Questions tagged [semantics]
Semantics is the study of meaning, used to understand expressions through language.
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1answer
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What underlying semantic notions connect 'less' to 'not'? [closed]
What underlying notions explain this same semantic shift from 'less' to 'not' (ie: negation)? It appears in all 4 languages below, as evidenced by the Spanish and Portuguese synonymy.
I know that in ...
3
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2answers
167 views
How can a remark not refer to the speaker's attitude?
Source: p 34, Understanding Semantics (2 ed, 2013) by Sebastian Löbner
Interjections and exclamations can be used as complete utterances. Other
expressives such as hopefully, (un)fortunately ...
1
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1answer
157 views
Do people still study Frame Semantics?
Do people still study Frame Semantics?
As an elective, many year ago, I took one course in a topic called Semantics. I remember my professor saying that dictionaries are problematic since they try ...
0
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1answer
367 views
Why is the following sentence ungrammatical? [closed]
"The man entertained by the doves his sandwich munched."
Thanks for the explanation!
3
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1answer
468 views
What are different types of signs? [closed]
I've read somewhere that there are different types of signs like: natural signs (smoke as a sign of fire), arbitrary signs (language signs) etc. Could someone provide me with a complete list and ...
1
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1answer
76 views
Entailment relationship?
Is this an example of entailment? Does A entail B?
A. None of Bob's friends have visited Africa.
B. None of Bob's friends have visited Kenya.
But B seems to survive of A is negated:
A'. Some of B'...
1
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2answers
201 views
The Correct Research Methodology To Substantiate If an Expression is an Idiom?
Related:
- Does linguistics have a concept of "set phrase" with a meaning differing from "idiom"?
- In the Gospels, Can “Day of:” the Passover - be Interpreted Idiomatically?
1. ...
0
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1answer
198 views
Anticausative/unaccusative verbs - a way to express causer of the event
Can be sentence with unaccusative verb describing some state change on the subject changed to sentence (with different verb of course) which contains cause of that event on the subject position (like ...
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2answers
3k views
What is the difference between Semantics and Pragmatics? [duplicate]
I had a class today in an introductory linguistics course and some of the concepts are not clear to me.
First, what is the difference between semantics and pragmatics.
For example:
A: "Did you ...
0
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2answers
114 views
Could there be such a thing as a universal logical language?
That is, are there certain conceptual primitives, such as object, action, structure, property, logic, event, quantity, partial, paradox, system, concept, etc, or connectives/judgements, such as for ...
1
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1answer
68 views
Generating Essay (Set of correlated sentenses) from a set of keywords
I originally belong to Computer Vision world. Recently I worked on Scene Understanding. There, I accept an image and generate a sentence explaining the contents of the scene. Now, my professor wants ...
7
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1answer
384 views
What are the differences between theoretical perspectives of the uses of the term “register”?
I'd be interested in asking people about their understanding of the term register and what this signifies for them. This would be a discussion about a specialised term and I'm sure there are multiple ...
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0answers
44 views
Distances and weights in semantic space
I am doing Latent Semantic Analysis on news. I have a few questions.
What is the most suitable kind of distance d for similarity measurement in semantic space: cosine, Euclidean, Manhattan or other ...
1
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1answer
13k views
What do you understand by the term 'register'? [duplicate]
I'd be interested in asking people about their understanding of the term register and what this signifies for them. This would be a discussion about a specialised term and I'm sure there are multiple ...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
Speech acts theory: (il)Locutionary acts
I have read popular text books on this topic and watched several lectures but still I don't understand what are Locutionary and Illocutionary act (and verbs). In general how do you identify this verbs?...
2
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1answer
3k views
What's a good illustration of the difference between syntagmatic, paradigmatic, and attribute semantic relations?
In the book Concepts, Ontologies, and Knowledge Representation, the author makes a distinction between syntagmatic and paradigmatic semantic relations. That's clear enough - but then he raises a third ...
2
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3answers
99 views
Does pragmatics cut down or add to the stock of interpretations generated by the semantics?
This is a question similar to the question about the semantics/pragmatics divide, but I have a more specific interest.
I'm thinking of two different ways of conceiving of the way statements come to ...
