This document discusses semantics and semantic development. It begins by defining semantics as the study of word meaning. It then discusses the history of semantics, noting that interest in word meaning dates back to ancient Greece. It also outlines several important publications in semantics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that helped establish it as a modern linguistic discipline. The document goes on to discuss semantic development in children, outlining the stages of learning word meanings and common semantic errors made by children. It also discusses semantic features and roles, how meanings can be decomposed, and the underlying relationships between words and verbs.

1. SEMANTICS AND SEMANTIC
DEVELOPMENT
Presented by: Mahnoor Fatima
Maryium Bibi
Pakiza Mushtaq
Irfan Hafeez

2. SEMANTICS:
 In linguistic terminology the word semantics is used
to designate the science of word-meaning.
 The term, however, has acquired a number of
senses in contemporary science. Also, a number of
other terms have been proposed to cover the same
area of study, namely the study of meaning.
 A clearer definition of the meaning (or meanings) of
a word is said to contribute to removing the
"dogmatism" and "rigidity" of language and to make
up for the lack of emotional balance among people
which is ultimately due to language.

3. HISTORY OF SEMANTICS:
 It has often been pointed out, and for obvious
reasons, that semantics is the youngest branch of
linguistics Yet, interest in what we call today
"problems of semantics" was quite alive already in
ancient times.
 In ancient Greece, philosophers spent much time
debating the problem of the way in which words
acquired their meaning.
 The words, in themselves, Socrates points out, give
us no clue as to their "natural" meaning, except for
the nature of their sounds.

4. CONTINUED:
 Towards the end of the century (1897), M. Bréal
published an important book Essay de sémantique.
 In many ways it marks the birthday of semantics as
a modern linguistic discipline. Bréal did not only
provide the name for the new science, which
became general in use, but also circumscribed
more clearly its subject-matter.
 In 1887, ten years ahead of M. Bréal, Lazar
Saineanu published a remarkable book on
Semantics

5. CONTINUED:
 Within this process of development of the young
linguistic discipline, the 1921-1931 decade has a
particular significance. It is marked by the
publication of three important books By Jost Trier
(1931), G. Stern, (1931) and C. K. Ogden and J. A.
Richards: The Meaning of Meaning (1923).

6. SAMENTIC DEVELOPMENT:
 The average child masters about fifty words by the
age of eighteen months. These might include words
such as, milk, water, juice and apple (noun-like
words).
 Afterwards they acquire 12 to 16 words a day. By
the age of six, they master about 13 to 14 thousand
words.
 The most frequent words include adjective-like
expressions for displeasure and rejection such as
'no'. They also include social interaction words,
such as "please" and "bye".

7. THREE STAGES OF LEARNING MEANING OF
NEW WORDS:
 Whole object assumption:
A new word refers to a whole object. For example,
when an eighteen-months old child sees a sheep
and his mother points at it and says the word
'sheep', the child infers that the word 'sheep'
describes the whole animal and not parts of it (such
as color, shape, etc.).
 Type assumption:
A new word refers to a type of thing, not just to a
particular thing. For example, when the child hears
the word 'sheep' he infers that it is used for the
animal type and not only for that particular sheep
that he saw.

8. CONTINUED:
 Basic level assumption:
A new word refers to objects that are alike in basic
ways (appearance, behavior, etc.).
 In other words, when the child hears the word
"sheep" he overgeneralizes it to other animals that
look like sheep by the external appearance, such
as white, wooly and four-legged animal.

9. SEMANTIC ERRORS:
 Overextension: When a child says or hears a word,
they might associate what they see or hear as more
generalized concept than the real meaning of the
word. For example, if they say "cat", they might
overextend it to other animals with same features.
 Underextension: It involves the use of lexical items
in an overly restrictive fashion. For example: 'cat'
may only refer to the family cat and no other cat, or
'dog' may refer to certain kinds of dogs that the
child is exposed to.
 Verb meaning: when a pre-school child hears the
verb 'fill', he understands it as the action 'pour'
rather than the result, which is 'make full'.

10. MEANINGS
 When a child adds a new word to their vocabulary,
they are not immediately aware of its full range of
meanings.
 More time is required to acquire this additional
knowledge.

11. SEMANTIC FEATURES

12. SEMANTIC ANALYSIS
What's wrong with these sentences?
1. The football kicked the man.
2. The burger ate the girl.
3. The board marker was dancing.
4. The book play.

