Students: General Resources
Dictionary
The dictionary gives brief definitions of about 300 technical notions used in Understanding Semantics, including all the ‘keywords’ listed in the resource pages of the respective chapters. The definitions reflect the usage in Understanding Semantics; there may be other usages by other authors, although the usage here is mostly mainstream.
The glossary does not indicate where in the book the notions are discussed. Please consult the index of the book.
Accommodation. Adapting the context to the needs of successful communication by adding certain presuppositions.
Accomplishment term. An aspectual class of verbs or VPs. Accomplishment terms describe a situation as a process or activity that leads to a specific result. Examples: write a letter, drive to the station.
Achievement term. An aspectual class of verbs or VPs. Achievement terms describe a situation as the culmination of a process or activity. Examples: arrive [at some place], finish. The preceding process or activity is not referred to, but presupposed. Achievement terms are a subclass of simple change terms.
Active voice. A grammatical use of a verb, usually the normal use; an agent is realized as subject, a theme or patient as direct object; the verb is in its active form. Example: I wrote a letter [active] vs a letter was written [passive].
Activity term. An aspectual class of verbs or VPs. Activity terms describe a situation as a constant uniform kind of action by an agent. Examples: walk, work. The concept does not include a culmination.
Adjunct. The specification of an optional argument of a predicate expression, usually a PP or similar expression. Example: the specification of the place where an action takes place, or the specification of an instrument as in: she wrote the letter in the attic; she wrote the letter with a pencil.
Affix. A type of morpheme: a meaningful part of a word that is attached to a stem. Prefixes precede the stem, suffixes follow it. Affixes play a role in inflection – e.g. the English verb suffix -ed used to create the past tense form – and in the derivation of words in word formation, e.g. the English prefix un- used with adjectives to form opposites.
Affordance. Property of an object to lend itself to a certain action; e.g. the property of books that they are for reading, the property of chairs that they can be sat on.
Agent. A thematic role. The agent performs the action expressed and controls the event. If a verb has an agent argument, it will be specified by the subject of the sentence (if the verb is used in the active voice). Examples: the role specified by the subject of work, say, hit or put.
Agreement. Grammatical relationship between two elements of a sentence or a complex phrase; one element requires a particular form of the other, or both have to have corresponding forms. Example: in English, the form of the verb in the present tense depends on the grammatical person and number of the subject: I am, you are, she is, the book is, the books are.
Aktionsart (German, plural Aktionsarten) An older term for aspectual class, in particular applied in Slavic linguistics.
Alienability. A notion used for the distinction of types of possession. Alienable possession is possession of things that the possessor may or may happen to possess. Inalienable possession is a fixed relation between the possessor and the possessed, such as the ‘possession’ of one’s own body parts or one’s kinship. Semantically, inalienable possessive constructions have a relational or functional noun for the possessed, while alienable possessive constructions have a non-relational noun denoting the possessed and call for a contextual determination of the relation between possessor and possessed.
Alternation. Variation in the argument structure and grammatical use of a verb. Alternations include voices such as passive and a large number of other variations such as she gave me the keys vs she gave the keys to me. For types of alternation see causative, anticausative, passive, antipassive; also Levin classes.
Ambiguity. An expression or utterance is ambiguous if it allows for more than one interpretation. Seehomonymy, polysemy, compositional ambiguity and contextual ambiguity.
Anaphor. In the simplest case, an NP that refers to something already referred to in the preceding text by another NP, the antecedent. Example: My cousin [antecedent] will visit me over the weekend. She [anaphor] has never been here before.
Antecedent. See anaphor.
Anticausative. A verb alternation that removes a causative agent from the argument structure. Example: the door opened [anticausative] vs she opened the door.
Antipassive. A verb alternation that demotes the direct object of a transitive verb, usually by omission. Example: intransitive use of transitive verbs such as eat, or read.
Antonymy. A meaning relation: two expressions are antonyms if they denote two opposite extremes out of a range of possibilities. Antonyms are logically incompatible. Examples: big and small, love and hate.
Arbitrariness. The fact that there is no systematic relation between the form of a linguistic expression and its meaning.
Argument. An entity that is subject to a predication. An argument is either specified by a separate argument term, or the argument is the referent of the phrase used for predicating. In the sentence The cat is angry, the subject specifies the argument for the predication ‘is angry’, i.e. the cat referred to. The referent of the subject (i.e. the cat) is also the referential argument of the predication ‘is a cat’.
Argument compound. A type of nominal compound: the head is a relational or functional noun and the modifier specifies an argument of the head. Examples: word meaning [= ‘meaning of a word’], oil price, air temperature, chicken leg.
Argument frame. A frame representing a verb with its arguments in terms of thematic roles. The central node of the frame represents the referential argument of the verb; each thematic role is an attribute of the central node; the values of the role attributes represent the non-referential arguments of the verb.
Argument structure. The set of arguments of a predicate expression as specified in its lexical entry. The argument structure also specifies the role of each argument.
Arity. Number of arguments of a predicate term.
Article. A determiner that serves the expression of definiteness or indefiniteness.
Associative plural. A variant of plural referring to an individual plus others belonging to them, rather than to multiple cases of the same kind (dogs); example: we referring to the speaker plus others.
Aspect. A grammatical category of verbs and verb phrases, determining the way in which the situation referred to is related to the time referred to.
Aspectual class. A more modern term for Vendler class: a class of verbs or VPs with a particular situation structure. See activity terms, process terms, achievement terms, accomplishment terms, simple change terms, simple occurrence terms, semelfactive terms, state terms.
Atelic. See telicity.
Attribute. (1) In grammar: an addition to a word or phrase giving more information, e.g. adjectives or relative clauses added to a noun.
(2) In frame theory: the links that make up a frame, i.e. functional concepts that assign a value to the referent or to the value of another attribute. Frames represent the information about their referents in terms of the attributes of the referent and the values they take. Attributes assign four types of values: correlates (e.g. origin, owner, location), constitutive parts (head, bottom, tip), properties (age, size, price, meaning) and related events or activities (birth, purpose).
Attributive. A use of predicate expressions: the predicate expression is grammatically attached to a referring expression and predicates about the referent of the latter. Example: in the red balloon, the adjective red is used attributively; it predicates about the balloon referred to with the noun it is attached to.
Basic category. A cognitive category at the basic level of categorization.
Basic colour term. A colour term that is not a subordinate of other colour terms; e.g. red, green, blue, brown and black are basic colour terms, while olive (a subordinate of green) is not.
Basic level. A medium level of specificity of categorization, primarily in taxonomies. Concepts for basic level categories (basic categories) are rich enough to provide concrete properties in terms of appearance, composition and interaction with the members of the category; on the other hand they are more general and abstract than categories at lower, more specific levels. For example, trumpet is a basic level category while brass is more general and b-flat trumpet is a category at a lower than basic level. The basic level of categorization is privileged in cognition and communication.
BFS. Short for Binary Feature Semantics.
Bottom-up. A process is bottom-up if it proceeds from smaller units to larger units, or from the basic to the complex. Opposite: top-down.
Bound variable. In predicate logic, the occurrence of a variable is bound if it is within the scope of a quantifier with that variable. For example, in the formula ‘∃x (red(x) ∧ p(x,y)) the occurrences of ‘x’ are in the scope of ‘∃x’ and therefore bound, while the occurrence of ‘y’ is free.
Case. A grammatical category of nouns and NPs that serves the linking of argument terms and the marking of grammatical functions such as subject and object. Typical case systems include nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, instrumental, etc. In case-marking languages, arguments of a verb, adjective, preposition or relational noun receive specific case marking such as nominative for an agent, accusative for a theme or patient, dative for a recipient, etc.
Categorization. The mental process of distinguishing objects and assigning them to certain categories. For theoretical models of categorization see the NSC model, prototype theory and frames.
Category (cognitive). A class of objects or cases distinguished by certain properties. The class of all cases to which a concept applies forms a category. Denotations of content words are categories. For example, the category dog is the denotation of the word dog/the class of all dogs/the class of all things to which the concept ›dog‹ applies. Things that belong to a category are exemplars, or members of the category. See also semantic category, cultural category.
Category (grammatical). A feature of a word or phrase that is grammatically relevant, such as person, number, gender, case, voice, aspect and tense.
