophone

Different

Same or different

Same

Heteronym

Different

Same

Different

Heterograph

Different

Different

Same

Polysemy

Different but
related

Same

Same or different

Capitonym

Different when
capitalized

Same except for

capitalization

Same or different

POLYSEMY
Polysemy can be defined as one form (written or spoken) having multiple meanings that are
all related by extension. Examples are the word head, used to refer to the object on top of
your body, froth on top of a glass of beer, person at the top of a company or department, and
many other things. Other examples of polysemy are foot (of person, of bed, of mountain) or
run (person does, water does, colors do). If we arent sure whether different uses of a single
word are examples of homonymy or polysemy, we can check in a dictionary. If the word has
multiple meanings (i.e. its polysemous), then there will be a single entry, with a numbered
list of the different meanings of that word. If two words are treated as homonyms, they will
typically have two separate entries. In most dictionaries, bank, mail, mole and sole are clearly
treated as homonyms whereas face, foot, get, head and run are treated as examples of
polysemy. It is possible for two forms to be distinguished via homonymy and for one of the
forms also to have various uses via polysemy. The words date (= a thing we can eat) and date
(= a point in time) are homonyms. However, the point in time kind of date is polysemous in

terms of a particular day and month (= on a letter), an arranged meeting time (= an

appointment), a social meeting (= with someone we like), and even a person (= that person
we like). So the question How was your date? could have several different interpretations.
SEMANTIC FEATURES
Semantic features are conceptual elements by which a person understands the meanings of
words. Decomposing the meanings of words into semantic features can clarify how certain
words relate to other words. This method represents the meaning of a word in terms of
semantic features that make up the word. For example:
Table
Horse
Boy
Man
Girl
Woman
Animate
+
+
+
+
+
Human
+
+
+
+
Female
+
+
Adult
+
+
+
This simple example is an illustration of a procedure for analyzing meaning in terms of
semantic features. Features such as+animate,-animate, +human, -human, +female,
-female, for example, can be treated as the basic elements involved in differentiating the
meaning of each word in a language from every other word. From a feature analysis like this,
we can say that at least part of the meaning of the word girl in English involves the elements
[+human, +female, -adult].
Evidence for Semantic Features
Semantic properties are not directly observable. Their existence must be inferred from
linguistic evidence. One source of such evidence is the speech errors, or slips of the tongue,
that we all produce.
Intended Utterance
Bridge of the nose
When my gums bled
He came too late
Mary was young

Actual Utterance (Error)

bridge of the neck
when my tongues bled
he came too early
Mary was early

These errors reveal that the incorrectly substituted words are not random but share some
semantic feature with the intended words. Nose, neck, gums, and tongues are all body parts
or parts of the head. Young, early, and late are related to time.

Semantic Features of Nouns

The same semantic feature may be shared by many words. Female is a semantic feature
that makes up part of the meaning of nouns, such as: tigress, hen, aunt, maiden, doe, mare,
debutante, widow, ewe, vixen, girl and woman.
In some languages, though not English, nouns occur with classifiers, grammatical morphemes
that indicate the semantic class of the noun. In Swahili a noun that has the semantic feature
human is prefixed with m- if singular and wa- if plural, as in mtoto (child) and watoto
(children).
Semantic properties may have syntactic and semantic effects, too. For example, the kinds of
determiners that a noun may occur with are controlled by whether it is a count noun or a
mass noun.
I have two dogs. *I have two rice(s).
I have a dog.
*I have a rice.
*I have dog.
I have rice.
He has many dogs.
*He has many rice(s).
*He has much dogs.
He has much rice.
Count nouns can be enumerated and pluralizedone potato, two potatoes. They may be
preceded by the indefinite determiner a, and by the quantifier many as in many potatoes, but
not by much, *much potato. They must also occur with a determiner of some kind. Nouns

such as rice, water, and milk, which cannot be enumerated or pluralized, are mass nouns.
They cannot be preceded by a or many, and they can occur with the quantifier much or
without any determiner at all. The count/mass distinction captures the fact that speakers
know the properties that govern which determiner types go with different nouns.
Semantic Features of Verbs
Verbs also have semantic features as part of their meaning. For example, cause is a feature
of verbs such as darken, kill, uglify, and so on.
Darken
Kill
Uglify

cause to become dark

cause to die
cause to become ugly

Go is a feature of verbs that mean a change in location or possession, such as swim, crawl,
throw, fly, give, or buy. Words like swim have an additional feature like in liquid, while crawl
is close to a surface.
Jack swims.
The baby crawled under the table.
The boy threw the ball over the fence.
John gave Mary a beautiful engagement ring
Become is a feature expressing the end state of the action of certain verbs. For example,
the verb break can be broken down into the following components of meaning: cause to
become broken.
Verbal features, like features on nouns, may have syntactic consequences. For example, verbs
can either describe events; such as John kissed Mary/John ate oysters, or states, such as
John knows Mary/John likes oysters. The eventive/ stative difference is mirrored in the syntax.
Eventive sentences still sound natural when passivized, when expressed progressively, when
used imperatively, and with certain adverbs:
Eventives
Mary was kissed by John. Oysters were eaten by John.
John is kissing Mary. John is eating oysters.
Kiss Mary! Eat oysters!
John deliberately kissed Mary. John deliberately ate oysters
The stative sentences seem peculiar, if not ungrammatical or anomalous, when cast in the
same form.
Statives
Mary is known by John.
Oysters are liked by John.
John is knowing Mary.
John is liking oysters.
Know Mary!
Like oysters!
John deliberately knows Mary. John deliberately likes oysters.
Negation is a particularly interesting component of the meaning of some verbs. Expressions
such as ever, anymore, have a red cent, and many more are ungrammatical in certain simple
affirmative sentences, but grammatical in corresponding negative ones.
*Mary will ever smile.
(Mary will not ever smile.)
*I can visit you anymore. (I cannot visit you anymore.)
*Its worth a red cent.
(Its not worth a red cent.)
Such expressions are called negative polarity items because a negative element such as
not elsewhere in the sentence allows them to appear Consider these data:
*John thinks that hell ever fly a plane again.
*John hopes that hell ever fly a plane again.
John doubts that hell ever fly a plane again.
John despairs that hell ever fly a plane again.
This suggests that verbs such as doubt and despair, but not think and hope, have negative
as a component of their meaning. Doubt may be analyzed as think that not, and despair as