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2answers
88 views
Can 'a system of rules that assigns […] meaning in a definite way' be replaced with 'semantics'?
Source: An Introduction to Language (10 ed, 2014) by V Fromkin, R Rodman, N Hyams. I, and not the book, bolded.
[p 7:] A person who knows a language has mastered
[1.] a system of rules ...
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1answer
160 views
Can 'semantics' replace 'meaning' in these 7 sentences? Why or why not? [closed]
I reread 1 (which this does NOT duplicate) and the OED, and can infer that 'semantics' is a hyponym of 'meaning'; but still unable to disambiguate 'meaning' and 'semantics' in certain contexts, I am ...
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0answers
100 views
Can someone explain this sentence from Dartmouth's German page?
Was perusing the page (you can find it here), I came across the paragraph "That said, word order is a complex aspect of language, never wholly mastered by non-native speakers.
What is the idea ...
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1answer
46 views
How does 'envisager de' presuppose nothing situational, but 'hésiter à' does?
Source: p 177, French prepositions à and de
in infinitival complements,
A pragma-semantic analysis (2008) by Lidia Fraczak, as part of Adpositions ; Pragmatic, semantic and syntactic perspectives (...
0
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1answer
65 views
« essayé de s’évader » : How does « essayer de » not presuppose « s'evader »? [closed]
Source: p 175, French prepositions à and de
in infinitival complements,
A pragma-semantic analysis (2008) by Lidia Fraczak, as part of Adpositions ; Pragmatic, semantic and syntactic perspectives (...
1
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0answers
37 views
What special relationship does 'de' reveal between a main verb and the infinitive?
Source: pp 367-368, The semantics of ‘empty prepositions’ in French (1996) by Kemmer and Shyldkrot, as part of Cognitive Linguistics in the Redwoods: The Expansion of a New Paradigm in Linguistics ...
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1answer
80 views
How does the French preposition 'de' connect to alienable possession? [closed]
Source: The semantics of ‘empty prepositions’ in French (1996) by Kemmer and Shyldkrot, as part of Cognitive Linguistics in the Redwoods: The Expansion of a New Paradigm in Linguistics edited by ...
4
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3answers
351 views
Can syntax be part of semantics?
Is it possible to consider a POS category of a word as semantic aspect?
Assume we have unknown word.
But when we know part-of-speech it can give us a hint about semantic meaning. Is that right?
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2answers
291 views
Is 'unless' semantically equivalent to the (English conjunction) exclusive 'or'?
Preface: I question this here because the author is a full-time linguist.
Source: The semantics of "unless" by Brian Buccola BA (Classics, Mathematics) PhD (Linguistics)
Bonus question: If “unless” ...
1
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2answers
101 views
References and sources to help me explain the semantics of the word 'over'
So I'm doing an assignment on the semantics of the word 'over'. Everyone in our semantics class was asked by the lecturer to pick a piece of paper out of a hat, he then said that we were required to ...
4
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4answers
775 views
Are linguistic units organized in conceptual categories?
When we perceive something, we tend to categorize it. For example, when we hear the word puppy, we think of the concept of dogs and then the conceptual category of animals. Is it acceptable to claim ...
2
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1answer
1k views
Does “I don't drink.” mean “I don't drink alcohol.” in all languages? [duplicate]
In those languages I'm a bit familiar with, the verb for drinking is very often understood as drinking alcohol, especially if its meaning "the oral intake of any fluid", wouldn't make sense.
For ...
0
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0answers
332 views
What motivated the definition of Theme in Semantics?
Source: An Introduction to Language (10 ed, 2014) by V Fromkin, R Rodman, N Hyams
[p 163:] The NP arguments in the VP, which include the subject and any objects, are
semantically related in ...
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1answer
548 views
GermaNLTK: not finding files [python]
Following the instructions of GermaNLTK I tried to install the german NLTK in Python. (I want to use the synsets for semantic-taging.)
But I couldn't find the files germanet.py and GermanetDBBuilder....
2
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1answer
357 views
how to choose a threshold for Jiang-Conrath Similarity?
I want to compare two sets of keywords. After searching I understood that Jiang-Conrath Similarity is closer correlating with human judgement. I read this definition:
Jiang-Conrath Similarity ...
