Lexicon and semantics

• Vocabulary of a lg - lexical systems with semantic structure describable in terms of paradigmatic and syntagmatic sense relations holding between lexical items

• Sense of a lexical item - set of relations which hold between that and other items in the same lexical system or the place of a word in a system of relationships which it contracts with other words in the vocabulary (no presupposition about the existence of objects and properties outside the vocabulary of the lg) (structural definitions)

• Reference - relationship which holds between words and the things, events, actions and qualities they `stand for' (referents)

• Paradigmatic relations of sense - all members of the related sets of terms can occur in the same context (e.g. colour terms)

• Syntagmatic relations of sense - relations of co-occurence (blond + hair)

• Connotation (associative meaning)

• Denotation (reference)

• Componential analysis (semantic features):

The hamburger ate the man

My cat studied linguistics

A table was listening to some music

Table: - animate, - human, - male, - adult

The ________ ate the man

N + animate

• Polysemy - words with two or more related senses, the distance between which may be small (big town, big difference; head),

• man-woman, man-boy, man-animal (definition by antonymy),

• cat (general vs specific),

• brothers-brethren,

• operation (military, surgical and mathematical context)

• source: language economy

• Homonyms - two or more `unrelated' words identical in form but different in meaning:

• real homonyms (bank, pupil),

• homophones (course-coarse, threw-through),

• homographs (wind: [wind][waind]),

• interlanguage homonyms (false friends)

• source: matter of chance, etymological origin

ęłęóbank (1) financial institution," 1474, from either O.It. banca or M.Fr. banque (itself from the O.It. term), both meaning "table" (the notion is of the moneylender's exchange table), from a Gmc. source (cf. O.H.G. bank "bench"); see bank (2). The verb meaning "to put confidence in" (U.S. colloquial) is attested from 1884. Bank holiday is from 1871, though the tradition is as old as the Bank of England. Bankroll (v.) "to finance" is 1920s. To cry all the way to the bank was coined 1956 by flamboyant pianist Liberace, after a Madison Square Garden concert that was packed with patrons but panned by critics.

bank (2)

"earthen incline, edge of a river," c.1200, probably in O.E., from O.N. banki, from P.Gmc. *bangkon "slope," cognate with P.Gmc. *bankiz "shelf."

ęłęópupil (2) "center of the eye," 1670 (in L. form from 1398), from O.Fr. pupille (14c.), from L. pupilla, originally "little girl-doll," dim. of pupa "girl, doll" (see pupil (1)), so called from the tiny image one sees of himself reflected in the eye of another. Gk. also used the same word, kore (lit. "girl"), to mean both "doll" and "pupil of the eye;" and cf. obsolete baby "small image of oneself in another's pupil" (1593), source of 17c. colloquial expression to look babies "stare lovingly into another's eyes."

"Self-knowledge can be obtained only by looking into the mind and virtue of the soul, which is the diviner part of a man, as we see our own image in another's eye." [Plato, "Alcibiades," I.133]

pupil (1)

"student," 1382, originally "orphan child, ward," from O.Fr. pupille (14c.), from L. pupillus (fem. pupilla) "orphan, ward, minor," dim. of pupus "boy" (fem. pupa "girl"), probably related to puer "child," probably from PIE *pup-, from base *pu- "to swell, inflate." Meaning "disciple, student" first recorded 1563.

ęęłęówind (v.)

"move by turning and twisting," O.E. windan "to turn, twist, wind" (class III strong verb; past tense wand, pp. wunden), from P.Gmc. *wendanan (cf. O.S. windan, O.N. vinda, O.Fris. winda, Du. winden, O.H.G. wintan, Ger. winden, Goth. windan "to wind"), from PIE *wendh- "to turn, wind, weave" (cf. L. viere "twist, plait, weave," vincire "bind," Lith. vyti "twist, wind"). Related to wend, which is its causative form, and to wander. Wind down "come to a conclusion" is recorded from 1952; wind up "come to a conclusion" is from 1825. Winding sheet "shroud of a corpse" is attested from c.1420.

