CHAPTER 1: MEANING AND SEMANTICS

I. LEVELS OF MEANING
II. SENTENCE MEANING AND COMPOSITIONALITY
III. SEMANTICS: ITS SCOPE AND LIMITS

Semantics just meaning taken in isolation

Semantics is the study of meanings of linguistic expressions, either simple or complex, taken in
isolation Expressions meaning phrase

I. LEVELS OF MEANING

1. Expression meaning (nghĩa chung chung)

*the meaning of a simple or complex expression taken in isolation

=> Corresponds to phrasal meaning or sense

- Expression is just a cover term for words, phrases and sentences.

- Expression meaning covers in particular word meaning and sentence meaning.

- Expression meaning: the meaning of words, phrases, sentences, take out of any particular
context constitute the level of meaning.

- Content words: the main carriers of information in the sentence

- Function words: articles, pronouns, auxiliaries, prepositions, conjunctions and other “small”
words

Ex: I don’t need your bike

Need= require

Bike: a kind of vehicle

(1) I don't need your bicycle.

•Phrasal meaning results from putting the words together

need: sth. is important for so

bicycle: two-wheeled vehicle

 I: (instruction to find out who is the) speaker

not: negation

do: present tense (soa takes place at utterance time)

your: addressee who is in a particular relationship to some entity

•Sentence (phrasal) meaning of (1):

'for the speaker, the two-wheeled vehicle of the addresse(s) is not veryimportant, at the time
when s is being uttered‘

It is left open who the speaker and the addressee(s) are, what particular time is referred to and
which bicycle.

- The entity referred to by an expression is called its referent.

2. Utterance meaning (có ngữ cảnh sẽ biết nói đến ai)

*the meaning of an expression when used in a given context of utterance resulting from fixing
reference and truth value (for declarative sentences)

=> corresponds to speaker meaning or meaning

- An utterance: an act of saying

- different level of meaning

- Utterance meaning derives from expression meaning on the basis of the particular provided by
the CoU.

- The context of utterance (CoU) is the sum of circumstances that bear on reference and truth.
The most important ones:

+ the speaker (or producer) of the utterance

+ the addressee (s) (or recipient(s)) of the utterance

+ the time at which the utterance is produced and/ or received

+ the place where the utterance is produced and/or received

+ the facts (T or F) given when the utterance is produced and/ or received

 An utterance has time, place, speaker, language, but no special form or content.

Ex: (1) I don’t need your bike

 The meaning which results if the sentence is uttered in a specific scenario

Extended:

Presupposition (tiền giả định): tìm cái gì đã xảy ra trước đó

3. Communicative meaning (dựa vào ngữ cảnh để biết được mục đích nói)

*the meaning of an utterance as a communicative act in a given social setting

Communicative function of an utterance.

Ex: (1) I don't need your bicycle.

− Neither the level of expression meaning nor that of utterance meaning is the primary level
on which we interpret verbal utterances. In an actual exchange, our main concern inevitably is
this: what is the speaker's intention?
For example: there are 2 situations:

S1: (1) can be taken as a statement and thereby as a withdrawal of a former request.

S2: (1) can be interpreted as a refusal of an offer

- Locutionary act (nghĩa đen): act of saying an expression with a certain utterance meaning in the
given CoU.

- Illocutionary act: in performing a locutionary act one also performs an illocutionary act on the
level on which the utterance constitutes a certain type of 'speech act': a statement, a question, a
request, a promise, etc. (mục đích)

II. SENTENCE MEANING AND COMPOSITIONALITY

1. Lexical and compositional meaning

- Lexical meaning (of the basic expressions): In our mind, we host a huge lexicon where the
words we know and their meanings are stored. Stored meanings are called lexical meanings.
(phrases, phrasal verbs, collocations,… tất cả sẽ tạo thành 1 cụm và có nghĩa riêng của nó, phải
học thuộc và nhớ thành cụm, nghĩa không do từng từ ghép lại)

- Grammatical meaning (of the basic expressions): is determined by a word form and
particular syntactical configurations (hỗ trợ nghĩa về mặt ngữ pháp)
- Compositional meaning: The process by which we calculate the meaning of a sentence is
called composition, and the resulting meaning is known as compositional meaning. (nghĩa của
cả câu do nghĩa của từng từ ghép lại câu tạo nên)

- Syntactic structure of the complex structure

- Words can also be used to create new words, This is called word formation and its products
complex words.

2. Grammatical meaning

- We will call the meaning of grammatical forms grammatical meaning

- The combination of its basic lexical meaning and the grammatical meaning of its form.

- The form of a word carries grammatical meaning, if:

+ in the given construction alternative forms are admirable.

+ different forms yield different meanings.

+ the form chosen does not have a neutral meaning.

3. The process of composition

4. The priciple of compositionality

The dog ate the yellow socks

- The formation of complex expressions from basic expressions.

- Semantic composition is thought of as a so-called bottom-up process: it proceeds from basic

units to the complex ones.

- The converse of a bottom-up process is a top-down process.

=> The principle of compositionality: The meaning of a complex expression is determined by the
lexical meanings of its components, their grammatical meanings and the syntactic structure of
the whole.
The principle implies that the meanings of complex expressions are fully determined by lexical
meanings, grammatical meanings, and syntactic structure.

II. SEMANTICS: ITS SCOPE AND LIMITS

- Semantics: the study of meaning in language

- Meaning: part of language
 Semantics: part of linguistics

Semantics: subdivided into 2 sub-disciplines

- Lexical semantics: including semantics of regular word formation

- Sentence semantics: including semantics of grammatical forms

Principle of compositionality: 4 sub-disciplines of semantics:

1. Lexical semantics

Lexical semantics => Lexical meaning

Definition: the investigation of expression meaning stored in the mental lexicon (dog, sock)

2. Semantics of regular word formation

Definition: the investigation of the regular meanings of words that are formed by the productive
rules of word formation (joggable, carp food)

Ex:

_able produces an adjective meaning one can V it: drink-able

_er produces a noun meaning someone who Vs: work-er, speak-er

3. Semantics of grammatical forms

Grammatical form => Grammatical meaning

Definition: the investigation of the meaning contribution of grammatical forms

4. Compositional sentence semantics

Compositional sentence semantics => Syntactic structure

Definition: the investigation of the rules that determine how the meanings of the components of a
complex expression interact and combine.

er produces a noun meaning some one who Vs: work-er, speak-er

 5. Beyond semantics

Pragmatics: study rules that govern the use of language

Definition: Semantics ends where contextual knowledge comes in. Thus, utterance meaning and
communicative meaning are beyond semantics; they fall into the domain of pragmatics.

Review

Sentences or Questions T/F

Utterance meaning is the meaning of an expression taken in isolation F
 Expression meaning
Semantics studies all 3 levels of meaning: expression meaning, utterance F
meaning, communicative meaning.
 Just study expression meaning
Semantics studies the meanings of linguistic expressions in context F

Utterance meaning is the meaning of an utterance as a communicative act in a F

given social setting
 Communicative meaning
Content words are the main carries of information in a sentence T

Utterance meaning derives from expression meaning on the basis of the particular T
provided by the context of utterance

QUIZ 1

Decide whether the following could represent utterances. Indicate your answer by choosing
Yes or No

"Pxgotmgt"

A. Yes

B. No

Decide whether the following could represent utterances. Indicate your answer by choosing
Yes or No

Utterances may consist of a single word, a single phrase or a single sentence. They may also
consist of a sequence of sentences. It is not unusual to find utterances that consist of one or more
grammatically incomplete sentence-fragment. In short, there is no simple correspondence
between utterances and sentences.

A. Yes

B. No

Decide whether the following could represent utterances. Indicate your answer by choosing
Yes or No

"Hello"

A. Yes

B. No

Decide whether the following could represent utterances. Indicate your answer by choosing
Yes or No

Schplotzenpflaaaaaaargh!

A. Yes

[Link]

Decide whether the following could represent utterances. Indicate your answer by choosing
Yes or No

"Not much"

A. Yes

B. No

QUIZ 2

1. Principle of compositionality: the meaning of a complex expression is determined by the

lexical meanings of its components, their grammatical meanings and the syntactic structure of
the whole.

2. Lexical semantics: is the investigation of expression meanings stored in the mental lexicon.

3. Lexical meanings: the meanings which stored in our minds.

4. Communicative meaning: the meaning of utterance as a communicative act in a given social

setting.
5. composition: The process by which we calculate the meaning of a sentence.

6. speech act: A theory that addresses the level of interpretation.

7. locutionary meaning: the basic literal meaning conveyed through words and structures.

8. The illocutionary/ communicative act of the utterance “Tidy your room.” is a request.

9. compositional meaning: The meaning resulted from the process by which we calculate the
meaning of a sentence.

10. utterance meaning: The meaning of an expression when used in a given context of utterance
resulting from fixing reference.

*Extra:

Communicative meaning: the meaning of utterance as a communicative act in a given social

setting.

Expression meaning: the meaning of a simple or complex expression taken in isolation.

QUIZ 3

1. Can a sentence be true of false?

A. Yes B. No

The correct answer is A

2. Is a sentence tied to a particular time and place?

A. Yes B. No

The correct answer is B

3. Is an utterance tied to a particular time and place?

A. Yes B. No

The correct answer is A

4. State which of the following represents an utterance (U) and which a sentence (S)

John sang wonderfully last night.

A.U B. S

The correct answer is B

5. State which of the following represents an utterance (U) and which a sentence (S)

“John sang wonderfully last night.”

A.U B. S

The correct answer is A

CHAPTER 2: DIMENSIONS OF MEANING

I. MEANINGS ARE CONCEPTS

II. DESCRIPTIVE MEANING
III. SOCIAL MEANING
IV. EXPRESSIVE MEANING
V. CONNOTATIONS
VI. DIMENSIONS OF MEANINGS

I. MEANINGS ARE CONCEPTS

1. Meaning of word

The meaning appears in our mind first when the word is mentioned.

- Hình ảnh mặc định trong đầu của chúng ta về nghĩa của một từ => the meaning of word

Ex: 1) When saying “a dog” => In our mind, it is a pet (or animal) which has one head, four legs,
how to bark (sủa) and can bite people.

