Download lexical semantics - Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature e Culture

Lingua e traduzione inglese 1 prima lingua / seconda lingua / OCI (canale A-F) a.a. 2014-15 - prof. Pierini
LEXICAL SEMANTICS
It is the branch of linguistics that analyses meaning.
Its unit of analysis is the lexeme, a single semantic unit (for example, like)
regardless of its various morphological forms (likes, liked, liking).
Lexis = the total of the words of a given language. It is a dynamic system because
some words fall out of use, while new words enter the vocabulary.
Lexical semantics is concerned with:
the meaning of words;
the relation of reference (relation between language (words), thought
(concepts)and reality (entities);
the relations between words within the vocabulary of a language.
THE MEANING OF WORDS
Linguists have suggested that the meaning of a word can be analysed in terms of
semantic features (bits of meaning).
A lexeme is understood as a cluster of semantic features with binary choices. A binary
component allows three possibilities: it is present [+], it is absent [−], or it may be
present or absent [±]. By convention, they are written in capital letters.
man
[+ HUMAN] [+ MALE] [+ ADULT]
woman [+ HUMAN] [— MALE] [+ ADULT]
boy
[+ HUMAN] [+ MALE] [— ADULT]
girl
[+ HUMAN] [— MALE] [— ADULT]
THE RELATION OF REFERENCE
The relation between a word and its referent (what they refer to) is called
denotation.
Denotation vs. connotation
Denotation is the basic referential meaning of a word.
Connotation is an additional meaning attached to a word that expresses the
speaker’s evaluation (neutral, positive or negative) of the entity/process/action. To lie
has a negative connotation, to fib doesn’t: it is usually used when speaking to or with
children, and expresses an evaluation of the action as not serious, ‘to tell a lie about
something that is not important’.
The relation between word and referent is arbitrary: there is no intrinsic reason why
a particular entity is called in a given way. Consider, for example, rabbit, coniglio,
lapin (French), conejo (Spanish). The relation is established by convention.
Proper names vs. common nouns.
Proper names of people, places or institutions have an intended unique reference:
each refers to a specific referent.
Common nouns refer to classes of referents, all the kinds of objects that share
essential properties/characteristics. Consider Lesley Jeffries (proper name) and book
(common noun).
Lingua e traduzione inglese 1 prima lingua / seconda lingua / OCI (canale A-F) a.a. 2014-15 - prof. Pierini
The lexemes of a language reflect the distinctions made by the speakers in talking
about the world. By analyzing natural languages, linguists have noted that each
language curves up reality in a particular way:
English hair (referring to any kind of fine filament growing from the skin of humans
and animals, vs. Italian capelli and peli.
Italian orologio (any device for measuring time) vs. English watch (a small, portable
timepiece) and clock (a big timepiece, free standing, hanging or built into a tower).
CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE: is reference a direct relation between a lexeme and an
entity in the world, or is it a relation between a lexeme and our mental concept of an
entity?
Most linguists opt for the latter view. Consider, for example, the distinction between
concrete nouns and abstract nouns: the former refer to objects (car) but not
directly: they refer to some abstraction from the various objects denoted by it. The
latter refer to mental concepts (happiness).
THE RELATIONS BETWEEN WORDS
• Homonymy, when two words are written and pronounced in the same way, but
have different meanings:
ring 1 (the sound made by a bell)
ring 2 (a round band usually of a precious metal worn on a finger)
ring 3 (a confined area where people compete, e.g. a boxing ring)
bank 1 (financial institution)
bank 2 (side of a river or a stream)
bank 3 (a row of keys on a keyboard).
