-
(1)
semantics: the study of linguistic
meaning.
(2)
truth-
conditional semantics: an approach
that knowing
the
meaning of
the sentence
is the same as knowing the conditions
under which the sentence is true or false, and
knowing the meaning of a word or
expression is knowing the part that it plays in
the
truth or falsehood of the sentence
containing it.
(3)
naming theory: the view that the
meaning of an expression is what it refers to, or
names.
(4)
behaviorist
theory: the view that the mean
ing of a
linguistic form is de?ned as observable
behaviors which is an approach drawing
on psychology.
(5)
use
theory:
the
semantic
theory
according
to which
the meaning of an
expression
is
determined by
its use
in communication and more
generally,
in
social interaction.
(6)
sense:
the
inherent
part of an expression’s meaning,
together with
the context,
determines
its
referent. For
example, knowing
the
sense of
a noun phrase
such as the president of the United
States in 2004 allows one to determine that George
such as the president of the United
States in 2004 allows one to determine that George
(7)
reference:
(in
semantics)
the
relationship between words
and
the
things,
actions,
events and qualities they stand for. An example in
English is the relationship
between
the word
tree and
the
object “tree” (referent)
in
the real world.
(8)
conceptual meaning:
It means
the meaning of words may be discussed
in terms of
what
they denote or refer to, also called denotative or
cognitive meaning. It
is
the
essential
and
inextricable part of
what
language
is and
is widely
regarded as the
central factor in
verbal communication. For instance, the conceptual
meaning of “he” in
English is any male
person or male animal.
(9)
connotative meaning:
It
is
the
communicative meaning
that
a word or
a
combination of
words has by virtue of what it refers to, over its
purely conceptual
meaning. For example,
the connotative meaning of “woman” is emotional,
frail,
inconstant, irrational, etc.
(10) semantic
field:
the
organization of
related
words
and
expressions
into
asystem
which
shows their relationship to one another. For
example, kinship terms such as father,
mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt
belong to a s
emantic ?eld whose
relevant features
include generation,
sex, membership of the father’s or mother’s side
of family.
(11) lexical gap: the absence of a word
in a particular place in a semantic ?eld of a
language.
For
instance,
in English we have brother versus
sister, son versus daughter, but no
separate lexemes for “male” and
“female” cousin.
(12) componential analysis:
(in semantics) an approach to the study of meaning
which analyzes
a word
into a
set of
meaning components or
semantic
features. For example,
the meaning of
the English word boy may be
shown as [+human][+male][-adult].
(13) semantic
feature:
the
smallest
units of meaning
in
a word. The meaning of word
may be described
as
a
combination of
semantic
components or features. For
example,
the
feature [+male]
is part of
the
meaning of
father, and so
is the
feature [+adult], but other
features are needed to make up the whole meaning
of father.
Often, semantic features are
established by contrast and can be stated in terms
of [+] and
[-], e.g. woman has the
semantic features [+human], [-male] and [+adult].
(14) synonym:
the
sense
relations
of
equivalence of meaning
between
lexical items,
e.g. small/little and dead/deceased.
(15) antonym:
the sense relation of various kinds of opposing
meaning between lexical items,
e.g.
big/small, alive/dead and good/bad.
(16) hyponymy:
the
sense
relation between
terms
in
a hierarchy,
where
a more
particular term (the hyponym) is
included in the more general one (the
superordinate): X
is a Y, e.g. a beech
is a tree, a tree is a plant.
(17)
meronym: the sense relation
between body and its parts which are
not only sections of
the body but
de?ned in terms of speci?c functions. For example,
the head is the part of
the body which
carries the most important sense organs, i.e.
eyes, ears, nose and tongue.
(18) semantic role: the way in which
the referent of a noun phrase is involved in the
situation
described or
represented by
the
clause,
for
example
as
agent, patient, or
cause.
(19) entailment:
the
relationship
between
two
sentences where
the
truth of one
(the
second) is inferred from the truth
of the other, e.g. Corday assassinated Marat and
Marat
is dead; if the ?rst is true, the
second must be true.
(20)
presupposition:
implicit
assumptions about
the world
required
to make an utterance
meaningful or appropriate, e.g. “some
tea has already been taken” is a presupposition of
“Take some more tea!”
2.
(1)
He waited by
the bank.
a. He waited by
the ?nan
cial institution which people
can keep their money
in or
borrowfrom.
b. He waited by the bank of
the river.
(2)
Is he really
that kind?
a. Is he really
that type of person?
b. Is
he really that kind-hearted?
(3)
We bought her dog biscuits.
a. We bought
dog biscuits for her.
b. We bought biscuits for
her dog.
(4)
He saw that
gasoline can explode.
a. He saw that gasoline
container explode.
b. He saw that gasoline may
explode.
(5)
Fifty soldiers
shot three wild foxes.
a. Fifty soldiers shot
three wild foxes in total.
b. Each of the ?fty
soldiers shot three wild foxes.
(6)
He saw her drawing pencils.
a.
He saw her pencils for drawing.
b. He saw her
drawing the picture of pencils.
3.
(2) (4) (5) (8)
are antonyms; (1) (3) (6) (7) are synonyms.
4.
charity: kindness, sympathy, church,
helpful
iron: strong,
brave, hard, determined
mole: traitor, betrayal, spy
snow: pure,
virgin, clean
street: homeless, living hard, pitiable
5.