Category (syntactic). A set of expressions of a language that share combinatorial properties. For example, the set of NPs (noun phrases) forms a syntactic category because NPs share the properties that they can be complements of verbs in the sentence – the child smiled – or can combine with prepositions to form a PP (prepositional phrase) – to the child.
Causative verb. Verb denoting the causation of an event by an agent. Examples: transitive open, kill, teach, fell.
Causative. A verbal voice that adds a causative agent to the argument structure. Example: she made me wait for days [causative] vs I waited for days.
Coercion. Process of forcing a different interpretation of a word or a form in order to obtain an acceptable interpretation in a given context.
Cognitive semantics. Any orientation of semantics that considers linguistic meanings as cognitive representations and applies notions of cognitive psychology to linguistic meanings.
Collective predication. A collective predication applies to a complex argument as a whole. Example: the children met at Sally’s place [= all of them, collectively in one meeting event]. Contrast: distributive predication.
Combinatorial property. Same as syntagmatic property.
Communicative meaning. A level of meaning: the meaning of an utterance as a communicative act in a given social setting.
Comparative. A construction, or a form of an adjective, which serves the comparison of two things with respect to the property expressed by the adjectives, e.g. x is better than y; x is more interesting than y.
Complement. An expression (NP, PP or clause) that specifies the argument of a predication expressed by another expression. For example, subject and object are complements of a transitive verb; a possessor specification may be a complement of a relational noun, as in brother of the teacher. Often complements are distinguished from adjuncts: complements are obligatory specifications of arguments that belong to the argument structure of the predicate expression.
Complementarity. A meaning relation to be distinguished from logical complementarity: complementaries are logically complementary, but not necessarily vice versa. Two expressions are complementary opposites if they denote an either-or alternative in some domain. Examples: woman and man, free and occupied, possible and impossible.
Composition. Process of deriving the meaning of complex expressions according to the Principle of Compositionality.
Composition rule. A rule of semantic composition that states how the meaning of a complex expression derives from the meanings of its component expressions, according to the Principle of Compositionaliy. For example, the composition rule for plain adjective-noun combinations such as green chair states that its meaning is the and-conjunction of the meanings of green and chair.
Compositional ambiguity. A composite expression is compositionally ambiguous if it allows for more than one compositional interpretation.
Compositional word meaning. The meaning of complex words that derives from the meanings of the word components by rules of composition. For example, the meaning of drinkable derives compositionally from the meaning of the verb drink and the suffix -able; the meaning of regular compounds derives compositionally from the meaning of their components.
Compound. The result of compounding two words into one. For the most frequent type of compounds, one component is the head (determining the grammatical properties of the compound) and the other the modifier (modifying the meaning of the head, usually by adding information). Examples: drugstore, workload, word form. A regular compound is a compound whose meaning can be derived by a general rule, e.g. teapot, but not butterfly. For types of compounds see argument compound, frame compound, synthetic compound, value compound.
Compounding. Forming a word by joining two stems. Examples: tea N + pot N > teapot N, bitter A + sweet A > bittersweet. The result is called a compound.
Concatenation. An operation on expressions by which two expressions A and B are put one after the other to form one new expression, e.g. concatenating green and chair to form green chair.
Concept. A cognitive representation of an individual object or a category.
Conceptual Semantics. An approach to lexical decomposition and composition developed by Ray Jackendoff. In Conceptual Semantics, meanings are decomposed by means of logical formulae containing abstract conceptual components such as cause, become, go, etc.
Conjunction. An ‘and’-connection of two sentences or phrases. In sentential and predicate logic a logical connective written ‘∧’. ‘(A∧B)’ is true iff A and B are both true.
Connotation. Conventionalized associations attached to the denotations of certain content words.
Constituent. A structural part of a complex expression. For example, the subject NP and the VP are constituents of a sentence; the head noun and determiner are constituents of an NP such as the dog.
Content word. A noun, verb, adjective or adverb. Content words serve reference, predication or modification. Content words form large open classes of words.
Contextual ambiguity. Ambiguity due to the possibility of meaning shifts applied in certain contexts. Contextual ambiguity arises at the level of utterance meaning.
Contingency. A logical property: a sentence is contingent if and only if it is true in some contexts and false in others. Non-contingent sentences are either logically true or logically false.
Contradiction. See logical contradiction.
Contrariety. See logical contrariety.
Contrastive property. Also distinctive property. A structuralist notion: a property that distinguishes members of a paradigm from each other, e.g. the voice feature of phonemes.
Converses. Two expressions in a certain meaning relation: two expressions are converses of each other if and only if they express the same relation between two entities, but with reversed roles. Examples: longer and shorter, buy and sell, above and below, parent and child.
Core argument. An argument of a verb that counts for its arity; a core argument appears as subject, direct object or indirect object. Opposite: oblique argument.
Coreferent. Two NPs are coreferent in a given CoU if they refer to the same referent.
CoU. See context of utterance.
Count noun. A count provides a criterion of individuation, for what constitutes a single individual referent. Count nouns can be used in the singular and in the plural. Example: cat, potato, mistake. Simultaneous reference to multiple referents requires the plural. Contrast: mass nouns.
Cue validity. The degree to which a feature (condition, property) is a cue to membership in a category. For example, the property of having feathers has high cue validity for the category bird because almost all birds have feathers and almost all non-birds don’t. The property of having feet has low cue validity for the category BIRD since many other categories of animals and objects have feet, too.
Culmination. Possible component of the situation structure of accomplishment and simple change verbs: the point at which a process or activity is completed by reaching a certain result.
Cultural category. A category defined by a cultural concept.
Cultural concept. A concept for a category of cases that incorporates shared cultural knowledge. Cultural concepts are usually richer than the corresponding semantic concepts. For example, the cultural concept for dogs may contain the information that dog owners have to pay a dog tax, while this would not be part of the semantic concept ›dog‹ that constitutes the meaning of the word dog.
Cultural knowledge. Knowledge about cultural categories that is shared in a cultural community. Cultural knowledge is richer and less stable than semantic knowledge.
Cultural knowledge approach. Approach to lexical meaning that equates lexical meanings with the corresponding cultural concepts. According to this approach, there is no difference between the meaning of dog and the cultural concept for dogs.
Declarative. A sentence type standardly used for the communication of statements. In English, declarative sentences have the verb in the second position. Example: I’m tired [declarative] as opposed to Are you tired? [interrogative] or Go to sleep! [imperative].
Decomposition. The analysis of meaning in terms of meaning components and the way in which they are combined to form the meaning as a whole.
Definite. An NP is definite if it is used for unique reference. Depending on the language, definite NPs may or may not be marked for definiteness. In English, definite NPs include NPs with a definite article the, a demonstrative determiner, a possessive determiner or a Saxon genitive; they also include proper names and personal pronouns. A definite NP presupposes that its referent is uniquely determined in the given CoU.
Deixis. Use of particular expressions for reference to immediate elements of the CoU, such as the speaker, the addressee, the time and the location of the utterance.
Demonstratives. Expressions such as this, here or so whose reference is deictically determined by relating to the location of the speaker and/or addressee. Proximal demonstratives refer to something close to the speaker (this, here); medial demonstratives refer to something either close to the addressee or at a medium distance from the speaker; distal demonstratives refer to something far from the speaker.
Denotation. The denotation of a content word is the category, or set, of all its potential referents.
Derivation. Formation of one word from another by adding an affix. Examples: wrap V > un-wrap V; large A > en-large V > enlarge-ment N.
Descriptive meaning. A dimension of expression meaning. 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. 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. (Alternative terms: propositional meaning, truth-conditional meaning.)
Determination. The general way in which an NP is used for reference, e.g. definite or indefinite, generic or quantificational.
Determiner. A functional element that forms a NP with a noun and serves determination. English determiners include the definite and indefinite article, adnominal demonstratives (this, that), adnominal possessive pronouns (my, etc.) and quantificational determiners (every, all, each). Determiners are function words.
Deverbal. In word formation: derived from a verb. For example, song and singer are deverbal nouns, drinkable is a deverbal adjective and un-do a deverbal verb.
Diathesis. A verb alternation accomplished by grammatical means, such as active, passive, antipassive, causative or anticausative. Diatheses affect the argument structure and the linking of a verb.
Differentiation. Differentiation adds content to a given concept.
Dimensions of meaning. Independent parts of the meaning of linguistic expressions and utterances: descriptive meaning, social meaning, expressive meaning, meaning of sentence type.