sole 1 (noun, ‘a type of fish’)
sole 2 (adj. ‘only, single’, e.g. the sole owner)
• homophony, when two words are pronounced the same, but have different
spellings and meanings:
see / sea;
feet / feat (‘an action that needs skill, strength or courage’)
bear / bare (‘wearing no clothes’)
allowed (‘permitted’) / aloud (‘in an audible voice’)
• homography, when two words are written the same, but are pronounced in two
different ways and have different meanings:
bow [bau] (the front part of a boat)
bow [bou] (a weapon used for shooting arrows)
invalid
[‘invlid] (noun, ‘someone who has a disability’)
invalid [in’vælid] (adj. ‘not legally /officially acceptable’)
Polysemy, when a single word has a number of closely related meanings:
Lingua e traduzione inglese 1 prima lingua / seconda lingua / OCI (canale A-F) a.a. 2014-15 - prof. Pierini
window:
a. an opening in the wall of a building (The living room has two windows)
b. an opening in a car (The car window is dirty)
c. a shop window (I saw a very nice dress in the window)
d. a small area where you can see through to talk to somebody on the other side
(There was a long line of people at the post-office window).
Potential meaning vs. actualised sense
There are a lot of words that express more than one meaning. In dictionaries you can
find a list of the potential meanings of polysemous words; but when a word is used in
a given sentence, it takes on just one meaning (the actualised sense). Consider
bachelor:
in a bachelor flat, it has the sense of 'unmarried man';
In bachelor seal, 'a young male, that has not yet mated';
in a text about education, it can denote 'a person who holds the degree of Bachelor
of Arts, Bachelor of Science, etc.';
in a text about the Middle Ages, 'a young knight serving a great noble'.
The identification of the ‘actual’ sense is necessary in order to understand written or
spoken discourse as well when translating a text.
The notion of context
Context is relevant in language use because it influences meaning. There are different
kinds of context to be considered. One kind is called linguistic context, also known
as co-text. The co-text of a word is the immediate surroundings of a word, that is,
the words that occur before and after it. This co-text has a strong effect on what we
think the word means, and is central in the case of homonymy and polysemy. How do
we usually know which meaning is intended in a particular sentence? We usually do so
on the basis of linguistic context:
a) on the north bank of the river, we have no problem deciding which type of 'bank'
is meant;
b) I have to get to the bank to cash a check, we know from the whole sentence which
type of 'bank' is intended ('financial institution').
In some cases, we have to consider not the phrase or the sentence in which a given
word occurs, but a larger segment of discourse. For example, in the sentence:
c) His friend could not see the window, we cannot know what window means
(‘finestra’, ‘finestrino’, ‘vetrina di negozio’, ‘sportello di banca’?). So we have to
consider the preceding sentence(s).
We know what words mean on the basis of another type of context, called
situational, context (the physical setting in which language is used). If you see the
word BANK on the wall of a building in a city, the 'physical' location will influence your
interpretation. Our understanding of much of what we read and hear is tied to the
physical context, particularly the time and place, in which we encounter the linguistic
expression.
Lingua e traduzione inglese 1 prima lingua / seconda lingua / OCI (canale A-F) a.a. 2014-15 - prof. Pierini
Semantic fields
A semantic field is an area of the vocabulary describing aspects of the world by means
of words with related meanings. They show how lexis is not a random list of words,
but is based on an organising principle. They can be divided into fields such as:
a) birds: sparrow, crow, duck, turkey, chicken, eagle
b) flowers: rose, lily, pink, daisy
c) vegetables: lettuce, onion, cabbage, aubergine, artichoke, potato, beans
d) cars: saloon, coupe, estate car, roadster, pick up (AmE)
e) verbs of movement: walk, run, march, crawl, jog, sprint
SENSE RELATIONS
SYNONYMY
Synonyms are two words that have the same meaning. But the case of true
synonyms is very rare because the economy of a language will not tolerate the
existence of two words with the same meaning. We find an example in Italian (tra /
fra).
What we find in language are partial (or loose) synonyms, which have a similar
meaning but different contexts of use and/or different grammatical behaviours:
busy / occupied:
1) Mr. Smith is busy/occupied now
2) I’m very busy
3) This seat is occupied
speak, talk (can be followed by different prepositions)
There are many pairs of synonyms that are differentiated in a number of ways.
