Word MeaningLING 130Fall 2005James PustejovskyThanks to Richard Wright, U. Washington, for use of some slidesThe study of words! What does a word mean?! To what extent is it a linguistic matter?! To what extent is it a matter of worldknowledge?Lexical semantics! = meanings of morphemes and words! semantics overlaps with morphology! Some meaning relations! Synonymy! Ambiguity! Antonymy! Hyponymy and hypernymySynonymy! If A is synonymous with B,! A and B mean the same thing, A can beparaphrased by B! Synonymous words! postpone = put off! vomit = throw up! couch = sofaAmbiguity! A linguistic expression is ambiguous if itsupports two or more possibleinterpretations.! Scope! Syntactic (structural)! LexicalScope Ambiguity! Everyone in Boston is following onebaseball team.! There is one baseball team that everyonein Boston is following (e.g., Red Sox)! Everyone in Boston is following one teamor another (e.g., Red Sox, Yankees,Tigers, Cardinals)Syntactic Ambiguity! [ [Competent women] and men] have all thegood jobs in the company.! [Competent [women and men ] ] have allthe good jobs in the company.Lexical Ambiguity! Arises when a single word is associatedwith more than one meaning.!You should have seen the bull we got fromthe Pope.! Papal communication! Male cow! nonsenseLexical and Syntactic Ambiguity! Mary claims that John saw her duck.! John claims that Mary saw his/him duck.Lexical Ambiguity! Polysemy vs. homophony! Polysemous morpheme! meaning1 meaning2! e.g. hard! “difficult” “durable, solid”! Single lexical entryHomophony! Homophones! morpheme1 morpheme2 meaning1 meaning2! e.g. pass (‘I’m going to pass’)! ‘abstain’ ‘succeed’! Distinct lexical entriesPuns and ZeugmasAmbiguous words used in different senses inparallel syntactic construction.•‘water’: ‘pour water into’, ‘dilute with water’Dave watered the plants, and Rose, the drinks.•‘suggest’: ‘advise verbally’, ‘indicate’ The fuel indicator and Mary suggest we get some gas.Synonymy! Semantic equivalence. Synonyms canbe substituted for each other withoutaffecting a sentence’s truth value.! Youth/adolescent! Automobile/car! Remember/recall! Purchase/buySynonymy Problems! A big house = a large house! A big sister ! a large sisterAntonymy! If A is an antonym of B, then A meansthe opposite of B! Non-gradable antonymy (complementarity)! Gradable antonymy (contrary)Non-gradable antonymy! e.g. ‘married’ vs. ‘single’! if ‘married’ then ‘not single’ and! if ‘single’ then ‘not married’! ‘dead’ vs. ‘alive’! ‘over’ vs. ‘under’Gradable antonymyGradable pairs (typically adjectives)" meanings are relatively subjective" may depend on context" e.g. ‘big’ vs. ‘small’Dumbo, asmall elephantGradable antonyms! Tall vs. short, cute vs. ugly, etc.! Meanings can be further modified! Comparative and superlative forms! ‘tallest’, ‘cuter’, etc.! Modify with ‘quite’, ‘very’, etc.! ‘really cute’More on antonymy! Gradable/nongradable distinction oftenblurred by language users. Nongradableantonyms:! ‘half dead’, ‘barely alive’, ‘more dead thanalive’, ‘quite pregnant’! Antonyms often not in equal use:! ‘How heavy is it?’ (not: ‘How light is it?’)! ‘How tall is he?’ (not: ‘How short is he?’)! ‘Marital status’ (not: ‘Single status’)Hyponymy and hypernymy! If B is a hyponym of A, then! the meaning of B is a special case of A! If A is a hypernym of B, then! the meaning of A is a more general instance ofBBAHyponyms: nounsHyponymy: adjectivesredgreenblackpurpleblueyellowturquoiseroyal bluecolored (‘contains color’)Hyponymy: verbscutslicemotatedrivemovedancehypernymhyponymProductive ways of forming hyponymsadverbialmodificationcompoundingadjectival/sententialmodificationstrategydill pickleroad ragepicklerageincredibly interestinginterestingcarflowerJapanese carthe flower I picked lastnighthyponymCaveats re adjectival modification! Anti-intersection adjectives (require negationof noun with which they combine):the president (i.e.current)the former presidentofferphony offer$100 billfake $100 billis not a hyponym of: phony offerofferCaveats re adjectival modification! ‘Non-intersection’ adjectives:thiefalleged thiefsolutionpossible solutionis not necessarily a hyponymof:thiefalleged thiefallegedthief ?? ??Caveat re compounding! Exocentric compounds:TV showoperasoap operacarwagonstationwagonsoundsystemboxboomboxinsteadhyponymof:is not ahyponymof: Encoding of kinship concepts! ‘parent’s sibling’! Other possible concepts:! sex: not specified, male, female! side of family: not specified, maternal,paternal! 3 x 3 = 9 possible distinct concepts‘parent’s sibling’paternalmale9maternalmale8not specifiedmale7paternalfemale6maternalfemale5not specifiedfemale4paternalnot specified3maternalnot specified2not specifiednot specified1side of familysex of parent’s sibling987654321mˆXa-thaj--‘father’s brother’káka-´z?E--‘mother’s brother’----uncle‘parent’s brother’piSíS-pits--‘father’s sister’--aunt------EnglishpaXa@X-aq’´j?-eq’´j‘mother’s sister’----‘parent’s sister’----‘father’s sibling’----‘mother’s sibling----‘parent’s sibling’SahaptinWitsuwit’enLexical semantics summary! Relations between meanings of lexicalitems! Synonymy, antonymy, ambiguity(polysemy, homophony), hyponymy! Cross-linguistic variation in meaningsencoded by