Semantics is the study of meaning, used to understand expressions through language.
2
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2answers
60 views
Syntactic and semantic ambiguity
Does syntactic (structural) ambiguity always come with semantic ambiguity, or is semantic ambiguity always due to syntactic ambiguity? Or are both statements correct?
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0answers
25 views
How can “send” means “make” as in putting them forth for a purpose?
McWhorter, J. PhD Linguistics (Stanford). The Language Hoax (2016). pp. 163 Bottom - 164.
I speak no Lahu and don't know how to reproduce that question in Lahu on p. 164.
Can someone please ...
0
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0answers
31 views
Can we use the reverse of mental priming to get out of the 'Mary's Room' problem?
So there is this semantics/psycholinguistics concept called mental-priming, which says for a concept called 'red' nearby concepts like apple, color, danger etc. 'light up' . Can we teach Mary, what ...
0
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0answers
29 views
Definiteness and specificity [closed]
I need a help from a native speakers of English language.
How would You say the following sentences? Is it correct a) or b) and then c) or d)?
(Pay attention to the article the/a.)
a) I'm looking ...
1
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0answers
14 views
Is there any detailed documentation of VerbNet's semantic representation?
In VerbNet, each frame has a semantic representation like this:
cause(Agent, E) manner(during(E), directed motion, Agent)
!contact(during(E), Agent, Patient) manner(end(E),forceful, Agent)
...
3
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1answer
66 views
Is there a linguistic notion of a “static” vs “dynamic” noun?
I would have typed a clearer question in the title, but it would have been way too long.
By "static," I mean a word or phrase that refers to one object, and one object only. ex.
The Eiffel Tower
The ...
0
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1answer
72 views
Does Sanskrit निस् • (nis) “out, forth, away” come from PIE *ni- “in; down?” with meaning shift from “in” to “out”?
निस्·nis "out, forth, away" > nirvana "to blow out, extinguish; out of breath?"
नि·ni "down, back, in, into" < PIE *h₁én "in; down?"
My question is whether these words are from the same PIE root? ...
1
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0answers
45 views
How is a meaningful sentence or paragraph constructed?
I don't have a formal background of linguistics, but I'd like to know how a sentence or paragraph becomes meaningful to a reader, and how one can construct that. I think it falls to the areas of ...
0
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0answers
21 views
Formal semantics (Montague, type-theoretical) of noun clauses
Partee has nice summary about the formal semantics of relative clause http://people.umass.edu/partee/MGU_2005/MGU05Lec10.pdf (subordinate adjectival clause). E.g.
At least one boy who Mary loves is ...
0
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1answer
34 views
Formal semantics (Montague, type-theoretical) of adverbial clauses
Partee has nice summary about the formal semantics of relative clause http://people.umass.edu/partee/MGU_2005/MGU05Lec10.pdf (subordinate adjectival clause). E.g.
At least one boy who Mary loves is ...
0
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1answer
38 views
Is it possible that whole relative clause refers/describes one word/phrase in the main clause (without anaphora)?
My running example is the sentence (from the VAT law of one country):
The building land is the plot in relation to which the building permit has been issued.
There are possible at least two views on ...
5
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1answer
62 views
(A)Telicity & Events
Dowty's (1979) classified predicates into:
1. States 'the woord is burning' ---Atelic
2. Activities 'Mary pushed the cart' ---Atelic
3. Accomplishments 'Mary melted the chocolate' ---Telic
4. ...
3
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1answer
39 views
Help with distributional analysis of verb phrases
For my semantics homework we are asked to test different verb phrases in different environments. I am asked to categorize the different verb phrases (on the basis of their distributions. I am not ...
-1
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1answer
80 views
Is gasoline, wine, coca-cola an artifact?
There are liquids naturally present in nature, like water, blood, oil, etc.
But gasoline, wine or milk shake are produced by humans.
Many thesauri, e.g. WordNet, don't classify later as artifacts, ...
0
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1answer
42 views
“As long as”, “So long as”, in logic (ambiguity?)
I'd love an expert opinion on how to interpret "as long as" and "so long as" when doing logic (specifically, whether it's considered a necessary or sufficient conditional indicator).
