This document discusses English semantics and propositional content. It defines a proposition as the meaning of a sentence that can be true or false. Propositions involve predicate-argument structure and can be represented notationally. Arguments refer to roles in a proposition and can be realized by referring expressions. Predicates provide specific information about the arguments. The relationship between entities as arguments and events as predicates is known as predication. Various semantic roles of arguments are identified, including agent, patient, and instrument. Propositions can be represented notationally in different ways, such as using capital letters for predicates and lowercase letters for arguments.

1. Understanding English Semantics
Group 9:
Nguyễn Thị Tuyến
Kiều Thị Thu Thủy
Lê Thị Thu Trang
Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang
Trần Thị Thu Trang

2. Sentence meaning and propositional
content
1. Proposition
2. Propositional content
3. Notational representation of proposition

3. Proposition
- A proposition is understood to be the meaning
of a sentence
-A proposition is a fact about the world, which
can be true or false
E.g: The boy is playing football.
One plus one makes two.

4. Proposition (cont)
- A sentence can express more than one
proposition
E.g: John’s friend, Tony, who is a dentist, likes
apples.

5. Proposition(cont)
- A proposition is independent of any particular
language as much as ideas are
E.g: Those plums look good.

6. Proposition(cont)
- Proposition are involved in the meanings of
other types of sentences in addition to the
declarative.
- Declarative: assert the proposition.
- Interrogative: don’t assert the truth of the
proposition.

7. Proposition(cont)
- The truth- value of a proposition vs the truth-
condition of a sentence
E.g: Marry married a rich man.

8. PROPOSITIONNAL CONTENT
1. Propositional content involves.
Propositional
content
Predicate
Argument
The role
of each
argument

9. PROPOSITIONNAL CONTENT
(cont)
E.g:
(1) The cat catches the mice.
(2) The mice catches the cat.

10. PROPOSITIONNAL CONTENT
(cont)
2. Semantic Roles.
- Semantic roles are a means to represent
sentence meaning in logical terms.

11. 2. Semantic Roles.
- According to Van Valin
Verb- specific roles
Thematic Roles
Macroroles

12. 2. Semantic Roles.
- Verb-specific roles:
runner, hater, killer, receiver, located, destroyed, given
to…
E.g: [The thief] killed [the couple]
killer Victim
[Nam] is running.
runner

13. 2. Semantic Roles.
- Thematic roles: generalization across the verb-
specific roles like
agent, instrument, experiencer, theme, patient.
Eg: [The thief] killed [the couple]
Agent Patient

14. - Thematic roles:
giver
runner
killer
speaker
AGENT
thinker
believer
hearer
feeler
taster
liker
lover
EXPERIENCER

15. - Thematic roles:
Given to
Sent to
Handed to
RECIPIENT
located
moved
given
THEME
broken
killed
destroyed
PATIENT

16. 2. Semantic Roles.
- Macroroles: generalization across the thematic roles
- Including: + Actor (agent, experiencer,
instrument, …)
+ Undergoer (patient, theme, recipient,
stimulus,…).
E.g: [The teacher] punishes [the students]
Actor Undergoer

17. E.g
Grammatical
Roles
(GR)
Semantic Roles
(SR)
Formal or
structural
nature
Bob opened the
door with a key.
Bob: Subject Bob: Agent
The door was
opened by a key.
The door: Subject The door: Instrument
Constancy in
paraphrase
Mary opened the
window.
Mary: Subject
The window: Object
Mary: Agent
The window: Affected
The window was
opened by Mary.
Mary: Object
The window: Subject
Mary: Agent
The window: Affected
Means of
expression in
language
Have certain
regular, concrete, for
mal properties.

