I.

Semantics and its main considerations:

- The study of meaning in language:
câu 3 và câu 8 → cái gì được dùng để định nghĩa của từ?
II. Word meaning:
- What is the meaning of the word “teacher”?

Đưa ra định nghĩa: đưa ra đặc điểm (person or not) → “someone” or “teach” is a semantic
feature that defines the word “teacher”
Semantic features will help you identify the meaning of the word
1. Semantic features:
 - the smallest units of meaning in a word

darken: impact, cause

fall: motion, movement
build: create
hit: making direct contact
⇒ Trường từ vựng, trường ngữ nghĩa: semantic fields
THE SEMANTIC FEATURE OF “LIQUID” IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH “BEND”

sleep is an unconscious state without emotion

⇒ ANOMALY: combining two words that cannot combined
nhưng không phải lúc nào ANOMALY cũng nonsense
⇒ an interesting ecstatic images

- help combinations between words

THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF WORD MEANING:
1. DENOTATION:
- the exact meaning
2. Connotation:
- feeling of the interlocutor
Figurative: hình tượng, Connotation: tình cảm
Figures of speech: biện pháp tu từ
==============================================
ví dụ: I go to school
GV: đi dạy, HS: Đi học, PH: đi họp ph

Word meaning

utterance: the use of language in a particular situation, depending much on the speaker
chấm thứ 2: “I’ll be back later” → literally return → not care about this, more concerned with
the utterance meaning.
chấm thứ 3: do not refer to the literal meaning, utterance meaning.
Chấm thứ 4: word meaning
→ semantics focus on sentence meaning, it will be easier to formulate the semantic rules no
matter who say it, determined by the language only, context-free
→ dễ để tìm ra anomaly dựa vào sentence meaning hơn là utterance meaning
because utterance varies (context, circumstance, speaker)

Listening speaking:
2. Proposition

Asserting:
- harry and garbage existence
- the action

- you
- toothbrush
- you’ve seen my toothbrush → but the purpose is different, I am not asserting this
action, I am questioning whether the proposition is true or not.

The proposition:
- The listener or the other interlocutor
- Action: get out of here
→ no asserting the truth → demanding the realization or the practice of the proposition
1. different sentences, same propositions
2. different sentences, same propositions → paraphrase
3. different propositions
4. different propositions: kill khác caused to die
1.
2. It’s hard to determine whether meaning is grammatical or not → yes for utterances and
sentences
3.
4.
5. the meaning is universal, not belongs to any particular language alone
⇒ UTTERANCE: is a physical activity → physical quality
⇒ SENTENCES: organizing words to form a sentence to describe a proposition
⇒ PROPOSITION: describe a thought, a state of affair
ĐÚNG HAY SAI NGỮ PHÁP: không liên quan đến meaning
bài 3
Reference: indicating a particular subject and outside the language.
“My cat” to call the cat at my home → reference
Thông thường nouns và pronouns có chức năng reference (quy chiếu)
Referent: the particular subject being referred to

1. the particular book that i am holding

 2. no
3. it can referred to any book depends on the context. → different reference
4. the sun: refer to one refer
5. my mom
6. Ms Hoa, my semantic teacher.
7. my teacher (me and other students)
8. conjunctions

Variable: my cat, this book

Constant: the sun
Co-reference: Ms Hoa & my semantics teacher.
co-reference

no, meaning includes reference, but other aspects of meaning as well

xét về mối quan hệ giữa các từ với nhau, inside the language, nghĩa của các từ đó, không
quy chiếu ra hiện thực khách quan.(đồng nghĩa trái nghĩa trong word meaning)
Sense → relationship between words: synonimy

the sense of bachelor and married is related.

mother - father: based on the semantic feature/ relationship → kinship terms → sense
relation: parental, but contrast to each other.

Can a word have more than 1 sense? (homonymy)

- Bank: where to store and transact money
 - bank: the river bank
Father: family member/ religious term, works at the church
Can a sentence have more than 1 sense (sentence meaning, not utterance meaning when
a sentence used in different contexts)?
→ Ambiguous sentence

Câu 1: - The chicken is ready to eat sth/ be eaten by somebody.

Câu 2: He greeted and he smiled - he greeted the girl who was smiling at that time.
→ due to the ambiguity of the words → Lesson 4: sense relation between the sentences.

