Tổng hợp giáo trình Semantics và Soạn lại các điểm chính và quan trọng của môn Semantics, dùng cho các bạn ôn thi môn này và cần hệ thống hóa kiến thức. Dành cho sinh viên ngữ văn anh khoa học xã hội và nhân văn.
Trang 1ĐỀ CƯƠNG ÔN THI SEMATIC Soạn lại các điểm chính và quan trọng để học
Trang 2ENGLISH SEMANTICS
I Introduction
1.1 Definition
- the study of meaning in language
- context free
- The study of meaning in context (The study of the use of lan in communication, particularly the relationship between sentences and the contexts and situations in which they are used.)
- Context dependent
Would you like a piece of cake?
I’m on a diet Lose weight No refuse the offer
The bag is so heavy
(a man and a girl are going upstairs
The girl is carrying the bag and she
says:The bag is so heavy”.)
The bag is not light It’s heavy Can you please help me carry the bag?
It’s so hot The weather is very hot Speaker wants SO to open the air condition Why don’t we go swimming?
Would you like an ice-cream?
Can you open the window?
I’m cold I feel cold Doctor: “How do you feel?”
Patient: “I’m cold.”
I’m sick or Speaker wants to borrow a coat Or
A girl wants her boy friend to sit nearer She wants a hot, a heart
Context
- That which occurs before and/or after a word, a phrase or even a longer utterance or a text
- The broader social situation in which a linguistic item is used
Contextual meaning: the meaning a linguistic item has in context
“Do you know the meaning of war?” 1 The language teacher said to his Ss
2 An injured soldier says to a politician who favors war, “War produces death, injuries, and suffering.”
I’ll have to be at the office at 8.00 this morning 1 Conversation between mother and son
Mother: “What time will you have to be … morning?”
Son: “I’ll have to be … morning.”
2 Conversation between husband and wife Wife: “Can you take the children to the school now?”
Husband: “I’ll have to be at the office at 8.00 this morning.” Why don’t you send it by post? 1 Conversation between T and Ss
T asks Ss to read a sentence
Trang 3Ss read “Why don’t you send it by post?”
2 Me: “I have to give a letter to my family.”
3 John: “Why don’t you send it by post?”
My friend has a secret and she told me not to tell everyone But later everyone knows about it I said to her that I didn’t tell it She rescued me: “You said it.”
II.1 Semantic feature [+…]
Definition
The smallest units of meaning in a word
father human, male, mature, parental, paternal
boy [+male], young/-adult, human
girl human, female/-male, young
assassin
teacher
hen animate, bird, fowl, fully grown, female
Characteristics
1 Some semantic features need not be specifically mentioned.
[+human] is [+animate]
2 Different words may share the same semantic feature.
Doctor, engineer, teacher, physicist, chemist, tailor, hairdresser,… professional
Mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, grandparent, aunt,
3 Words of different parts of speech may share the same semantic feature
Mother (n)
Breast-feed (v)
Pregnant (a)
female
School, teacher, textbook (n)
Teach, educate, instruct (v) educational
4 The semantic properties of words determine what other words they can be combined with
Grammatically correct and syntactically perfect but semantically anomalous
My brother is an only child
The bachelor is pregnant
Colorless gree ideas sleep furiously
Exercise 1 For each group of words given below, state what semantic features are shared by the (a) words and the (b)
words, and what SFs distinguish between the classes of (a) words and (b) words
A Lobster, shrimp, crab, oyster, mussel
Trang 4B Trout, sole, herring, salmon, mackerel
The (a) and (b) words are [+edible water animal]
The (a) words are [+shelfish]
The (b) words are [+fish]
Widow, mother, sister, aunt, seamstress
Widower, father, brother, uncle, tailor
Bachelor, son, paperboy, pope, chief
Bull, rooster, drake, ram, stallion
Table, pencil, cup, house, ship, car
Milk, tea, wine, beer, water, soft drink
Book, temple, mountain, road, tractor
Idea, love, charity, sincerity, bravery, fear
Rose, lily, tulip, daisy, sunflower, violet
Ash, oak, sycamore, willow, beech
Pine, cedar, jew, spruce, cypress
Book, letter, encyclopedia, novel, notebook, dictionary Typewriter, pencil, ballpoint, crayon, quill, charcoal, chalk
Walk, run, skip, jump, hop, swim Fly, skate, ski, ride, cycle, canoe, hang-glide Ask, tell, say, talk, converse
Shout, whisper, mutter, drawl, holler
Alive, asleep, awake, dead, half-dead, pregnant Depressed, bored, excited, upset, amazed, surprised
Exercise 2 Identify the semantic features in each of the following words.