2) When saying “thắng cố” => In our mind, there is not any images or meanings that appear.

- The meaning of a content word (N, V, A) is a concept that provide a mental description of a
certain kind of entity

2. Meaning of sentence

Meaning of all situation => concept for the situation

Ex: The dog has ruined a blue shirt

 - The meaning of sentence is a concept that provides a mental description of a certain kind of
situation.

In the complete situation concept:

 the event is described as one of ruining

 the ruiner is described as a dog
 the ruined object is described as a blue shirt
 Present perfect: the situation at the time of utterance results from a previous event of the
kind indicated.

II. DESCRIPTIVE MEANING

The dimension that bears on reference and truth.

1. Descriptive meaning and reference

1.1 Reference and the descriptive meaning of words

Distinction between Referent and Reference

- A referent is an object or an entity in the real world or in the world of your imagination, e.g.
your school, your teacher, etc. that is talked about.
The function words have no obvious referents: the, could, in, and, since, etc.
- The reference of a word or a linguistic expression is the relationship between that word or
expression and the thing, the action, the event, the quality, etc. it refers to.

Types of reference:

- Variable reference: The same linguistic expression refers to different referents (vật quy
chiếu khác).

Ex: The president of U.S

+ George Bush (2006)

+ Barack Obama (2010)

- Constant reference: When one linguistic expression refers to one and the same referent (vật
quy chiếu bất biến).

Ex: Eiffel Tower

- Co-reference: When two or more linguistic expressions share the same referent (đồng quy
chiếu).
 Ex: The present president of the U.S in 2010

Barack Obama

Descriptive meaning of content words

The descriptive meaning of a content word is a concept for its potential referents.

1.2 The descriptive meaning of sentences: propositions

Proposition

The descriptive meaning of a sentence, its proposition, is a concept that provides a mental
description of the kind of situations it potentially refers to.

Descriptive meaning of a word or a grammatical form

The descriptive meaning of a word or a grammatical form is its contribution to the descriptive
meanings of the sentences in which the word or grammatical form may occur.

Sentence meaning includes: lexical meaning, grammatical meaning and syntactic structure.

2. Denotations and truth conditions

2.1 Denotations

The descriptive meaning of a content word is a concept for its potential referents, As such it
determines, or mentally describes, a category of entities.

The meaning of dog is a concept that determines the category DOG

The denotation of a content word is the category, or set, of all its potential referents.

The relationship between a word, its meaning and its denotation is often depicted in the
semiotic triangle.
When a content word is actually used in a concrete CoU, we deal with a token of the word, a
particular spoken or written realization. The semiotic triangle then yields a relationship between
the word token, its meaning and its referent

2.2 Truth conditions

The truth conditions of a sentence are the conditions under which it is true.

A sentence has the truth value “true” if it is true, and the truth value “false” if it is false.

Ex: The dog has ruined my blue shirt

Describes: The sentence is true if and only if:

- There is uniquely determined dog and a uniquely determined blue shirt belonging to the
speaker.
- The dog must have done something to the shirt.
2.3 Proposition and sentence type
 (1) The dog has ruined my blue skirt.
(2) Has the dog ruined my blue skirt?
(3) Don’t ruin my blue skirt!

(1): declarative sentence => making assertions, communicating information, etc.

(2): interrogative sentence => asking questions

(1)- (2): non- descriptive meaning (same: trong đầu cùng xuất hiện một hình ảnh)

(3): imperative sentence => commanding, giving advice, etc.

This contribution is non-descriptive: The semantic contribution of the grammatical sentence type
is not part of the proposition.

REVIEW (1)

1. The truth conditions of a sentence are the conditions under which it is true.
2. The meaning of content word is a concept that provides a mental description of a centain
kind of entity.
3. The descriptive meaning of a sentence, its proposition, is a concept that provides a mental
description of the kind of situations it potentially refers to.
4. The denotation of content word is the category, or set of all its potential referents.

III SOCIAL MEANING (no context here)

1. Expressions with social meaning

- The term social meaning does not refer to this general aspect of verbal interaction, and is
thereby not to be confused with the communicational meaning of a verbal act.

- Social meaning is in a par with descriptive meaning: it is a dimension of the lexical meaning of
certain words, phrases or grammatical forms.

- If an expression has social meaning, it has so independently of the particular CoU.

- Most expressions and grammatical forms do not have social meaning, but some do.

Ex: Hi => informal greeting => close relationship

- There is a social rule that defines the circumstances under which it is properly used and what it
then means.
- An expression or a grammatical form has social meaning if and only if it conventionally serves
the indication of social relations or the performance of conventionalized social interaction; there
must be rules for social interaction that governs its use.

Ex: “you” : không dùng để chỉ mối quan hệ ( bởi vì bất cứ ai cũng có thể là you)

2. Social meaning in Japanese

- Normal formal talking, which is the standard between people of the same status, is expressed
by inserting a formality marker, here in the form -mashi-, between the stem of the verb and its
tense ending.

- In Japanese, one would have to choose among 2 or more levels or formality in any sentence
because normality is obligatorily marked on the finite verb. (change their form to indicate
number, tense, person)

- Non-finite verb: Infinitive and Participle (V-ing, V-ed)

IV. EXPRESSIVE MEANING (do not need context to interpret)

1. Expressive meaning

- Certain expressions show the speaker’s personal feelings evaluations and attitudes.

Ex: Wow, Hmm,…

- Expressive meaning is a part of the lexical meaning of certain expressions, a semantic quality
of word and phrases independent of the CoU and of the way they are being spoken.

- An expression or a grammatical form has expressive meaning if and only if it conventionally

serves the immediate expression of subjective sensations, emotions, affections, evaluations or
attitudes.

- Expressions with expressive meaning simply expressive.

- Examples of expressive

+ Interjections: Words and phrases such as ouch (sudden pain), wow, oh

+ Exclamations: Gosh!, Oh my goodness!, …

+ Adverbs: hopefully, thank God,..

+ Adjectives: I’m glad,…

+ Swear words: What the fuck does that mean?

- All expressions serve to express personal feelings, attitudes or sensations which and perceptible
only to the holder => their correct use is just a matter of personal judgment.

2. Social and expressive meaning

- Social menaing: rules of social interaction

- Expressive meaning: rules of conduct

Dimensions of meaning

Dimension Function Criteria for correct use

Descriptive meaning Description of referents and situations Agreement with fact
Social meaning Indication of social relations and Social rules of conduct
performance of social acts
Expressive meaning Immediate expression of personal Subjective choice
sensations, feelings, attitudes or
evaluations

V. CONNOTATIONS (Nghĩa bóng)

- The connotation of a word is the secondary meaning in addition to the primary lexical meaning.

E.g.: Connotation of “pig” is “dirty”

- Conventional associations of expression

- Connotations of a word change while its meaning remains the same.

- Connotations play a role for the semantic motivation of swear words.

E.g.: Connotation of “fox” is “cunning, deceitful”

“ pig” is “dirty”

- Negative connotations, together with social taboos, are responsible for what is called
euphemisms: indirect terms for bad or taboo things.

Euphemism (uyển ngữ): sử dụng từ khi nói để làm cho vấn đề đó nhẹ nhàng hơn

Ex: died => pass away

Political language is full of euphemisms

e.g.: policeman => police officer

 postman => post carrier

- Negative connotations are also at issue in matters of political correctness.

E.g.: handicapped being replaced by disabled being replaced by challenged

Garbage man => sanitation engineer

Old people => senior citizen

The dead => the deceased/ the late

Burier => undertaker/ mortician

VI. DIMENSIONS OF MEANING

- The levels of utterance meaning and communicative sense build on the level of expression
meaning. These levels inherit descriptive, social and expressive meaning (and further dimensions
of meaning)

- Semantics has always been mainly concerned with descriptive meaning

- The exploration of expressive meaning and social meaning is not yet very advanced.

e.g. Jack, take your damn coat off my seat

 Expression meaning:

- Descriptive meaning: addressee take their coat off the speaker’s seat.

- Grammatical meaning of an imperative sentence.

- Social meaning of informal address by the given name.

- Expressive meaning conveyed by “damn”.

 Utterance meaning: an imperative with informal reference to the address and pejorative
reference to their coat.
 Communicative meaning: a rather rude request

TABOOS: cấm kị => lead euphemisms

REVIEW (2)

T/F

SENTENCE T/F
1. A referent is an object or an entity in the real world or in the world of your T
imagination

2. “My mother is a teacher”. In this expression, “my mother” has constant F

reference because its referent depends on who is the speaker and who is the
addressee in a CoU.
3. The connotation of a word is the primary meaning F
4. Positive connotations, together with social taboos, are responsible for what is F
called euphemisms
5. Denotation is the category, or set of all its potential referents F
6. The meaning of a content word is a concept that provides a mental description F
of a certain a kind of situation
7. Proposition is the descriptive meaning of a sentence T
8. Descriptive meaning, social meaning anđ expressive meaning are parts of T
expression meaning
9. The expressions like “Hi”, “Please” have expressive meaning F
10. The expression The Eiffel Tower has variable reference T
11. The expression “The sun” has constant reference T
12. The noun “bastard” in the expression “You bastard!” has expressive meaning T
13. Social meaning and expressive meaning are not parts of expression meanings F
14. The use of expressions with social meaning is governed by subjective choice F
15. The expression “Big Ben” has variable reference F

Complete

1. The use of expressive is governed by subjective choice.

2. Social rules define the correct use of expressions with social meaning.
3. The truth conditions of a sentence are the conditions under which it is true.
4. The meaning of a content word is a concept that provides a mental description of a
certain kind of entity.
5. The descriptive meaning of a sentence, its proposition, is a concept that provides a mental
description of the kind of situations it potentially refers to.
6. The denotation of a content word is the category, or set of all its potential referents.
7. Expressions like “Ouch”, “Oh”, “Wow” are called interjections.
8. A referent is an object or an entity in the real world or in the world of your imagination.
9. “My cat is so adorable”. The expression “my cat” has variable reference.
 10. An expression or a grammatical form has expressive meaning if and only if it
conventionally serves the immediate expression of subjective sensations, emotions,
affections, evaluations or attitudes.
11. An expression or a grammatical form has social meaning if and only if it conventionally
serves the indication of social relations or the performance of conventionalized social
interaction; there must be rules for social interaction that governs its use.

