English Language and Linguistics: The Lexicon and Semantic Links

English Language and Linguistics

The English Lexicon: From Words to Phraseology

STUDII RSITAS TAURINENSIS 1404 ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS (First Year) Students M-Z LINGUA E TRADUZIONE - LINGUA INGLESE (L-LIN/12) "Introduction to present-day English: historical background, geographical spread and linguistic features" Proff. Virginia Pulcini / Giorgia Riboni Lesson 17The English Lexicon: from Words to PhraseologySemantics

. 'Semantics, also called semiotics, semology, or semasiology, the philosophical and scientific study of meaning in natural and artificial languages. The term is one of a group of English words formed from the various derivatives of the Greek verb semaino ("to mean" or “to signify"). The noun semantics and the adjective semantic are derived from semantikos ("significant"); semiotics (adjective and noun) comes from sēmeiotikos ("pertaining to signs"); semiology from sēma ("sign") + logos("account"); and semasiology from semasia ("signification") + logos'. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)lexis is dynamic

Lexical Innovation Processes

Three processes of lexical innovation: 1 the creation of completely new words (coinage) e.g. computing terms google (search through Google engine) (the name is actually a pun on googol (n.), a number represented by 1 and followed by 100 zeroes) 2 the borrowing of words from other languages (loanwords) e.g. Anglicisms in Italian (spam) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhmCVzrDmBU 3 word formation processes internal to the language e.g. "to zap" from "moving quickly" to " keeping changing TV programmes with a remote control" lexis is the level of language most rapidly and deeply affected by social, historical and cultural changeChanges in meaning: eighteenth-century English

Eighteenth-Century English Meaning Shifts

1. Awful a. buying and selling; but also sexual activity and conversation 2. Business b. work, labour (similarly industrious) · + 3. Commerce c. sinewy, muscular 4. Vulgar d. Grand, inspiring 5. Nice- e. fine, precise 6. Nervous f. body, outward appearance 7. Person g. State of being busy 8. Sensible h. alive to feeling; sensitive 9. Industry 10. Idiot i. poor or common people l. simple, ignorant; often applied to the poor or rusticMansplaining

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfBkh5v0MH8Mansplaining to explain something to a woman in a condescending way that assumes she has no knowledge about the topic.Covid-19 Vocabulary: What the World Talked About in 2020

. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6saduMOzplSwag (noun) https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/ history-of-swag SWAG 熊 猫 出 沒 王 cool * * + BEWARE PandaHat.Commeaning is complex

Word Meaning Complexity

. the relationship between "things" and "words" . A referent is the entity in the real world that a word indicates or denotes · some words imitate sounds (onomatopoeic) but most words have an arbitrary connection with "things" miagolare - to mew/to miaow (think about abbaiare) to bark chicchirichi > cock-a-doodle-do acqua water/wasser/eau/ (7) g*) (mizu)/ $ (ma'an)defining word meaning may prove difficult

Defining Word Meaning

William Shakespeare is .. 1. ... a famous English playwright of the 16th century 2. ... the greatest playwright of all times 3. .... the author of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and many other tragedies and comedies 4. ... the father of British theatre 5. ... a writer of the Modern English period 6. ... my favourite dramatist etc. -> words refer to, or denote, entities in the world, but this relationship (reference) can be expressed in different waysdefining the adjective "honest"

A person who is honest does not tell lies, cheat people or violate the law A person who is honest always tells the truth, respects other people, obeys the law and pays taxes Someone who is honest can always be trusted Someone who is honest does not hide things from you Someone who is honest can be trusted with valuables and money etc. etc. ->the meaning of words can be culturally conditioneddefining the noun "bird"

A bird is ... . an animal with the body covered in /with feathers, with two wings and a beak, which is able to fly. Female birds lay eggs . an animal with feathers, two legs and two wings, which is able to fly (sparrow, robin, lark, pigeon). But what about penguins and ostriches? ->We conceive a general image, a mental PROTOTYPE based on our experience and containing the most distinctive characteristics of the class. Some members are less central than others."butterfly"

· Butterflies live only one day . She is a butterfly when she dances ->words denote objects and concepts, but may have emotional or stylistic connotations ->words can be used in a figurative sense (metaphorical)denotation and connotation

Denotation and Connotation

Denotation is what the word literally refers to. words refer to, or denote, objects and concepts e.g. lion= an African wild animal Connotation is the feeling a word invokes. words have stylistic and emotional connotations e.g. He was a lion (courageous) Or, think about ParisMonoreferentiality and Polysemy