has no hope. The negative feature in the verb allows the negative feature in the verb allows
the negative polarity item ever to occur grammatically without the overt presence of not.
*Negative Polarity Item (NPI): An expression that is grammatical in the presence of
negation, but ungrammatical in simple affirmative sentences. For example; any in James
does not have any Money but * James has any money.
Argument Structure
Verbs differ in terms of the number and types of NPs they can take as complements. Transitive
verbs such as find, hit, chase, and so on take a direct object complement, whereas intransitive
verbs like arrive or sleep do not. Ditransitive verbs such as give or throw take two object
complements as in John threw Mary a ball. In addition, most verbs take a subject. The various
NPs that occur with a verb are its arguments. Thus intransitive verbs have one argument:
the subject; transitive verbs have two arguments: the subject and direct object; ditransitive
verbs have three arguments: the subject, direct object, and indirect object. The argument
structure of a verb is part of its meaning and is included in its lexical entry. The verb not only
determines the number of arguments in a sentence, but it also limits the semantic properties
of both its subject and its complements. For example, find and sleep require animate subjects.
The well-known colorless green ideas sleep furiously is semantically anomalous because ideas
(colorless or not) are not animate.
THEMATIC ROLES
Thematic role (also called semantic role) is the semantic relationship between the verb
and the noun phrases of a sentence, such as agent, theme, experiencer, location, instrument,
goal and source.
Theta Assignment (thematic role assignment): The ascribing of thematic roles to the
syntactic elements in a sentence.
a) Agent: The thematic role of the noun phrase whose referent deliberately does the
action described by the verb, the entity that performs the action, the doer.
The boy kicked the ball.
Although agents are typically human (The boy), they can also be non-human entities
that cause actions, as in noun phrases denoting a natural force (The wind), a machine
(A car), or a creature (The dog), all of which affect the ball as theme.
The boy kicked the ball.
The wind blew the ball away.
A car ran over the ball.
The dog caught the ball.
b) Theme is the entity that is involved in or affected by the action. Instrument is the
entity by which an action is performed. Theme undergoes the action but does not
change its state
The boy kicked the ball.
I put the book on the table.
The theme is typically non-human, but can be human, as in The dog chased the boy. In
fact, the same physical entity can appear in two different semantic roles in a sentence, as
in The boy cut himself. Here the boy is agent and himself is theme.
c) Experiencer is the entity that undergoes a sensory, cognitive, or emotional
experience.
Susan heard the song.
Many people fear snakes.
The boy feels sad.
John is amused.
d) Instrument is the entity used to carry out the action.
Jamie cut the ribbon with a pair of scissors
This key opens the door to the main office.
They must have used indelible ink.
e) Location is where the action occurs, where an entity is.

Johnny and Linda played carelessly in the park

I'll be at Julie's house studying for my test
We put the book on the shelf.
The ship sank at sea.
The paper is in the folder.
f) Source is the place/individual from which the movement of the action occurs.
She walked away from him
John received a book from Mary
The baby crawled from the kitchen to the door
John received the prize from the president.
g) Goal is where the action is directed towards, the location or individual to which
movement occurs.
John went home
Lee walked to school.
John gave me the book
He studied for the test.
Susan threw a pen to John.
NOTES
Recipient: a special kind of goal associated with verbs expressing a change in ownership,
possession.
I sent John the letter.
He gave the book to her.
They gave the workers a raise.
I paid my landlord the rent.
Time: the time at which the action occurs
The rocket was launched yesterday.
Beneficiary: the entity for whose benefit the action occurs.
I baked Reggie a cake.
He built a car for me.
I fight for the king.
I prayed for Susan.
John helped Mary to buy a car.
Manner: the way in which an action is carried out
With great urgency, Tabitha phoned 911.
Cause: what caused the action to occur in the first place; not for what, rather because of
what.
Because Clyde was hungry, he ate the cake.
An avalanche destroyed the ancient temple.
An epidemic killed off all of the tomatoes.
Measure or amount arguments express extension along some dimension (length, duration,
cost, and so on).
They rowed for three days.
The book costs ten dollars.

Thematic roles are the same in sentences that are paraphrases. This is because certain
thematic roles must be assigned to the same deep structure position, for example,
theme is assigned to the object of bit/bitten. This uniformity of theta assignment, a
principle of Universal Grammar, dictates that the various thematic roles are always in
their proper structural place in deep structure.
The dog bit the stick.
Agent
theme

The stick was bitten by the dog.

theme
agent

The trainer gave the dog a treat.

Agent
goal
theme

The trainer gave a treat to the dog.

agent
theme
goal

Thematic roles may remain the same in sentences that are not paraphrases, as in the
following instances:
The boy opened the door with the key.
The key opened the door.
The door opened.
In all three of these sentences, the door is the theme, the object that is opened.