Notes (Gibbon)

Word Meaning

• Semantic Properties
• Homonyms and Ambiguity
• Synonyms and Paraphrases
• Antonyms
• Names

Phrase and Sentence Meaning

• Combining Words into Sentences
• Thematic Roles
• Semantics and Syntax
• The ``Truth'' of Sentences
• Sense and Reference

When Rules are Broken

• Anomaly
• Metaphor
• Idioms

Discourse Meaning

• Pronouns
• The Articles the and a
• Maxims of Conversation

Pragmatics

• Speech Acts
• Presuppositions
• Deixis

Terminology

semantic properties:

semantic features:

redundancy rule:

homonym:

ambiguity:

lexical ambiguity:

structural ambiguity:

copula:

synomnym:

polysemous:

paraphrase:

lexical paraphrase:

antonym:

complementary pairs:

gradable:

marked:

unmarked:

relational opposites:

symmetry:

proper names:

definite:

thematic roles:

agent:

theme:

patient:

location:

goal:

source:

instrument:

case:

theta-criterion:

reflexive:

coreferential:

truth conditions:

referent:

reference:

sense:

extension:

intension:

anomaly:

metaphor:

idiom:

uninterpretable:

discourse analysis:

antecedent:

free pronoun:

bound pronoun:

anaphors:

coherent:

maxims of conversation:

cooperative principle:

maxim of relevance:

performative verbs:

performative sentences:

illocutionary force:

presupposition:

implication:

entailment:

deixis:

person deixis:

time deixis:

place deixis:

Semantics online links

A fairly extensive reading list for semantics is provided by the University of Rochester.

Further links can be found in the AltaVista selection for Introduction to semantics.