wind (n.) "air in motion," O.E. wind, from P.Gmc. *wendas (cf. O.S., O.Fris., Du. wind, O.N. vindr, O.H.G. wind, Ger. Wind, Goth. winds), from PIE *we-nt-o- "blowing," from base *we- "to blow" (cf. Skt. va-, Gk. aemi-, Goth. waian, O.E. wawan, O.H.G. wajan, Ger. wehen, O.C.S. vejati "to blow;" Skt. vatah, Avestan vata-, Hittite huwantis, L. ventus, O.C.S. vetru, Lith. vejas "wind;" Lith. vetra "tempest, storm;" O.Ir. feth "air;" Welsh gwynt, Bret. gwent "wind"). Normal pronunciation evolution made this word rhyme with kind and rind (Donne rhymes it with mind), but shifted to a short vowel 18c., probably from influence of windy, where the short vowel is natural. A sad loss for poets, who now must rhyme it only with sinned and a handful of weak words. Symbolic of emptiness and vanity since c.1290.

"I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind." [Ernest Dowson, 1896]

To get wind of "receive information about" is recorded from 1809, perhaps from Fr. avoir le vent de. Wind-chill index is recorded from 1939. The verb meaning "tire, put out of breath" is attested from 1811.

• Synonyms - words or phrases with the same or nearly the same meaning (various shades of meaning);

• absolute synonyms (kind - sort) - interchangeable in all contexts;

• complete synonymy (identity in cognitive and emotive sense);

• close synonyms (jump-leap);

• synonyms differing in intensity (break-smash);

• synonyms in phraseology (cast -fling a stone)

ęłęókind (n.) "class, sort, variety," from O.E. gecynd "kind, nature, race," related to cynn "family" (see kin), from P.Gmc. *gakundiz (see kind (adj.)). Ælfric's rendition of "the Book of Genesis" into O.E. came out gecyndboc. The prefix disappeared 1150-1250. No exact cognates beyond Eng., but it corresponds to adj. endings such as Goth -kunds, O.H.G. -kund. Also as a suffix (mankind, etc.). Other earlier, now obs., senses in Eng. included "character, quality derived from birth" and "manner or way natural or proper to anyone." Use in phrase a kind of (1591) led to colloquial extension as adv. (1804) in phrases such as kind of stupid ("a kind of stupid (person)").

ęłęósort (n.)

c.1380, from O.Fr. sorte "class, kind," from L. sortem (nom. sors) "lot, fate, share, portion, rank, category," from PIE base *ser- "to line up" (cf. L. serere "to arrange, attach, join;" see series). The sense evolution in V.L. is from "what is allotted to one by fate," to "fortune, condition," to "rank, class, order." Out of sorts "not in usual good condition" is attested from 1621, with lit. sense of "out of stock

jump: a/ ęłęóto push yourself suddenly off the ground and into the air using your legs:

ęłęóThe children were jumping up and down with excitement

b/ ęłęóto push yourself suddenly off the ground in order to go over something:

ęłęóCan you jump over/across this stream?
All the horses are finding it difficult to jump the last fence

leap: ęłęóto make a large jump or sudden movement, usually from one place to another:

ęłęóHe leapt out of his car and ran towards the house.

break: ęłęóto (cause something to) separate suddenly or violently into two or more pieces, or to (cause something to) stop working by being damaged:

The dish fell to the floor and broke.
Charles is always breaking things.

smash: ęłęóto cause something to break noisily into a lot of small pieces:

Rioters ran through the city centre smashing windows and looting shops.

ęłęócast (v.)

c.1230, from O.N. kasta "to throw." The noun sense of "a throw" (c.1300) carried an idea of the form the thing takes after it has been thrown, which led to varied meanings, such as "group of actors in a play" (1631). O.E.D. finds 42 distinct noun meaning and 83 verbal ones, with many sub-definitions. A cast in the eye preserves the older sense of "warp, turn," in which it replaced O.E. weorpan (see warp), and is itself largely superseded now by throw. Still used of fishing line and glances. Castaway first recorded 1526. Cast-iron is 1664.

ęłęófling (v.).1300, probably from O.N. flengja, of uncertain origin. The M.E. intransitive sense is preserved in phrase have a fling at "make a try." The noun sense of "period of indulgence on the eve of responsibilities" first attested 1827. Meaning "vigorous dance" (associated with the Scottish Highlands) is from 1806. An obsolete word for "streetwalker, harlot" was fling-stink (1679).

