This is an introductory level tutorial, which only addresses the relationship between a verb and its NP arguments, including those found as object of an obligatory prepositional phrase. The explanations of the examples apply to Standard English. Semantics: Thematic Roles Intuition Human beings possess an innate ability to determine whether or not a sentence or phrase is grammatical. These … [Read more...]
More on Semantics
Semantics - The Study of Meanings That Are Unconsciously Understood Semantics is the study of meaning in terms of what speakers unconsciously know prescriptively (what language critics invoke during disagreements over word meaning and sentence interpretation) and descriptively (the way in which word and sentence meaning are encoded in a native language as part of mental grammar). Meaning is … [Read more...]
An Introduction to Semantics
Semantics covers a very broad list of topics dealing mainly with meaning of and the relationships between words. Most introductory linguistics courses focus on three basic areas: lexical semantics (word meaning and relatedness), phrasal or sentential semantics (sentential meaning and relatedness), and pragmatics (meaning in the context of discourse). Lexical Semantics Semantic Features Lexical … [Read more...]
An Introduction to Semiotics
Did you ever wonder why in English the word tree is used to refer to this mental image? Or why in French the same mental representation is named arbre? How is that the word crown can refer to a person (the Queen of England), a royal headpiece, and a synthetic cap used to repair a broken tooth? And most interesting is the fact that in each of these cases, the phonological form, or sounds of … [Read more...]