Tổng kết:
WHEN WE ARE TOLD TO LOOK AT THE TREE, WE WILL CHOOSE THE ONE ON THE
LEFT ⇒ we identify the referent “tree” of an expression by the meaning/ sense of that
expression ⇒ we should know about the sense of the expression

if the word is said to have meaning -> it has sense too (the indispensable core of meaning),
but not always referent, if the expression is not used to refer. (but, however, if, and, or)

⇒ the fruitcake is the expression, rock-hard object is not the denotation/ definition of the fruit
cake ⇒ reference

⇒ his former friend is to refer, not to explain. The word “me” is not the definition of his former
friend ⇒ reference

Khi người ta quan tâm đến nghĩa nội tại của từ đó hơn ⇒ The speaker is asking for the
definition, more concerned with the sense of “unique” ⇒ sense

từ đồng nghĩa ⇒ sense

sense

you are referring to a particular person

a, c, d → referring expression
Our neighbor → a particular person that i know → referring expression

Definite phrases: very like ly to be referring expression

Is Fred a referring expression?

The speaker doesnt referring a particular Fred

The speaker doesn’t know who will marry Nancy → no

Not a referring expression → the donkey in general, it could be any donkey, not a particular
one.
I have a donkey and I love it → a referring expression.

The speaker has no idea about who exactly the witnesses are, the reference is not known to
the police.
The man beat me at the party → I know who he is → referring expression.
⇒ based on the context to identify whether the speaker knows the referent or not

a. The speaker met and talked to that man → had a particular man in mind
b. Just to contrast a man as an human being, not an animal → not a referring
expression
c. He is a man in his gender, as many other men → the feature that describes John
(masculinity) → do not refer to a particular man John is like

It depends whether the speaker knows that man or not

- Nancy’s dream
- She has already engaged, and her husband

- His car is stolen

- John wants to buy a car, no particular car in mind.
 specific, particular
John is looking for a certain car
Nancy wants to marry a specific Norwegian

======================================================================

Xét trên referring expression

RE: Donald trump, the current US president → the same referrent

→ EQUATIVE SENTENCE: 2 RE referring to the same referent

Câu đồng đẳng

1.
2. They do not refer to the same city (do nó có chữ not
3. Chỉ có 1 RE, a very large city could be any city that meets this feature. → no equative
sentence.

4. 2 RE → the same person

an idiot does not identify a particular person

⇒ bao nhiêu RE? có đồng đẳng không.

The whale is not refer to any particular whale → a species

The largest mammal = not one particular largest mammal individual → a whole species,
whales in general

The first one is generic

the second one: a particular whale in this utterance → RE
Generic

A particular person

all the male beings of the species → generic

Generic: because the present simple → the habit of the wasp → a statement describing
bees.

no

======================================================================

→ we need to have an agreement on meanings to communicate with each other → word

mean what it means → most words mean what they mean
the speaker is near the book

tomorrow: the day after the day I made the utterance

→ deixis: trực chỉ.

person deictic reference: I, you. thay đổi có hệ thống và có quy luật

spatial deictic reference: this that (không gian)
temporal (time): now, today, tomorrow
tr.65-69, 70

when you say go to school, you are not at school

go is to signal a movement that is away to the speaker
opposite to “go” in deixis is “come” → indicate a movement towards the speaker

Bring → towards to speaker

Take → away from the speaker
⇒ you place the speaker at the center → decide which deixis to use, or which utterances to
use in the context
⇒ flexibility of the language

Before: the use of past tense

Simple future tense → the event had not happened yet.

the event must have happened before 1993

change the deictic words to fit with the context; the meaning of these words are extracted
from the context.
 DEFINITENESS
definiteness là một tính chất có thể được biểu hiện qua việc sử dụng the trong noun
phrase

Ex: I have already mentioned “that book” → when I said “the book” → you know what
“that book
khi người nói nghĩ rằng người nghe có thể xác định được thứ mình muốn nói, họ
dùng definiteness
hoặc nếu vật mình nói đến là unique, chỉ có một (trong tự nhiên hoặc trong ngữ cảnh
đó như “that book”), người nghe có thể xác định được referent.

the speaker assume that the lisne

you can only use she when the hearer can identify which female person you are
talking about
the speaker do not expect the listener to identify a particular whale ⇒ generic
sentences
phải dựa vào ngữ cảnh để xác định xem người nghe có biết con whale đó hay
không ⇒ không có tính chất xác định về mặt ngữ nghĩa

⇒ they are definite noun phrase in grammar, but not semantically definite. (về mặt
ngữ pháp và ngữ nghĩa).

Does definiteness tell the hearer any descriptive 

features of the referent? 

 
No qualities to help the listener interpret the situation. 
 
Basically, these two sentences mean the same thing (man, took my wallet). The 
difference is based on the definite  
 
The man took my wallet → may or may not know who took my wallet. I know that the 
hearer may know about this referent. 
 
I have a cat, the cat is male → I have mentioned it before, and I assume the hearer 
will be able to identify which cat. 
 