Directional opposition. A meaning relation: two expressions are directional opposites if they denote opposite cases with respect to a common axis. Directional opposites are logically incompatible. Examples: after and before, left and right, wrap and unwrap, give and take.
Disambiguation. Elimination of multiple interpretations until only one is left.
Discourse roles. Speaker or addressee(s).
Disjunction. An ‘and/or’-connection of two sentences or phrases. In sentential and predicate logic a logical connective written ‘∨’. ‘(A∨B)’ is true iff A or B or both are true.
Distal. See demonstratives.
Distinguisher. A binary semantic feature that is linguistically motivated, but neither primitive nor general; distinguishers capture complex semantic content, such as [+horse].
Distributive predication. A distributive predication applies to all parts of a plural (or mass) NP referent. Example: the children were disappointed (= every single one, as many disappointments as children). Contrast: collective predication.
Ditransitive verb. Verb with a subject, a direct object and an indirect object, e.g. give, show, teach.
Domain of Quantification. See Quantification.
Dowty, David. The semanticist David Dowty developed a theory of decomposition (mainly for verbs) in the framework of formal semantics. Lexical verb meanings are analyzed as logical formulae containing constants such as cause or become. These are logical constants with a fixed meaning, i.e. particular elements in a language of predicate logic; unlike in conceptual semantics, they are not claimed to represent cognitive concepts.
Entailment. See logical entailment.
Episodic. A sentence is episodic if it is not generic, i.e. if it relates to a concrete situation.
Equivalence. See logical equivalence.
Euphemism. An expression used instead of another expression with negative connotations, e.g. conflict instead of war.
Evidentials. Linguistic means of expression that indicate the kind of evidence for a predication, e.g. own experience, visual evidence, hearsay, reasoning or conjecture.
Experiencer. A thematic role. The [animate] experiencer is someone experiencing a perception, feeling or other bodily state, e.g. the role specified by the subject of verbs like see, feel, love or worry.
Experiential perfect. Variant of the perfect aspect expressing the state resulting from the fact that the situation described has taken place once, amounting to an experience of some kind. Example: I have studied mathematics, I’ve never been to Hawaii.
Expression meaning. A level of meaning: the meaning of an expression taken on its own, independent of context, i.e. disregarding contextual information. If the expression is lexicalized, its meaning is its lexical meaning; the meaning of complex expressions is derived by rules of composition. Expression meaning includes the grammatical meaning of word forms.
Expressive meaning. A dimension of expression meaning: 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 are called expressives. Examples: interjections, swear words.
Extension. In possible-world semantics: the extension of a word in a possible world is what the expression denotes, or refers to, in that world. For individual terms, the extension is an individual in that world; for predicate expressions, it is an m-predicate, for sentences, a truth value.
Factive verb. Factive verbs have a that-clause complement; they presuppose the content of the that clause. Examples: regret, report, know, but not say, think, wish.
Family resemblance. Similarity relations among the members of a category that define a category and ‘hold it together’: all members share some properties with some other members, but there need not be any properties shared by all members. Categories defined by family resemblance defy the NSC model.
Feature. A contrastive property of an expression. Features are used extensively in structuralism for capturing the contrastive properties of linguistic units. Binary semantic features such as [±animate] are used for decomposition in feature semantics. For types of semantic features see marker, seme and distinguisher. A feature is binary if it can take only two different values such as ‘+’ and ‘–’. A feature is primitive if it cannot be analyzed in terms of other features; it is general if it is relevant across languages; it is universal if it is relevant across languages; it is linguistically motivated if it can be related to linguistic distinctions.
Feature semantics (binary feature semantics, BFS). A structuralist approach to lexical meaning that analyzes word meanings in terms of binary semantic features, such as [±human] or [±female]. These features represent 1-place predicates about the potential referents of the words. Thus, a semantic feature analysis describes the meaning of a word as a set of conditions on its potential referent. Feature semantics is an application of the NSC model of categorization.
Focal colour. A colour that has the status of a reference point for basic colour terms across languages; e.g. focal red is a colour that is pointed out consistently as the best case of what is denoted by English red, German rot, Spanish rojo, Japanese akai, etc. Focal colours are prototypes of the respective colour categories.
Formal semantics. A logical approach to meaning, originating from work by the American mathematician and philosopher Richard Montague (1930–1970). Formal semantics focuses on sentence semantics, i.e. on the rules of composition. Typically, in formal semantics a two-step method is used: expressions of a fragment of natural language are first translated into an appropriate formal language of predicate logic. In this first step, the lexical meanings are assigned logical types, e.g. ‘individual’, ‘1-place predicate’, etc., and rules of composition are established by corresponding rules of translation. In the second step, the formulae resulting from the translation receive a model-theoretic interpretation in the framework of possible-world semantics. Formal semantics ultimately provides truth conditions and logical relations for natural language sentences. Meanings are mathematical constructs, namely ‘intensions’, i.e. functions from possible worlds to referents, m-predicates or truth values; meanings are not considered cognitive concepts.
Formality. A frequent feature of social meaning. Formality indicates a social interaction defined by more distance between the interactants. Examples: French vous and German Sie are formal pronouns of address, while French tu and German du are informal. In English the use of given names is informal, the use of family names with Mrs or Mr is formal.
Formation base. A notion from Montague Grammar. The formation base of a Montague grammar for a fragment is the set of lexical (i.e. basic) expressions and their assignment to syntactic categories.
Formation rule. A notion from Montague Grammar. The formation base of a Montague grammar for a fragment are the syntactic rules for forming compound expressions. In general, a formation rule states that a certain syntactic operations, e.g. concatenation, can be applied to expressions of certain categories to yield a complex expression of a certain output category. For example, a formation rule may state that an expression of the category Determiner can be concatenated with an expression of the category Noun to form an expression of the category Noun Phrase. In a Montague grammar, there is a composition rule or translation rule for every formation rule.
Fragment. A notion from formal semantics. A fragment is defined by a choice of representative lexical items of a natural language (a formation base); these items are assigned syntactic categories, and rules are given for the syntactic combination of lexical and compound expressions (formation rules). Montague Grammar and formal semantics restrict the analysis of language to limited fragments of languages in order to be able to provide a complete syntactic and semantic description.
Frame. A complex structure representing knowledge; according to Barsalou, frames are the general format of conceptual representation in human cognition. A frame consists of a collection of attributes that assign a value for that attribute to the (potential) referent of the frame. The values of the attributes may in turn be assigned their own attributes and values thereof, and so on, recursively.
Frame compound. A type of nominal compound: the information provided by the head and the modifier are integrated into, and connected by, a frame that integrates both. For example, both the concepts ›soup‹ and ›spoon‹ are linked to the ›eat‹ frame; this connects the two components of ›soup spoon‹ to yield the meaning of the compound (›spoon for eating soup‹). More examples: book shop, piano sonata, phonology class.
Free variable. In predicate logic, the occurrence of a variable is free if it is not within the scope of a quantifier describing that variable. For example, in the formula ‘∃x (red(x) ∧ p(x,y))’ the occurrence of ‘y’ is free, while the occurrences of ‘x’ are in the scope of ‘∃x’ and therefore bound.
Functional concept. A relational concept that assigns a unique referent to every ‘possessor’. Functional concepts apply to a certain type of possessor arguments and return a certain type of value; e.g. the functional concept ›colour‹ applies to visible objects and returns colours as values. The meanings of functional nouns are functional concepts, but there is not a functional noun for every functional concept. For examples, see attributes in frame theory and functional nouns.
Functional noun. Functional nouns are inherently unique and have one or more additional argument; if cases where it is one, it is usually specified by a possessive construction: the king of Arabia, my mother-in-law. Examples: mother, spouse, head, back, tip, beginning, end, owner, producer, name, address, profession, age, height, size, shape, colour, temperature, price, value, exchange rate, etc.
Fusion. Merging the semantic information about an argument; its specification in the sentence and the selectional restrictions of the predicate term.
Future tense. A tense that places the tense argument at some time after the time of utterance.
Fuzziness. A category is fuzzy or has fuzzy boundaries if there is no clear boundary between members and non-members of the category, e.g. if categories fade into neighbouring categories, as with the categories blue and green. According to prototype theory, categories in general (may) have fuzzy boundaries.
Gender. A grammatical category of nouns in many languages; more generally, a feature giving rise to different grammatical noun classes. European languages often have gender systems related to biological sex, with genders such as masculine, feminine and neuter.
