Phrasal Semantics III

Sentential semantics
Linguistics I
Martina Gračanin Yüksek
 Verb-centered meaning

• Last week, we said that lexical entries of verbs

contain their subcategorization frames.
• The subcategorization frame of a verb tells us
whether the verb needs a direct object or not.
• KISS SLEEP PUT
– V: [__ NP] - V: [__] - V: [__ NP PP]
 Verb-centered meaning

• But we saw that the meaning of sentences that

contain verbs with the same subcategorization
frames may have very different meanings:

• CREATE PLEASE
– V: [__ NP] -V: [__ NP]
 Verb-centered meaning

• 1. a. John created the song.

• b. #John pleased the song.

• 2. a. #The song created John.

• b. The song pleased John.

• The two arguments, the subject and the object, play

different roles in the two events.
• This is why (1a) contrasts with (2a) and (1b) contrasts
with (2b).
 Verb-centered meaning
• We said that the information about thematic
roles is represented in the lexicon, in the form
of a THETA GRID.
• CREATE agent theme
i j

• PLEASE theme experienc

er
i j
 Verb-centered meaning
• Last week, we looked at a similar contrast
between the verbs FRIGHTEN and FEAR.

• 3. a. The economical crisis frightens Mary.

• b. #The economical crisis fears Mary.

 Verb-centered meaning
• We know that the sentence in (3b) The
economical crisis fears Mary is weird.
• How do we know it?
• Because part of our knowledge of the verb
FEAR includes the information about what
kind of arguments this verb requires.
• We know that its subject must be
something capable of experiencing fear,
and that its object must be something that
can be scary.
 Verb-centered meaning
• This information is encoded in our lexicon
in the form of a theta-grid.
– FEAR – V: [__ NP]

Experiencer theme
i j

- FRIGHTEN – V: [ __ NP]
Theme experiencer
i j
 Verb-centered meaning
• In order to decide whether a sentence is
semantically well-formed, we first need to
compute its meaning.
• The economical crisis frightens Mary.
– 1. Identify the meanings of the parts.
the economical crisis Meaning A
frighten Meaning B
Mary Meaning C
 Verb-centered meaning
– 2. Look at the structural relations in the
sentence: which NP is the subject and which
NP is the object:

the economical crisis SUBJECT

Mary OBJECT
 Verb-centered meaning
– 3. Check the theta grid of the verb FRIGHTEN,
and match the theta roles in it with the NPs in
the sentence.
• FRIGHTEN
Theme experiencer
i j

The economical crisis i frightens Mary j .

SUBJECT OBJECT
theme experiencer
 Verb-centered meaning
• The economical crisis = theme
• Mary = experiencer
• Is the semantics of the NP the economical
crisis compatible with the theta role of a
theme?
• YES!
• Is the semantics of the NP Mary compatible
with the theta role of an experiencer?
• YES!
• The sentence is semantically well-formed!
 Verb-centered meaning
• Let us do the same for the sentence in (3b).
• #The economical crisis fears Mary.
– 1. Identify the meanings of the parts.

the economical crisis Meaning A

fear Meaning B
Mary Meaning C
 Verb-centered meaning
– 2. Look at the structural relations in the
sentence: which NP is the subject and which
NP is the object:

the economical crisis SUBJECT

Mary OBJECT
 Verb-centered meaning
– 3. Check the theta grid of the verb FEAR, and
match the theta roles in it with the NPs in the
sentence.
• FEAR
Experiencer theme
i j

The economical crisis i fears Mary j .

SUBJECT OBJECT
experiencer theme
 Verb-centered meaning
• The economical crisis = experiencer
• Mary = theme
• Is the semantics of the NP Mary compatible
with the theta role of a theme?
• YES!
• Is the semantics of the NP the economical
crisis compatible with the theta role of an
experiencer?
• NO!
• The sentence is semantically ill-formed!
 Verb-centered meaning
• Let us consider the following sentence:
• 4. *John kissed the mother the father.
• The sentence is bad.
• Why?
• Let us look at what thematic roles the verb KISS
has to assign.
• KISS
Agent theme
i j
 Verb-centered meaning
• Which NP receives the agent theta role?
• The subject NP: JOHN
• Which NP receives the theme theta role?
• Well…
• Suppose the object NP the mother receives it.
• Did NP the father receive a theta role?
• NO!

• The sentence is bad because there is an

argument of the verb (the father) that did not
receive a theta role.
 Verb-centered meaning
• Suppose the NP the father receives the
theta role.
• Did NP the mother receive a theta role?
• NO!