Dùng the → tôi signal cho bạn là bạn có biết cái reference đó, bạn nghĩ lại xem. 
 
 
synonyms may differ in their connotation

more formal

theo định nghĩa của sense, không tính đến chuyện connotation, formal hay informal

⇒ Mặc dù conceal với hide khác nhau về mặt formality, nhưng nó vẫn là synonym.
Intensity or emotions: yes
Measurement: no (no “profound river”)
⇒ a word may have different senses,

Để làm rõ chuyện đồng nghĩa bán phần hay 1 phần, ta đặt nó vào trong câu

big and large do not share all of their senses.

1. personality
2. synonymous: size or measurement.. but in terms of
 3. planet
4. intelligence

Colors includes red

sense of red includes sense of color
Hyponymy là mối quan hệ bao nghĩa (nghĩa của từ này bao hàm, hoặc được bao
hàm một phần trong phần của từ kia)
Superordinate: được bao hàm trong nghĩa của hyponym

hiện tượng bao nghĩa hai chiều: đồng nghĩa

_________________________________________
All the words above have antonyms
The contrast in meaning (relationship between) of good - bad is different between
true - false.
⇒ words maybe opposite in different manners

Normally, people think about one main difference, not combining all the contrasting
features
We see that combinations of binary antonyms produce more complicated (e.g.
four-way) systems of contrast, but that within such systems the most natural way to
pair off pairs of antonyms is along the same dimension, e.g. man vs woman (along
the male/female dimension), but not man vs girl (cutting across both dimensions).

If a predicate describes a relationship between two things (or people) and some
other predicate describes the same relationship when the two things (or people) are
mentioned in the opposite order, then the two predicates are CONVERSES of each
other.
Teachers and students, hyponym and hypernym, lend and borrow are also
converses.
If I lend you sth, you are borrowing sth from me.
Converses (relational antonyms: mối quan hệ 2 chiều nghịch nhau. X là mẹ của Y thi
Y là con của X. Có từ này sẽ có từ kia.
Comparatives cũng là một hình thức converses.
Đôi khi một từ cũng là converse của chính nó (friends, siblings, partner, classmate),
the symmetrical relation is internal
CONVERSES:
- below and above
- grandparent - grandchild
- greater than - less than
- own - belong
- buy - sell
- borrow and lend
For binary, they always come in pairs. For converse, they mostly come in pairs.
Multiple incompatible (non-binary antonyms) comes in group, and they are mutually
exclusive.
If it is A, it cannot be B, C, D
If it is not A, it must be one of B C D.
Example: breakfast, lunch, dinner; solid, gas and liquid; dog, cat, lion… (nếu là chó
thì nó không thể là một trong những con còn lại không phải chó);
The scale can vary, depends on the perception of the speaker. A certain temperature
is considered hot in cold areas, not to people in tropical area.
1000 degree is normal to cooking, and 40 is not even enough for heating, but 40 is
extremely dangerous to body temperature.
Multiple incompatible khá là fixed, con chó là con chó, con chó không thể là con mèo
trong ngữ cảnh khác.
Với gradable antonyms (nó linh động) khác multiple incompatible nhưng MI không
được xếp trên một thang tăng dần giảm dần, không có cái nào là 2 cái extreme hay
opposite ends. Hai từ antonyms của GA của 2 đầu.

intensifier like: very, quite, extremely

constructions → they can be measured, graded
BBCBC
Bat = homonymy = từ đồng âm (two different words happen to have the same
spelling)
Face = polysemy = từ đa nghĩa (can trace the new sense to the original sense,
display different aspect of meaning but still related)
ambiguous: a word has many sense

race: horse race and ethnic race → homonymy

wing: of a bird, and a building wing, theater wing (cánh gà), football field cũng có
wing (the part from either side sticking to the center) → polysemy
date: ngày tháng; a type of fruit → homonymy
cuộc hẹn hò; cuộc gặp mặt; đối tượng hẹn hò → polysemy
1H, 2P, 3P, 4H, 5P, 6H

Bài tập trang 131

SENSE PROPERTIES:
IF YOU TELL SB STH THAT THEY ARE ALREADY KNOW, YOU ARE REQUIRE
THEM TO READ BETWEEN THE LINES.

