Semantics Exercises

Define:
Semantics: is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols. Linguistic semantics is the study of meaning that is used tounderstand human expression through language.

Principle of compositionality :
The principle of compositionality, the fundamental principle in logical semantics, states that the meaning of acompound expression is a function of the meaning of its parts and of the syntactic rule by which they are combined. the meaning of a complex expression is the result of both, the meaning of individualunits and the way those units are combined.

Ex. She loves him / He loves her.

Sense and reference

Sense and reference are two different aspect of meaning. Roughly speaking, a term's referenceis the object it refers to and its sense is the way in which it refers to that object. Ex.

Reference:

Historically, there was only one person called George Washington, the first president of US,but he can be referred to in a text in many ways, such as:
- the president
- Mr. Washington

Sense: Woman has a sense of animate, female, married.
Girl has a sense of animate, female,unmarried.



Semantic class, semantic properties and semantic features The term semantic property refers to the components of meaning of a particular word.

King [+Human] [+Adult] [+Male][+Status]

Queen [+Human] [+Adult] [+Female] [+Status]

Prince [+Human] [-Adult] [+Male] [+Status]

Princess [+Human] [-Adult] [+Female] [+Status]







1. A single form canhave two or more meanings. This phenomenon involves polysemy (same word) or homophony. Which or these two relations is exemplified by the sentences below ( notice the highlighted words)





a)My friend ails as a result o his many injuries/ He prefers ale instead of common beer. (Homophony)

b) A band of students brought their grievances before the dean/ The band played until...