• The sentence is bad because there is an

argument of the verb (the mother) that did
not receive a theta role.
 Verb-centered meaning
• So, we can conclude that a sentence should
contain no arguments that do not receive a
theta role.
• In other words, it seems that every argument
must receive a theta role.
 Verb-centered meaning
• Suppose we say that the verb KISS assigns
the theme theta role to both NP the mother
and NP the father.
• 4. *John kissed the mother the father.
theme
• Recall our conclusion from the previous slide:
• Every argument must receive a theta
role.
• Is this requirement met?
• YES!
 Verb-centered meaning
• However, the sentence is bad.
• It seems that our conclusion is not enough
to ensure that sentences are well formed.
• We need to say something stronger about
the distribution of theta-roles in the
sentence.
• More precisely, we need to add that one
theta role cannot be assigned to more than
one argument.
 Verb-centered meaning
• The distribution of theta-roles in a sentence
is governed by the principle that we call the
Theta Criterion.

• 5. THETA CRITERION:
– Every argument is assigned one and only
one theta role, and
– Every theta role is assigned to one and
only one argument.
 YOUR TURN!
• Compare the sentences below and explain
why sentence (6) is good, and sentence (7)
is bad.
• 6. Bob sleeps.
• 7. *Bob sleeps cookies.

• Hint: there are two reasons why (9) is bad:

one that explains why it is syntactically bad,
and the other why it is semantically bad.
 YOUR TURN!
• Compare the sentences below and explain why
sentence (6) is good, and sentence (7) is bad.
• 6. Bob sleeps.
• 7. *Bob sleeps cookies.

i. Because the verb sleep is intransitive

(V: [__NP]) and it cannot appear with an object.
ii. Because the Theta Criterion is violated.
 YOUR TURN!
• Look at the following good sentence in
Croatian:
• 8. Ljepotica mrzi zvijer.
• Below is the theta grid for the verb mrziti.
• MRZITI Experiencer theme
i j

• Which of the following might this verb mean:

– A) HIT B) PICK
– C) HATE D) MAKE
 YOUR TURN!
• Look at the following good sentence in
Croatian:
• 8. Ljepotica mrzi zvijer.
• Below is the theta grid for the verb mrziti.
• MRZITI Experiencer theme
i j

• Which of the following might this verb mean:

– A) HIT B) PICK
– C) HATE D) MAKE
 YOUR TURN!
• Given what you have concluded, what do
you think is the meaning of the NP
ljepotica?
• A) dark wood B) old car
• C) beautiful girl D) expensive bicycle
 YOUR TURN!
• Given what you have concluded, what do
you think is the meaning of the NP
ljepotica?
• A) dark wood B) old car
• C) beautiful girl D) expensive bicycle
• zvijer means ‘beast’.
 YOUR TURN!
• Look at the following good sentence in
Croatian:
• 9. Ljepotica bere ruže.
• Below is the theta grid for the verb brati.
• BRATI Agent theme
i j

• Which of the following might this verb mean:

– A) LOVE B) PICK
– C) ADORE D) ANNOY
 YOUR TURN!
• Look at the following good sentence in Croatian:
• 9. Ljepotica bere ruže.
• Below is the theta grid for the verb brati.
• BRATI
Agent theme
i j

• Which of the following might this verb mean:

– A) LOVE B) PICK
– C) ADORE D) ANNOY
• Ruže means ‘roses’.
 YOUR TURN!
• Why is sentence in (10) semantically ill-formed?
– Is the Theta Criterion violated?
– Which argument is problematic (the subject or the
object)?
• 10. #My window hugged the dog.
• What does the theta grid for the verb hug look
like?
a) Experiencer Theme b) Agent Theme c) Experiencer Theme
i j i j i j
 YOUR TURN!
• Is the Theta Criterion violated by sentence in (11)?
• 11. *The cat annoyed.
• What does the theta grid for the verb annoy look like?
a) b) c)
Experiencer Theme Agent Theme Experiencer Theme
i j i j i j