Child
Aunt
Hen
Oak (tree)
Flower
Palm (hand)
Palm (tree)
Bachelor
spinster
Actress Plod Ewe Fly (v) Fly (insect) Stallion Police-officer Beauty Imagine
Actress Plod Ewe Fly (v) Fly (insect) Stallion Police-officer Beauty
Imagine Doe Drive Home Elm Chalk Rose Chick Pap
Tiptoe Pine (tree) Owe Computer Honesty Maid
Exercise 3 How can you distinguish the words given in the following table from one another, considering their semantic
features?
II.2 Semantic field/lexical field /lexical set
The organization of related words and expressions into a system which shows their relationship to one another
Kinship Father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, …
Adjectives describing human emotional states Angry, sad, happy, exuberant, depressed, afraid,…
Drinking vessels Cup, mug, tumbler, wine glass, beer glass,…
Ways of organizing semantically similar items into semantic fields
Trang 5Items related by topics Types of fruit Apples, oranges, grapes, bananas, pears, plums,…
Pieces of furniture Seats, tables, beds, storage,…
Terms of color Blue, red, yellow, green, black, white,…
Items similar in
meaning Ways of cookingWays of looking Stew, boil, fry, steam, roast, grill, smoke,…Gaze, glance, peer, squint, stare
Ways in which a liquid escapes from its container Drip, leak, ooze, run, seep Terms describing
people whose weight is
below normal
Thin, bony, skinny, scrawny, underweight, emaciated, slender, slim
Items which form pairs
of antonyms
Long-short Light-heavy Alive-dead Love-hate Approve-disapprove Begin-end
Inside-outside Upstairs-downstairs
Items which form pairs
or trios of synoyms
Smart-bright-intelligent Conserve-preserve-safeguard Fix-repair-mend
Kind-sort-type-variety Happy-glad
Items grouped as an
activity or a process Do the house work Clean the rooms, do the washing, iron the clothes, get the food, prepare a meal, wash up
Do research Make hypotheses, collect data, analyze data, get results, come to
conclusions
Items classified
according to
Sex Male-female:
waiter-waitress, tiger- tigress, actor-actress, host-hostess, landlord-landlady, sir-madam Age Grown-ups, adults, elderly people, middle-aged people, teenagers,
children, infants, babies Age and sex Horse:
Stallion: [male, fully grown]
Mare: [female, fully grown]
Foal: [+-male, -fully grown]
Dog:
Dog: : [male, fully grown]
Bitch: [female, fully grown]
Puppy: [+-male, -fully grown]
Exercise 4 Organize the given words into three semantic fields.
Shirts, end, forward, new, hats, lend, coats, shorts, beginning, trousers, amble, out, limp, tiptoe, plod, socks, trudge, borrow, stomp, in, stump, old, backward, tramp
II.3 Lexical gap
The absence of a word in a particular place in a lexical field of a language
Trang 6Horse Stallion Mare Foal Goat Billy-goat Nanny-goat Kid
Exercise 5 Try to fill in each of the two blanks with an appropriate word to prove that there is no lexical gap in the given
semantic fields
Giraffe Male giraffe ? Baby giraffe
2.3 Referent, reference, and sense
Referent
An object or an entity in the real world or in the world of your imagination that is talked about
Reference
Reference of a word or a linguistic expression is the relationship between that word/expression and the thing, the action, the event, the quality it refers to
“Peter’s house”
(English noun phrase)
< ->
The house belonging to Peter
Sense
The sense of a word or a linguistic expression shows the internal relationship between that word/expression and others in the vocabulary of language
Teacher the one who gives a lesson
Student who has the lesson given by teacher
A dog is chasing a cat x
By the year 3000, our descendants
Bachelor
A man who hasn’t ever been married
The relationship between the word bachelor and a certain unmarried man Unmarried man
Bach Tuyet The relationship between the name
Bach Tuyet and the lovely princess “Tuyet Trang”
Trang 7The lovely princess in a fairy tale
Variable reference, constant reference, and co-reference
Language
expression
1 >= 2 Variable “Your left ear”
6 billion people with left ear
in the world
“Please look at your book!”