QUIZ 4

T/F
1. A referent is an object or an entity in the real world or in the world of your imagination. T
2. “My mother is a teacher.”. In this expression, “my mother” has constant referent F
because its referent depends on who is the speaker and who is the addressee in a CoU.
 Constant => Variable
3. “Dear Sir or Madam”, “Please…” have expressive meanings. F
 Expressive => ???
4. The connotation of a word is the primary meaning. F
 Primary => Secondary
5. Positive connotations, together with social taboos, are responsible for what is called F
euphemisms.
 Positive => Negative

QUIZ 5

1. The truth conditions of a sentence are the conditions under which it is true.

2. The meaning of a complex expression is determined by the lexical meanings of its

components, their grammatical meanings and the syntactic structure of the whole.

3. The illocutionary act of the utterance “I’m hot.” is a request for having an airconditioner
turned on.

4. The descriptive meaning of a content word is a concept for its potential referents.

5. The meaning of a sentence is a concept that provides a mental description of a certain kind of
situation

.
 CHAPTER 3: AMBIGUITY (have more one meaning)

I. LEXEMES
II. LEXICAL AMBIGUITY
III. COMPOSITIONAL AMBIGUITY
IV. CONTEXTUAL AMBIGUITY

He wrote a letter
ABC letter (lá thư)
 Ambiguity

Lexical

I. LEXEMES (từ vị) (technical term)

Lexicon

- Compositonal meaning: nghĩa do từng từ ghép lại tạo thành nghĩa cả cụm

- Lexical meaning: must be learned and stored in our mental lexicon (nghĩa cần phải thuộc:
phrases,…)

Ex: put up with => lexical meaing => lexemes

- Linguistic units which carry lexical meanings are called lexemes.

- Typically, lexemes are single words

Ex: table, chair, student,…

But there are also composite expressions with a special lexicalized meaning. Composite
lexemes:

+ idioms: throw in the towel (=give up)

+ particle verbs: give up, fill in,…

+ fixed adj-noun combination: white lie, little finger,…

- Lexemes are stored in the lexicon of the language, a huge complex structure in the minds of the
language users.

- They are assigned to different grammatical categories which differ in their grammatical
behaviour.
- Many expressions can be used as members of more than one category.

- The members of certain grammatical categories in a language many exhibit inherent

grammatical properties.

- The grammatical category determines the range of grammatical forms a lexeme can take. Some
categories of lexemes have just one form, e.g. adverbs (here, then), particles (already, too, only)
or prepositions (on ,after without)

- Adjective have positive, comparative, superlative form (light, lighter, lightest)

- Each grammatical form of a lexeme has a spoken form and an orthographic form.

* Constitutive properties of Lexemes:

- lexical meaning

- grammatical category (n, v, adj,…) which differ in their grammatical behaviour.

- inherent grammatical properties (for some languages, ie, gender)

- the set of grammatical forms it may take

- sound form, spelling

II. LEXICAL AMBIGUITY

1. Homonymy

- Total homonymy: Two lexemes are totally homonymous if they have unrelated meaning, but
share all other constitutive properties

E.g.: light (adj)(opposite of dark)

light (adj)(opposite of heavy)

- Partial homonymy: Two lexemes are partially homonymous if they have unrelated meanings,
but coincide in some of their grammatical forms.

E.g.: lie (lay, lain)

+ Don’t lie in bed

+ He lied/ lay in bed

- Homography: two lexemes with unrelated meanings have the same written form

E.g.: bow (n) /boʊ/

 bow (v)/baʊ/

- Homophony: two lexemes with unrelated meanings have the same sound form

E.g.:

Total homophones: tale/tail (n)

- Same sound
- Different spelling
- Different lexical meaning
- Same grammatical category
- Same grammatical form

Partial homophones: write(v)/right(n,a)

*PHÂN BIỆT

1. Partial and Total

- Partial: different parts of speech ( N, A, V, Adv)

- Total: same parts of speech

2. Phân biệt Homonymy, Homography, Homophony

- Homonymy: same sound, same spelling, different meaning.

- Homophony: same sound, different spelling, different meaning.

- Homography: same spell, different sound, different meaning.

3.

WORDS RELATION (có “y”)

Homophone (mối quan hệ đồng âm) Homophony
Homograph (mối quan hệ đồng tự) Homography
Homonym Homonymy
Exercise

1. mean (v)- mean (adj) => partial homonymy

2. ring (diamond ring)- ring (=phone- verb) => partial homonymy

3. herd- heard => partial homophony

4. beech- beach => total homophony

5. bat (=animal)- bat (baseball bat) => total homonymy

6. match (football match)- match (a box of matches) => total homonymy

7. knight- night => total homophony

8. nose- knows => total homophony

9. leek- leak => total homophony

10. bow /baʊ/ - bow /bəʊ/ => homography

2. Polysemy (từ đa nghĩa)

- A lexeme is polysemous if it has two or more interrelated meanings (meaning variants).

Light (n): a sort of visible radiation

Electric lamps

Traffic lights

Illuminated areas (light and shadow)

 These meanings: interrelated

Light (>< dark)- light (>< heavy) => Homonymy

Light (>< heavy)- light (>< difficult) => Polysemy

Light: a light bike, light blue, a light breeze => polysemy

Heavy: a heavy stone, heavy rain, heavy meal => polysemy

The relationship between homonymy and polysemy

 Homonymy: 2 từ khác nhau bằng một cách ngẫu nhiên nào đó mà sound/spelling của nó giống
nhau tuy nhiên 2 từ đó vẫn có 2 nghĩa hoàn toàn khác nhau

Polysemy: 1 từ nhiều nghĩa liên quan với nhau

3. Vagueness

- A lexical meaning is vague if it allows for flexible adaptation to the given CoU.

- vague (a): tính từ mơ hồ ( tuỳ vào quan điểm)

Ex: có người sẽ cảm thấy cô gái đó đẹp, nhưng có người lại cảm thấy cô ấy bình thường

- Chia so sánh hơn/nhất được

- All gradable adj (tính từ chỉ mức độ) (adj with comparative and superlative forms) are vague.

- For many lexemes, their proper application to a given case is a matter of degree.

E.g. She’s tall

The concept “tall” is vague: it allows for adaptation to the given CoU.

- Vagueness can be observed with all concepts that depend on properties varying on a
continuous scale.
e.g. red, big, small,… => all gradable adjectives are vague.

PRACTICE

Unrelated (không liên quan)- interrelated (liên quan)

What is the relation between the lexemes? Use constitutive properties of a lexeme to explain
that relation

1. The bear usually has to bear ill treatment in the circuit.

+ The two lexemes have same spelling (written form) and same sound form.

+ They have unrelated lexical meanings.

+ They have different grammatical categories.

Bear (the bear): a noun - an animal

Bear (bear ill treatment): a verb – tolerate

+ They have different grammatical forms.

 Partial homonymy

2. a. Does this road lead to town?

b. Lead is a heavy meal

+ The two lexemes have same spelling (written form), but different sound form.

+ They have unrelated lexical meanings.

+ They have different grammatical categories.

Lead /liːd/ (lead the team): verb

lead /led/ (lead mine): noun

+ They have different grammatical forms.

 Homography

3. He can open the can easily.

+ The two lexemes have same spelling (written form) and same sound form.

+ They have unrelated lexical meanings.

+ They have different grammatical categories.

Can (he can): modal verb

Can (the can): noun

+ They have different grammatical forms.

  Partial homonymy

4. He did a light exercise and then enjoyed a light meal

+ The two lexemes have same spelling (written form) and same sound form.

+ They have interrelated lexical meanings.

+ They have same grammatical categories.

+ They have same grammatical forms.

 Polysemy

5. Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear

+ The two lexemes have same spelling (written form), but different sound form.

+ They have unrelated lexical meanings.

+ They have same grammatical categories.

Tear /ter/ (noun)

Tear /tɪr/ (noun)

+ They have same grammatical forms.

 Homography

6. I am so busy this week.

He’s still weak after the accident.

+ The two lexemes have different spelling (written form), but same sound form.

+ They have unrelated lexical meanings.

+ They have different grammatical categories.

Week (noun)

Weak (adj)

+ They have different grammatical forms.

 Partial homophony

III. COMPOSITIONAL AMBIGUITY

Lexical ambiguity

- Any ambiguity resulting from the ambiguity of a word

e.g. We’re waiting for you at the bank.

Bank: ngân hàng (financial institution)

Bank: the riverside (gần bờ sông)

Grammatical forms

It may be ambiguous

e.g. (a) I knew you were here. (past tense)

(b) I wish you were here. (present of future time)

Were has past tense meaning referring to past events in (a) and conditional reading with present
or future time reference (b).

Structual ambiguity

The (sentence/phrase) structure permits more than one interpretation

Syntactic structure: có thể hiểu theo 2 nghĩa khác nhau

E.g.: She met the man with her friend.

-She and her friend met the man.

-She met the man who was with her friend.

EXERCISE
 Paraphrase the meaning of each sentence in 2 ways.

We need more intelligent administrators. 1. We need administrators who are more intelligent.
2. We need more administrators who are intelligent.
Mary works out in the backyard. 1. Mary works outside in the backyard.
2. Mary does exercise in the backyard.
Pat likes English poems and novels. 1. Pat likes poems in English and novels.
2. Pat likes English poems and English novels.
I killed an elephant in my pajamas. 1.I killed an elephant which was in my pajamas
2.I killed an elephant when I was in my pajamas.
She can’t bear children. 1. She can’t bear children
2. She can’t stand children
She is looking for a match. 1. She wants to participate in a sport event.
2. She is finding a tool to make fire
We like the ball 1. A round object/ toy
2. We like formal social gathering for dancing
IV. CONTEXTUAL AMBIGUITY

1. Interpretation in context

- When it comes to interpreting words and sentences in their context (from the level of
expression meaning to the level of utterance, the expression meanings of words and sentences
may be modified.

