Assessment ofAssessment of

SemanticsSemantics

Introduction:

• Definitions:

– Semantics: is the study of the meaning of words and word

combinations

– Lexeme is the minimal unit of vocabulary

– Lexicon is the mental dictionary

SemanticsSemantics

Introduction Cont’d:

• Types of meaning:

– Lexical meaning (Lexical semantics)

• refers to the meaning of individual words , more specifically, lexemes

– Referential meaning (relational semantics)

• refers to the relation between semantic categories in an utterance

– Non-literal meaning

• Word’s relation not to their usual referents but to some characteristic

of those referents

Referents (class of beings, objects, events, or characteristics the

meaning of word applies to)

Lexical MeaningLexical Meaning

• Organization of vocabulary:

– means how we learn, store, and access words

– Semantic fields and semantic subfields theory

• Overextension & underextension

• Context-bound words

• Development of definitional meaning

Lexical MeaningLexical Meaning

What is it e.g. reason

overextension A lexical item used to refer to

a larger category of

objects

Apple for plate and another

rounded object

Incomplete acquisition of semantic

features

underextension A use of word for only a

subset of the referents in the adult category

Car for cars only moving on the street, not for

cars standing still, pictured cars...etc

Limited experience

Lexical Meaning Cont’d:Lexical Meaning Cont’d:

– Overextension:• Occurs in normally developing children between the

ages of 1;1 and 2;6 yrs

• Disappears by the age of 3 yrs

• Understanding lexical meaning

– Child’s first understanding of single words is context bound. (i.e. words are understood only if they pertain to present, familiar, and perceptually salient objects)

• Development of definitional meaning

– Giving sensory properties or function e.g.

banana is to eat

– Giving categorical membership e.g. banana is a

fruit (starts at 7 years of age)

– Adult-like definition e.g. a banana is a fruit that

has a thick yellow skin when ripe. (starts at 10

years of age)

• Utterances may be analyzed in terms of grammatical or

semantic categories

–ex: The boy kicked the ball

Relational MeaningRelational Meaning

Utterance Clause elements Semantic elements

The boy Subject Actor kicked Verb Dynamic the ball Object Goal

Utterance Clause elements Semantic elements

The ball Subject Goal

Was kicked Verb Dynamic

The boy Object Actor

Relational Meaning Relational Meaning Cont’d:

•studies the meaning of vocabulary in different

contexts

–Linguistic situations not situational context

(situational contexts: refers to the situation in which the

utterance occurred and its function)

•Also called sentence meaning, grammatical

meaning and semantic functions

Relational Meaning Cont’d:Relational Meaning Cont’d:•The first systematic analysis of the relational meaning of

words –case grammar-was done by Fillmore (1968)

•Case grammar : is the semantic role of case of nouns in

relation to other elements in the sentence.

•The cases include:

– Agentive

• The animate instigator of action “Sam cut the bread”

– Instrumental

• The force or object causally involved in a state or action “ The knife cut the

bread”

– Dative

• The animate being affected by the state or action “ Harry pushed Joe”

Relational Meaning Cont’d:Relational Meaning Cont’d:

• Case grammar Cont’d:– Factitive

• The object or being resulting from a state or action “She baked brownies”

– Locative

• The location or spatial orientation of a state or action “ I ate at home”

– Objective

• The referent whose role depends on the meaning of the verb “ She hit the

ball”

• Semantic relations:

• Include nouns and other word classes

– agent+action (car go)

– action+object (throw ball)

– agent+object (mommy soup)

– X+dative (throw daddy)

– X+locative (baby chair)

(X is any variable; Dative is the recepient)

• Semantic-syntactic relations:• refers to the interrelationship between the syntactic role that a

particular word fills in the utterance and its semantic role.

• Like categories that:

• represent a relationship between two referents

– e.g. Possession : people and the objects within their domain (baby cap)

• Identify ways in which events can be related to each other

– e.g. Causality : cause-and-effect relationship expressed with because

• Metaphor

• Idioms

• Proverbs

Non-literal MeaningNon-literal Meaning

Word Retrieval and Word Word Retrieval and Word LearningLearning

• Is word-finding problem a word retrieval or a

word learning problem?

• Requirements of vocabulary acquisition

– Understand item’s conceptual attributes – i.e. which

semantic field it belongs to, which contexts it can be

used in , …etc

– perceive and produce its phonological form

– Store the information in memory

• Symptoms of having a word retrieval problem

– The use of initial speech sounds or silent

articulatory gestures preceding the target word

– Giving semantic information

– Self correcting

– Gesturing

– Frustration gestures

• The other aspects of language

• Which type of meaning to assess?

Assessing SemanticsAssessing Semantics

Assessing Lexical MeaningAssessing Lexical Meaning

• Vocabulary comprehension and expression

– BPVS British Picture Vocabulary Scale

– PRISM-L Profile in Semantics-Lexicon

• semantic fields

• type & token

– Type refers to the no. of different vocabulary items used by

a subject

– Token refers to the no. of examples of that particular items

– Vocabulary checklists

Assessing Lexical Meaning Cont’d:Assessing Lexical Meaning Cont’d:

• Semantic analysis of a language sample– The different use of words

– Words deficits (when a word is replaced by another

one)

– Absence of any word class

• Elicitation procedures– Alternative referents

– Definitions

– Games

– Set ups

Assessing Abstract Relational Assessing Abstract Relational MeaningMeaning

• PRISM-G PRISM-Grammar – (shows e.g. which clausal elements are being used by

the subject and in what combinations)

• BLADES The Bristol Language Developmental Scales– Looks at three aspects of language: functions, sentence

meaning, and syntax

Assessing Abstract Relational Assessing Abstract Relational Meaning Cont’dMeaning Cont’d::• Semantic analysis of a language sample

– Types of relational meaning used (e.g. possession, location relation)

• Elicitation procedures– Following directions that will require the

comprehension of various relational meanings

– Story re-telling by choosing a story that includes several kinds of relations

– Metalinguistic excersizes

• Assessing Word Retrieval

– Picture naming (nouns - verbs)

– Sentence completion

– Naming an object from a given description

– Naming the category of a group of objects

– Looking at the substitutions produced by the child

• Assessing word learning

– Teaching a new word in a naturalistic context and

examining it later

Assessing Word RetrievalAssessing Word Retrieval

Children with Semantic Children with Semantic ImpairmentsImpairments

• Extended use of semantic strategies

• Confusion of polar position e.g. high,low

• Word retrieval problems

• Word deficit

• Semantic-pragmatic difficulty