(1)
a. hoard
b. scribble
c.
barn, method
d.
olfactory
(2)
a. acquire
b. tell
c. way
d. smell
(3)
a. buy, win,
steal.
b. talk, tell
c. road, way, path
d. smell
These words are
less marked
in
their
sets because
they are more usual and tend
to be
used more
frequently. They
consist of only one
morpheme
and are easier to
learn
and remember than others. They
are also often broader in meaning and cannot be
described by using the name of another
member ofthe same ?eld.
6.
homophones: sea-see, break-
brake; polysemies: sea, break, prayer, mature,
trace,
househomonyms: ear.
7.
In a semantic ?eld, not all lexical
items necessarily have the same status. The less
marked
members of
the
same
semantic ?eld
(1)
are usually
easier
to
learn
and
remember
than more marked members;
(2)
consist of only one morpheme
in
contrast to
more marked members; (3) cannot be described by
using the name of another
member of the
same ?eld; (4) tend to be used more frequently
than more marked terms;
(5) broader
in meaning than more marked
members; (6) are not the
result of
the
metaphorical usage of
the name of
another object or
concept, but more marked are.
8.
(1)
a. bachelor,
man, son, paperboy, pope, chief
b.
bull, rooster, drake, ram.
The (a) and
(b) words are male.
The (a) words are
human.
The (b) words are
animals.
(2)
a. ask, tell, say, talk, converse
b. shout, whisper, mutter, drawl,
holler
The (a) and (b)
words are realized by sounds.
The (a)
words are normal voice quality.
The (b) words are produced by
modifying one’s normal voice
quality.
(3)
a. walk, run, skip, jump, hop, swim
b. ?y, skate, ski, ride,
cycle, canoe, hang
-glide
The (a) and (b) words are sports
(movement).
The (a) words
are sports without instruments.
The (b) words are sports with
instruments.
(1)
pragmatics: a branch of
linguistics that studies language in use.
(2)
deixis:
the
marking of
the orientation
or position of entities and
situations with respect
to
certain points of reference such as the place
(here/there) and time (now/then) of
utterance.
(3)
reference: (in semantics) the
relationship between words and the things,
actions, events,
and qualities they
stand for.
(4)
anaphora: a
process where a word or phrase (anaphor) refers
back to another word or
phrase which
was used earlier in a text or conversation.
(5)
presupposition:
implicit assumptions about
the world
required
to make
an
utterance meaningful or appropriate,
e.g. “some tea has already been taken” is a
presupposition of “Take some more
tea!”
(6)
Speech Act Theory: The
theory was proposed by
J. L. Austin and has been developed
by J. R. Searle. Basically, they
believe that language is not only used to
inform or
to
describe
things,
it
is often used
to “do
things”,
to perform acts. In
saying
“Sorry”, you are
performing an act of apology.
(7)
indirect
speech
act:
an utterance whose
literal meaning
(location)
and
intended meaning
(illocution)
are different. For
example, Can
you
pass
the salt?
is literally a yes/no question but is
usually uttered as a request or polite directive
for
action.
(8)
the Cooperative Principle:
a principle proposed by
the philosopher Paul Grice
whereby
those
involved
in
communication
assume
that both parties will
normally seek to cooperate with each
other to establish agreed meaning. It is composed
of
4 maxims: quality, quantity,
relation and manner.
(9)
the
Politeness Principle: politeness
is
regarded by
most
interlocutors
as
a
means
or
strategy which
is used by
a
speaker
to
achieve
various purposes, such as
saving face, establishing and
maintaining harmonious social relations in
conversation.
This principle requires
speakers to “minimize the expression of impolite
beliefs”. It is
composed of 6 maxims:
Maxims of Tact, Generosity, Approbation, Modesty,
Agreement
and Sympathy.
(10)
conversational
implicature:
the use of conversational
maxims
in
the Cooperative
Principle to
produce extra meaning during conversation.
2.
Deictic expressions: I, now, you, that,
here, tomorrow.
3.
Anaphoric expressions: she, him, it.
4.
(1) He bought the beer.
(2)
You have a watch.
(3) We bought a car.
5.
Direct acts: (1)/(5);
Indirect acts: (2)/(3)/(4)
6.
(a) The Maxim of Quality: (1) Do not
say what you believe to be false; (2) Do not say
that
for which you lack adequate
evidence.
(b) The Maxim of Quantity: (1) Make
your contribution as informative as is required
(for the
current purpose of the
exchange); (2) Do not make your contribution more
informative than
is required.
(c)
The Maxim of Relation: Be relevant.
(d) The Maxim
of Manner: Be perspicuous (1) Avoid obscurity of
expression; (2) Avoid
ambiguity; (3) Be
brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity); (4) Be
orderly.
7.
The
speaker
is particularly
careful
about
the maxim of Agreement
in PP. The
response begins with “well” rather than
“no”
in order to minimize
disagreement between
the speaker and
hearer.
8.
It is an indirect speech act. Carol
invites Lara to a party, but Lara wants to decline
the
invitation. To be
po
lite,
she
doesn’t
choose
a direct
refusal,
instead
she
says
“
I’ve got an
exam tomorrow” as a reasonable excuse to decline
the invitation. In this way,
she
minimizes the expression of impolite beliefs, thus
the utterance conforms to PP
(1)
discourse:
a
general
term
for
examples of
language use,
i.e.
language
pro-duced as the result of an act of
communication. It refers to the larger units of
language
such as paragraphs,
conversations and interviews.
(2)
discourse
analysis:
the
study of how
sentences
in
written
and
spoken
language
form
larger meaning units such as
paragraphs, conversations and
interviews.
(3)
given
information:
the
information
that
the
addresser believes
is known
to