Semantics Glossary
25 essential terms — because precise language is the foundation of clear thinking in Semantics.
Showing 25 of 25 terms
A semantic relation between words with opposite meanings; includes gradable, complementary, and relational subtypes.
The principle that the meaning of a whole expression is a function of the meanings of its parts and how they are syntactically combined.
A systematic mapping from a concrete source domain to an abstract target domain that structures how we think and speak (e.g., TIME IS MONEY).
The emotional or associative meaning a word carries beyond its strict denotation.
The use of expressions whose interpretation depends on the context of the utterance (e.g., 'I,' 'here,' 'now').
An approach that represents meaning based on patterns of word co-occurrence in large text corpora.
A logical relation between sentences where the truth of one guarantees the truth of another.
The phenomenon of a single word form having two or more unrelated meanings.
A hierarchical relation where the meaning of one word (hyponym) is included within the meaning of a more general word (hypernym).
Meaning that is suggested or implied by an utterance beyond its literal content, often arising from conversational context.
A formal system for expressing computation through variable binding and function application, used in formal semantics to model compositionality.
A part-whole semantic relation. 'Wheel' is a meronym of 'car.'
The phenomenon of a single word having multiple related senses.
A complete way the world could be. Used in formal semantics to model necessity, possibility, and intensional contexts.
A background assumption that must hold for a sentence to be contextually appropriate; survives under negation.
The most central or typical member of a category, around which the category is cognitively organized.
The relationship between a linguistic expression and the entity in the world it picks out or denotes.
The domain over which a quantifier or operator has effect. Scope interactions produce ambiguity in sentences with multiple quantifiers.
A set of words grouped by meaning, covering a particular conceptual domain (e.g., color terms, kinship terms).
An extension of the World Wide Web that uses formal semantic annotation (RDF, OWL) to make data machine-interpretable.
The systematic study of meaning in natural language, encompassing word meaning, sentence meaning, and discourse meaning.
The descriptive content or mode of presentation associated with a linguistic expression, as distinct from the object it refers to.
A semantic relation in which two or more words share the same or nearly the same meaning.
A semantic label (Agent, Patient, Theme, etc.) describing the role a participant plays in the event denoted by a verb.
The conditions that must hold in the world for a sentence to be true.