more semantics pragmatics questions

• Lyons' approach share Saussurean belief that meanings are not substantive, but relational, and are constituted by contrasts within the same system.
• For a localist, contextual variation can be accounted for by rules of interaction with contexts.
• Functional roles include functional roles, case roles, deep cases, participant roles, and thematic roles.
• OBJECTIVE is the semantically most neutral case, conceivably the concept should be limited to things which are affected by the action or state identified by the verb, such as in Mary opened the door.
• Every, creates a downward-entailing environment for its subject and an upward-entailing environment for its predicate.
• Problematic aspects of prototype model include the bases of GOE ratings, which are made on the basis of two words (category name and item name), and cannot be reduced to familiarity ratings.
• Lexemes can be regarded as groupings of one or more word forms, which are individuated by their roots and/or derivational aftixes.
• A natural category has no real boundaries, there is no fixed limit on how far something can depart from the prototype and still be assimilated to the class, there is general agreement that category boundaries are typically fuzzy.
• Jackendoff is strongly componentialist, and believes that intuitively perceived relationships should (must) be accounted for in terms of shared semantic building blocks.
• Discreteness


  the degree to which different parts or structures are clearly distinct and separate from one another.
• The tense systems of most languages


  are vectorial, indicating the direction along the time-line from speaking time to event time.
• conversational implicature


  something that is implied or suggested in a conversation

  Propositions or assumptions: Implicatures convey certain propositions or assumptions that are not directly expressed.
• Non-detachability


  a conventional implicature cannot be detached or separated from the utterance without altering the meaning.
• definite reference


  a unique and identifiable referent in the particular context
• The use of spatial deictic expressions


  Words like "this", "that", "here", "there") can extend beyond just indicating physical spatial relationships to also signal psychological/emotive distancing or closeness.

  
  

  with the proximal forms ("this", "here") suggesting closeness, positivity or amenability, and the distal forms ("that", "there") implying distance, negativity or disassociation.
• Gricean approach


  ssumes that implicatures (implied meanings) arise from maxims of conversation and conventional meanings of words/constructions.
• downward entailing


  if a statement is true for a given set, then it must also be true for any subset of that set.
• subject term

  downward entailment goes from a more general set to more specific subsets. For example:

  All birds fly. Therefore, all ravens fly. (Raven is a subset of birds)
• the predicate term

  he valid entailment goes in the opposite upward direction - from more specific properties to more general properties.

  For example: All ravens are black birds. Therefore, all ravens are birds.
• essential conditions


  the core components or criteria that define and constitute the particular speech act being performed
• conventional implicatures


  do not affect the truth conditions or literal truth value of the statement. They provide additional implied meaning beyond just the truth-conditional semantic content.
• Conversational implicatures


  can be recognized by context dependence: an expression with a single meaning can give rise to different conversational implicatures in different contexts.
• Uptakevs acceptance

  uptake is about comprehending the intended act, while acceptance concerns whether the hearer is receptive to that act's performance.
• basic level item


  dog we encounter frequently

  we have a clear picture
• priming


  when a word preced with another simple word it is easy to recognize the second word
• GOE


  Lo bueno que es un ejemplo de la categoria
• intuitive unit/ polyvalence


  Intuitive unit: fell something fits perfectly, even when we cannot say why

  polyvalence: different ways of describe a prototype
• prototype limitations


  category boundaries

  degress of membership
• domain


  provide necessary context for concepts

  content need context- central of the cognitive linguistic approach
• Concepts


  Articulation of events, entities or situations
• inchoactive/medial/terminative

  • Inchoatives encode the initiation/starting point of an event/state
  • Medials encode the internal ongoing process/unfolding of an event
  • Terminatives encode the final or completion phase of an event
• Functional Roles


  These refer to the grammatical roles that words or phrases play within a sentence.

  For example, in the sentence "John kicked the ball,"

  NP-subject,object, direct object
• Case Roles


  
  

  also known as grammatical cases.

  They indicate the relationship between a noun and verb

  NP: Agent, patient, theme, experiencer
• Deep Cases


  Noun and predicate

  agent, patient, and beneficiary.
• Participant Roles


  Participant roles describe the function of entities involved in an event or action described by a sentence. These roles are based on the semantic relationships between entities rather than their grammatical functions.
• Thematic Roles


  , thematic roles are more specific and can include roles like experiencer (the entity experiencing a sensation or emotion), instrument (the means by which an action is performed), and location (the place where an action occurs).
• Upward vs Downward-

  • In an upward-entailing environment, if a statement is true of a smaller set, it is also true of any larger set containing that smaller set.
  • In a downward-entailing environment, if a statement is true of a larger set, it is also true of any subset of that larger set.
• Componential approach 


  breaks down the meaning of a word into smaller, basic units that help define it.

  decomposed into more basic semantic components
• Semantic Prime


  e most basic and irreducible elements of meaning
• Semes


  the smallest units of meaning that can't be broken down further.