Genericity. A mode of talking in which elements of a sentence are used without concrete reference in the CoU, but rather for relating to general cases. Indefinite NPs can be used generically, as in Children need encouragement. Contrast: episodic.
Graded structure. A category has graded structure if its members exhibit different degrees of membership. According to prototype theory, categories in general (may) have a graded structure, giving rise to graded membership rather than binary Yes-or-No membership.
Grammatical meaning. The expression meaning of the grammatical form of a word, e.g. grammatical number, aspect, tense.
Habitual. A variant of the imperfective aspect. A situation is considered to be a habitual repetition of the kind of event described. The tense argument is placed within a period of this repetition. Example: I used to go to the station by bike.
Head. The part of a complex word of syntactic phrase that determines its grammatical properties. The head of an NP is a noun, the head of a VP, a verb; the head of a nominal compound, in English, is the second part, e.g. the head of guitar player is player.
Hedge. A means of expression that is used to widen or narrow the boundary of a category denoted with the words used, e.g. a real syntactician [narrowing] or sort of a syntactician [widening].
Heteronymy. A meaning relation: expressions are heteronyms if they denote alternatives in some domain of more than two possibilities. Heteronyms are logically incompatible. Examples: the numerals, colour terms, kinship terms, fruit terms, bird terms, etc.
Historic present. A special use of the present tense form for past events, resulting in a certain effect of vividness: the events are described as though they were happening in the present.
Homonymy. A type of lexical ambiguity. Two lexemes are totally homonymous if they have unrelated meanings, but share all other constitutive properties. Two lexemes are partially homonymous if they have unrelated meanings, but coincide only in some of their grammatical forms. Homographs (bow ‘weapon for shooting arrows’ vs bow ‘front end of a ship’) have the same spelling; homophones have the same sound form (story, storey).
Hyperonymy. A meaning relation: the inverse of hyponymy.
Hyponymy. A meaning relation: A is a hyponym of B, and B a hyperonym of A, if and only if A is a subordinate of B and the meaning of B is part of the meaning of A. Examples: duck is a hyponym of bird, devour of eat.
I-language. A notion introduced by Noam Chomsky: the internal mental language apparatus of the individual speakers of a language.
Imperative. A sentence type standardly used for the communication of demands, like Go home!, Pass me the coffee, please! The form of the verb in such sentences is also called imperative.
Imperfective aspect. One of the two basic aspects, along with perfective aspect. The time referred to independently, i.e. the tense argument, is placed within the situation expressed. Progressive and habitual aspects are special cases of imperfective aspect. Example: I am closing the door; she hates asparagus.
Inchoative verb. Verb denoting the inception of a state or process. Examples: begin, intransitive open, sit down.
Incompatibility. See logical incompatibility.
Indefinite. An NP is indefinite if it is used for (potentially) non-unique reference. Depending on the language, indefinite NPs may or may not be marked for indefiniteness. In English, indefinite NPs include simple indefinite NPs with the indefinite article a(n), bare plurals and mass nouns, and NPs containing a quantity specification such as a numeral or some, several, many,etc.; indefinite NPs also include indefinite pronouns such as somebody, nothing or anyone.
Indexical. An expression is (an) indexical if its meaning immediately relates to components of the context of utterance. Indexicals include all deictic expressions, demonstratives, definite articles and carriers of presuppositions. A narrower definition restricts the notion to deictic expressions and demonstratives.
Individual. A notion in predicate logic: individuals are whatever the predicates can predicate about. In a model for a predicate logic language, the individuals constitute the universe.
Individual concept. In possible-world semantics, a function that returns for every possible world an individual in that world. Intensions of individual terms are individual concepts.
Individual constant. A type of expression in predicate logic languages. An individual constant is a basic expression that denotes a fixed individual in the model adopted.
Individual noun. Individual nouns are inherently unique and not relational. They include nouns like sun, weather or pope and all proper names.
Individual term. In predicate logic, a logical expression that denotes an individual in the universe. Individual variables and individual constants are individual terms. In natural language, the corresponding expressions are personal pronouns, proper names and definite NPs.
Individual variable. A type of expression in predicate logic languages. An individual variable is a variable for an individual in the universe of the model adopted.
Inference. A cover term for any kind of conclusions, including logical entailments and Gricean implicatures.
Inflection. Changes of the grammatical form of a word, according to categories such as case, grammatical number, person, tense, aspect, etc.
Instrument. A thematic role: an instrument or cause by which the event expressed comes about; in English often specified by a with-PP; e.g. write with a brush, eat with chopsticks.
Intension. In possible-world semantics, a function that returns for every possible world an entity of some kind in that world. The intension of an expression is the function that returns for every possible world the extension of the expression in that world. Special cases of intensions are propositions (the intensions of sentences), properties (the intensions of one-place predicate terms), relations (the intensions of multi-place predicate terms) and individual concepts (the intensions of individual terms).
Interface. In linguistic theory: an apparatus that connects two levels of linguistic description, such as expression meaning and utterance meaning, expression meaning and communicative meaning, syntax and semantics, syntax and pragmatics etc.
Interjection. An expression that serves the immediate expression of a feeling or attitude, usually one word, capable of constituting a complete utterance; e.g. Ugh! Ouch! Wow! Interjections carry exclusively expressive meaning.
Interpretation. A general term for assigning meaning, covering the three levels of meaning of natural language expressions as well as the values assigned to expressions of formal languages in a model.
Interpretation base. A notion from Montague Grammar. The interpretation base of a Montague grammar for a fragment assigns meanings to the basic expressions of the system, i.e. to the elements of the formation base.
Interpretation rule. A notion from Montague Grammar. The interpretation rules of a Montague grammar for a fragment determine the meanings of complex expressions of a given form and syntactic category. For each formation rule there is a corresponding interpretation rule that states how the meaning of the complex expression derives from the meanings of its component expressions.
Interrogative. A sentence type standardly used for a question. In English, interrogative sentences either begin with an interrogative word or phrase (who, what, why, from where, etc., so-called wh-questions) or they have the verb in the first position (are you crazy?, so-called yes-no questions).
Intransitive verb. Verb with a subject but without a direct object, e.g. sleep. In languages with dative and accusative cases, a verb with subject and dative object, but without accusative object, is also intransitive, e.g. German helfen.
Law of contradiction. A fundamental law of logic, attributed to Aristotle: ‘The same attribute cannot at the same time both belong and not belong to the same subject in the same respect.’ [Quoted from Aristotle: Metaphysics. A revised text with introduction and commentary by W.D. Ross. Oxford: Clarendon Press: 1958.]
Law of the excluded middle. Also called Tertium non datur. See Principle of Polarity.
Levels of meaning. Levels of the interpretation of linguistic expressions and utterances: expression meaning, utterance meaning, communicative meaning.
Levin classes. English verb classes established by Beth Levin in English Verb Classes and Alternations. A preliminary investigation (1993). Chicago, IL: the University of Chicago Press. Verbs in a Levin class have similar meanings and are capable of the same set of alternations. Example: ‘verbs of ingesting’ including eat and drink.
Lexeme. A unit in the lexicon of a language, defined by its sound form and spelling, its grammatical category, its inherent grammatical properties, the set of its grammatical forms and its lexical meaning.
Lexical ambiguity. Ambiguity at the level of lexical meaning. A lexeme is lexically ambiguous if it is either homonymous with another lexeme or polysemous.
Lexicon. The complex of stored linguistic knowledge in the mind of a speaker. The lexicon comprises stored meanings of words and multi-word idioms and other lexeme information, as well as rules of word formation, inflection and meaning shifts.
Lexical field. A group of lexemes that fulfils the following conditions: they 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. Examples: the set of numerals, of colour terms, of kinship terms; taxonomies and mereologies.
Lexical meaning. The meaning of a lexicalized expression (i.e. lexeme) as stored in the mental lexicon.
Linking. The grammatical mechanism by which a language distinguishes the different arguments of predicate terms. The main means of linking are word order, case and agreement.
Logical complementarity. The relation of logical contradiction applied to predicate terms. Two predicate terms of equal arity are logically complementary if and only if they always yield opposite truth values for the same arguments in the same context. Examples: sister and brother in the domain of siblings, or even and odd in the domain of numbers.