18. 3. Argument and Predicate
E.g:
[Tom] is playing [football].
S/A1 V/P O/A2
[I] like [the play]
S/A1 V/P O/A2

19. - Predicate:
- Provides the most specific information about the argument
E.g: My wife is [writing] a report.
- Not all events are predicates:
E.g: My wife is [happy].
She is [my girlfriend].
Predicate ( an event is instantiated by the
entities “my wife” and “a report”)
Predicate

20. - Argument:
+ Refers to the roles involved
+ The number can vary depending on the
particular predicate which occurs
+ Be realized by the referring expression
+Not all entities are arguments
E.g: It rained heavily.
+ 2 sub groups:
Participant argument
Non-participant Argument

21. Doer/ Agent The one that performs an action.
E.g: She cooks the meal
Affected The role of an argument that undergoes some change
due to the action performed by the actor.
E.g: The dog bit the man.
Effected The role of an argument that come into being as a result
of the action performed by the predicate.
E.g: I ran a long distance.
Locative The place where an action happens
E.g: Ha Noi is a good place to live.
Instrument/
Means
The one that is used to perform an action.
E.g: I open the door with a key.

22. Recipient The one that receives.
E.g: She gave me an apple.
Goal The role of an argument that expresses the purpose of an
event.
E.g: She married him for the money.
Experiencer The one that experiences a
feeling/sensation/perception…
E.g: Nam loves Mai.
Carrier The role of an argument which possesses the attribute.
E.g: She was happy.
Identified The role of an argument that is identified by another
argument.
E.g: Hoa is my best friend.
Identifier The role of an argument that identifies another

23. - Predication: the basis of the relationship between
entities as argument and events as predicates.
• A proposition denotes
Things that are independent
and can stand alone
Things that are dependent
and can not stand alone

24. E.g: [The computer] was [broken down].
Entity/Individual (=>) Dependent
The instantiation of a dependent phenomenon in
an individual or entity is known as predication.

25. 3. notational representation of
proposition
3.1. two ways of representation of proposition

26. Traditional way Another way
- Argument : SINGLE LOWER
CASE LETTER
-predicate: CAPPITAL
LETTERS
Eg:  Walker loves Lis => w
LOVE l
-Using brackets to represent
arguments
Eg : (Walker) LOVE (Lis).
predicate are adjectives , verbs ,
prepositions, nouns.
She is nice => sNICE
 Mary smiles => mSMILE
 Joe was in New York last
month => jINn
 My brother is the best
manager => bMANAGER
(she) NICE
 (Mary) SMILE
 (Joe) IN ( New York)
 (My brother) MANAGER

27. NOTE
Referring expressions are : Nouns or Nouns phrases, a
particular someoe or something.
“ someone help me open the
door , please”
• There is no particular object
involved
“ someone” is not a
referring expression.
it is not symbolized by the
lower-case letters.
Someone called me last night
• Inevitably refers to a
particular person or object.
“someone” is a referring
expression .
It is symbolized by the lower-
case letters.

28. Practice.
• John and Marry are
married
• Arthur dreams
• Phil introduced Mary to
Jack
• Margaret is looking at
Billy
• Elen is envious of Jame
=> j MARRY m
=> a DREAM
=> p INTRODUCE m j
=> m LOOK b
=> e ENVIOUS j

29. 3. notational representation of
proposition (cont)
3.2 The combination of a predicate with
arguments
One – place argument Two- place predicate Three- place predicate
A predicate occurs
with one argument
a predicate occurs
with two arguments
A predicate occours
with three arguments
Eg:
The kangaroo jumped
up
Eg :
She became angry
with her husband
-Most prepositions
“ she was in New
York last week”
Eg :
He gave her a sweet
rose

30. NOTE:
Note 1.The non- personal “ IT”
- Weather verb: rain , snow , sleet, thunder.
- weather adjective : rainy, cold , sunny, hot.
E.g : “ It rained very hard”
“ It is very cold today”
“ IT” does not name any thing or entity.( the
argument is ZERO)

31. - Note 2: the less arguments, the less informative
the proposition.
E.g :
- “ my mother wrote me a letter”( three
arguments)
- “ my mother wrote me”( two argument )
- “ my mother wrote a letter”( two arguments)

32. - Note 3: some predicates in English require the
use of a reflexive argument.
E.g :
- She killed herself.
- I thought about myself.