I ASSUME THAT YOU WILL TRY TO FIND THE UNDERLYING MESSAGE → HE’S
TOO CRUEL → AN EMPHASIS → NOT IN THE LITERAL WAY.
MỐI QUAN HỆ CỦA CÁC CÂU CÓ LIÊN HỆ VỚI RELATIONSHIP GIỮA CÁC TỪ
1. CONTRADICTION / CONTRADICTORINESS
2. ONE- WAY ENTAILMENT
3. PARAPHRASE (DIFFER IN FORMALITY
4. ONE-WAY ENTAILMENT
5. PARAPHRASE
VỚI MỘT CÂU CÓ CHỨA TỪ MƠ HỒ, CHƯA CHẮC CÂU CỦA MÌNH CŨNG MƠ
HỒ, VÌ CÂU CÓ CHỨC NĂNG LÀM RÕ NGHĨA CỦA TỪ.,
This, that, there
I, you, here.
THIS DIAGRAM IS NOT HOW SENTENCES ARE FORMED
NO, BECAUSE THEY APPEAR IN ORDER
NO, FOR EXAMPLE: “OLD SAM SUNBATHED” IS STILL A COMPLETE
SENTENCE.
FOR EXAMPLE, “NEXT TO ME” AND “VERY TALKATIVE” IS INCLUDED IN THE
PHRASE “ THE VERY TALKATIVE GENTLEMEN NEXT TO ME”
REPLACEMENT TEST: “THE VERY...NEXT TO ME” → HE;
QUESTION TEST:
- WHAT DID HE DO? → LIT A CIGAR → IT’S A PHRASE
- HOW IS THE GENTLEMENT → VERY TALKATIVE
MOVEMENT TEST: MOVE “BESIDE A STREAM” TO THE FIRST PLACE → STILL
MAKE SENSE → A PHRASE.
SENSE: CONSIDER THE MEANING OF THE SEQUENCE → IT HAS MEANING =
IT IS A PHRASE.
NUMBER 2:
- BESIDE WHAT → A STREAM THAT HAD DRIED UP
- BESIDE A STREAM THAT HAD DRIED UP → BESIDE IT
- THAT HAD DRIED UP → GIVE US EXTRA INFORMATION, IS THE
DESCRIPTION OF “A STREAM”.

THIS SENTENCE IS STRUCTURALLY AMBIGUOUS.

- “HOW OLD” & “SAM” “WAS” → ASK THE AGE
- “HOW” “OLD SAM” “WAS” → ASK HIS HEALTH (HOW ARE YOU?)
THE WAY WE COMBINE THE WORDS WILL AFFECT HOW THE WORDS ARE
INTERPRETED.
NODE: THE POINT THAT COULD BRANCH DOWN
DOMINATE: THE INFLUENCE BETWEEN THE NODES.
THE NODE “BESIDE A STREAM” DOMINATES “BESIDE” AND “A STREAM”
→ ONLY WHEN YOU CAN TRACE BACK
NO PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE OF SYNTAX → NO + PHRASE
1. WHAT DID ROY PUT ON THE GUN → A SILENCER = CONSTITUENT
WHERE DID ROY PUT THE SILENCER → ON THE GUN = CONSTITUENT
“ROY PUT A SILENCER”// “ON THE GUN”
“IT” AND “THERE” DO NOT CONVEY ANY INFORMATION ABOUT THE THING
MENTIONED
PHRASE: RATHER DUBIOUS, RATHER DUBIOUS JOKES, TWO RATHER
DUBIOUS JOKES
RATHER DEPENDS ON DUBIOUS → WE CAN OMIT “RATHER”
RATHER DUBIOUS DEPENDS ON JOKES
→ IF YOU OMIT THE MODIFIER, THE CORE MEANING IS STILL SIMILAR TO
THE ORIGINAL
WITHOUT BESIDE, WE DO NOT KNOW THE LOCATION. AND VICE VERSA
THEY ARE BOTH OBLIGATORY
BESIDE WHAT?
THE CENTRAL PART HERE IS BESIDE
THE HEAD IS MORE SIGNIFICANT AND CARRY THE FUNCTION OF THE
PHRASE
→ PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE → HEAD = BESIDE
(CUOI CHUONG 2, TR.37-38)

BLUE: NODE (HAS LABEL); GREEN: LEXICAL ITEMS

⇒ structural ambiguity

*phan khong can hoc:

We need more interesting ideas
→ “more interesting” + “ideas”: We have a lot of ideas already, but they are not
interesting (focus on quality)
→ “more” + “interesting ideas”: The ideas are interesting, but we need more
(quantity)

We love good food and wine:

→ cấu trúc khác nhau, interpretation của nó khác nhau
Bài tập 2
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.
There is more than 1 head because there is more than 1 phrase
Cả 3 đều là A bởi vì nếu mother A là AP, thì 2 sister cũng phải ghi từ AP rồi đến
word (redundant)

Verb phrase
Categorization of Lexical verb

some verbs demand sth else follow it

4: A constituent is missing
⇒ do they need complements? If yes, what kind?
The act of buying is performed on “a new shirt”, it is affected by the act of buying ⇒
direct object
Me = NP: ghi theo Lexical hoặc phrasal category

My best friend mô tả thuộc tính của chủ ngữ, không chịu tác động của động từ:
Is, seem,... là linking verb = trong syntax là intensive verbs.

Object is affected by the verb.

A predicative is to describe properties
no khac nhau o subcategory va compliment
people and martha are direct objects
happy and best friend are predicative of an object, they are not affected by the verb.
happy attributes the property of being happy to people. because people is the object,
happy is the object predicative.

under the bed is object predicative.