Logical connectives. Elements of logical languages such as sentential logic and predicate logic that combine with sentences to form complex sentences. Standard connectives are one-place negation (symbol ¬ ‘not’) and the two-place connectives for conjunction (∧ ‘and’), disjunction (∨, ‘and/or’), subjunction or material implication (→, ‘if … then)’) and biconditional (↔, ‘if … and only if’). The semantics of these connectives can be defined in terms of the truth values of the sentences they are applied to.
Logical contradiction. A logical relation between sentences. A and B are logical contradictories (logically contradictory) if and only if they necessarily have opposite truth values. Examples: any sentence and its negation are logical contradictories.
Logical contrariety. A logical relation between sentences. Two sentences are logical contraries (logically contrary) if they cannot both be true. Examples: This is a dog and this is a frog; today is Tuesday and today is Wednesday.
Logical entailment. A logical relation between sentences or predicate expressions. Sentence A entails sentence B if and only if there are no contexts where A is true and B is false; or if and only if B must be true if A is true. A predicate expression A logically entails another predicate expression B of equal arity if and only if B is true of some arguments whenever A is true of them. Examples: today is Tuesday entails today is not Monday; duck entails bird.
Logical equivalence. A logical relation between sentences or predicate terms. Two sentences are logically equivalent if and only if they have the same truth value in all contexts. Logically equivalent sentences have identical truth conditions. Two predicate terms of equal arity are logically equivalent if and only if they always yield the same truth value for the same arguments. Examples: today is Monday and yesterday was Sunday; husband of one’s child and one’s son-in-law.
Logical falsity. A logical property. A sentence is logically false if and only if it is necessarily false, i.e. false in all possible contexts. Examples: frogs are dogs, Donald is a duck and Donald isn’t a duck.
Logical incompatibility. The logical relation of contrariety applied to predicate terms. Two predicate terms of equal arity are logically incompatible if and only if they cannot both be true of the same arguments in the same context. In terms of denotations, the denotations of logically incompatible expressions do not overlap. Examples: dog and frog (nothing can be a dog and a frog at the same time.)
Logical independence. A logical relation between sentences or predicate terms. Two sentences are logically independent if and only if neither logically entails the other or its negation. The truth values of both are independent of each other. Two predicate expressions A and B of equal arity are logically independent if and only if for any arguments; if A is true of these arguments in a given context, then B can be either true or false of them, and vice versa. Examples: today is Monday and it’s a holiday.
Logical relation. A relation between sentences in terms of their truth conditions. For predicate terms, a relation in terms of the truth values they assign to their arguments. Logical relations are usually indicative of meaning relations, but they provide only indirect evidence. Examples: logical entailment, equivalence, contrariety, contradiction, independence or incompatibility.
Logical truth. A logical property. A sentence is logically true if and only if it is necessarily true, i.e. true in all possible contexts. Examples: ducks are birds, two plus two equals four, the day after Monday is Tuesday.
Marker. Also classeme. A binary semantic feature that is primitive, general and linguistically motivated, e.g. [±female], [±animate].
Mass noun. A mass noun does not provide a criterion of individuation for their potential referents; mass nouns are used to refer to quantities of a sort. Examples: water, sand, air. They are only used in the singular. If a mass noun applies to an individual quantity x and also to an individual quantity y, it also can be used to refer to x and y taken together; e.g. the guests enjoyed the local wine. Contrast: count nouns.
Material implication. Same as subjunction.
Meaning. In linguistics, meanings are related to linguistic expressions (expression meaning), forms of expressions (grammatical meaning) and verbal utterances (utterance meaning, communicative meaning). Expression meaning, utterance meaning and communicative meaning are different levels of interpretation of verbal utterances (levels of meaning). Linguistic meaning (at each level) may have one or more dimensions of meaning, among them descriptive meaning, social meaning and expressive meaning. Different theoretical approaches in semantics apply different notions of meaning: see mentalist semantics, feature semantics, cognitive semantics (including prototype semantics), formal semantics.
Meaning postulate. A sentence that formulates a meaning relation between expressions, e.g. the sentence ducks are birds formulates a meaning relation (in this case: hyponymy) between the nouns duck and bird. Meaning postulates are logically true sentences because they hold in any context whatsoever.
Meaning relation. A relation between the meanings of two concepts, i.e. at the conceptual level, e.g. synonymy, hyponymy or oppositions.
Meaning shift. Process of replacing a certain meaning by a related other meaning, following a general pattern. For types of meaning shifts see metonymy, metaphor and differentiation.
Meaning variant. One out of two or more related lexical meanings of a polysemous lexeme.
Medial. See demonstratives.
Mentalist semantics. Approach to linguistic meaning that considers meanings as mental entities in the mind of the language user, usually referred to as concepts. Understanding Semantics adopts the mentalist approach.
Mereology. A type of lexical field. A set of expressions forms a mereology if they form a hierarchy in terms of holonyms and meronyms. Example: the set of body part terms for a particular species.
Meronymy. A meaning relation: A is a meronym of B, and B a holonym of A, if and only if A denotes constitutive parts of the kind of things that B denotes. Examples: finger is a meronym of hand.
Metaphor. An expression is used metaphorically if it is used to refer to things that are in crucial aspects similar to the kind of objects to which the expression refers in its literal meaning. The concept is taken from a source domain to be applied in a different target domain. For example, the metaphorical expression flow of money is taken from the source domain of liquids and applied to the target domain of financial transactions.
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.
Model. In model-theoretical semantics, a model for a language is the totality of information that allows determining the interpretation (‘value’) in that model for every expression of the language. For predicate logic languages, the model comprises the following components: a set of individuals, the so-called universe and the assignment of a value for every basic expression (individual term or predicate expression) of the language. An extensional model defines an extension (i.e. an individual referent, an m-predicate or a truth value) for every expression of the language. An intensional model defines an intension for every expression of the language. An intensional model yields an extensional model by fixing a possible world and thereby the values of the intensions.
Model-theoretic semantics. In model-theoretic semantics, interpretations are assigned to the expressions of a formal or natural language by defining a model for the language. A model assigns interpretations to the basic (i.e. lexical) expressions of the language and defines composition rules that derive the interpretations of compound expressions according to the Principle of Compositionality. Model-theoretic semantics is the standard way of providing interpretations for formal languages such as those of predicate logic. In formal semantics, model-theoretical semantics is applied to natural language.
Monosemy. A lexeme is monosemous if it has only one meaning. Opposite: polysemy.
Montague Grammar. A linguistic theory introduced by Richard Montague (1930–1970). The first system of formal semantics, Montague Grammar uses formal systems for the syntactic and semantic description of natural language fragments. The system starts out with a formation base (lexical expressions) and a set of formation rules for the derivation of compound expressions (e.g. sentences). The expressions of the language so defined receive systematic semantic interpretation by assigning the lexical entries meanings and giving composition rules for deriving the meanings of compound expressions, in a strict parallelism of syntactic and semantic composition. In most versions of Montague Grammar, the semantic interpretation is performed by translating the natural language expressions into expressions of an appropriate predicate logic language (see formal semantics). Such a system of joint syntactic and semantic description of a language fragment is called a Montague grammar.
Morpheme. A minimal linguistic unit that carries meaning. Examples: book, look, also -let, un- and other affixes. Free morphemes can occur as complete words; bound morphemes like affixes occur only as parts of words.
M-predicate. In mathematics, a function that assigns a truth value to arguments, e.g. the function dog that assigns the truth value 1 to all dogs and the truth value 0 to everything that is not a dog. An m-predicate immediately corresponds to the set of arguments, or argument tuples, for which the m-predicate is true: the m-predicate dog corresponds to the set of all dogs, the m-predicate aunt corresponds to the set of all pairs x and y such that x is an aunt of y. In model-theoretic semantics, m-predicates, or the corresponding sets, are used as the values of predicate expressions. The relation, and difference, between predicates and m-predicates is this: a predicate is a concept that assigns a truth value to its arguments; an m-predicate is a mathematical function that assigns a truth value to its arguments; m-predicates are not cognitive concepts. For every predicate there is an m-predicate that mirrors it, but for a given m-predicate, there may be conceptually different predicates that yield the same truth values.
Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). An approach to lexical decomposition developed by Anna Wierzbicka. In NSM, lexical meanings are decomposed in terms of universal semantic primes that can be found in all languages, e.g. someone, good, big, want, after etc.