0
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2answers
153 views
How do native speakers determine a word's literal/basic meaning?
For example, to me, the verb "to turn" has a literal meaning along the lines of "to change physical orientation along some particular axis". You can also say "X turned [adj.]", "X turned up (as in to ...
2
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1answer
373 views
Representing prepositions in lambda calculus/logic notation
How would I represent 'for' in "Are you here for a conference?"
conference could be represented as lam x.conference(x).
a conference could be represented as lam Q x.(conference(x) & Q(x))
I ...
4
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1answer
80 views
Is there a name for the concept describing the particular way in which adjectives and nouns interact together to create meaning
A contrived example, but: if I said something like "The Penguin Wars" (Yes, it's a silly example but this is a serious question I promise), such a phrase (bare of any conventional denotations) could ...
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2answers
348 views
Complete definition of logical connectives and quantifiers?
The list of logical connectives might be subject to debate, but what do you think is the most complete one? For English language and computational logic.
I'm looking to implement a semantical ...
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1answer
48 views
What separates events such as festivals and tournaments from other events such as running and partying? [closed]
Events are widely defined as things that happen. Actions can take place, but objects cannot, so it would be natural to assume that all events are actions. However, there are many things that we call ...
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1answer
75 views
Is there a term for words that modify the intensity of something
Is there a term for words such as very extremely likely super , which modify the intensity of something?
Obviously these are all adverbs, but yesterday is also an adverb, and that does not change the ...
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1answer
210 views
De Morgan's Law in Semantics what decides the rhs and lhs
We take a LHS and RHS in De Morgan's Law. How do we decide upon it?
How do we know which one to take as RHS and which one as LHS?
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0answers
246 views
Entailments Relations
I have problem understanding the entailment logic on these examples and would like some help.
Here's my answers:
Sally works together with Polly.
Sally works.
=> I think one entails other, but not ...
1
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2answers
859 views
Characteristics of Theoretical Linguistics [closed]
I've been asked by my professor to do a research about the characteristics of Theoretical Linguistics, and now I'm stuck.
What are these characteristics that makes theoretical linguistics a ...
1
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3answers
111 views
Do general truths entail existence?
In statements of generic truth like "water boils," does it entail statements like "water exists"? If I describe something not real, am I saying something false? For example,
...
1
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0answers
253 views
Identifying core arguments, constituents? [closed]
In the sentence, 'It was raining' what are the core arguments?
I think [It] is a core argument and [was raining] is another. This would mean that it is a NP and was raining is a VP. But if this is ...
3
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3answers
144 views
What is the study of language usage types [a question, an answer, a criticism, a complaint an elaboration, etc]
What is the study of language usage types [a question, an answer, a criticism, a complaint an elaboration, etc]?
I've heard ontology and typology used interchangeably but not sure either is correct -...
4
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2answers
561 views
Why is “human volunteers” felicitous in English but not in Russian? [closed]
From "Risks from GMOs due to Horizontal Gene Transfer", by Paul Keese:
"The introduced gene could not be detected in faeces from human volunteers with intact digestive tracts following the ...
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1answer
840 views
How are affirmation, causality, similarity, time, etc… connected?
6 months after asking my original question, I still cannot see any of the connections declared as 'easy to see' or 'not difficult to see' here.
The problem is with your assumption that the senses ...
3
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2answers
174 views
Is it possible to determine the number of words in a language?
Recently I got into a discussion with my friend concerning sizes of lexicons of different languages. He stated something about Japanese having considerably more words than English. (The exact ...
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0answers
663 views
What is the difference between predicate-argument structure and case structure
Predicate's arguments are just case slots, aren't they? So predicate-argument structure and case structure are just the same thing?
3
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1answer
120 views
Slot filling corpora
I was wondering if anyone knows of slot filling corpora such as ATIS. I tried finding ATIS but since I am not a member of LDC I couldnt get access to it. Do you know of any place where I can find a ...
0
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1answer
86 views
Are 'feminism' and 'feminist' part of the same lexeme, or two different lexemes? [closed]
I get the impression they're two different lexemes, but would like some opinions!