Monoreferentiality and Polysemy

The computer is an electronic machine which is used for storing, organizing and finding different types of information some words have only one referent or meaning (monoreferential) A violent storm broke out It was only a storm in a teacup His speech provoked a storm of criticism some words have several related meanings (polysemous) I was walking along the bank of the river Cam I used to work at the Royal Bank of Scotland The nearest bank is in Gower street some words have different unrelated meanings (homonyms) ->the nature of lexemes affects the organisation of entries in dictionariesSemantic links between words

Semantic Links Between Words

Freedom and liberty (near)-synonymy Black and white; fast and slow; brother and sister; married and single antonymy (or complementarity) flowers, roses, daffodils, violets, tulips, daisies hyperonymy (superordinates) and hyponymy (subordinates) To cook, roast, simmer, fry, bake, boil, barbecue ... semantic fieldTo sum up. Lexis ...

Lexis Summary

• is dynamic
• refers to the external world
• refers to mental concepts
• has emotional and stylistic connotations
• has one or several referents and meanings
• relates to other words in the language
• may co-occur with other words in fixed or semi-fixed patternsSteven Pinker: Linguistics as a Window to Understanding the Brain | Big Think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-B ONJIEcE Introduction What is language? How language works The mental lexiconWhat does knowing a word mean (receptive versus productive competence) ?

Knowing a Word: Receptive vs. Productive Competence

history pronunciation etymology spelling referential / cognitive meaning LEXICON derivational meaning morphology sense relations e.g. synonymy inflectional syntax register variation e.g. formal / informal lexical collocations / phraseologyHow many words are there in English?

Counting English Words

How many words are there in English? Where are they stored? It is not easy to count them There are different ways of counting them: 1. Dictionaries 2. Speakers' competence 3. CorporaWords in the mind

Words in the Mind

·experimental evidence .how many words a speaker knows depends on variables such as age and education and use (receptive or productive) ·reading vocabulary of the average American high school student: 40,000 ·educated adult native speaker: around 50,000 words (rising to 60,000-80,000 if proper names, names of places and idiomatic expressions are included)humans vs animals

Human vs. Animal Vocabulary

.two-year old child: 1,000 words very limited vocabulary but growing at great speed .apes (chimps and gorillas): 200-400 signs (that stand for words) "Did you know there's a talking gorilla? BBC" https://youtu.be/s1HcU7taTboWhat is a dictionary?

Defining a Dictionary

Dictionary is different from vocabulary Dictionary: 'a book that gives a list of the words of a language in alphabetical order and explains what they mean, or gives a word for them in a foreign language' Vocabulary: 1. 'all the words that a person knows or uses'. 2. 'all the words in a particular language' 3. 'the words that people use when they are talking about a particular subject' Synonym of lexicon and lexis,Different types of dictionaries/1

Types of Dictionaries: Part 1

Dictionaries vary in relation to a number of features, such as: . The number of languages they cover, i.e. monolingual, bilingual or multilingual dictionaries. . The number of lemmas they include, from the so-called unabridged (all words in a language) to college or desk dictionaries (middle-size) to pocket dictionaries (essential words) . Whether they are Diachronic (providing information about etymology and history of a language) or synchronic (language of a certain period) · Areas covered, such as general language, specialized areas of knowledge (e.g. business, science, technology, medicine, etc.) or specific linguistic areas (e.g. pronunciation, abbreviations, neologisms, collocations, idioms, proverbs).Different types of dictionaries/2

Types of Dictionaries: Part 2

Dictionaries vary in relation to a number of features, such as: · Addressees, for example native speakers or foreign learners . Attitude towards new words, foreign words, slang expressions and taboo forms like swearwords and insults. If it includes them, it's descriptive (that is, it just reports the words that are used). If it excludes them, it's prescriptive (that is, it gives rules on what language is acceptable). . Focus, whether on words or things (dictionaries vs encyclopaedias) · Organization, whether alphabetical order or semantic fields (usually called thesaurus) · Type of publication, from paper format to electronic format to online dictionaries.What is a corpus?

Understanding a Corpus

A corpus is a collection of naturally-occurring texts available in machine-readable form and assumed to be representative of a given language, or a particular register of it. Such data is studied by means of specific software programs to get information on language on a large, systematic scale. Corpora (the plural of corpus) can be seen as repertoires of words. Corpus linguistics is a relatively recent development. By using IT tools, a corpus is queried to discover trends in the language (for example, most used words, collocations, in which context does a word occur, etc.) See the British National Corpus http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/electronic corpora

Electronic Corpora

.Corpora are collections of text in electronic form that are meant to represent a language, or a register of it. ·Several corpora are available for English that can be analysed though specific software in terms of frequency and use of words in context. e.g. The British National Corpus (BNC)