Negation. A syntactic operation on natural language sentences that reverses the outcome of the main predication of the sentence. For declarative sentences, negation reverses their truth value. In English, negation is usually accomplished by adding not to a finite auxiliary. Standard negation preserves the presuppositions of the sentence, unlike radical negation. In formal logic languages, negation is accomplished by prefixing a formula with the negation connective ¬; negation reverses the truth value of a formula.
Negation test. A standard test for presuppositions. A condition is a presupposition of a sentence if it is to be assumed to hold for both a sentence and its negation in order for them to make sense in the given CoU. For example: both the sentence my car has broken down and its negation my car hasn’t broken down require that the speaker owns a car in order to make sense.
Non-past tense. A tense that places the tense argument at some time at, or after, the time of utterance.
NSC model. A general model of categorization based on ‘necessary and sufficient conditions’, ascribed to Aristotle. According to the NSC model, there is a set of conditions that are necessary for membership in a category; jointly, the necessary conditions form a sufficient condition for category membership. If something fulfils all the necessary conditions, it belongs to the category; conversely, if something belongs to the category, it fulfils all the necessary conditions.
Number (grammatical). A grammatical category of nouns and adjectives that indicates the number of cases referred to: singular (1 case), plural (>1), dual (2), trial (3), paucal (a few).
Object (grammatical). NP that specifies a second or third verb argument, less privileged than the subject. A direct object is typically a theme or patient specification; in case-marking languages, it commonly carries accusative case; a direct object is promoted to subject in passive constructions. An indirect object is typically a goal or recipient specification; in case-marking languages, it commonly carries dative case.
Oblique. A complement (or adjunct) other than subject or direct object is oblique. Examples: she wrote the letter with a pencil; the letter was written by a child.
One-place, two-place, three-place. A noun, verb or adjective is one-place, if it expresses a predication about only one argument. Among others, sortal nouns, most adjectives and most intransitive verbs are one-place; transitive verbs and most relational nouns are two-place; ditransitive verbs are three-place.
Opposition. A type of meaning relation. Two expressions are opposites if their meanings have common meaning components, but differ in one way. Examples of oppositions include antonymy, directional opposition, heteronymy, complementarity and converses.
Paradigm. (1) A closed set of expressions or forms of expressions that vary in certain respects, e.g. the paradigm of personal pronouns, the paradigm of case forms of a noun, the paradigm of possessive affixes, of verb forms, etc. (2) A structuralist notion: the set of all linguistic units that can fill a given position in a syntagm.
Paradigmatic relation. A structuralist notion: a relation between the members of a paradigm. Examples: phonological oppositions such as ‘voiced’ vs ‘voiceless’ phonemes, or meaning relations between expressions of the same category such as hyponymy, synonymy, oppositions, meronymy, etc. for expressions of the same category.
Participant. An argument in a verb predication. See thematic role.
Partitive. An NP is partitive if it has the form ‘pronoun of the N’ or is equivalent to an NP of this form, e.g. some [of the] students. Partitive NPs have definite reference to the whole denoted by ‘[the] N’ and indefinite reference to some part of the whole.
Passive voice. A particular voice, or diathesis, of a verb; an agent is not realized as subject, but omitted or specified by an oblique complement; usually a theme or patient is promoted to subject. Example: the article was submitted [by Sue] (passive) vs Sue submitted the article (active).
Past tense. A tense that places the tense argument at some time before the time of utterance.
Patient. A thematic role. The [animate] patient is immediately affected by the event expressed. If a verb has a patient argument along with an agent argument, the patient argument will be specified by the direct object of the sentence (if the verb is used in the active voice). Examples: the role specified by the direct object of visit, kill or kiss.
Perfect aspect. An aspect, not a tense. The time referred to, i.e. the tense argument, is placed in a state resulting from the event expressed. Variants of perfect aspect are resultative perfect and experiential perfect. Example: I have closed the door.
Perfective aspect. One of the two basic aspects, along with imperfective aspect. The situation as a whole serves as the tense argument. It is located by tense as a whole, e.g. in the past by past tense. Example: I closed the door.
Person (grammatical). A grammatical category linked to the roles in an utterance event: speaker, addressee and third parties. The speaker is 1st person, addressees are 2nd person, anything excluding speaker and addressees is 3rd person. Person plays a role in systems of personal and possessive pronouns and in verb inflection.
Phoneme. A minimal sound unit, e.g. /k/.
Polarization. The fact that all linguistic statements (more generally, predications) are subject to a binary True-or-False mode of putting things.
Polysemy. A type of ambiguity at the level of lexical meaning. A lexeme is polysemous if it has two or more interrelated meaning variants. Example: mouse (1) ‘small rodent’, (2) ‘computer accessory’.
Possession. The relation expressed by a possessive construction. A possessive construction specifies a possessor for an NP. Examples in English are: nouns with possessive pronouns (my car) or Saxon genitives (Kate’s car) and nouns with an of-PP (the smell of vinegar). The possessor stands in some relation to the referent of the NP. If the noun is not relational, this may be a relation of possession or some other relation given in the context; if the noun is not relational (my stone); for relational nouns, the relation between referent and possessor is defined as part of the meaning of the noun (my mother). See alienability.
Possessive pronouns. Pronouns like my, your, her that specify the possessor of the following noun as 1st, 2nd or 3rd person singular or plural.
Possible world. A basic notion in possible-world semantics; more generally, in formal semantics. A possible world is the totality of facts on which the reference and truth values of the expressions of a language depend: given a particular possible world, every linguistic expression has its reference or truth value fixed. A ‘possible world’ in formal semantics is essentially what is called a ‘context of utterance’ in other semantic theories.
Possible-world semantics. Possible-world semantics defines interpretations for formal or natural languages by applying model-theoretic semantics with intensional models. Meanings in possible-world semantics are intensions, i.e. functions that return for every possible world what the expression denotes in that world: its truth value (for sentences), its referent (for referring expressions) or an m-predicate (for predicate terms).
Pragmatic uniqueness. Uniqueness of a definite NP by virtue of the particular circumstances given in the context of utterance. For example, deictic and anaphoric definites are pragmatically unique. Opposite: semantic uniqueness.
Predicate. The meaning of a predicate term is a predicate. A predicate is a concept that, when applied to an argument [or a set of arguments for multi-place predicates] is either true or false for it. For example, the predicate ›cat‹ is a concept that is true if applied to a cat, and false otherwise.
Predicate constant. A type of expression in predicate logic languages. A predicate constant is a basic expression that denotes a fixed m-predicate in the model adopted. An n-place predicate constant is combined with a series of n individual terms as argument expressions.
Predicate term; predicate expression. An expression that serves predication. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and many adverbs are predicate expressions.
Predicate logic. A formal logic language with individual terms (individual constants and individual variables), predicate constants (expressing one- or multi-place predicates over individuals), logical connectives (negation, conjunction, etc.) and quantifiers (existential quantifier ∃ and universal quantifier ∀).
Predication. Using a [predicate] expression for saying something about some entity or entities; the argument[s] of the predication. For example, in The cat is angry, the adjective angry is used to say something about the cat referred to (that it is angry), while the noun cat is used to predicate about the referent of the NP (that it is a cat). An argument is either specified by a separate argument term, a complement, or the argument is the referent of the phrase used for predicating. In the sentence The cat is angry, the subject specifies the argument for the predication ‘is angry’, while the referent of the subject is the referential argument of the predication ‘[is a] cat’.
Predicative. A use of predicate expressions: the predicate expression predicates about an argument that is specified by a separate component of the sentence. Verbs are used predicatively with respect to the referents of their complements; nouns and adjectives are used predicatively in copula constructions such as this is a box; this is blue.
Present tense. A tense that places the tense argument at the time of utterance.
Presupposition. Presuppositions of a sentence are those conditions pertaining to the CoU which the CoU must meet in order for an utterance of the sentence to make sense. Presuppositions can be checked by applying the negation test. Presuppositions are due to presupposition carriers and to certain constructions (e.g. the Presupposition of Indivisibility).
Presupposition carrier. An expression which, by its meaning, imposes a presupposition on the CoU. Presupposition carriers include definite NPs (among them proper names and personal pronouns), predicate terms (for their selectional restrictions), factive verbs, verbs of change and a variety of other expressions.
Presupposition of Indivisibility. (Also called Presupposition of Homogeneity, or Homogeneity.) A general presupposition carried by every predication: ‘The argument of a predication is indivisible with respect to the predication; a predication is true or false of its argument as a whole.’
