Deny A. Kwary http://www.kwary.net

Sentential Semantics

Thematic Roles

 Agent: The entity that performs the action  Theme: The entity undergoing an action or a movement  Source: The starting point of a movement  Goal: The end point of a movement  Location: The place where an action occurs

Examples

 The laird sent the salmon from Inverness to Edinburgh

Agent Theme Source Goal

 The Barbarians practiced at Twickenham

Agent Location

 Terry gave the keys to Mary

Agent Theme Goal

Exercise #10, pp. 226-227

Sentential relations (1)

 Paraphrase: Two sentences that can have the same meaning.

a. The police chased the burglar & The burglar was chased by the police.

b. Paul bought a car from Sue & Sue sold a car to Paul

Sentential Relations (2)

 Entailment: a relation in which the truth of one sentence necessarily implies the truth of another.

 Examples of asymmetrical entailment.

a. The park wardens killed the tiger.

& The tiger is dead.

b. Robin is a man & Robin is human

Sentential Relations (3)

 Contradiction: When two sentences cannot both be true.

a. Charles is a bachelor.

b. Charles is married.

Exercise #12, p. 227

Metaphor: The understanding of one concept in terms of another

1. I’m feeling up Happy or Sad?

Happy 2. Her spirits sank 3. That boosted my spirits 4. The height of ecstacy 5. The depths of misery Sad Happy Happy Sad 6. He fell into a depression Sad Emotions: Happy is Up; Sad is down

Idioms

Two central features of idioms: 1. The meaning of the idiomatic expression cannot be deduced by examining the meanings of its parts.

2. The expression is fixed both grammatically and lexically.

For example:

Put a sock in it

= ‘stop talking’

Can you identify the meanings of the following idioms?

1.

2.

3.

4.

A high flyer.

A person who is very ambitious.

By word of mouth.

In a spoken form.

On the house.

Free for the customers.

Hot spot a.

b.

c.

A place of political danger.

A lively nightclub.

An area on the screen which can be clicked on to d.

start an operation such as loading a file.

An area where you can get connected to the Internet through a wireless network.