Underlying functions

We draw upon some of the methods of symbolic logic for analyzing sentences and reverse them as well to synthesize or generate sentences. Thus John has a dog may be analyzed into the existential quantifier and functions as ‘ there is a B ’ and ‘A has B’ and ‘A = John’ and ‘B is a dog’. Dog is in fact a one-place function, in contrast with functions of two or more places. To show this its representation as a lexical item in a theory (description) of English would not be as one word, but as A is a dog. A relational noun such as son is a two-place function A is B’s son. A gives B to C has three places. Apparently homonymous items that actually differ in the number of places would show this fact explicitly, such as A is a child and A is B’s child. (Note that ‘A is B’s child’ does not necessarily imply ‘A is a child’.) Since difference in number of places correlates with differences in syntactic behavior, such a representation of lexical items as schematic sentences shows the syntactic differences and facilitates the application of appropriate rules to generate utterances. It also does so, for example, for mass nouns vs. count nouns vs. adjectives, e.g. A is sugar, A is a substance, A is sweet. Thus, to amend what was said above, the unit to be defined is a lexeme as a function.

 

In the definitions of items, their semantic components are also in the form of schematic sentences or functions. In a theory of a language, then, the definition or meaning of an item is seen as a set of sentences which together translate, or paraphrase, the sentence to be defined (Peirce 1933: pars. 427, 569). A definition is thus a statement of equivalence between the defined sentence and the defining sentences. It corresponds roughly to a similar statement, or schema of statements, in the object language of whose truth native speakers are competent to judge (Weinreich 1962: 42 ff.). It is also the covert major premise in various logical arguments phrased in the object language (Peirce 1933: pars. 176, 179). We can therefore involve informants in testing putative definitions as shown in the discussion of tests.

الاكثر قراءة في Semantics

Semantic features

Hierarchies of hyponyms

Hyponymy

Primary and Secondary verbs

Types associated with the Adjective class

Antonymy

Hyponymy and the has-relation

Lexical relations

Polysemy

Adverbs with manner but not sentential function

Situation types

Agent and theme

Adjective types and derived adverbs

Semantic roles

Words and clitics

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

شعبة الشهداء والجرحى تباشر مرحلة التدقيق الشامل لأكثر من 10 آلاف إضبارة مؤرشفة

قسم الشؤون الفكرية يصدر كتابًا تخصصيًّا في إعراب الصحيفة السجادية وبيانها

أكاديمية التطوير الإداري تنظم ورشة عن الإتيكيت الوظيفي لطلبتها

سماحة السيد الصافي يزور معهد الكفيل للنطق والتأهيل المدرسي ويشيد بالدور الإنساني والتربوي لملاكاته

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

العلاج بالماء البارد.. باحثون يكشفون فوائده الصحية

من دون صالة رياضية.. عادة بسيطة لتحسين الصحة وخسارة الوزن

لصحة القلب وتفادي السرطان.. استهلك هذا النوع من الطعام

دراسة تحذر من خطر شرب القهوة في أكواب البلاستيك

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

إنجاز طبي تاريخي.. جراحة قلب بلا شق في الصدر

اليابان.. مراحيض توفر فحص للحالة الصحية عبر "تحليل البراز" !

اختراق واسع لمنصة "إنستغرام".. ونشر بيانات على "الدارك ويب"

علماء يحذرون: هكذا سيفنى كوكب الأرض

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Anaphora vs. deixis

Grammatical case vs. semantic case

Semantic roles and Grammatical Relations Conclusion

Arguments and semantic roles

Semantic roles and Grammatical Relations

Constituency

Identifying meaningful elements Summary

Identifying meaningful elements within words

Identifying meaningful elements Identifying word meanings

Consequences of modifying Gunlogsons 2001 model

A case study of the semantics of clear - Factivity revisited

A case study of the semantics of clear - The analysis