- A sentence actually uttered in a CoU must fulfill certain requirements.

+ it must not be self- contradictory

+ it must in some way be relevant in the given CoU

 Compositional expression meanings of a sentence may undergo changes

- Three things can happen to a compositional expression meaning
+ The expression meaning may be taken over as it is enriched with contextual information,
by assigning it a concrete referent. (phụ thuộc vào ngữ cảnh)
e.g. She took the dog for a walk in the park.
+ The expression meaning may be refuted and eliminated if it is contradictory or does not
fit the CoU.
e.g. She was waiting at the bank (ngân hàng, bờ sông)
 + The expression meaning may be modified by some kind of meaning shift in order to fit
the CoU, and subsequently enriched with contextual information (more popular)
Nhờ hiện tượng chuyển ngữ để fit in CoU
e.g. I don’t need your bike (bike: card with a pic of bike)
I don’t like her personality. She has a heart of stone.
2. Disambiguation (làm cho nghĩa của câu rõ ràng)

The following sentences contain the ambiguous lexeme letter (alphabetic character vs written
message)

e.g. 1) Johnny wrote a letter. => ambiguous

2) Johnny wrote a letter to Patty. => ambiguous

3) Gamma is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. => disambiguous

 Immediate sentential environment of a word may call for particular meaning variants and
eliminate others.
3. Meaning shifts

a) Metonymical shift

E.g.: James Joyce is difficult to understand.

The sentence has 4 meanings.

(a) The writings of James Joyce

(b) The way he talks are(is) difficult to understand

(c) The way he expresses himself

(d) The way he acts

 The writing, the way he talks, the way he expresses himself, and the way he acts: belongs to
James Joyce.

e.g. E.g. The university lies in the eastern part of the town. (=> campus)

The university has closed down the faculty of agriculture. (=> administration)

The university starts again on April 15 ( => courses)

=> The term “university” stand for its campus, its administration, its courses which belong to its
referents.
Metonymy:

- An expression is used metonymically if it is used to refer to things that belong to the kind of
objects to which the expression refers in its literal meaning.

(Or The substitution of the name of one thing for that of another to which it is related or
connected)

 A sign substitutes for the person or the object it symbolizes

E.g. He succeeded to the chair. (= the royal office)

 An instrument substitutes for an agent.

e.g. The pen has more influence than the sword.
(= the writer) (=the soldier)
 A container substitutes for the thing contained
e.g. The kettle is boiling (= the water in the kettle)
 The concrete substitutes for the abstract.

E.g.: She has an ear for music.

( She possesses a remarkable talent for learning, imitating, appreciating, etc. music)

 The abstract substitutes for the concrete.

E.g.: His Holiness will visit his homeland next month. (His Holiness= your majesty) -the Pope

 The material substitutes for the thing made.

E.g. He was buried under this stone. (=this tomb made of stone, this tombstone)

 An author/ producer/a place where goods are made substitutes for his works/its products.

E.g: I like to read Hemingway. (= Hemingway’s novels/ his writing)

b) Metaphorical shift

source domain

E.g. He was a lion in the fight.

target domain: strong, powerful, bravely

= He fought bravely and successfully just like a lion in the fight for food.

 The person referred is not claimed to be a lion but to be in some way like a lion.
 E.g. She has a heart of stone.

targer domain: cool, unfeeling nature.

= She has a pitiless and unfeeling nature

 A similarity between her character and stone.

- Concepts, notions, models, pictures for things from the source domain are borrowed for the
descriptions of things in the targer domain.

- A metaphor yields a new concept in the target domain, a concept that is similar to the original
concept of the source domain in that it contains certain elements of the source domain.

*Metaphor (Ẩn dụ)

- An expression is used metaphorically if it is used to refer to things that are in crucial aspects
similar to the kind of object to which the expression refers in its literal meaning.

b) Differentiation

Differentiation adds content to a given concept.

E.g.: base on sentence context

(1) John lost his friend in the overcrowded subway station.

(a loss of contact)

(2) John lost his friend in a tragic car accident.

(John’s friend stops being his friend because the friend no longer exists.)

(3) John lost his friend as he could never suppress bad jokes about him.

(The friend is supposed to live on but stops entertaining a friendly relationship with John.)

 In each case, the verb “lose” can be taken to mean something like “stop having” due to
some event.
 What the context contributes to this is the meaning in which the “having” component is
interpreted and the kind of event that causes the loss.

Type of shift Lexical meaning Shifted meaning Process

The university starts in April
Metonymy Educational institution Courses at the university Building a new concept of an
 element of the original concept
They were China’s cowboys
Metaphor Man who herds castle Person behaving like a Building a new concept in the
cowboy target domain by borrowing
parts of the concept in the
source domain
James Joyce is hard to understand
Differentiation Perceive the meaning Interpret the text Adding conditions to the
meaning original concept

Metaphor: Ẩn dụ là một hình thức tu từ dùng để so sánh hai sự vật không giống nhau, nhằm tạo
nên hình ảnh sống động trong tâm trí người đọc.

Metonymy: Hoán dụ là một hình thức tu từ sử dụng một từ hoặc cụm từ để chỉ một điều gì đó có
liên quan chặt chẽ, chẳng hạn như sử dụng “Nhà Trắng” để chỉ chính phủ Hoa Kỳ. một từ được
thay thế bằng một từ khác có liên quan chặt chẽ với nó nhưng không nhất thiết phải là một phần
của nó.

PRACTICE

Interpret the meaning of the following sentences. What kind of meaning shift is employed
in each?

1. There was a storm in Parliament last night.

 A storm: a terrible conflict.

 Meaning shift: metaphor

2. The White House decided to reopen schools this fall.

 The White House = The US President

 Meaning shift: metonymy

3. His words stabbed at her heart

 Like a knife, his words are so sharp that they can cause great pain or much unhappiness
for her
 Meaning shift: metaphor

4. Who brought fire and sword into our country?

  Fire and sword = a destructive war
 Meaning shift: metonymy

5. We need a force of a thousand rifles.

 Rifles = soldiers
 Meaning shift: metonymy

6. She has a good heart of business.

 She is gifted in/ is clever at dealing with business

 Meaning shift: metonymy

7. The man is a demon for work.

 The man is an energetic person who works very hard.

 Meaning shift: metaphor

8. If you are not happy with the service, go and talk to the City Hall

 The City Hall= The city’s Mayor

 Meaning shift: metonymy

Metonymy:

REVIEW

T or F
1. The expression “ a dream” in the sentence “ Life is a dream” is metonymically used F
 Metaphorically
2. An expression is used metaphorically if it is used to refer to things that are in crucial T
aspects similar to the kind of objects to which the expression refers in its literal meaning
3. The expression “The White House” in the sentence “ He got a phone call from the White F
House” is metaphorically used
 The White House = The US President
 Meaning shift: metonymy
4. A metonymy is an implicit or indirect comparison in which no function word is used. F
5. Differentiation is defined as the meaning shift which results in a special case of what the T
expression denotes in its lexical meaning.
6. Light in light blue and light in light breakfast are polysemous F
 Homonymy
7. The relationship between can (a metal container) and can (able to) is polysemy F
 Homonymy
8. Two lexemes are homonymous if they have two or interrelated meanings with each other F
REVIEW

What is the relation betwween the lexemes? Use the constitutive properties of a lexeme to
explain that relation.

1. a. The band was playing old Beatles songs.

b. She always ties her hair black in a band.

(1) They have same spelling (written form), same sound form.

(2) They have different lexical meanings.

(3) They have same grammatical categories: noun

(4) They have same grammatical forms.

 Total homonymy

2. a. If you suspect a gas leak do not strike a match or use electricity.

b. Her fingerprints match those found at the scene of the crime.

(1) They have same spelling (written form), same sound form.

(2) They have different lexical meanings.

(3) They have different grammatical categories

match (a): noun – match (b): verb

(4) They have different grammatical forms.

 Partial homonymy

3. a. He tried not to make a sound.

b. He gave me some very sound advice.

(1) They have same spelling (written form), same sound form.

(2) They have different lexical meanings.

(3) They have different grammatical categories:

 sound (a): noun – sound (b): adj

(4) They have same grammatical forms.

 Partial homonymy

4. a. I don’t like that present.

b. She had to present her plan to her boss this morning.

(1) They have same spelling (written form) but different sound form.

(2) They have different lexical meanings.

(3) They have different grammatical categories:

present (a): noun – present (b): verb

(4) They have different grammatical forms.

 Homography

5. a. The interior of the church was plain and simple.

b. The facts were plain to see

(1) same spelling (written form), same sound form.

(2) same grammatical categories: adj

(3) same grammatical forms.

(4) interrelated meanings.

 Polysemy
REVIEW (Ambiguous)

1. The chicken is ready to eat

Meaning 1: The chicken is ready to be fed

Meaning 2: The chicken is ready for you to eat

2. Is he really that kind?

M1: Is he really so kind?

M2: Is he really that kind of person?

3. You should see her shop.

M1: You should see the shop she owns.

M2: You should see the way she shops

4. They can fish.

M1: They are able to catch fish.

M2: They put fish in a metal container.

MINI-TEST

The expression “his favorite cat” has …………. .

a. constant reference

b. variable reference

c. co-reference

The correct answer is: variable reference

……. investigates expression meanings stored in the mental lexicon.

a. Compositional sentence semantics

b. Semantics of grammatical forms

c. Semantics of regular word formation

d. Lexical semantics

The correct answer is: Lexical semantics

The two lexemes “mintue” (= part of hour) – “minute” (= extremely small) are ………….

a. homographs

b. total homonyms

c. partial homonyms

d. homophones

The correct answer is: homographs

a. She kicked the ball with her right foot.

b. The city now reaches to the foot of the surrounding mountains.