Also, I'd ...
0
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0answers
35 views
davidsonian semantics
I hope everyone is fine. I was wondering if you could help me with some suggestions about which book(s) should I start with to learn the Davidsonian semantics, so that I will be able to read and write ...
2
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1answer
44 views
what’s the difference between ‘concept’ and ‘prototype’ as semantic terminologies?
Both terms, concept and prototype occur in semantic texts roughly in the sense a mental object denoted by a word. There should be some difference in definition between the two.
I read the following ...
1
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0answers
38 views
Discourse Structure: Taxonomy, Labels
Several taxonomies for discourse structures (markers, connectives, functions) exist including PDTB, RST, RST extensions, etc. That said, I've noticed that several of these efforts are 10-20 years old. ...
2
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0answers
44 views
Is TRAY a container?
I am working closely with semantic class of containers. It's not that obvious though how to define the class. Should it be enclosed? Obviously not, spoon is an example. Could flat surface serve as the ...
0
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0answers
32 views
Semantic vs Pragmatic [duplicate]
I am revising for my NLP quiz and am getting confused at the difference between semantic and pragmatic. I studied that semantic is the study of words and their meaning in sentences while pragmatic ...
0
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1answer
56 views
formula for Brunét's index
I am having trouble figuring out the formula for Brunet's index which can be found in this paper http://csbapp.uncw.edu/data/mscsis/annalspaper.aspx?v=6&i=1&p=11.
I tried to apply it to ...
3
votes
1answer
66 views
What do the semicolon and period mean in semantics?
What do the semicolon and period mean, please?
For context, this is from Truswell's 'Events, Phrases and Questions' and this section in particular is talking about the causal ordering of events
0
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2answers
57 views
Generativist, Generative, Interpretive Semantics
is there anyone who can please clarify how these schools diverge from and converge with each other? A prof. told me interpretive semantics and generative semantics can be both categorized under ...
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0answers
35 views
Translation of 'verbes symétriques' from French to English
What do you think is the accurate equivalent les verbes symétriques in English?
3
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0answers
56 views
Am I understanding semantic entailment correctly?
I'm trying to make sure I understand entailment properly, but my prof basically said two sentences that only briefly explained what entailment is, and he's not teaching this course with a textbook.
...
0
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0answers
20 views
How do I tell/illustrate the difference between different meanings of 'adumbrate'?
Adumbrate can mean foreshadow or overshadow. In the following sentence, how does the reader know what the writer meant?
The strife in Bloody Kansas in the 1850s adumbrated the civil war that would ...
3
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1answer
49 views
How to write 'x said they would do y but…' in predicate logic?
How do I write "X said to Y that they would do A today, but B happened yesterday" in predicate logic?
So for example;
Bart said to Lisa that he would braid her hair today, but he chopped his hand ...
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0answers
46 views
Are these phrases downward entailing?
Please consider the following phrases with respect to downward entailment:
Mary remembers that French students saw her.
Mary remembers that tall French students saw her.
(in my opinion, this is not ...
1
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2answers
84 views
Downward entailing verbs: is the verb “remember” downward entailing?
I have some doubts if there is downward entailing environment with "remember":
a. Mary forgot that she saw anyone.
b. Mary forgot that anyone saw her.
c. #Mary remembered that she saw anyone.
d. #...
0
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1answer
53 views
What are some plausible patterns that could develop in alien languages? [closed]
I ask the question here and not in world formation because as an aspiring author I know that linguistics and other such specialists in the study of language
treat the notion of language in a very ...
3
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0answers
38 views
Is there a phrasal verb corpus somewhere online?
I'm working on a project where I have syntactic frames in the form of something like "N.agent V PP.stimulus", where each PP consists of a P and a N.
I have a set list of verbs, and a list of PPs for ...
1
vote
3answers
144 views
'Non-standard' indexicals
Currently, I am doing some research on indexicals, by which I mean words like:
I
here
now
today, tomorrow, yesterday
local
present, current
For ease of reference, let’s call these the ‘standard’ ...
1
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0answers
40 views
what does 'meaning' mean in the field of lingustics? [closed]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning
would necessarily and absolutely prefer a link (citation) to a primary source that is usable via the Web
if and in the case the 'versions' of 'meaning' has ...