13. CONTINUE…….
 The problem is with the meanings of the words
used. They are wrong SEMANTICALLY.
 The door kicked the man
 The ship died.
 Football and board marker lack the crucial features
or attributes that are required to kick and dance.
 They cannot be the subject of these verbs
semantically.

14. SEMANTIC FEATURES
 Semantic features represent the basic conceptual
components of meaning for any lexical item. An
individual semantic feature constitutes one
component of a word's intension, which is the
inherent sense or concept evoked.
 It is a notational method which can be used to
express the existence or non-existence of pre-
established semantic properties by using plus and
minus signs.
 +animate / -animate


15. CONTINUE………………
 These features are distributed in the three types:
1. Category features
2. Function features
3. Property features

16. FEATURES OR ATTRIBUTES
Feature
s
Table Horse Boy Man Girl Woman
Animate _ + + + + +
Human _ _ + + + +
Female _ _ _ _ + +
Adult _ + _ + _ +
Non-
living
+ _ _ _ _ _

17. SEMANTIC FEATURES
 Semantic feature analysis allows us to decompose
words into bundles of attributes. This is based on
how an event or action is expressed linguistically.
 Features that can be considered may be as general
as
 +animate / -animate +human / -human +male / -
male
 Or if the words are fairly similar, they may be made
as specific as required.
 KING and Duke may share the features of being:
+male, +human, +adult, +royal
 But they are dissimilar in King [+ruler] & Duke [-
ruler]

18. SEMANTIC FEATURES
 It can be used to describe differences between
antonyms, hyponyms, and near synonyms.

19. SEMANTIC ROLE

20. DEFINITION
 A semantic role is the underlying relationship that
 a participant has with the main verb in a clause.
 Words are not just a “containers” of meanings. They
fulfill different “roles” within the situation described
by a sentence. For example: If the situation is a
simple event such as
The boy kicked the ball
 The verb „kicked‟ describes an action.
 The noun phrases ‘The boy’ and ‘the ball’ describe
the roles of entities such as people and things
involved in the action.

21. ROLES
 Agent
 Patient or Theme
 Instrument
 Experiencer
 Source
 Goal
 Location

22. AGENT
 The entity that performs the action is technically
known as “agent”.
 For example: The boy kicked the ball.
 As in the sentence one role is taken by the boy and
the boy performs the action, so it is agent.
 Although agents are typically human, they can also
be non-human forces, machines or creatures.
 For example: The wind blew the ball away. The car
ran over the ball.

23. THEME
 The entity that is involved in or affected by the
action is technically known as “theme”.
 For example: The boy kicked the ball. o In this
sentence “ball” is the theme because it is affected
by the action performed by the ‘agent’.
 The theme can also be an entity that is simply
being described. For example: The ball was red.
 The theme can also be human. Indeed the physical
entity can appear in two semantic roles. For
example: The boy kicked himself.

24. INSTRUMENT
 If an agent uses another entity in performing an
action, that other entity fills the role of instrument.
 For example: o She writes a letter. o He have the
lunch.
 In “writing with a pen” or “eating with a spoon” the
phrases “a pen” and “a spoon” have the semantic
role of instrument.

25. EXPERIENCER
 When a noun phrase designates an entity as a
person who has a feeling, a perception or a state, it
fills the role of experiencer.
 If we see, know or enjoy something, we do not
perform any action. In this way we are in the role of
experiencer.
 For example: Did you hear that noise? The
experiencer is “you” and theme is “that noise”.

26. LOCATION, SOURCE AND GOAL

27. LOCATION
 A number of semantic roles designates where an
entity is in the description of an event. And the
entity fills the role of Location.
 Location means the specification of the place where
the action or event is situated.
 Examples:
 The phone is in my hand.
 You are sitting on the chair.

28. SOURCE
 As there are many semantic roles so another is
Source.
 When a thing is moved from one place to another
from where it is moved or by which it is moved is
called the source.
 Examples:
 We learn psycholinguistics from Ma’am Manal.
 Corruption is made by Nawaz Sharif.

29. GOAL
 The process starts from the location then it moves
by source and now where actually the thing wants
to go is its goal.
 Examples:
 We learned by Ma’am Manal to present ourselves
to her.
 You are ready to go to home.
 He threw the book at me.