Prime formula. A notion from predicate logic: a formula which contains no logical connectives or quantifiers. A prime formula either consists of a predicate constant with the appropriate number of individual terms as argument terms or it has the form ‘a=b’ with two individual terms a and b.
Prime. See semantic prime.
Principle of Compositionality. Attributed to Gottlob Frege, the principle states: ‘The meaning of a complex expression is determined by the lexical meanings of its components, their grammatical meaning s and the syntactic structure of the whole.’
Principle of Consistent Interpretation. ‘At the level of utterance meaning, a composite expression is always interpreted in such a way that its parts fit together and that the whole fits the context.’
Principle of Polarity. A fundamental law of logic, attributed to Aristotle: ‘In a given CoU, with a given reading, a declarative sentence is either true or false.’ If presuppositions are taken into account, the Principle of Polarity takes the following form: ‘In a given CoU, where its presuppositions are fulfilled, with a given reading, a declarative sentence is either true or false.’ The Principle of Polarity is also known as the Law of the excluded middle.
Process term. An aspectual class of verbs or VPs. Process terms describe a situation as a continued uniform change. Examples: work, sleep, rain. The concept does not include a culmination.
Productive. A pattern of word formation is productive if it applies to an open class of words, for example, deriving adjectives from verbs by adding -able is a productive pattern.
Progressive aspect. A variant of imperfective aspect, describing the situation as an on-going process or activity. Example: I am watching TV.
Projection problem. The problem of predicting how the presuppositions of a complex sentence derive from the presuppositions of its parts.
Property. In possible-world semantics, a type of intension. A property is a function that returns a 1-place m-predicate for every possible world. For example, the ‘dog’ property is the function that returns for every possible world the m-predicate dog, which returns for all dogs in that world the truth value 1.
Proposition. (1) In general semantics, the descriptive meaning of a sentence at the level of expression meaning. (2) In possible-world semantics, the intension of a sentence, i.e. a function that returns for every possible world the truth value that the sentence takes in that world.
Propositional logic. Same as sentential logic.
Propositional meaning. Same as descriptive meaning.
Prospective aspect. An aspect that places the time referred to, i.e. the tense argument, in a state leading to an event of the kind described. Example: I’m leaving tomorrow morning.
Prototype. Prototypes are central cases of a category that represent it best. The exact nature of prototypes is unclear. To some, prototypes are members of the category (e.g. Pele, an individual soccer player, is the prototype of a soccer player); to others they are subcategories (robins constitute the prototypical bird); yet others consider prototypes as abstract cases that combine the prototypical properties of members of the category.
Prototype semantics. Approach to semantics that adheres to the prototype theory of categorization. According to prototype semantics, content words denote categories defined by prototypes. Consequently, word denotations have fuzzy boundaries and graded membership and predications yield graded truth values.
Prototype theory. A theory of categorization that assumes that category membership is based on similarity to a prototype of the category. Prototype theory generally assumes fuzzy boundaries and a graded structure of categories as well as graded membership of the category. An object is a member of a category to the degree that it resembles the prototype. Prototype theory strongly contradicts the NSC model of categorization.
Proximal. See demonstratives.
Quantification. (1) In natural language, a particular type of determination; it specifies for the quantified predication to what extent it is true of the cases in a given domain of quantification (referential quantification) or for a given category of cases (generic quantification). Example: for every child got a present the predication is ‘got a present’; the domain of quantification is the referent of [the] children in the given CoU, and the quantifier every specifies that the predication applies completely in that domain of quantification. (2) In predicate logic, application of a quantifier.
Quantifier. Predicate logic has two quantifiers, the existential quantifier ∃ and the universal quantifier ∀. Combined with a variable, quantifiers are prefixed to a formula, e.g. ‘∃x red(x)’ or ‘∀x red(x)’ to yield another formula. ‘∃x’ reads ‘there is at least one x…’, and ‘∀x’ reads ‘for every x’. The formula a quantifier is attached to is the scope of the quantifier (in these examples ‘red(x)’). In its scope, the quantifier binds the occurrences of the variable attached to it.
Radical negation. Negation which includes some of the presuppositions of a sentence. Example: My car has NOT broken down – I don’t have a car.
Reading. An utterance meaning available in a given context when applying the Principle of Consistent Interpretation.
Reciprocal. An expression is reciprocal if and only if it is its own converse. Examples: sibling, classmate (if x is a sibling, or classmate, of y, then y is a sibling, or classmate, of x).
Reference. The use of linguistic expressions for immediately relating to (talking about) things in the world: objects, times, situations, etc. The expressions refer to their referent, or rather, the speaker uses the expressions in order to refer to their referents. Reference is fixed at the level of utterance meaning; it is determined by the descriptive meaning of the expression and the facts in the given CoU.
Referent. See reference.
Referential argument. Argument of a noun or a verb that is, at the same time, its referent. The referential argument of a noun is the referent of the NP; the referential argument of a verb is the situation which the verb refers to.
Relation. In possible-world semantics, a type of intension. A relation is a function that returns a multi-place m-predicate for every possible world. For example, the ‘hit’ relation is the function that returns for every possible world the m-predicate hit, which returns for all pairs of individuals x and y in that world the truth value 1 if, in that world, x hits y.
Relational noun. Relational nouns have one or more additional arguments; if they have one additional argument, it is usually specified by a possessive construction: my brother, a piece of the cake. Relational nouns proper are not inherently unique, unlike functional nouns. Examples of relational nouns proper: sister, uncle, child (of), friend, part, leg, property, aspect, feature.
Relativism. A position concerning the connection between language, thinking and culture. According to radical relativism, every language is a unique system which, by its vocabulary and grammar, more or less determines the ways in which its users view the world. Moderate relativist positions claim that certain traits of the language a person speaks may influence their thinking. The opposite point of view is universalism.
Resultative perfect. A variant of perfect aspect expressing a resultant state of the situation described. Example: I have closed the door [ -> the door is now closed].
Role. See thematic role.
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. A relativist thesis ascribed to the American linguists Edward Sapir (1884–1939) and Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897–1941): ‘Formulation of ideas is not an independent process, strictly rational in the old sense, but is part of a particular grammar, and differs, from slightly to greatly, between different grammars. We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages. …’ (quoted from B.L. Whorf, Language, Thought and Reality. Selected writings by Benjamin Lee Whorf, ed. John B. Carroll, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. 1956, p. 212).
Scalar adjective. An adjective relating to a scale, such as size (big, large, small, little), length (long, short), temperature (hot, warm, cool, cold); scalar adjectives can be graded, forming comparative (smaller, less interesting) and superlative (smallest, most interesting) forms.
Scope. The range of application of an operator or operation, e.g. of negation or quantification.
Selectional restrictions. A logical condition imposed by a predicate term on one of its arguments. Example: animacy as a requirement for agent, patient and experiencer arguments. Selectional restrictions are presuppositions of the respective predicate terms.
Semantic category. A cognitive category defined by a semantic concept. Denotations of content words are semantic categories.
Semantic concept. A concept that constitutes the meaning of a linguistic expression. Lexical meanings as well as propositions are semantic concepts.
Semantic knowledge. Knowledge concerning expression meaning, in particular lexical meanings. Semantic knowledge is more abstract and stable than cultural knowledge.
Semantic prime. Irreducible meaning component.
Semantic regularity. A sentence is semantically irregular if there is a semantic conflict between parts of it, such as violation of selectional restrictions.
Semantic uniqueness. Uniqueness of a definite NP due to the semantic content of the NP. For example, proper names and personal pronouns are semantically unique; also individual nouns with definite article, like the earth. Opposite: pragmatic uniqueness.
Semantics. Linguistic semantics is the study of the meanings of linguistic expressions, either simple or compound, taken in isolation. It further accounts for the interfaces between expression meaning and both utterance meaning and communicative meaning.
Seme. A binary semantic feature that is primitive and linguistically motivated, but not necessarily general. Semes correspond to specific distinctive properties, applicable only to a limited number of words, e.g. the feature [±for money] for verbs of change of possession.
Semelfactive. See simple occurrence terms.
Sense relation. Same as meaning relation.
Sentence meaning. The meaning of a sentence at the level of expression meaning.