The lexeme "foot" in these 2 sentences is ................................

a. polysemous

b. vague

c. partially homonymous

d. totally homonymous

The correct answer is: polysemous

The illocutionary act of the utterance “Shall I make you a coffee?” is to give a/an
…………..

a. request

b. offer

c. promise

d. invitation

The correct answer is: offer

"Economically disadvantaged" is the ......................... of "poor"

a. denotation

b. euphemism

c. connotation

The correct answer is: euphemism

The meaning of the sentence "Open another window." can be interpreted in more than one
way.

True False

The correct answer is 'True'.

Compositional meanings must be learned and stored in our mind.

True False

The correct answer is 'False'.

The form of a word doesn't matter for its meaning.

True False

The correct answer is 'False'.

Semantics is mainly concerned with ………..

a. Utterance meaning

b. All three levels of meaning

c. Expression meaning

d. Communicative meaning

The correct answer is: Expression meaning

Such personal pronouns in English as “you”, “she” or “he” have social meaning.

True False

The correct answer is 'False'.

…………. are considered to be a secondary meaning in addition to the primary lexical

meaning.

a. Denotation

b. Connotations

c. Taboos

d. Euphemism

The correct answer is: Connotations

The grammatical meaning of sentence type is ……………

a. expressive meaning

b. descriptive meaning

c. non-descriptive

d. social meaning

The correct answer is: non-descriptive

The lexical meaning of such words as “ugly”, “small”, or “expensive” is vague.

True False

The correct answer is 'True'.

One and the same sentence can be uttered with different communicative meanings in
different contexts.

True False

The correct answer is 'True'.

The use of expressions with expressive meaning is governed by …..

a. agreement with facts

b. the rules for social interaction

c. subjective choice

The correct answer is: subjective choice

The expression “the best pen” in the sentence “He is the best pen of the day.” is a ……..

a. differentiation

b. metaphor

c. metonymy

The correct answer is: metonymy

According to the Principle of Compositionality, the meanings of complex expressions are

fully determined by linguistic input alone.

True False

The correct answer is 'True'.

………… is the substitution of the name of one thing for that of another to which it is
related.

a. Metaphor

b. Vagueness

c. Metonymy

d. Differentiation
The correct answer is: Metonymy

The Principle of Compositionality can apply to …………

a. expression meaning

b. all three levels of meaning

c. communicative meaning

d. utterance meaning

The correct answer is: expression meaning

The …………….. of the word “dove” could be “peace, purity, innocence”.

a. taboos

b. connotations

c. reference

d. euphemisms

The correct answer is: connotations

The relation between two lexemes "saw" (past simple of “see”) – "saw" (= to use a saw to
cut something) is………….

a. partial homonymy

b. homography

c. total homonymy

d. homophony

The correct answer is: partial homonymy

The expression “a streak of lightning” in the sentence “When he gets going, Jack is a streak
of lightning.” is a ……….

a. differentiation

b. metaphor

c. metonymy

The correct answer is: metaphor

The expression “a rock” in the sentence “You can depend on Gina; she is a rock when
trouble comes” is a ……..

a. metaphor

b. metonymy

c. differentiation

The correct answer is: metaphor

The lexeme “ring” in the phrases “tree ring” and “curtain ring” is ……….

a. polysemous

b. partially homonymous

c. totally homonymous

The correct answer is: polysemous

CHAPTER 4: MEANING AND CONTEXT

I. DEIXIS
II. DETERMINATION
III. PRESUPPOSITIONS

PART I. DEIXIS

 The speaker forms the deitic center:

 The “ I” is the one who decides who is being addressed.
 Where the speaker is “here”
 When they speak is “ now”
A deitic word is one which takes some element of its meaning from the situation (i.e. the speaker,
the addressee, the time and the place) of the utterance in which it is used.

e.g. I am cooking now.

1. Person deixis

- Person deixis is the deixis based on the linguistic category of person.

- The category of person relates to the roles that participants take in an individual utterance.

+ 1st person: speaker, producer of the utterance.

+ 2nd person: addressee

+ 3rd person: everybody who is neither first nor 2nd person

 These roles are called discourse roles.

- The most salient linguistic means of person deixis are systems of personal pronouns.

- They may differ in the grammatical categories of person gender, number and formality.

Descriptive meaning of personal pronouns

The descriptive meaning of personal pronouns can be described in terms of:

a) Definiteness
- All personal pronouns are definite.
 - Their referents are always uniquely determined in the given CoU.

b) Person
- For 1st or 2nd person singular pronouns: the descriptive meaning is clear: they refer to the
speaker (S) and addressee (A)
- For 3rd person pronouns: the only restriction is that their reference excludes S and A; rely
on the CoU.
- 3rd person pronouns are mainly used anaphorically: they refer to something that has been
mentioned before.

E.g. I like Jack. He is easy- going

=> ngôi thứ 3 (He): hồi chỉ cho tên người

- An anaphoric expression is called anaphor, the kind of reference, anaphora.

- The antecedent (từ tiền hồi chỉ) is the expression in the precedinh discourse by which the
referent was previously mentioned

Anaphorically (hồi chỉ)

e.g. I like Jack. He is easy- going

antecedent anaphor (từ hồi chỉ)

anaphora (relationship: mối quan hệ hồi chỉ)

 antecedent: đối tượng hồi chỉ

 anaphor: từ hồi chỉ
 anaphora: mối quan hệ hồi chỉ
- Anaphora: is the use of an expression whose interpretation depends upon another
expression in content (its antecedent) ( phụ thuộc vào nghĩa của từ nó thay thế
 c) Number: singular/ plural

- English has singular and plural number

- I, he, she, it -> Singular number

- they, we -> Plural number

- you -> singualr and plural number

 We: means S and those who belong to S (depend on CoU)

 You: refer to A and those belong to A
 They: refers invariably to set of persons that does not include the speaker and the
addressees.

e.g. Mary asks John:

What are you doing tonight? We wanted to ask you out for a drink.

-> We: Mary and 3rd persons belong to her in the given context (her husband)

-> You: John alone or John plus 3rd persons belong to him

d) Gender: male/ female- masculine/ feminine/ neuter

- English does not have the grammatical category of gender.

- The distinction between he and she relates to biological sex.

- She refers to a female person, he to a male one.

Social meaning

Personal pronouns may carry social meaning, the meaning of informal or formal interaction.

He, she, it, we, you, they, I => not carry social meaning

1.1 Posessive pronouns (Đại từ sở hữu)

- In most European languages, there is a parallel paradigm of possessive pronouns (MY, YOUR,
etc)

- Other languages do not have extra possessive pronouns.

e.g Japanese uses the personal pronouns with the genitive particle: I’s, He’s instead of My, His

The meaning of possessive pronouns

- Possessive pronouns express that the noun referent belongs to the person or thing indicated by
the pronoun

- This person is called the possessor and the thing or person that belongs to the possessor, the
possessum.

e.g. my books

 My - possessor
 Books – possessum (books belong to you)
The meaning of possessive pronouns has two aspects:

 The specification of the possessor

- determine the possessor in the same way as personal pronouns determine their referent

- this meaning component is identical with the meaning of the corresponding personal
pronouns.

e.g. I -> my

=> I có nhiều nghĩa (ngôi thứ nhất nhiều người có thể dùng, có nhiều nghĩa -> my cũng
tương tự vì nó là sở hữu của I nên cũng có nhiều nghĩa: definiteness, person,.. not gender “vì
I thì bất cứ ai cũng dùng được không có phân biệt nam nữ”)

- may involve descriptive meaning, social meaning.

 The relation between possessor and possessum

- ownership: my book

- kinship relation: my son

- a part-of relation: my leg

- temporal measure of its possessor: my age

2. Demonstrative and Place deixis

- Place deixis (spatial deixis) relates to spatial situation in which an utterance takes place

- The immediate categories of place deixis: HERE & THERE

-> HERE: the reference to the location of S

-> THERE: refers to where S is not

e.g Come home/ go home – Come here/ go there – người nói có ở đó/ người nói không có ở đó.

- Place deixis: not restricted to reference to places, but determine arbitrary objects of reference

=> Demonstratives: THIS, THAT ( từ chỉ xuất)

-> THIS: something that is where S is

-> THAT: something that is where S is not

- Demonstratives are often accompanied by a gesture of pointing to help the identification of the
referent.

- Demonstratives:

+ used as full noun phrases: pronominal

e.g. I like this.

+ combined with nouns: adnominal

e.g. I like this book.

- Demonstratives: have anaphoric uses

e.g. I saw a hedgehog in Frank’s garden the other day. Do you think that hedgehog is living there

- The deitic center is defined as the location of S, “ proximal” and “ distal” can also be defined as
“close/ not close to S”

+ Here and This: proximal (cận tính: gần)

+ There and That: distal (viễn tính: xa)

3. Time deixis

- Time deixis relates to the time when an utterance is produced

- 2 phenomena in the domain of time deixis:

-> grammatical relation to time by means of verb tense.

-> temporal reference by lexical means such as now, tomorrow, yesterday, recently, soon, later,
etc.

 Lexical means of time deixis:

- Central expression of time deixis: now

+ then: distal, refer to in the past or in the future

+ other adverbs: just, recently, formerly, once, at once, soon, later, today, tomorrow, yesterday

REVIEW

Task 1: True or False?

T/F
A deictic word is one which takes some element of its meaning from the situation T
of the utterance in which it is used.
All personal pronouns are definite T
The addressee forms the deictic center F
“here, there” are place deixis T

Task 2: Complete

1. Place deixis relates to the spatial situation in which an utterance takes place.
2. Time deixis relates to the time when an utterance is produced.
3. “Now, then, yesterday” are time deixis.
4. The most salient linguistic means of person deixis are system of personal pronouns.
5. 3rd person pronouns are mainly used anaphorically.
6. In the sentence “If you like the dress, I will buy it for you”, the dress is the antecedent, it
is the anaphor.

PART II: DETERMINATION

1. Definiteness and Indefiniteness ( Tính xác định và tính không xác định)

Definiteness is a feature of a noun phrase selected by the speaker to convey his assumption that
the hearer will be able to identify the referent of the noun phrase, usually because it is the only
thing of its kind in the context of the utterance, or because it is unique in the universe of
discourse.

e.g. The door is opened.

