Syntax and semantics vocab
ENG 213 Handouts

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Here are some of the terms/vocabulary words you need to be familiar with from the Syntax and Semantic chapters.

Homonyms: Different words pronounced, and possibly spelled, the same.
to, two, too; bare, bear; bat--the animal or bat--the stick for baseball.
 
Heteronyms:  words spelled the same but pronounced differently and having different meanings.
Sow (the pig) sow (plant seeds)
 
Homographs:  words spelled the same, possibly even pronounced the same, that have different meanings
Trunk (the elephants nose OR a place to pack your clothes)
 
Synonyms: Different words with the same (or nearly the same) meaning.
sofa and couch; purse and handbag; car and automobile.
 
Antonyms: Words that are opposite in meaning.
 
There are complementary pairs--one is the negation of the other:  to be alive is to be not dead, so alive vs. dead.
 
Gradable pairs--more of one is less of the other:  more warm is less cold; there is gradation related to the word being modified (a large mouse is not the same as a large elephant but there is a difference between a large mouse and a small elephant).
 
Relational opposites--shows the same relationship is the words were reversed:  parent vs. child; employer vs. employee  (John is the parent of Charlie; Charlie is the child of John.  Steve is the employer of Susan.  Susan is the employee of Steve.)
 
Paraphrase: sentences with the same meaning, except possibly for minor differences in emphasis.
He ran up a big bill and He ran a big bill up.

Anomalous: sentences that deviate from certain semantic rules. 

The six subjunctive crumbs twitched

Metaphorical (speak in metaphor): may have a literal and a non-literal meaning.  Similar to slang--this could mean something to a particular group.

He=s out in left field.  I would not touch her with a ten foot pole.

Speech acts: the act of stating something makes it so (or makes it happen).  The non-linugustic accomplishments of an utterance.

I promise...; I now pronounce you husband and wife; Look out (as a warning)

Presupposition: Implicit assumptions about the world required to make an utterance meaningful or appropriate.

AThe law will make getting visas more difficult.@  presupposes that visas were already difficult to get.

Deixis: descibes words or expressions whose reference relies entirely on context for meaning.

person, time place or demonstrative article deixis.  I, you, there, now, then, this, etc.

Sytax: he rules of sentence formation; the component of the mental grammar that represents speakers= knowledge of the structure orphrases and sentences

Rules of Sytax: principles of grammar which account for grammaticality, word order, structural ambiguity, meaning relations between words, and more.

Lexicon: the component of the grammar containing speakers= knowledge about morphemes and words; a speaker=s mental dictionary. 

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