• Are the subcategorization properties of the verb

annoy met?
• Identify the subcategorization frame of annoy.
a) V: [ __ NP] b) V: [ __ (NP)] c) V: [ __ ]
Sentential semantics
 Truth conditions
• When we compute the meaning of any
semantically well-formed sentence, we may
then decide whether the sentence is TRUE or
FALSE.
• For example, consider the following sentence:
• 1. Our linguistics teacher is French.
• Is this sentence true or false?
• FALSE!
 Truth conditions
• How can you tell?
• Because you know that your linguistics teacher
is Croatian, therefore, she cannot be French.
• Suppose we utter this sentence to somebody
who doesn’t know anything about your
linguistics teacher. Say this person’s name is
Ahmet.
• Would Ahmet be able to tell whether the
sentence is true or false?
• NO!
 Truth conditions
• Ok, Ahmet does not know whether the
sentence is true or false.
• However, does he know what circumstances
would have to hold in the world in order for
this sentence to be true?
• YES!
• He knows that in order for the sentence to be
true, your linguistics teacher would have to be
French.
 Truth conditions
• In other words, Ahmet knows the TRUTH
CONDITIONS of the sentence.
• 2. TRUTH CONDITIONS
– Truth conditions of a sentence are circumstances
(that have to hold in the world) under which the
sentence is true.
• Because he knows what the truth conditions of
the sentence are, Ahmet can find out whether
the sentence is true or false.
• All he needs to figure out is whether the truth
conditions of this sentence are met, i.e. whether
or not your linguistics teacher is French.
 Truth conditions
• Look now at the following sentence:
• 3. Alp believes that his linguistics teacher is
French.
• Can this sentence be true?
• YES – it is true if and only if Alp believes that
his linguistics teacher is French.
• The sentence is false if and only if Alp has no
such belief.
 Truth conditions

3. Alp believes that his linguistics teacher is French.

FALSE

TRUE

In other words, for a sentence to be true, not

all of its parts have to be true.
 Truth conditions - Paraphrase
• Recall that we said before that two sentences
may be paraphrases of each other.
• When are two sentences paraphrases?
• If they mean the same thing.
• In other words, if they have the same truth
conditions.
• Usually, active-passive pairs of sentences are
paraphrases:
– 4. John passed the exam.
– 5. The exam was passed by John.
 Truth conditions - Paraphrase
• What are the truth conditions of the sentence
in (4) John passed the exam?
• In other words, when is sentence (4) true?
• If and only if John indeed passed the exam.
• Now, what are the truth conditions of the
sentence in (5) The exam was passed by John
– when is that sentence true?
• If and only if John indeed passed the exam.
• Since the truth conditions of these two
sentences are the same, they are paraphrases.
 Truth conditions - Paraphrase
• However, active-passive pairs are not always
paraphrases.
• Consider the following pair:
– 6. Every student in this room speaks two
languages.
– 7. Two languages are spoken by every student
in this room.
• What are the truth conditions of (6)?
• It must be the case that every student in the
room speaks two languages.
 Truth conditions - Paraphrase
• For example:
• 6. Every student in this room speaks two 
languages.
Turkish
Japanese

Italian
German
English
Russian
 Truth conditions - Paraphrase
• But:
• 7. Two languages are spoken by every 
student in this room.
Turkish
Japanese

Italian
German
English
Russian
 Truth conditions - Paraphrase
• For this sentence to be true, the same two
languages have to be spoken by every
student.
Turkish
Japanese 

Turkish
Japanese
Turkish
Japanese
 Truth conditions – Entailment
• Two sentences may both be true, or they
may both be false, or one may be true and
the other one may be false.
– 8. John is in love with Chris.    
– 9. Chris is married.    

• However, with some pairs of sentences, if

one sentence is true, then another sentence
must necessarily also be true.
 Truth conditions – Entailment
• In other words, it may be the case that the
truth of one sentence entails the truth of
the other sentence.

– 10. John killed Chris.

   
– 11. Chris is dead.    

• So, entailment means that one sentence

(11) cannot be false unless another one (10)
is false.
Truth conditions – Contradiction
• When two sentences contradict each other,
it means that when one is true, the other
must necessarily be false.

– 12. John killed Chris.

   
– 13. Chris is alive.    

• Contradiction means that one sentence (12)

cannot be true unless another one (13) is
false.
 Sentential semantics - summary
• We can decide whether a certain sentence is
true or false if we know its truth conditions.
• Truth conditions are circumstances that have
to hold in the world in order for the sentence
to be true.
 Sentential semantics - summary
• Thus, we might not know whether the
sentence in (14) is true or not, but we know
what the world would have to be like in
order for it to be true.
• 14. Our Linguistics I textbook has 520 pages.
• In other words, if (14) is true, then the
world must be such that in it, our textbook
has 520 pages.
 Sentential semantics - summary
• Pairs of sentences may be semantically:
– Unrelated to one another,
– Paraphrases of one another,
– Entailments of one another,
– Contradictions of one another.

• Semantically unrelated sentences:

– 15. John is happy.
– 16. John is an electrical engineer.
 Sentential semantics - summary
• Paraphrases – same meaning, same truth
conditions:
– 17. John gave a book to Mary.
– 18. John gave Mary a book.

• Entailment – if one of the sentences is true,

the other one must also be true:
– 19. Chris is pregnant.
– 20. Chris is a woman.
 Sentential semantics - summary
• Contradiction – if one sentence is true, the
other one must be false:
– 21. John is a bachelor.
– 22. John is married.