2
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0answers
29 views
Connections between combinatory categorial grammars and abstract categorial grammars?
Are there connections/translation or common tools usage/adaptation between combinatory (concrete) categorial grammars (incl. Lambek calculus) and abstract categorial grammars? Can tools for one of ...
3
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3answers
207 views
Principle of Compositionality: Free Word Order Languages?
Can anyone explain what additional claims can be made for the Principle of Compositionality in regards to a language like Basque?
I understand that Basque is a "free word order" language and the ...
2
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0answers
35 views
What is the source of knowledge/discovery for the semantics? Automation of semantic science?
Natural sciences observe facts and make models. Mathematics more or less arbitrarly generates axioms and investigates all the possible consquences of them. What is the source of semantic knowledge (e....
3
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3answers
71 views
Looking for semantic hierarchy, tagset or connected active research
I am working on building a semantic markup for my native language and I have bumped into the fact that ready semantic hierarchy or tagset is a very scarce resource.
What I am looking for is something ...
1
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2answers
61 views
Semantic parsing vs Propositional Representation
Propositional representation is explained on Wikipedia.
How is semantic parsing different from propositional representation? Or is propositional representation the next step after you do semantic ...
2
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2answers
157 views
Why isn't a cat called a meow?
Presumably, before the development of a proper spoken language, humans referred to a cat as a "meow", the sound it makes. That is just the natural candidate for what to call an animal. This is what ...
5
votes
1answer
49 views
Are two word utterances by young children grammatically analysed?
At an early stage of acquisition the utterances children produce consist of only two words. Can these two word utterances be seen as syntactically or semantically analysed in any way? How productive ...
0
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2answers
41 views
Motivation behind the definition for existential quantifiers such as *some* in compositional semantics
Natural language quantifiers such as some and a are formalised for compositional semantics as λP.λQ.∃x.P(x)∧Q(x). Compared to the formalisation of quantifiers such as every or all I do not quite ...
1
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0answers
53 views
Feminine and neuter plural
The Indo-European feminine declension looks like the neuter plural. The usual explanation seems to be that feminine evolved out of an earlier inanimate collective but the semantics doesn't seem to be ...
2
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3answers
74 views
Formalization and representation of semantic and pragmatic knowledge? [closed]
Are there efforts to formalize and formally represent (e.g. as semantic network, as some kind of logic) of semantic of pragmatic knowledge. It is known, that every speaker/listener has two types of ...
3
votes
3answers
105 views
To what extent does this image accurately express the modularity of linguistic units?
This is a popular image floating around the internet, but like many things floating there, it seems like a gross simplification and just plain inaccurate.
However, I’m more of an armchair linguist ...
3
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2answers
106 views
Languages Without “To” And “From”
I've been trying to construct sentences using only Semantic Primes (i.e., from the Natural Semantic Metalanguage). However, I'm having a difficult time figuring out how to do so without "to" and "from"...
6
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0answers
97 views
Are there any languages that either effectively don't have verbs or that somehow get around using a “standard” verb system?
By this, I'm asking whether there are languages (natural or constructed) which somehow function without verbs, relying instead upon other types of words like prepositions or something like that.
...
0
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0answers
43 views
Does blindness (from early years) affect language acquisition or semantic mappings?
Would it be right if I guessed that not "seeing" what one is trying to convey, hampers the rate of language acquisition or hampers semantics? Would it affect only the noun and adjective class objects ...
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0answers
40 views
Determining formative list of -ian and -ism
I'm new to Distributive Morphology and cannot find any resources of how to construct formative lists for morphemes. I know they're meant to be the feature bundles of the morphemes, but I don't really ...
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0answers
22 views
Terminology for a phrase that changes meaning over time within a closed community
I am looking for the linguistic terminology for the phenomenon of semantic change in a discourse within a closed community. This closed community could be a couple, a company etc.
For example, ...
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3answers
1k views
Sentence/Utterance/Proposition
I'm very new to this field and I'm now studying semantics. I got a question on the difference between Sentence/Utterance/Proposition. Could someone clarify the following example to me?
1: I have a ...
