Active 12: Semantics

What is Semantics? Why do L2 educators need to know about Semantics? Please explain how you incorporate this knowledge in your classroom. Please type. Do not use the voice recorder. Please comment on the clause "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" from a semantic and syntactic point of view. What does this example teach us? Please type. Do not use the voice recorder. Speakers of a language have meaning rules. How are these similar or different from grammar rules? Illustrate with examples Please type. Do not use the voice recorder. Deciphering meaning: American English vocabulary Match each word with its meaning. Please do not look them up in the dictionary. In the next section you will explain about your answers pinkie a small sailing vessel with a sharp stern princeton a man's short hairstyle poison apple a tomato pirok a main-dish pie with fish and rice sill cock a water faucet outside of a building Skunk's Misery a nickname for an unimportant or out-of-the-way place prairie a vacant lot or city block sandy a trick, a deception How did you come up with your answers? What clues or strategies did you use? Which words were the most difficult and why? Please type. Do not use the voice recorder. What is Lexical Semantics? What are semantic features? Please give two examples in English or Spanish. Please type. Do not use the voice recorder. Explain concrete vs abstract nouns, countable vs uncountable nouns, and common vs proper nouns. How do you teach nouns in your class? Illustrate with examples Please type. Do not use the voice recorder. What is entailment? Please give two examples in English or Spanish with their semantic features and explanation. Please type. Do not use the voice recorder. In Morphology, we speak of nouns and adjectives being marked for number and gender. In Semantics, we also speak of markedness. What is the difference? Give an example. Please type. Do not use the voice recorder. What is a semantic field? Do you use this concept to teach L2 vocabulary? If so, how? If not, why not? Please type. Do not use the voice recorder. Children's semantic fields Children do an amazing job of acquiring language but sometimes they make mistakes, most commonly associated with overgeneralization of the meaning of a word. For example:sweet - all things sweet (candy, syrup, cookies, etc)apple - all round fruitshot - light, bright objects (lights, lamps, flames, etc)Please describe how these children are constructing semantic fields and how those are different from adult versions.Please type. Do not use the voice recorder. Semantic relations Please match the term with the definition nyms meaning relations among words antonyms words we think of as relational, complementary or gradable opposites synonyms words with similar meanings euphemisms words or phrases used to avoid offending or to obscure meaning hyponyms words whose meanings are entailed in the meaning of a more general word polysemes words with two meanings homonyms words with the same sound, same spelling, and different meaning homophones words with the same sound, different spelling, and different meaning homographs words with different sound, same spelling, and different meaning Synonyms Write a short paragraph (4 sentences) on a topic of your choice. Use at least four Anglo-saxon terms. Then rewrite the paragraph replacing the Anglo-saxon terms with Latin synonyms. How does this substitution change your paragraph? Please type. Do not use the voice recorder. What is the difference between ambiguity and vagueness? Illustrate with an example. Please type. Do not use the voice recorder. Semantic change Please match the type of semantic change with the definition Connotation Change in the general meaning of the word Narrowing Change in the meaning of the word to a more specific meaning Broadening Change in the meaning of the word to a more general or inclusive meaning Amelioration Change in the meaning of the word from a neutral meaning to a positive meaning Pejoration Change in the meaning of the word from a neutral meaning to a negative meaning Denotation Complete change in meaning What challenge did you face during the learning of Semantics? Please type. Do not use the voice recorder.