Draw trees for these sentences.

Yesterday Emma bought a book.

Yesterday Emma bought a book about cooking.

Yesterday Emma bought a book in a bookstore. (ambiguous)

Draw trees for these sentences.

Yesterday Emma put a book on the table.

Yesterday Emma put a book about cooking under the table.

Yesterday Emma put a book about cooking on the table in the hall. (ambiguous)

“The study of the linguistic meaning of morphemes, words, phrases, and sentences is called semantics.”

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, p. 140.

Lexical semantics

Phrasal or sentential semantics

Pragmatics

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, p. 140.

Semantics Words Lexical Semantics Phrases Phrasal Semantics Sentences Sentential Semantics

Pragmatics Discourse Pragmatics (Meaning in Context)

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, p. 140.

Word Sentence meaningful ambiguous synonymous opposites reference (can) sense truth value X entailment X

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, p. 140ff.

“Learning a language includes learning the agreed-upon meanings of certain strings of sounds and learning how to combine these meaningful units into larger units that also convey meaning.”

“All speakers of a language share a basic vocabulary—the sounds and meanings of morphemes and words.”

[My emphasis.]

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2003. An Introduction to Language. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, p. 173.

Pronunciation

Meaning

(including Semantic Properties)

Relationship to other words

Grammatical category

How to use it in sentences.

Potential collocations and idioms

Spelling

Truth

Entailment / Logic

Ambiguity

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 140-143.

“…our knowledge about the truth value of sentences [is a function of] taking the meanings of words and combining them according to the syntactic structure of the sentence.”

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, p. 146.

All the Individual Word Meanings

+

Syntax

=

Sentence Meaning

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, p. 144ff.

Anomaly

Metaphor

Idioms

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 147-152.

Lexical item with more than one word. Meaning of the idiom cannot be inferred.

They must be LEARNED (like other words, morphemes).

They must be stored in the Mental Lexicon.

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 151-152.

Reference

Sense

Mental image

Various lexical relations

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 154-156.

(Boldfaced items may be debatable)

a. T b. C c. S d. S e. S f. C g. S h. T i. S j. S k. T l. S m. S n. T o. C p. S q. C r. C s. C t. S u. C v. S w. C x. C y. S z. C

a. T Queens are monarchs. b. C Kings are female. c. S Kinds are poor. d. S Queens are ugly. e. S Queens are mothers. f. C Kings are mothers. g. S Dogs are four-legged. h. T Cats are felines. i. S Cats are stupid. j. S Dogs are carnivores.

k. T George Washington is George Washington.

l. S George Washington is the first president.

m. S George Washington is male. n. T Uncles are male. o. C My aunt is a man. p. S Witches are wicked. q. C My brother is a witch. ?? r. C My sister is an only child. s. C The evening star isn’t the evening

star.

t. S The evening star isn’t Venus. u. C Babies are adults. v. S Babies can lift one ton. w. C Puppies are human. x. C My bachelor friends are all

married. y. S My bachelor friends are all

lonely. z. C Colorless ideas are green.

a. We laughed at the colorful ball. Lexically ambiguous:

ball (toy children play with); (dance party)

b. He was knocked over by the punch. Lexically ambiguous:

punch (using the fist to hit someone); (drink at a party)

Structurally ambiguous: He was next to the punch when he was knocked over.

The punch knocked him over.

c. The police were urged to stop drinking by the fifth.

Lexically ambiguous: fifth (5th day of the month); (a fifth of a gallon of whiskey??)

Structurally ambiguous: when they should stop drinkingThey should not drink a whole fifth of whiskey when they drink.

d. I said I would file it on Thursday. Lexically ambiguous: file (folder containing information); (tool for smoothing rough surfaces) Structurally ambiguous: I said it on Thursday.the filing will be done on Thursday

k. run down l. violin case m. bill/Bill; house/House n. stud tires; out o. dog bite victim p. lack of brains q. death (whose?) r. eye drops (N); eye drops (NP VP) s. try; shooting defendant (Adj N) or (V

NP)t. Queen Mary (person or ship)