=> Khi sử dụng “THE” thì người nói assume rằng người nghe đã biết được “DOOR” đó là cái
nào.

2.1 The meaning of the definite article

e.g. Sheila said to Mary:

a) The dog has ruined my blue skirt.

=> (a): The: Sheila is referring to a particular dog given beforehand in the context of utterance.
That’s Ken.

b) A dog has ruined my blue skirt.

=> (b): A: Sheila is not talking about a dog which is uniquely determined beforehand. Before this
utterance, the creature dis not belong to common context of Sheila and Mary.

=> THE: the definite article

- The definite article indicates that the NP refers to something uniquely determined in the given
context, either in the particular or in a wider context.

- When does a definite NP constitute a unique description in the given context?

=> 2 possibilites:

 The meaning of NP, independently of the particular context -> semantic uniqueness.
(không phụ thuộc vào ngữ cảnh)

e.g. The Earth is definite. It is the only thing in a normal universe of discourse known by this
name.

 The special circumstances in the given CoU -> pragmatic uniqueness (phụ thuộc vào
ngữ cảnh)

e.g. The dog has ruined my blue skirt.

Semantic and pragmatic uniqueness

 An NP is semantically unique if the description of its referent is unique independently of

the given CoU.
 An NP is pragmatically unique if the description of its referent is unique only in the
special circumstances given in the CoU.

e.g.
1) There is a book on the table. The book is interesting

Definiteness ( can identify)

2) The sun is shining.

 Definiteness ( mặt trời là duy nhất)

2.2 Singular & plural, count & mass nouns

a) Singular and plural

Most English nouns be used in the singular and in the plural.

e.g. skirt: a single object

skirts: more than one

b) Count and mass nouns

- Count nouns:

+ can be used in the plural and in most cases with numerals (except a few exceptions: pants)

+ can be used in the singular.

- Mass nouns: used in the singular to refer to an unspecific quantity of something: juice, flour,
air, garbage…

- Aggregate (danh từ tập hợp không đếm được) mass nouns: furniture, equipment…

c) Indefinite noun phrases

- English has an definite article a/an for singular and count indefinites.

- No article is used for simple mass ỏ plural indefinites -> bare mass nouns and bare plurals

e.g. I have an apple, __ strawberries and __ orange juice.

d) Definite and Indefinite NPs in general

 NPs with

-a definite article (definite descriptions) – the cup

-adnominal demonstrative – that cup

-possessive pronouns – her cup

-Saxon’s genitives – Fred’s cup

  proper names
 pronominal demonstratives
 personal pronouns

Indefinite noun phrases

 Simple indefinite NPs: singular count nouns with indefinite article; bare
(determinerless) mass nouns, bare plurals
 Count nouns with : no, many, (a)few, some, any, several, etc.
 Mass nouns with : three liters of, no, much, (a)little, some, any, etc.
 Indefinite pronouns: somebody/-one/-thing, no/-one/-thing, anybody/-one/-thing,
etc.

2. Quantification

Quantification: all types of determination including definite, indefinite and demonstrative.

Quantifiers: some, several, each, every, most, all, no, at, least one, etc.

a. Next week, there will be a big birthday party at John’s place.

b. Sue is going to invite nine kids.

c. Each kid is to get a present.

d. For some kids, John has not got anything yet.

e. No kid will be disappointed -> negation

3. Generic NPs

Generic noun phrases do not serve concrete reference but the expression of general conditions.

E.g.: Money does not buy happiness.

Catholic priests are not allowed to marry.

PART III: PRESUPPOSITIONS (TIỀN GIẢ ĐỊNH)

E.g. “My brother was ill yesterday”

=> In order for this utterance to make sense in a given CoU, the condition that the speaker has a
brother must be met.

=> The utterance presupposes that the speaker has a brother.

E.g. “The exam last week was not so difficult”

=> The utterance presuppose that there was an exam last week and that the the hearer already
knows what the exam is.

Definition

 Presuppositions of a sentence are those conditions pertaining to the CoU which it

must meet in order for an utterance of the sentence in that CoU.
 Presupposition are what a speaker or writer assumes that the receiver of the message
already knows.

Presuppositions- Classification

a) Factive presupposition (hàm thực)

e.g.

 Nobody realized that Kelly was ill.

 The utterance presupposes that Kelly was ill
 We regret(ed) telling him the truth.
 The utterance presupposes that we told him the truth
b) Non- factive presuppostion (hàm hư)

e.g.

 I imagined that Kelly was ill.

 The utterance presupposes that Kelly was not ill
 She pretended that he had understood what she meant.
  The utterance presupposes that he did not understand what she meant.
c) Lexical presupposition

e.g

 You’re late again.

 The utterance presupposes that you were late before.
 I’ve just got a driving license.
 The utterance presupposes that I did not have a driving license before.
d) Structural presupposition

e.g

 Where did you buy the bike ?

 The utterance presupposes that you bought a bike.
 How fast was the car going when it ran the red light?
 The utterance presupposes that the car ran the red light.
e) Counter- factual presupposition (phản hàm thực)

e.g.

 If I had enough money, I would buy that house.

 The utterance presupposes that the speaker doesn’t not have enough money.
 I wish I had studied medicine
 The utterance presupposes that the speaker did not study medicine.
f) Existential presupposition

e.g.

 They haven’t spoken to each other since their last week’s quarrel.
 The utterance presupposes that they had a quarrel last week.
 Children like all the pictures in this book very much.
 The utterance presupposes that there are/ exist a number of pictures in this book.

Presupposition Tests

a) The negation test

e.g. (a) I gave him my book.

(b) I didn’t give him my book.

=> Presupposition: I had a book.

=> (a) & (b) both presuppose that the speaker had a book.

=> Presupposition of an utterance remains the same under its NEGATION.

(a) I don’t like his car – (b) I like his car => Presuppostion: He owns a car.

b) The question test

e.g.

(1) Mary was late for the meeting again.

(2) Was Mary late for the meeting again ?

=> (1)-(2) both presuppose that Mary was once late for the meeting.

- Presupposition of an utterance remain the same under its INTERROGATION.

(1): John stopped smoking.

(2): Did John stop smoking?

(1)- (2): all presuppose that John once smoked cigarettes.

=> Muốn xác định presupposition đó đúng hay không thì chuyển nó vể nghi vấn để xác định

Presupposition & Truth condition

 The truth conditions of a sentence are the general conditions under which it is true,
provided that all presuppositions of the sentence are fulfilled.
- Presuppositions immediately bear on the issue if a sentence is true or false.
- Presuppositions are necessary conditions for the sentence to have a truth value in a given
CoU.

e.g. The dog has ruined my blue skirt.

- Presuppositions: There is a dog which is uniquely determined in the context. The speaker has
a blue skirt.

- Truth condition: The dog must have done something to the speaker’s blue skirt.

e.g.

 Sentence: Tom rose from the breakfast table.

 Negation: Tom did no rise from the breakfast table.
 Question: Did Tom rise from the breakfast table?
 PRACTICE

Identify the presupposition(s) of the following utterances

1. She is not happy about the chemistry course she’s taking.

 Presuppositions:
 There is the chemistry course.
 She’s taking it.

2. ‘Can you stop playing with your cat?’

 Presuppositions:
 You have a cat
 You are playing with him/her

3. ‘She was not aware that her son had an accident’

 Presuppositions:
 She has a son.
 And he had an accident.

4. ‘Tom might find the chocolate cake in the kitchen.’

 Presuppositions: There is a chocolate cake in the kichen.

5. ‘I got an excellent mark for my essay last time.’

 Presuppositions: The speaker wrote an essay.

6. ‘When did you give up teaching?’

 Presuppositions: You gave up teaching.

7. ‘If only you had taken his offer.’

 Presuppositions: You didn’t take his offer.

8. ‘He pretended to be pleased with the gift.’

 Presuppositions: He was not pleased with the gift.

9. ‘ I wish I had not booked the tickets.’

 Presuppositions:
 The speaker booked the tickets.
 And the hearer already knows that the tickets are.
 CHAPTER 5: CONTENTS

I. LOGICAL BASICS
II. LOGICAL PROPERTIES OF A SENTENCE
III. LOGICAL RELATIONS BETWEEN SENTENCES
IV. LOGICAL RELATIONS BETWEEN WORDS

I. Logical basics

1. Law of Contradiction

e.g. Mai is here and Mai is not here.

=> logically possible ????

=> không thể xảy ra bởi vì hoặc là “Mai ở đây” hoặc là “Mai không ở đây” chứ không thể tồn tại
2 ý cùng một lúc được

• Law of contradiction

The same attribute cannot at the same time belong and not belong to the same subject in the
same respect.

2. The Principle of Polarity

e.g. John can swim ( Presupposition)

 When I am sitting near the swimming pool, I see John swimming.

• Principle of Popularity

In a given CoU, with a given reading, a declarative sentence is either true or false.

- Neutral term for being true or false: truth value of a sentence

- A sentence has the truth value TRUE if it’s true; it has the truth value FALSE if it’s false.

- Truth conditions of a sentence: the circumstances under which a sentence is true in a CoU.

3. Negation

e.g.

(a) John knows the solution.

(b) John doesn’t know the solution.

 If (a) is True, (b) is False OR (a) is False, (b) is True.

 Negation reverses the truth value of a sentence.

If A is a declarative sentence that is not negated itself, its negation is a sentence that

(i) is true whenever A is false and false whenever A is true and

(ii) is formed out of A by a standard grammatical procedure such as

- adding NOT to the verb itself if it is an auxiliary (e.g. was not, cannot)

- adding the auxiliary DO to the verb phrase and NOT to the auxiliary (e.g. did not know)

- adding NOT to a quantifier expression (e.g. not every)

- substituting a positive expression by its negative counterpart (e.g. some by no)

II. Logical properties of a sentence

e.g.

(a) John is from Ireland. => can be T or can be F

(b) The sun rises in he East.  always T

(c) The sun rises in the West. => always F

• A sentence (in a given reading) is contingent iff (if and only if) it is true in some CoU
and false in others.