Sentence type. A sentence is of a certain grammatical type, e.g. declarative, interrogative or imperative. The sentence type contributes to the meaning of the sentence as a whole; its contribution is not part of the descriptive meaning (proposition), but constitutes a separate dimension of meaning.
Sentential logic. A simple logic language, also called Propositional Logic. The basic symbols are of one category, sentence. Sentences can be combined with logical connectives such as negation, conjunction, disjunction, subjunction etc.
Sign. According to structuralism, linguistic expressions, from morphemes to complete sentences, are signs; a sign is a pair of a sound form and its meaning, where the association of form and meaning is in principle arbitrary.
Simple change term. An aspectual class of verbs or VPs. A simple change term describes a situation as a change from an initial condition to a resultant condition, without specifying in which manner the change is achieved. Examples: enter, start, stop, open, die, arrive. Simple change terms presuppose the initial state. Simple change terms include achievement terms as a sub-class; achievement terms, e.g. arrive, involve a dynamic initial condition.
Simple occurrence term. An aspectual class of verbs or VPs. Simple occurrence terms describe a situation as some sort of interruption that does not cause a change of state in the way that simple changes do; the state before and after the occurrence is the same. Simple occurrence terms are also called semelfactives. Examples: hit, knock, flash, bang.
Situation referred to. The referent of a sentence with descriptive meaning, for a given CoU.
Situation structure. The conceptual structure of a situation as described by a verb. Possible components are an initial condition, a process, its culmination and a resultant condition.
Social meaning. A dimension of expression meaning; 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 govern its use.
Sortal noun. A sortal noun is neither relational nor inherently unique. Most nouns are sortal nouns. Examples: cat, stone, bicycle.
Speech act theory. A theory of communication that considers verbal utterances as social acts that follow socially established rules: developed by John L. Austin (1911–1960), further developed by John R. Searle.
State term. An aspectual class of verbs or VPs. A state term describes a situation as a constant condition with no change. Examples: know, like, cost a dollar.
Stative verb . Verb denoting a state. Examples: know, like.
Stem. Invariable part of a word to which affixes can be added.
Structuralism. A general theory of language (also applied to other fields) developed by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913). According to structuralism, every language is a system of signs related to each other by paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations. The meaning of a sign is the sum of its relations to other signs.
Subcategory. A subclass of a category. For example, the denotation of a subordinate term is a subcategory of the denotation of any superordinate term, e.g. robin is a subcategory of bird.
Subject. NP distinguished by the linking rules of a language as the privileged verb complement. In English subjects usually are placed before the verb, and verbs agree with the subject in person and number.
Subordination. A logical relation between predicate terms, identical with logical entailment: A is a subordinate of B if and only if A logically entails B. In terms of denotations, the denotation of A is included in the denotation of B.
Subjunction, also material implication. In sentential and predicate logic a logical connective written ‘→’. ‘(A→B)’ is true iff A is false and/or B is true.
Superordination. A logical relation between predicate terms, the inverse of subordination: A is a superordinate of B if and only if B is a subordinate of A. In terms of denotations, the denotation of A includes the denotation of B.
Swear word. A word that has a negative expressive meaning along with a descriptive meaning, e.g. idiot.
Synonymy. A meaning relation: two expressions are (totally) synonymous if and only if they have the same meaning, including all meaning variants; for example compact disc and CD. Two expressions are partially synonymous if and only if they have one or more meaning variants in common. Examples: mail and e-mail, disc and CD, spectacles and glasses.
Syntagm. A structuralist concept: a complex linguistic unit formed out of smaller units, according to the rules of the language.
Syntagmatic property, also combinatorial property. A structuralist notion: a property of a linguistic expression that is relevant for its ability to form syntagms with other expressions; for example, the argument structure of a verb is relevant for its possible syntactic combinations, and its selectional restrictions for the semantic combination with argument terms.
Syntagmatic relation. A structuralist notion: a relation between the constituents of a syntagm, e.g. the relation between the adjective and the noun in an A-N combination, the relation between a verb and its complements, etc.
Synthetic compound. A type of nominal compound: the head is a deverbal noun; the modifier specifies a thematic role of the underlying verb. Examples: piano player, match winner, windsurfing.
Taxonomy. A type of lexical field. A set of expressions is a taxonomy if and only if: (i) they form a conceptual hierarchy in terms of hyponymy; and (ii) hyponyms denote sub-kinds of what their hyperonyms denote. Examples: vehicle terms, plant terms, animal terms, including different levels of generality, e.g. vehicle, car, SUV. See also basic level.
Telicity. A semantic feature of verbs relating to aspectual class. According to one definition, a verb or VP is telic if its meaning specifies a resultant state; thus verbs and VPs that denote simple changes (including achievements) and accomplishments are telic, while those denoting simple processes (including activities), states and occurrences are atelic. According to an alternative definition, a verb or VP is telic if it provides a criterion for counting the situations denoted; applying this notion of telicity, the same aspectual classes are telic and atelic, respectively, except for simple occurrence terms which qualify as telic.
Tense. A grammatical category of the verb, determining the relation between the tense argument (i.e. the event or time referred to) and the time of the utterance.
Tense argument. That which is located by tense as, for example, present, past or future. With the perfective aspect, the tense argument is the event referred to. With the imperfective, perfect or progressive aspect, the tense argument is a contextually given time.
Term of address. An expression used for denoting the person addressed. Terms of address include 2nd person personal pronouns (you), names with or without title (Sybil, Mr Parker), terms of endearment (darling) etc. Terms of address may differ in formality and in expressive meaning.
Thematic role. A type of argument of a verb that plays a certain role in the predication, e.g. the actor of an action; see agent, patient, theme, experiencer, instrument.
Theme. A thematic role; like patient, except that themes are inanimate. Examples: the role specified by the direct object of eat, write or buy.
Top-down. See bottom-up.
Transitive verb. Verb with a subject and a direct object, e.g. hit, kiss, eat, see.
Translation base. A notion from Montague Grammar, applying when the expressions of the fragment are translated into a formal logic language for semantic interpretation. The translation base defines the translations, i.e. corresponding expressions in the logic language, for the basic expressions of the fragment.
Translation rule. A notion from Montague Grammar, applying when the expressions of the fragment are translated into a formal logic language for semantic interpretation. The interpretation rules are general rules that determine how an expression of a given form and syntactic category translates into the formal logic language. In Montague grammar, translation rules essentially play the role of rules of composition.
Truth conditions. The truth conditions of a declarative sentence are the general conditions under which it is true. The truth conditions are based on the assumption that the presuppositions of the sentence are fulfilled.
Truth value. A sentence has the truth value ‘true’ if it is true, and ‘false’ if it is false.
Truth-value gap. The fact that a declarative sentence lacks a truth value because one or more presuppositions fail to be fulfilled in the given context.
Truth-conditional meaning. Same as descriptive meaning.
Universalism. A position concerning the connection between language and cognition. According to universalism, all languages are based on the same genetic human cognitive equipment. The structure of every possible human language is some variant of the innate universal grammar. In this sense, differences between languages are relatively superficial. For the opposite point of view, see relativism.
Universe. Also universe of discourse. In model-theoretic semantics, the set of all individuals in a given model. For a given formal language, the universe is the range of the individual variables, the domain of quantification for existential and universal quantifiers and the domain of arguments to which the predicates of the language can be applied.
Utterance meaning. A level of meaning: the meaning of an expression when uttered in a given context of utterance. Utterance meaning results from fixing reference and fitting the interpretation of the utterance into the given context (Principle of Consistent Interpretation).
Value compound. A type of nominal compound: the modifier specifies the value of an attribute of the head referent. Examples: plastic bag – the modifier plastic specifies the value of the attribute material of the bag; park bench (location of the bench), company flat (provider of the flat), driving license (what the license permits).
Vendler class. An older term for aspectual class, attributing this kind of verb classification to Zeno Vendler (1957) ‘Verbs and times.’ Philosophical Review 56:143–160. Vendler’s original classification comprised four classes: state terms, activity terms, achievement terms and accomplishment terms.
Voice. A grammatical category of the verb involving an alternation of its argument structure. The voice of the verb, e.g. active, passive or causative, determines the linking of the verb arguments.
Word formation. Forming new words from existent ones. The main mechanisms are derivation, conversion and compounding.
Word order. Grammatical order of the major constituents of a sentence, such as SOV (subject – object – verb).
© Sebastian Löbner 2013