• Tautonyms - synonyms across lg varieties (wrench US-spanner UK, girl-bird (sl), valley-dale (North England)

• Antonymy - oppositeness;

• not always binary (sweet vs sour or bitter; wealth

vs poverty, want, destitution);

• complementary antonyms (single-married, male-female; denial of one implies assertion of the other);

• contradictory antonyms (above-below, find-lose, blue vs red, yellow, green etc, sitting room vs dining room, bedroom etc),

• converse antonyms (buy-sell, husband-wife)

• contrary antonyms (gradable, modifiable, and contextually flexible - big vs small, not hot vs cold, smarter vs more silly)

• Hyponyms (=a kind of)- words included in the meaning of others, with narrower or more specific meaning, subordinate terms (daffodil vs flower; solid, liquid, gas vs matter); co-hyponyms (dog and horse are co-hyponyms of animal)

• Hyperonyms - superordinate terms, could be examples of underspecification (stone for diamond)

• Lexical (semantic) fields - subsystems or lexical domains - groups, or networks of words whose members are related by meaning (Peter Roget's Thesaurus 1852 - 1000 semantic categories), e.g. colour words, kinship terms, container terms (glass, jar, jug, pitcher etc), parts of the body, domestic animals, verbs of motion, terms of quantity (bushel, pound), spatial orientation (long, tall, up, down, high, low etc)

• Idioms - combination of words that cannot be derived from individual components (to run out of sth, be well off)

• Part-whole relations - handle-door, foot-leg, kitchen-house, tree-forest, grain-sand (synecdoche - part for whole or whole for part e.g. there wasn't a soul around)

• Radial network - e.g. concept of school

g/ Tendency in art, lit.

h/ Opinion, method of taking action

BROADENING

c/lessons a/ Educ. Institution e/inst.of higher

METON. METON. education

b/ The building f/ type of course

d/ Teachers NARROWING

pupils METAPHOR

g/ training, bringing under control

• Metaphor - traditionally: transfer of exterior features e.g. personification (animal-human ass, human-thing eye of a needle, thing - human honey)

Cognitive theory: perception of similarity between source domain and target domain: conceptual metaphor (one domain mapped on another)

ARGUMENT IS WAR: win, lose argument,

hold ground, withdraw, surrender

ARGUMENT IS WAR

Your claims are indefensible

He attacked every weak point in my argument

His criticisms were right on the target

I demolished his argument

I've never won an argument with him

You disagree? Ok, shoot!

If you use that strategy m he'll wipe you out

CONTAINER metaphor: thought at the back of mind

Role of metaphor in cognition (only literary texts vs pervasive feature of lg)

• Metonymy - attribute for a thing:

THE PART FOR THE WHOLE

Get your butt over here !

We don't hire longhairs

PRODUCERFOR PRODUCT

He bought a Ford.

He's got a Picasso in his den.

I hate to read Heidegger.

OBJECT USED FOR USER

The gun he hired wanted fifty grand.

The buses are on strike.

CONTROLLER FOR CONTROLLED

Nixon bombed Hanoi.

Napoleon lost at Waterloo.

INSTITUTTON FOR PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE

You'll never get the university to agree to that.

The Army wants to reinstitute the draft

The Senate thinks abortion is immoral.

THE PLACE FOR THE INSTITUTION

The White House isn't saying anything

Washington is insensitive to the needs of the people.

The Kremlin threatened to boycott the next round of talks

generalisation and particularisation

conceptual metonymy (element/aspect of one domain expressed by element/aspect of another and being in adjacency relation to it)

I am not in the phonebook,

Currently we read Joyce

My village votes Green

My Bosch works perfectly

This box was excellent

• Levels of meaning:

General categories: plant animal vehicle

Basic level categories: tree dog motor car

Specific categories: oak Alsatian truck

Salience effect (the most common meaning, usually basic level - what is it that barks at you?

I like fruit.

• Taxonomic categories:

Superordinate level clothing

Basic level skirt trousers ? suit

Subordinate level mini-skirt shorts shirt

jeans T-shirt

leggins sweater

lexical gaps

fuzziness of domains: male/female clothing

• Metaphors and metonymies - at the heart of language change: narrowing, extension of meaning

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