The factors at their origins are the following:
a) language variety. They belong to different regional dialects or different national
varieties of English:
butty (Northern dialect GB) — sandwich
lift (BrE)
— elevator (AmE); flat (BrE)— apartment (AmE)
b) level of formality. In the English vocabulary, there are many pairs of lexemes in
which one is an colloquial Anglo-Saxon word, the other a formal word of French or
Latin origin:
ANGLO-SAXON
Climb
Begin
Funny
Last
Odd
FRENCH / LATIN
ascend
commence
amusing
final
strange
c) technicality. Most professions, trades, sports have developed a technical,
specialised, vocabulary. In many cases, there are technical words and the
corresponding words used in general (everyday) language.
ORDINARY LEXEMES
Skull
Cut
Windpipe
TECHNICAL LEXEMES
cranium
incision
trachea
Lingua e traduzione inglese 1 prima lingua / seconda lingua / OCI (canale A-F) a.a. 2014-15 - prof. Pierini
mad
Sound
psychotic
phoneme
d) connotation. Words have a denotational meaning, but they can also have an
additional connotational meaning.
father (neutral)
daddy (positive, emotive)
cat (neutral)
kitty
(positive, emotive)
freedom, democracy
(positive, social)
snow (depends on the context: positive (skiing), negative (impassable roads)
e) taboo / euphemism. Taboo words are the words that in a given society are
considered offensive or hurtful, and therefore ‘censured’, so that they are avoided
by the members of that society. They denote a specific range of events, actions,
beings or things: death, sex, bodily functions, parts of the body, drunkenness,
occupations. As a consequence, euphemisms have been created to refer to these
taboo subjects. In some cases, there are also dysphemisms (offensive or vulgar
synonyms).
TABOO WORD
EUPHEMISM
Kill
To die
Drunk
To pass water
garbage man
buttocks
liquidate
to pass away
intoxicated
to urinate
sanitation engineer
the behind
DYSPHEMISM
to snuff it
pissed
to pee
arse
HYPONYMY
It reflects the hierarchical nature of some areas of the vocabulary. It is a relationship
that shows how lexis organizes some aspects of reality and human experience into
hierarchical structures.
It is the relation between a superordinate (a more general word) and its
hyponyms (more specific words).
cutlery (superodinate)
knife
fish-knife
fork
fruit knife
cake fork
spoon ( hyponyms)
toasting fork
tea-spoon
table-spoon
MERONYMY
It is the part-whole relationship between words, and reflects the world as described by
the language:
Limb (whole) – arm, hand (parts)
Tree (whole) – branch, root (parts)
ANTONYMY (OPPOSITENESS)
Antonyms are two words with opposite meaning. They are usually divided into 4
types:
Lingua e traduzione inglese 1 prima lingua / seconda lingua / OCI (canale A-F) a.a. 2014-15 - prof. Pierini
• complementary antonyms. They are two words whose senses are mutually
exclusive:
male – female, dead – alive, true –false
Something which is false is ‘not true’.
• gradable antonyms. They are usually adjectives that can be intensified by
adverbs (very, quite, rather, extremely) and can be used in comparative
constructions (bigger than):
hot –cold, big – small, good – bad, dirty – clean
Something which is not big is not necessarily small.
• converses. They are two words that apply to a particular situation, but represent
two different perspectives:
•
buy – sell, borrow – lend, husband – wife, teacher – student
reversives. A word X means ‘do the reverse of’ the word Y.
button – unbutton, enter –leave, marry – divorce, up - down.
The verb unbutton doesn’t mean ‘not button’, it actually means ‘do the reverse
of button’.
WORDS IN CONTEXT
Collocation
It is the co-occurrence of two lexemes. It is a statistical tendency to co-occur that
cannot be explained in general terms, but can be measured by computer.
monumental tends to occur with error and negative nouns (folly)
resounding tends to occur with positive nouns (victory, success)
stark (adverb) tends to occur with naked
bitterly (adverb) tends to occur with disappointed
wine tends to co-occur with red, white and rosé
to hiss tends to co-occur with snake and cat