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Compositional Semantics

Compositional semantics deals with how the meanings of phrases and sentences are composed from the meanings of their parts. Non-idiomatic sentence meanings are compositional - they combine the meanings of smaller linguistic units like words. Understanding a sentence involves knowing its truth conditions and whether circumstances can make it true, not necessarily its actual truth value. Entailment occurs when one statement is necessarily true if another is true. Presupposition is when determining the truth of one statement assumes another is true. Verbs associate roles like agent, theme, and instrument with their arguments. These thematic roles are part of a verb's meaning and constrain its arguments.

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Krystelle Joy Zipagan
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236 views

Compositional Semantics

Compositional semantics deals with how the meanings of phrases and sentences are composed from the meanings of their parts. Non-idiomatic sentence meanings are compositional - they combine the meanings of smaller linguistic units like words. Understanding a sentence involves knowing its truth conditions and whether circumstances can make it true, not necessarily its actual truth value. Entailment occurs when one statement is necessarily true if another is true. Presupposition is when determining the truth of one statement assumes another is true. Verbs associate roles like agent, theme, and instrument with their arguments. These thematic roles are part of a verb's meaning and constrain its arguments.

Uploaded by

Krystelle Joy Zipagan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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COMPOSITIONAL SEMANTICS

ROCHELLE MANSIBANG
 Deals with phrasal and sentence meaning.
 Non-idiomatic meanings are compositional in that they combine
the meanings of smaller units.

m&ms blue m&ms


 What those understanding a sentence involve?
-knowing what circumstances a sentences can be
true in (i.e. its truth conditions)
-it is not necessary to know whether a sentence is
true or not.
Example:
“A bird is the hallway right now.”
ENTAILMENT
Whenever A is true, B is necessary true.
Examples:
 Regine ate apples and grapes.

(Entails)Regine ate apples.


 Most linguists are vegetarians.

(Entails)At least one linguist is vegetarians.


 A cat chased a rat.

(Entails)A rat was chased.


PRESUPPOSITION
 A presupposes B when, to determine whether A is
true or false, one must assume B is true.
Examples:
 Peter has quit smoking.

(Presupposes)Peter smoked before.


 Emily never went to Philadelphia again.

(Presupposes)Emily has been to Philadelphia


before.
THEMATIC ROLES
 Phrases play various roles (called ‘thematic
roles’) in sentences.
 Some thematic roles are given below:

 Agent (initiator of action)


 Theme (undergoes action)
 Instrument (to accomplish action)
 Goal (endpoint of change in location)
“John gave the book of Sarah.”
Agent Theme Recipient

“Jeff saw the moon with a telescope”


Experiencer Theme Instrument

“I walked from Newark to Wilmington.”


Agent Source Goal
 Parts of a verb’s meaning is the thematic roles is
requires.
Examples:
• John ran cf. *John ran the car.
RUN <agent>
• John shot the bear. Cf. * John shot.
SHOOT <agent, theme>
 A verb can have an <agent> subject:
• John ran.
 A verb can take a <theme> subject:
• The ship sank.
 A verb can take an <agent> subject + <theme>
object.
• The navy sank the ship.
 A verb cannot take a <theme> subject + <agent>
object.
 Do not confuse thematic role with grammatically
relation.
 Grammatical relations (simplified):
• Subject
• Object/indirect object
• Oblique (object of a preposition)
 Consider the following:
• Michelle opened the door with this key. (agent)
• The door opens easily. (theme)
• This key will open the door. (instrument)
 Grammatical relations are syntactic, not
semantic.
 Syntactic processes may alter which thematic
roles appear in which argument relations.
 Passivization: an object become a subject, a
subject may occur in a by-phrase.
John shot the bear – The bear was shot by
John.
 Sink-type verbs

• The navy sank the ship – (i.e. the navy caused


the ship to sink.)
• The ship sank.

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