Semantics (Kartei)

67 Karteikarten

• 1
  Formal characterization of language and grammar

  - Language is a (possibly infinite) set of forms. - Grammar ...
• 2
  Functional characterization of language

  - Language is a system of relations between forms and ...
• 3
  What is meaning (most general answer)?

  An informational relationship between one entity and ...
• 4
  Two kinds of meaning

  - Natural meaning: Informational relation exists because of ...
• 5
  Synonymy

  - Words have the same meaning - -> Meanings must be ...
• 6
  Relations between word meanings

  - Meanings must be sharable (and hence more abstract than ...
• 7
  Relations between sentence meanings

  Informational relations: - Synonymy - Entailment - ...
• 8
  How are meanings of words understood?

  - Meanings of words must generally be learnt, word by ...
• 9
  How are meanings of sentences understood?

  - Meanings of sentences must be constructed by the grammar ...
• 10
  What should a semantic theory for natural language explain?

  - How can we model word meanings? - How can we model ...
• 11
  Wittgenstein's definition of sentence meaning

  - "To understand a sentence means to know what is the case ...
• 12
  Definition of synonymy via truth conditions

  - Two sentences convey the same information. - S1 and S2 ...
• 13
  Definition of entailment via truth conditions.

  - One sentence conveys more information than another. - S1 ...
• 14
  Definition of contradiction via truth conditions

  - Two sentences are incompatible - S1 contradicts S2 iff ...
• 15
  Consistency

  S1 is consistent with S2 iff {S1} & {S2} != {}
• 16
  Model theory (What is the meaning of a sentence?)

  The meaning of a sentence is a function from a possible way ...
• 17
  Form: Meaning of sentence S as a function

  - [[S]] is a function from possible situations to T or F. - ...
• 18
  Meaning relations as set relations: Two sentences are ...

  ... they are true in the same set of situations.
• 19
  Truth conditions of a sentence in set theory

  "The set of possible situations" that the sentence ...
• 20
  Venn diagram entailment

  http://www.mindpicnic.de/media/img/user/andreas-91030-bild3. ...
• 21
  Venn diagram contradiction

  http://www.mindpicnic.de/media/img/user/andreas-21102-bild4. ...
• 22
  Venn diagram consistency

  http://www.mindpicnic.de/media/img/user/andreas-12064-bild5. ...
• 23
  Proposition

  - = sentence meaning - Set of possible situations - ...
• 24
  Compositionality

  - Meaning of a sentence can be computed from ...
• 25
  Connection between entailment and negation

  If S1 negates S2, then S1 entails not-S2.
• 26
  Connection between entailment and contradiction

  If S1 contradicts S2 then S1 entails not-S2.
• 27
  Presupposition

  - Annahmen, ohne die eine Äußerung unsinnig wäre. - S1 ...
• 28
  Frege's principle? Example: [[Peter left]]

  - The meaning of a complex expression is a function of the ...
• 29
  Sentence meanings

  - Propositions or sets of situations: Those (possible) ...
• 30
  General rule for the compositional interpretation of ...

  - The meaning of S is computed as an application of the ...
• 31
  NP meanings

  The meanings of proper names are things or individuals
• 32
  Intransitive verb meanings

  - Properties, i.e. functions from things to sentence ...
• 33
  Transitive verb meanings

  - Second order properties - Functions from things to ...
• 34
  Sentence computation: Rules for intepretation of [[S]] that ...

  # [[S]] = T iff [[NP]] ε [[VP]]
• 35
  Sentence computation: Derivation of [[John likes Mary]]

  # (lexicon): [[likes]] = {<x,y> mit x likes y} # ...
• 36
  Meaning of quantified phrase: [[every boy]]

  - The set of properties that every boy has - ...
• 37
  Meaning of quantified phrase: [[some boy]]

  - The set of proerties that some boy has - ...
• 38
  Meaning of quantified phrase: [[no boy]]

  - The set of properties that no boy has - ...
• 39
  When is "Every boy loves Mary" true? New rule for NP VP ...

  "Every boy loves Mary" is true iff [[loves Mary]] is one of ...
• 40
  Semantic types for syntactic categories (NP, S, ...

  http://www.mindpicnic.de/media/img/user/andreas-41498-bild11 ...
• 41
  Semantic sentence rule (two possibilities)

  1. VP is a specific function that maps entities to T/F (or ...
• 42
  Semantic VP rule

  http://www.mindpicnic.de/media/img/user/andreas-67032-bild13 ...
• 43
  Meaning of *everyone*, *someone*, *a student*, *peter*

  # *Everyone* maps properties into situations where each ...
• 44
  Intension vs. Extension Example: [[triangle]]

  - Intension: Rule for finding extension, given situation - ...
• 45
  Adjectival modification (simple case)

  The meaning of a phrase A+N combines the constraints that A ...
• 46
  Complex forms of adjectival modification

  # Intersective: A friendly doctor is a friendly person and ...
• 47
  Informal definition of _former_

  Something is a _former_ x iff - it is not an x at the ...
• 48
  When is "ever" used?

  - The distribution of "ever" (and "any", and number of ...
• 49
  Downward entailing

  - A downward entailing context is one where we can replace ...
• 50
  When is an expression ambiguos

  An expression is ambiguos iff under the same circumstances ...
• 51
  An expression a is a synoym of an expression b (the ...

  ... iff a and b can be substituted for each other in all ...
• 52
  An expression a is a homonym of an expression b (a and b ...

  - ... iff the meanings of a and b are different and ...
• 53
  An expression a is polysemous ...

  ... iff a has a (large) number of different, though ...
• 54
  An expression a is an antonym of an expression b ...

  - iff the meaning of a is in some sense "opposed to" ...
• 55
  An expression a is a hyponym of an expression b ...

  - iff the meaning of a is included in the meaning of b (the ...
• 56
  Assumption of simpler semantic atoms that are learned ...

  Not very plausible that, e.g., spouse should be simpler and ...
• 57
  Meaning postulates

  Open propositions with an intended interpretation for all ...
• 58
  Verb meanings: types of events ("eventualities")

  - atelic: state ("Peter knows Latin.") - atelic: activity ...
• 59
  Eventualities: States

  - Views of events that ignore any reference to duration, ...
• 60
  Eventualities: Activities

  - Include at least some change during the timespan ...
• 61
  Eventualities: Telic

  - Views of events that include start and end points or ...
• 62
  Telic eventualities: Accomplishmeht vs. Achievement

  - Accomplishment: Spans a certain interval of time before ...
• 63
  Summary: Tests for eventualities

  http://www.mindpicnic.de/media/img/user/andreas-58191-bild17 ...
• 64
  Eventualities: What is classified?

  - Classification of views of events is not strictly ...
• 65
  Relating verb meanings with meaning postulates, e.g. the ...

  http://www.mindpicnic.de/media/img/user/andreas-65625-bild18 ...
• 66
  Inchoatives

  - Change of state verbs - Verbs like the intransitive verb ...
• 67
  BECOME, CAUSE

  - part of a descriptive apparatus (a metalanguage) in ...