• A sentence (in a given reading) is logically true iff (if and only if) it is true in all CoUs.

• A sentence (in a given reading) is logically false iff (if and only if) it is false in all CoUs.

- logically true sentences = tautology

- logically false sentences = contradiction

Practice

What are the logical properties of the following sentences

1. John’s nine-year-old brother is a boy.

 Logically true (brother thì chắc chắn là male => a boy)

2. John’s brother is nine years old.

  Contingent (John’s brother cần phải đưa vào năm cụ thể thì mới logically true, còn ở đây
không có nên nine years old vẫn có thể thay đổi nên tùy năm số tuổi vẫn thay đổi)

3. Cats are not vegetables.

 Logically true ( Cats are animals not plants, not vegetables)

4. My watch is slow.

 Contingent ( can be slow or can be quick)

5. My watch is a device for telling the time

 Logically true

6. That girl is her own mother’s mother.

 Logically false

7. That boy is his own father’s son

 Logically true

8. Alice is Ken’s sister.

 Contingent (should show the specific situation)

III. Logical relations between sentences

1. Logical entailment (A=>B)

e.g.

(A) It is a duck.

(B) It is a bird

 If (A) is TRUE, (B) is FALSE.

 The relation between (A) and (B): logical entailment.

Definition

A logically entails B/ B logically follows from A/ A=> B

 If A is TRUE, B is TRUE.

=> If B is TRUE, A can be TRUE or FALSE

 a) General entailment (logical entailment)

A logically entails B/ B logically follows from A/ A=> B

 If A is TRUE, B is TRUE.

=> If B is TRUE, A can be TRUE or FALSE

b) Unilateral entailment (logical entailment)

(A) It’s raining heavily
(B) It’s raining

=> (A) logically entails (B)

( Trời mưa lớn thì chắc chắn là trời đang mưa, nhưng trời đang mưa thì chưa chắc là trời mưa
lớn)

=> (A) unilaterally enails (B)

c) Mutual entailment (logical equivalence)

(A) Today is Monday.

(B) Tomorrow is Tuesday.

=> (A) logically entails (B)

=> (B) logically entails (A)

 (A) & (B): mutual entailment.

d) Entailment reversal
(A) It’s raining heavily
(B) It’s raining

=> (A) logically entails (B)

( not- A) It is not raining heavily

( not- B) It is not raining

=> (not- B) logically entails (not- A)

 When we negate both sides, we can reverse an entailment.

A => B iff not- B=> not- A
e) Transitivity of the entailment relation (Tính chất bắt cầu- Tính tịnh tiến)
(A) Donald Duck is a duck.
(B) Donald Duck is a bird.
(C) Donald Duck is an animal.

=> If (A) is T, (B) is T & if (B) is T, (C) is T. Hence, if (A) is T, (C) is T.

 If A => B and B => C, then A => C.

Practice

Use => to show one-way entailment and  to show two-way entailment in each of the
following pairs of sentences.

1. (a) John is a bachelor.

 (b) John is a man.

(a) => (b)

2. (a) I’m wearing black footwear.

(b) I’m wearing black boots.

(b) => (a)

3. (a) My father owns this car.

(b) This car belongs to my father.

(a)  (b)

4. (a) I gave Erin the summons.

(b) I gave the summons to Erin.

(a)  (b)

5. (a) Mary owns 3 houses.

(b) Mary owns a house.

(a) => (b)

6. (a) John is the parent of James.

(b) James is the child of John.

(a)  (b)

7. (a) Jenny and Kevin are twins.

(b) Kevin and Jenny are twins.

(a)  (b)

8. (a) The bear killed the wolf.

(b) The wolf was killed by the bear.

(a)  (b)

9. (a) Mary is married.

(b) Alvin is Mary’s husband.

 (b) => (a)

10. (a) The wold killed the bear.

(b) The bear is dead.

(a) => (b)

2. Logical equivalence (mutual entailment) A  B

e.g.

(a) He is the father of my mother.

(b) He is my maternal grandfather.

=> If (a) is T, (b) is T & (a) is F, (b) is F

A and B are logically equivalent.

A  B iff

Necessarily, A and B have equal true values.

3. Logical contrariety

e.g.

(a) It’s cold.

(b) It’s hot.

=> If (a) is T, (b) is F

=> logical contrariety (logical exclusion, incompatibility)

=> A: F -> B: T/F (có trường hợp khác xen giữa)

4. Logical contradiction

e.g.

(a) It’s late.

(b) It’s not late.

=> If (a) is T, (b) is F and IF (a) is F, (b) is T

=> (a) & (b): logical contradiction (một trong 2 sẽ đúng và không có trường hợp khác)
Synthetic (S): có thể đúng hoặc sai

Analytic (A): hiển nhiên đúng

Contradictory (C ): luôn luôn sai

A-B Logical relation

T => T A => B (unilaterally) Logical entailment
T => T AB Logical equivalence
F => F
T => F A => not -B Logical contrariety
F => T/ F ( có thể có trường hợp xen
giữa)
T => F A => not-B Logical contradiction
F => T Not- A => B (hoặc đúng, hoặc sai; không
có trường hợp khác)

Practice

What is the logical relation between these sentences?

1.(a) Tom is married to Mary. Logical equivalence

(b) Mary is married to Tom.
2.(a) John is the father of Neil. Logical contrariety
(b) Neil is the father of John.
3.(a) Dick is a bachelor. Logical entailment (a=>b)
(b) Dick is a man.
4.(a) Gina plays tennis. Logical entailment (a=>b)
 (b) Someone/Gina plays sports.
5.(a) Kevin boilded an egg. Logical entailment (a=>b)
(b) Kevin cooked an egg.
6.(a) Jim is fatter than Ed and Ed is fatter than Bob. Logical entailment (a=>b)
(b) Jim is fatter than Bob.
7.(a) Some of the students came to my party. Logical equivalence
(b) Not all of the students came to my party.
8.(a) The fly was over the wall. Logical equivalence
(b) The wall was under the fly.
9.(a) Jane is a spinster. Logical contradiction
(b) Jane is married.
10.(a) The beetle is alive. Logical contradiction
(b) The beetle is dead.

IV. SENTENTIAL LOGIC

1. Negation ( A- not A)

T-> F, F-> T

A: T – not A: T

2. Conjunction (A and B)

A B A and B
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F F
=> một trong A hoặc B là F thì A and B sẽ F

3. Disjunction (A or B)

A B A or B
T T T
T F T
F T T
F F F
=> một trong A hoặc B là T thì A or B sẽ T

4. Subjunction (if A then B)

A B If A then B
T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T

V. LOGICAL RELATIONS BETWEEN WORDS

1. Logical equivalence

Two predicate terms (in given readings) are logically equivalent iff they necessarily yield the
same truth value for the same arguments.

E.g.: A x is a female adult B x is a woman

2. Logical subordination

A predicate term A is a logical subordinate (specific) of B (and B a logical superordinate

(general) of A) iff B is true of some arguments whenever A is true of them.

e.g. A x is a duck (subordinate: specific) => B x is a bird (superordinate: general)

3. Logical incompatability

Two predicate terms A and B are logically incompatible if they cannot both be true of the same
arguments.
 4. Logical complementarity

Two predicate terms A and B are logically complementary if they necessarily have opposite truth
values for all arguments.

e.g. siblings => sisters or brothers

-> chỉ có 2 sự lựa chọn ( hoặc cái này, hoặc là cái kia)

=> nếu phủ định cái đầu tiên thì sẽ là cái thứ 2

=> e.g. siblings (anh, chị em)

- sisters: T => brothers: F

- sisters: F => brothers: T

A–B Logical relation Logical relations

(Sentences) (words)
T => T A => B (unilaterally) Logical entailment Subordination
T => T AB Logical equivalence Equivalence
F => F
T => F A => not -B Logical contrariety Incompatibility
F => T/ F ( có thể có trường hợp xen
giữa)
T => F A => not-B Logical contradiction Complementarity
F => T Not- A => B (hoặc đúng, hoặc sai; không có
trường hợp khác)
 PRACTICE

Which logical relation applied to the following pair of words?

a. Book, textbook Logical subordination (textbook là loại nhỏ thuộc book)

b. Textbook, dictionary Logical incompatibility (cả 2 đều là loại sách thuộc book)
c. Free, occupied Logical complementarity (hoặc free hoặc occupied not both)
d. Young, old Logical incompatibility (trẻ thì chắc chắn không già nhưng
không già thì chưa chắc trẻ có thể trung niên..)
e. Bachelor, unmarried man Logical equivalence

REVIEW

Task 1: T or F?

1. The same attribute cannot at the time both belong to and not belong to the same subject in the
same respect. T

2. In a given CoU, with a given reading, a declarative sentence is either true, false or both. F

3. Negation reverses the truth value of a sentence. T

4. A sentence (in a given reading) is contingent iff it is true in all CoUs some CoUs and false in
others . F

5. A sentence ( in a given reading) is logically true iff it is true in some all CoUs. F

6. A sentence ( in a given reading) is logically false iff it is false in all CoUs. T

7. The sentence “It’s raining” logically entails the sentence “It’s raining heavily”. F

8. The sentence “It isn’t raining” logically entails sentence “It isn’t raining heavily”. T

9. The relationship between 2 sentences “Today is Monday.” and “Tomorrow is Tuesday.” is

mutual entailment. T

10. We swap the 2 sides of an entailment if we negate both sides. T

11. The 2 sentences “The bottle is half empty.” and “ The bottle is half full.” are logically
equivalent. T

12. The relation between 2 sentences “The room is large.” and “ The room is small.” is logical
contradiction logical incompatibility. F
13. The 2 sentences “ It’s late.” And “ It’s not late.” are logical contradictories. T

14. The 2 sentences “Everyone will win.” and “Someone will lose” are logical contradictories. T

15. The logical relation between mango- fruit is entailment subordination. F

16. The relation between 2 predicate terms be a spinster- be married is logical incompatibility
logical complementarity. F

17. Two predicate expressions black – white is logically incompatible. T

REVIEW (continued)

4. The sentence “Two times seven equals fourteen” is logically true.

5. The sentence “Duck are plants” is locally false.

6. The sentence “There is a cat in the garden” is contingent.

7. According to Law of Contradiction, the same attribute cannot at the time both belong and not
belong to the same subject in the same respect.

