1. Explain the difference between icons, indexes and symbols.
icon – sign based on similarity with the object represented e.g. a map, photo
index – based on internal relation, fever – index of disease, smoke – fire
symbol – special type of signs, based on convention, an agreement, words are symbols
2. Explain de Saussure’s theory of linguistic sign as a bilateral unit.
According to de Saussure, linguistic sign is an acoustic image and a concept.
acoustic image – there is a trace in brains which enables us to recognise all of the different ways of pronunciation
concept – generalisation – we generalise features that are important
abstraction – we ignore features which are not important (colour in case of table)
acoustic image = signified = form
concept = signifier = meaning
3. Explain arbitrariness, linearity and discreteness.
arbitrariness – in the object to which we give a name, there’s nothing which makes us choose one particular name, any name is a matter of convention, agreement established by speech community
linearity – no 2 signs can exist simultaneously (can’t pronounce 2 different words at once)
discreteness (discontinuity) – we can identify in any language certain number of basic units (they can be combined to produce many words) – phonemes.
4. Explain the difference between lexical unit and lexeme.
lexical unit – is a typical linguistic sign, single form, single meaning.
lexeme – polisemic unit, it can combine several semantically related lexical units e.g. fox – animal, fur, furcoat, sly person (it is single lexeme)
5. Explain two conditions that must be met by each lexical unit.
Lexical unit:
1. At least one semantic constituent
2. At least one word
6. Explain the principle of compositionality.
the principle of compositionality – meaning of a composite expression is the function of the meanings of its parts
7. Explain the test of recurring semantic contrast.
Recurring semantic contrast:
A part X of a grammatically well-formed and semantically normal sentence S1 is a semantic constituent of S1 if:
1. X is replaceable by some other element Y building a grammatically well-formed and semantically normal sentence S2, which is syntactically identical to S1 but distinct in meaning form S1.
2. There exists at least one other grammatically well-formed and semantically normal sentence S3 containing X but otherwise having no other elements in parallel syntactic positions in common with S1, in which X is replaceable by Y providing a syntactically identical but semantically distinct sentence S4.
8. Explain idioms as lexical units.
Idioms – expressions which are lexically complex but semantically simplex (consist of several words, they constitute one meaning).
Idioms are opaque, they’re not transparent.
opaque -1--------2------3—transparent
1- red herring, 2- ladybird, 3- blackbird
9. Explain the term irreversable binominals.
irreversable binominals – consist of 2 nominals and they must exist in the definite order
fish and chips – transparent, but there’s sth hidden
10. Explain collocation and two ways of increasing the cohesiveness of collocations.
collocations – are combinations of words which habitually co-occur. Words in them preserve their meanings but they frequently occur together. They are transparent. The link between the words is called cohesiveness.
Increasing the cohesiveness:
1. If a particular element of collocation is used in very special meaning
heavy – weight
heavy smoker, drinker, drug-addict on petrol
2. One word collocation require only one other word.
foot the bill (not it)
11. What is dead-metaphor.
dead-metaphor – used so extensively that it looses its attractiveness as metaphor
12. Explain the theory of affinities.
affinity – sort of relativeness, compatibility. The meaning of a lexical unit is defined as sum of all affinities and disaffinities with all the other word in a language.
syntagmatic affinities – based on the relation between neighbouring units
paradigmatic affinities – we can replace one lexical unit with another and it can still function in the same contex
13. Explain the theory of semantic traits and statuses.
The meaning of lexical unit is constituted by semantic traits of other lexical units. The degree to which a semantic trait participates in the meaning of lexical unit is called its status
[4 legs] – dog
[fly] – bird
semantic traits – expected status
14. Explain the term canonical trait.
Non existance of a semantic traits which is something imperfect brings us to the notion of canonical trait.
canonical traits – semantic traits whose absence is regarded as defect
15. Explain the fixed meaning assumption.
Fixed meaning assumption
Language users are able to identify the hard core of meaning in lexical unit.
hard core – necessary and sufficient condition – enable us to identify fixed meanings (never changes), in every single context is the same. This condition is sufficient to identify a particular object and distinguish it from other objects.
