Semantic Features
In semantic features, decomposing words meaning can clarify
how certain words relate to other words.
Semantic features that are part of the meanings of words and
sentence. For example:
The assassin killed Yukizayama.
The meaning of all nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs—the
content words and even some of the function words such as with
and over can at least partially be specified by such properties.
Evidence for Semantic Features
Intended Utterance Actual Utterance (Error)
bridge of the nose bridge of the neck
when my gums bled when my tongues bled
Mary was young Mary was early
he has to pay her alimony he has to pay her rent
The semantic properties that describe the linguistic meaning of a word
should not be confused with other nonlinguistic properties, such as physical
properties.
Semantic Feature of Nouns
tigress hen aunt maiden
doe mare debutante widow
ewe vixen girl woman
In some languages, nouns occur with classifiers, grammatical
morphemes that indicate the semantic class of the noun.
Semantic properties may have syntactic and semantic effects.
The kinds of determiners that a noun may occur with are
controlled by whether it is a “count” noun or a “mass” noun.
I have two dogs. I have two rices.
I have a dog. I have a rice.
I have dog. I have rice.
He has many dogs. He has many rice(s).
He has much dogs. He has much rice.
Semantic Features of Verbs
darken
Semantic feature of
kill ‘cause’
uglify
A feature of verbs that mean a change in location / possession, such as :
Jack swims.
The baby crawled under the table.
The boy threw the ball over the fence.
John gave Mary a beautiful engagement ring.
Eventives Statives
Mary was kissed by John. ?Mary is known by John.
Oysters were eaten by John. ?Oysters are liked by John.
John is kissing Mary. ?John is knowing Mary.
Negation: a particularly interesting component of the meaning of some verbs,
ungrammatical in certain simple affirmative sentences, grammatical in
corresponding negative ones.
*Mary will ever smile. (Cf. Mary will not ever smile.) negative polarity items.
John thinks that he’ll ever fly a plane again.
John doubts that he’ll ever fly a plane again.
Argument Structure
Verbs differ in terms of the number and types of NPs they can take as
complements.
transitive verbs such as find, hit, and chase.
intransitive verbs like arrive or sleep.
distransitive verbs like throw, give, etc.
The argument structure of a verb is part of its meaning and is included in its
lexical entry.
The verb is not only determines the number of arguments in a
sentence, but it also limits the semantic properties of both its subject
and its complements. Components of a verb’s meaning can also be
relevant to the choice of complements it can take.
Example :
1. John threw/tossed/kicked/flung the boy the ball.
2. *John pushed/pulled/lifted/hauled the boy the ball.
3. Mary faxed/radioed/e-mailed/phoned Helen the news.
4. *Mary murmured/mumbled/muttered/shrieked Helen the news.
Thematic Roles
Thematic roles express the kind of relation that holds between the arguments of the
verb and the type of situation that the verb describes.
Example :
The boy threw the red ball to the girl.
agent theme goal
Other thematic roles are source, where the action originates; instrument, the means
used to accomplish the action; and experiencer, one receiving sensory input:
Professor Snape awakened Harry Potter with his wand.
source experiencer instrument
Thematic role assignment is also connected to syntactic structure.
Thematic roles are the same in sentences that are paraphrases.
1. The dog bit the stick. / The stick was bitten by the dog.
2. The trainer gave the dog a treat. / The trainer gave a treat to the dog.
Thematic roles may remain the same in sentences that are not paraphrases,
as in the following instances:
3. The boy opened the door with the key.
4. The key opened the door.
5. The door opened.
