2. outline
Sense Properties
Stereotypes
Sense relation 1 (Identity and similarity)
Sense relation 2 (Oppositeness and dissimilarity)
3. In everyday life, people reach practical agreement on the meaning of
almost all the words they use. Thus it evokes the successful
communication.
In order to be able to talk meaningfully about anything, it is necessary to
agree on the meaning of the words involved.
4. If not, it will be like this example below:
A: ‘I saw something strange in the garden this morning.’
B: ‘Oh! What was it?’
A: ‘An animal perched on top of the clothes pole.’
B: ‘How do you know it was an animal?’
A: ‘I saw it. It was a cat.’
B: ‘You might have seen a cat, but how can you be sure it was an animal?’
A: ‘Well, of course it was an animal, if it was a cat.’
B: ‘I don’t see how that follows.’
5. The kind of meaning we are talking about is the kind associated with words and
sentences by langauge system, not the speaker meaning. It is so-called sense.
The Sense of an expression is the hard core of meaning.
Sense of an expression = sense of properties + Sense
relations with other expression
7. Example:
All the cats are animals (A), that man is human (A)
Rifatun is from Sumenep (S), that man is tall (S)
This animal is fruit (C),that man is a woman (C)
8. Practice:
Madura is an island A/S
Madurese never feels sad A/S
No Madurese likes traveling A/S
Madura is not a province A/S
John killed that bird, which remained alive for many days after
A/S/C
Some teachers are patient A/S/C
My bag is heavy A/S/C
Tyas is a man A/S/C
9. Exception from the elaboration above is:
The figurative use:
that man is not a human
Imperative:
please carry this with you!
Interrogative:
has he finished the experiment?
10. A NECESSARY CONDITION on the sense of a predicate is a condition (or criterion)
which a thing MUST meet in order to qualify as being correctly described by that
predicate.
A SUFFICIENT SET OF CONDITIONS on the sense of a predicate is a set of
conditions (or criteria) which, if they are met by a thing, are enough in
themselves to GUARANTEE that the predicate correctly describes that thing.
11. Example: square
necessary condition = ‘Four-sided’
‘Plane figure, four-sided, equal-sided, and containing right angles’ is a sufficient
set of conditions since if anything meets all of these conditions, it is guaranteed to
be a square.
‘Four-sided and containing right angles’ is not a sufficient set of conditions for
square. Many non-square shapes, such as rectangles and trapezoids, meet these
conditions.
‘Three-sided’ is not a necessary condition for square.
12. One of the best-known arguments (by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein) against the
idea that definitions of the meanings of words can be given in the form of sets of
necessary and sufficient conditions involves the word game (an amusement or a
contest).
13. STEREOTYPE
The STEREOTYPE of a predicate is a list of the TYPICAL characteristics or features of
things to which the predicate may be applied.
The stereotype of cat would be something like: Quadruped, domesticated, either black,
or white, or grey, or tortoise-shell, or marmalade in colour, or some combination of
these colours, adult specimens about 50 cm long from nose to tip of tail, furry, with
sharp retractable claws, etc., etc.
14. Prototype Stereotypes
One typical thing a set/ list of
characteristics
Particular
onewithin the
range
a range of
possibilities
Explained Explaining
15. Sense Relations
Similarity
Between predicates synonymy and hyponymy
Between sentences or propositions paraphrase and entailment
Dissimilarity
Between predicates antonymy
Between sentences or propositions contradictoriness
16. Synonymy
Synonymy similar sense between predicates, not between
words, cause a word may have many different senses, each
distinct sense is a predicate
E.g. : hide1 intransitive verb
hide 2 transitive verb
hide 3 noun
The examples of synonymy:
Adj – adj deep – profound
Verb – adj sleeping – asleep
Noun – noun teacher – educator
17. Hyponymy
Hyponymy the inclusion of the sense of one item in the sense of
another
In other word, hyponymy refers to a set or a group of words that
are included in a higher term or word; the higher or upper term is
called as superordinate, and the lower term is called as
hyponymy.
vegetable
Carrot cabbages spinach
Red
Scarlet maroon
18. Paraphrase
Paraphrase sentence which express the same proposition as another
sentence
e.g:
- Tom is always on time is a paraphrase of Tom is never late.
- - Some countries have no coastline is a paraphrase of Not all countries have a
coastline.
19. Entailment
Entailment proposition that follows another proposition
e.g. :
the entailment of Paul is an orphan, can be:
Paul does not have a father anymore.
Paul does not have a mother anymore.
Paul does not have a father and mother anymore.
20. Antonyms
Binary antonymy
if the one predicate is applicable, then the other cannot be, and vice versa
e.g. : true – false (if a sentence is true, it cannot be false, it cannot be true)
same – different, dead - alive
Converseness
same relationship between two things
(one order – opposite order)
e.g. : parent – children
X is the parent of Y
Y is the child of X
21. Gradable antonymy
they are at opposite ends of a continues scale of values
e.g. : hot – cold
long – short
Contradictory
it is impossible for them both to be true at the same time and of the same
circumstances
e.g. : The beetle is alive.
The beetle is dead.
22. Ambiguous
Cases of ambiguous
Words and phrases
Polysemy
Homonymy
Sentences
Lexical ambiguous
Grammatically ambiguous
e.g.: old men and women
23. Polysemy
Polysemy a word has several very closely related sense
e.g. :
eye human eye
the eye of needle
mouth mouth of a river
mouth of an animal
24. Homonymy
Same in both written and spoken with two or more unrelated meaning.
Bank (of a river)
Bank (of financial institution)