4 necessary conditions:
square – 1. a closed flat figure (2D)
2. 4 sides
3. all sides are equal in length
4. all angles are equal
16. Explain the difference between the basic hard core of fixed meaning and denotational meaning.
basic hard core – common to all people, represented by denotative or cognitive meaning. It denotes a meaning not affected by our emotions only by cognitive abilities.
denotational meaning: emotions, formal-informal speech, coloquial-slang, archaic-novel, standard vocabulary-borrowed words, register
17. Explain the fuzzy meaning theory.
The fixed meaning assumption is not good because it’s not possible to identify the point when the hard core meaning ends and the collocational meaning begins. This border is fuzzy vague. And you can’t identify where the meaning of one word ends and when the meaning of another word begins.
18. Explain fuzzy edge phenomenon.
Our judgements depend on context in which we identify the objects that our ability to identify the object is modified by external factors.
19. Explain the family resemblance syndrome.
family resemblance syndrome – it shows that just like in one big family each of the kinds inherits some features of their parents but they have sth in common, although they do not share all the similar features. This theory was proposed in relation to the meaning of words.
20. Explain the prototype theory.
prototype theory – says that for each meaning we can identify typical example
21. Explain the concept of semantic network.
Meaning of a word is given by different combination of semantic primitives. It was found out that meaning of words constitute semantic networks in minds.
22. Explain 4 basic relations in semantic network.
Relations in semantic network:
1. Coordination – relation between the meanings of the same level of detail (salt-pepper, left-right)
2. Collocations – relation between words that virtually co-occur.
3. Super-ordination – relation of hyperonymy and hyponymy.
4. Synonymy – words which have the same meaning but different form.
23. Explain the concept of semantic primitives.
semantic primitives – semantic items to basic building blocks of the meaning, the smallest units of meaning.
24. Explain semantic reversal.
Sometimes principle of compositionality of meaning doesn’t work. We don’t get the meaning of an expression from the meaning of both words but we get meaning of individual component from the total meaning of expression. It is called semantic reversal.
25. What is the difference between collocation and coligation.
collocation – habitual co-occurence with other words
coligation – habitual co-occurence in terms of grammatical categories
26. What is semantic preference and semantic prosody.
It’s believed that each lexical unit has its core unit. Then there is semantic prosody (connotation). It is individual, subjective colouring of meaning, way of presenting and understanding of a text.
27. What is meant by a well-balanced corpus.
Corpus is well-balanced when it covers various areas of human life, texts from newspapers, academic works, child speech etc. It covers various stylistic languages: formal, slang etc.
28. Explain cognitive synonyms.
cognitive synonyms – cognitive and denotational meaning is the same, connotational is different (emotional colouring): father-daddy
29. Explain the difference between homonymy and polysemy.
homonyms - words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings, usually as a result of the two words having different origins
polyseme - is a word or phrase with multiple, related meanings
30. Give two subtypes of homonyms.
homographs – have the same spelling but different pronunciation
homophones – have the same pronunciation but different spelling
31. Explain hyponymy/hyperonymy.
hyponym – a word or phrase whose semantic range is included within that of another word, its hyperonym, hyponym is a kind of its hyperonym
32. Explain complementary antonyms.
33. Explain converse antonyms.
converse antonyms – these antonyms depend on each other, they express reciprocity, they are identified by implication of sentences e.g. teacher-student, father-son.
34. What is the difference between complementary antonyms and antonyms in narrow sense.
complementary antonyms – they exist in pairs, there is no third option, they complement each other e.g. dead-alive
antonyms in narrow sense – these are lexical units whose opposition is gradable e.g. hot-warm-cold
35. Explain the difference between transitive and intransitive relations.
transitive relation – IF A:B and B:C => A:C
intransitive relation – IF A:B and B:C #> A:C
36. Explain proportional series.
Proportional series:
AB=CD
AC=BD
owe – ram
| |
cow – bull
37. Explain two basic features (principles) of branching lexical configuration.
Lexical units are organised in lexical configurations. They might be branching or non-branching. Branching are based on the principle of difference (meaning of lexical units at the same level must be different) and principle of dominance (higher level unit semantically dominates the lower unit, its meaning is broader).
38. Explain the difference between denotative and conotative features.
denotative features – features which constitute the cognitive meaning of lexical unit
connotative features – features which describe individual aspect of meaning
39. What are deictic features.
deictic features – refer to special or temporal aspect of communication e.g. come and go, now and then, this and that
40. What are transfer features.
41. What are relational features.
relational features – they relate to arguments – X father of Y, X have Y.
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