8. According to the Principle of Polarity, in a given CoU, with a given reading, a declarative
sentene is either true or false.

9. A logically entails B iff: necessarily, if A is True, B is True.

10. The logical relation between 2 sentences “He bought a red bike” and “ He bought a bike” is
logical entailment.

11. A and B are logically equivalence iff: necessarily, A and B have equal truth values.

12. The 2 sentences “He’s the father of my mother” and “He’s my maternal grandfather” are
logical equivalent.

13. A is logically contrary to B iff: necessarily, A and B are not both true.

14. The logical relation between 2 sentences “It’s cold” and “It’s hot” is logical contrariety.

15. The 2 sentences “He’s dead” and “He’s alive” are logical contradictories.

16. Two predicate terms (in given readings) are logically equivalent iff they necessary yield the
same truth value for the same arguments.
17. A predicate term A is a logical subordinate of B iff B is true of some arguments whenever A
is true of them.

18. Two predicate term A and B are logically incompatible if they cannot both be true of the
same argument.

19. Two predicate terms A and B are logically complementary if they necessarily have opposite
truth values for all arguments.

QUIZ 6

Look at the following and choose the statement of entailment as correct (C) and incorrect (I)

I saw a boy entails I saw a person.

A. C B. I

The correct answer is A

Look at the following and choose the statement of entailment as correct (C) and incorrect (I)

John boiled an egg entails John cooked an egg.

A. C B. I

The correct answer is A

Look at the following and choose the statement of entailment as correct (C) and incorrect (I)

His speech disturbed me entails His speech deeply disturbed me.

A. C B. I

The correct answer is B

Look at the following and choose the statement of entailment as correct (C) and incorrect (I)

John stole a car entails John took a car.

A. C B. I

The correct answer is A

Look at the following and choose the statement of entailment as correct (C) and incorrect (I)

John cooked an egg entails John boiled an egg.

A. C B. I

The correct answer is B

True or False

The following pair of antonyms is gradable man-woman

A. True [Link]

The correct answer is B

The following pair of antonyms is gradable beautiful- ugly

A. True [Link]

The correct answer is A

The following pair of antonyms is gradable love- hate

A. True [Link]

The correct answer is A

The following pair of antonyms is complementary good-bad

A. True [Link]

The correct answer is B

The following pair of antonyms is complementary pass- fail

A. True [Link]

The correct answer is A

The following pair of antonyms is converses better than- worse than

A. True [Link]

The correct answer is A

The following pair of antonyms is gradable legal- illegal

A. True [Link]

The correct answer is B

The following pair of antonyms is gradable hot- cold

A. True [Link]

The correct answer is A

The following pair of antonyms is complemetary below- above

A. True [Link]

The correct answer is B

The following pair of antonyms is converses grandparent- grandchild

A. True [Link]

The correct answer is A

CHAPTER 6: MEANING RELATIONS

I. SYNONYMY
II. HYPONYMY
III. OPPOSITIONS
IV. LEXICAL FIELDS

I. Synonymy (Equivalence)

Two expressions are synonymous iff they have the same meaning.

A relation in which various words have different (written & sound) forms but have the same
or nearly the same meaning

E.g. hide – conceal

Kind – type – sort

True (Total) Synonymy

All meaning variants for two lexemes and all meaning dimensions (descriptive, social,
expressive): same

 RARE and TRIVIAL

 Đa số Synonyms đều là PARTIAL hiếm có TOTAL
 E.g. CD: Compact dics – total synonymy

e.g. glasses and spectacles

 She wears glasses/ spectacles

 But: She drank 2 glasses (NOT 2 spectacles)

e.g. fat & overweight

 Fat: mang nghĩa negative

 Overweight: mang nghĩa positive
 Partial synonymy

II. Hyponymy (Subordination)

E.g. duck- bird

Beer- beverage

Car- vehicle
 - An expression A is a hyponym of and expression B – and B a hyperonym of A iff

(i) The meaning of B is a proper part of the meaning of A and

(ii) A is a logical subordinate of B, i.e. A entails B.

- A relation in which the referent of a word is totally included in the referent of another word

HYPERONYM HYPONYM
(GENERAL) (SPECIFIC)
1 books novels
2 reptile crocodile
3 flower tulip
4 vegetables carrots

 Regular compounds are generally hyponymous to their heads, not to their modifiers.
III. Oppositions (Incompatibility)

Old: (i) new (ii) young

Buy: (i) sell (ii) steal, borrow rent

Aunt: (i) uncle (ii) nephew, niece

1. Antonymy (có thang đo- có mức độ ở giữa) - level

- Two expressions are antonyms iff they express two opposite out of a range of possibilities.
- Their meanings can be illustrated by means of a scale of age, size, diameter, quality,…
which is open to both sides.

E.g. old/ young, old/ new, big/ small, thick/thin,…

e.g. hot - warm - cold

 Adjective antonyms are “gradable”

 Allow for the full range of adjectival forms & constructions: comparative, superlative,
equative, modification (very, enough, too).
 In many cases, the antonym of an adjective is formed by prefix un-/im-/in-/ir-/il-,
pleasant/ unpleasant, likely/ unlikely, adequate/inadequate.
 Antonymous pairs of nouns: war/ peace, love/ hate.
 Antonymous pairs of verbs: love/ hate, encourage/ discourage.
 Antonymous pairs of adverbs: always/ never, often/seldom, everywhere/ nowhere.
2. Directional opposition
Two expressions are directional opposite iff (if and only if) they express opposite cases with
respect to a common axis.

e.g. forwards- backwards

- If A is a parent of B, then B is a child of A

If A is bigger than B, then B is smaller than A

- Directional opposites: related to opposite directions on a common axis:

 Vertical axis: top/bottom, high/low, up/down, rise/fall, ascend/ descend.
 Horizontal axis: forwards/ backwards, advance/ retreat.
 Time axis: before/ after, past/ future, since/until, yesterday/tomorrow, last/next,
precede/ follow.
 Pairs of accomplishment verbs or verbs of change with opposite resultant conditions:
tie/ untie, pack/ unpack, get on/ get off, arrive/ depart.
3. Complementary opposition (hoặc này, hoặc kia not both)

Two expressions are complementaries iff they express an either-or alternative in some domain.

E.g.: female / male1

free / occupied

4. Heteronymy (chất liệu)

Expressions are heteronyms iff they denote alternatives in some domain of more than two
possibilities.

E.g.: COLORS: red, blue, yellow, green, etc.

- Heteronyms: members off a set off different expressions which have a common hyperonym.

5. Converses ( Cùng mqh nhưng khác vai trò)

Two expressions are converses of each other iff they express the same relation between two
entities, but with reversed roles.

E.g.: buy / sell

wife / husband

bigger / smaller

employer / employee

 Verbs: buy- sell, give-receive, lend-borrow, import- export, own-belong to, etc.
 Nouns: employer- employee, parent- child/ offspring, teacher- pupil, doctor- patient.
 Comparative adjectives/ adverbs: thinner- fatter, faster- more slowly.

Meaning relation Logical relation of words

Synonymy Equivalence
Hyponymy Subordination

Oppositions Functions, Definitions

Antonymy Level
 Có thang đo, trường hợp xen giữa
e.g. hot – cold
-> giữa hot và cold có thể có warm, cool,…
Complemetary Hoặc cái này hoặc cái kia
e.g. female – male
Converse Hai thực thể đóng vai trò khác nhau
e.g. buy – sell, wife – husband, hotter -
colder,…
Directional Opposite cases
e.g. above – below, …
Heteronymy Nhiều thực thể chức năng khác nhau
e.g. animals (dog, cat, bird, tiger, lion,..)
plants (tulip, daisy, cactus,…)
 vehicles (bike, car, truck, submarine,..)

IV. Lexical field

- Most lexical items form groups with other lexemes.

 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,…, Sunday.

{Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,…}

{fat, thin}: lexical fields

- A lexical field is a group of lexemes that fulfils the following conditions:

 the lexemes are of the same word class
 their meanings have something in common
 they are interrelated by precisely definable meaning relations
 the group is complete in terms of the relevant meaning relations

e.g. animal, cow, pig, dog, cat, husky

=> form a lexical field.

=> their underlying structure is a hierarchy with 2 or more levels.

1. Taxomony

Mối quan hệ: cùng một loài chó những có nhiều chủng loại khác nhau

A set of expressions is a taxonomy iff:

(i) They form a conceptual hierarchy in terms of hyponymy

(ii) Hyponyms denote sub-kinds of what their hyperonyms denote.

2. Meronymy

Mối quan hệ giữa tổng thể với bộ phận

- Many objects in the world are conceived as a whole consisting of different parts.
e.g. Human body: legs, arms, head,….

* A set of expressions forms a mereology iff they form a hierarchy in terms of holonyms and
meronyms, where A is a meronym of B, and B a holonym of A, iff A denotes constitutive parts of
the kind of things that B denotes.
 REVIEW

Synonymy

Hyponymy: hyperonym, hyponym.

Oppositions: antonyms, directional opposites, complementary opposites, heteronyms,

converses.

Lexical fields: taxomony, mereology, meronymy

PRACTICE

I. State the type of opposition for these pairs of words:

Good- bad Antonymy Enter- leave Directional opposition

Pass- fail Complementary opposition Better than- worse Converses
than
Deciduous- evergreen Complementary opposition Easy- difficult Antonymy
Expensive- cheap Antonymy Hot- cold Antonymy
Parent- offspring converses Legal- illegal Complementary
opposition
Beautiful- ugly Antonymy Asleep- awake Complementary
opposition
False- true Complementary opposition Rude- polite Antonymy
Lessor- lessee converses Husband- wife converses
Dog- cat- pig heteronymy Monday- Tuesday Heteronymy
Dead- alive Complementary opposition