Student A looks at his book
Student B looks at her book … Student N looks at his book
1 1 Constant The sun: only one The moon, Halley’s comet, the People’s
Republic of China, Angola, the United Nations, FIFA, UNESCO
>= 2 1 co “The leader of the Labor Party
in 1006”
“The Prime Minister of the UK
in 2006”
Mr Tony Blair
The morning star and the evening star
the planet Venus John wearing red shirt and singing a song
The man who is my father
The man who married my mother
Exercise 6 What is identified by the word mean or meaning in the following examples, i.e reference or sense?
1 When Albert talks about “his former friend”, he means me
2 Daddy, what does logic mean?
3 Purchase has the same meaning as buy.
4 Look up the meaning of democracy in your dictionary.
5 If you look out of the window now, you’ll see who I mean
II.4 Denotation and connotation
Denotation of a word is the core, central or referential meaning of the word found in a dictionary
Connotation: the additional meaning that the word has beyond its denotative meaning It shows people’s emotions and/or attitudes towards what the word refers to
-woman [+human], female, adult Long hair, beautiful, kind,
devoted, patient Jealous, talkative, wicked, man [+human], male, adult Strong, handsome Shellfish, violent, heart-tempered Child Human, -mature, +-male Affectionate, innocent Noisy, irritating
Rose Plant, flower, colored Good smelling, simple of love,
romantic, beautiful Expensive, có gai???
Dragon Lots of tails, can fly Simple of king (Eastern culture):
powerful, prosperous, royal, Dangerous, destruction (Western culture) Owl Large round eyes, thump at night Bad omen
(Asian culture)
Wisdom (European culture) snake a reptile with a very long thin body
and no legs There are many types
of snake, some of which are
Evil, dangerous
Trang 8Fox a wild animal of the dog family,
with reddish-brown fur, a pointed
face and a thick heavy tail
A person who is cunning, deceitful (a person who is clever and able to get what they want by influencing or tricking other people)
Christm
as Dec 25
th Winter, cake, festival, funny,
cheerful June The sixth of month of the year Summer, vacation, hot weather
Decemb
er
The twelfth month of the year,
next after Nov
holiday season, Christmas, winter break,
Bad weather(usually rainy or snowy), dark evening, grey sky, slippery streets, loneliness, separation from the beloved
Bachelor Unmarried man - Still single after the usual age for marrying
- decided by himself to stay single
- enjoying freedom, friendship, life
- ready for his impending marriage
Spinster Unmarried woman Still single after the usual age for marrying
Not decided by herself to stay single Left in an unfavorable state
A symbol for some failure in life
A red rose with green stem Symbol of passion and love
A brown cross Symbol of religion according to the media connotation However, to be
more specific, this is a symbol of Christianity
Representation of a cartoon heart Symbol of love and affection, not in the way of a rose, but a symbol of true
love and people making love together
Connotation
There are over 2,000 homeless in the
city There are over 2,000 people with no fixed address in the city There are over 2,000 vagrants in the city
2.5 Figure of speech
………
2.6 Sense relations
Synonymy
A sense relation in which various words have different (written and sound) forms but have the same or nearly the same meaning
Trang 9Synonym Meaning
Hide-conceal Keep STO from being seen or known about
Kind-type-sort-variety A group of having similar characteristics
Stubborn-obstinate
Brigand-bandit
Mercury-quicksilver
Exercise/102 In the following sentences, do the capitalized pairs of words have the same sense?
1 The thief tried to CONCEAL/HIDE the evidence
2 I’m going to PURCHASE/BUY a new coat
3 These tomatoes are LARGE/RIPE
4 This is a very LOOSE/SHORT definition
5 You have my PROFOUUND/DEEP sympathy
6 It is a very WIDE/BROAD street
7 How many KIDS/CHILDREN have you got?
8 He comes to see us every FALL/AUTUM
9 Nothing is more precious to us than our FREEDOM/LIBERTY
10 The body was found in the BOOT/TRUNK of the car
11 We’ve just bought a new HOUSE/APARTMENT
12 John got a bullet wound in his HEAD/GUTS
13 A BLOKE/CHAP I know has pickled onions for breakfast
Antonymy
A sense relation in which two words have different (written and sound) forms and are opposite in meaning
Antonym
Pass-failure Thinner-fatter Big-small
Classification
Not alive = dead Not dead = alive
Gradable
(intermediate
terms)
X
Hot <– warm –
tepid/lukewarm –
cool-chilly- > cold
used in comparison
and how question
(degree)
If Mr A is Jack’s employer, then jack is
Mr A’s employee
Example
Alive-dead Married-single Present-absent Awake-sleep
Wide-narrow difficult-easy Verb:Buy-sell
Give-receive Lend-borrow Import-export Own-belong to Short<-quite tall->tall Noun:
Trang 10Old-young Happy-sad Employer-employeeGrandparent-grandchild
Father/mother-son/daughter Fiancé-fiancée
Parent-child/offspring Professor-student Teacher-pupil Doctor-patient Debtor-creditor Landlord/landlady-tenant Husband-wife
Uncle/aunt-nephew/niece
Comparative adj:
Thinner-fatter Cheaper-more expensive Greater than-less than
Comparative adv:
More efficiently-less efficiently Faster-more slowly
Prep:
Above-below
In front of-behind Over-under Before-after North of-south of West of-east of
High (1)-low (2)
Tall-short 1 I worry about my son He is 18
years old, but he’s very short
We can ask: How short is he?
He’s 1.5ms
Far-near
Expensive-cheap 1
Hot-cold
Long-short
Wide-narrow
Difficult-easy
Married-single 1
Old-young 1 Her mother is 45 years old, but
she looks very young
We can ask :How young is she?
She looks like just about 40 years old
Trang 11Exercise 13 Are the following pairs of words binary antonyms?
Same-different Married-unmarried Copper-tin Cheap-expensive
Exercise 14 Are the following pairs of words relational antonyms?
Below-above Grandparent-grandchild Love-hate Greater than-less than Conceal-reveal Own-belong to
Exercise 15 Identify the continuous scale of values between the two given words.
Love-hate
Hot-cold
Big-small
Rich-poor
None-all Possibly-certainly Never-always
Exercise 16 State whether the following pairs of antonyms are binary, gradable or relational.
Good-bad Parent-offspring Import-export Legal-illegal
Pass-fail Beautiful-ugly Better than-worse than Asleep-awake
Deciduous-evergreen False-true Easy-difficult Rude-polite
Expensive-cheap Lessor-lessee Hot-cold Husband-wife
Polysemy
A sense relation in which a single word has two or more slightly different but closely related meanings
Polysemous
Chip [+small piece] A small piece of some hard substance broken off from sth larger A chip of glass
A small cut piece of potato fried for eating Can I try one of your chips?
A small but vital piece of a computer This computer has got a
faster chip than the old one Break longer be [+can no Separate into two or more parts as a result of force or strain (but not cutting) He broke that cup.
Become unusable by being damaged; make sth unusable
Head A top part of a body
A head of a company Mouth
A part of human body
A gate of a river which water goes through before out to the sea
A part of animal Ceiling Top inner surface of a room
Upper limit Earth The planet where we are living
The soil Drive To force SO to go somewhere
To provide power to make operate Fork Tool with sharp points for lifting food