Semantic structure and meaning within agentive nominal compounds: Evidence from French and Swedish

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Rosenberg
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Semantic Roles ◽  
Nominal Compounds

This study addresses agentive nominal compounds in French and Swedish containing N and V constituents. French has only one such compound, VN, whereas Swedish has at least four, NV-are, NV-a, NV and VN. The study explores the semantic characteristics of their constituents and their semantic structures. Formal aspects are also considered within a lexeme-based morphology. The analysis shows that, although French and Swedish compounds differ formally, they share more or less the same semantics. Their V constituent takes one or more arguments, and their N constituents display several semantic roles. Semantically, the compounds generally denote an Actor of verbs taking two arguments, and the N constituents denote an Undergoer, except in Swedish VN compounds, which denote an entity which fills the same role as that of the N constituent, generally an Actor. Non argumental interpretations, such as Place or Event, are less frequent. In conclusion, the study can have typological value for the semantics of agentive nominal compounds.1

scholarly journals Woordvormingsprocédé's Bij Verwijzing Naar Objecten in Tweede-Taalverwervingsprocessen van Volwassenen

1988 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 105-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Broeder ◽  
Guus Extra
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Semantic Relations ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Semantic Roles ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Nominal Compounds ◽  
Acquisition Processes

The following questions are taken into account: . what types of word formation principles are used by language learners? . what lexemes are combined in nominal compounds (N+N) and nomi-nal circumscriptions (N+prep+N)? . what semantic relations are expressed in nominal compounds? . what binding principles are taken into account? . what suffixes are used in derivational processes? . what semantic roles do these suffixes refer to? Data analysis is based on the use of L2 Dutch by 2 Turkish and 2 Moroccan adult informants in 2 types of activities (film commenting and conversation), at 3 different moments in the course of language learning (Ntotal=4 informants χ 2 activities χ 3 moments = 24 transcribed texts). In accordance with findings on first language acquisition processes, compounds not only precede derivations, but at the same time they compensate for standard derivations, thus resulting in lexical innova-tions. All informants make a creative and innovative use of a variety of compounding principles. In addition, opposite principles in Arabic and Turkish seem to lead to different preferences of our learners: . the Turkish informants make more use of different types of nominal compounds than do the Moroccan informants; . only the Turkish informants make more use of left oriented com-pounds, based on a combination of more than two lexemes; . only the Moroccan informants make use of circumscriptions. Finally, the following preferences of our learners are in accordance with standard language preferences: nominal compounds, in comparison with other types of compounding; . specifier head compounds, in comparison with other nominal com-pounds; . goal relations in specifier head compounds, in comparison with other types of semantic relations; . zero marking as a binding principle within specifier head com-pounds, in comparison with other binding principles.

SEMANTIC-SYNTACTIC COMPONENTS OF THE SITUATION FOR CONVEYING INFORMATION

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (32) ◽  
pp. 118-129
Author(s):  
Inna Stupak
Keyword(s):  
Explicit Expression ◽  
German Language ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Semantic Role ◽  
Significant Component ◽  
Semantic Roles ◽  
Verb Semantics ◽  
Frequency Of Use

Verbs of speech activity constitute a significant layer of verbal lexicon, which is characterized bya complex semantic structure. Depending on the nature of the semantic features, verbs of speechactivity are divided into three groups, one of which is represented byverbs to deliver information. In recentyears, there has been an increase in the frequency of use of verbs for conveying information indifferent literary styles. The aim of the study is to establish the most frequent verbs of this semanticsand to identify the specifics of their functioning in the situation for informational transmission on thematerial of German journalistic texts. The analysis of the to deliver information was carried out usingthe electronic corpus of the German language, which made it possible to trace the dynamics of theuse of 28 to deliver information, identify the four most frequent verbs and establish their semanticmodels. The situation for conveying information provides three obligatory semantic roles: agent,addressee and message.The analysis of the situation for conveying information with the verbs іnformieren, melden, mitteilen, berichten revealed the asymmetry of the obligatory components at the semantic and syntactic levels. Explicit and elliptical implementation of required components depends on the semantics of the verbs. The situation for conveying information with the verb is characterized at the syntactic level by the implementation of two semantic roles: addressee and message. The semantic role of agent in the situation for conveying information with the verbs berichten, melden, mitteilen is filled with a noun in a metonymic transfer of the type WHOLEPART, where the WHOLE is an institution, and PART is an employee or the head of this institution. The second mandatory component of the situation is addressee, who at the syntactic level has an explicit expression mainly with the verb іnformieren. In the situation with the verbs berichten, melden, mitteilen the semantic role of addressee is identified by the previous context. The third obligatory component of the situation for conveying information – the information that istransmitted – has both explicit and deictic expression. Verb semantics, communicative necessity and the principle of saving language efforts regulate the implementation of the obligatory semantic components of the situation for conveying information. The most significant component of the informational situation has an explicit expression. In general, the analyzed verbs are characterized by the possibility of shiftingthe focus of attention to any of the obligatory components.

An onomasiological approach to nominal compound semantics

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-346
Author(s):  
Vesna Kalafus Antoniová
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Semantic Categories ◽  
Compound Type ◽  
Nominal Compounds ◽  
N Compounds

This paper addresses the semantics of compounding from an onomasiological point of view. It reports on the results of a corpus-based study of 500 English N+N compounds, the primary goal of which is to delimit a set of onomasiological structure rules on the basis of the admissible and inadmissible combinations of cognitive categories at the onomasiological level. The question of the semantics of nominal compounds has been considered in a number of theoretical frameworks; nevertheless, the difficulties related to the interpretation of N+N compounds have not been satisfactorily clarified. The application of the onomasiological approach to nominal compound semantics proves powerful as it sheds more light on the meaning relationships between constituents of these units. At the same time, it allows for the identification of the tendencies for the coinage of N+N compounds based on their internal semantic structure and narrows down the number of possible combinations of semantic categories thereby increasing the meaning predictability of this compound type.

scholarly journals Case relations vs. semantic roles

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 27-33
Author(s):  
Zuzanna Topolińska
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Semantic Role ◽  
Semantic Roles ◽  
Object A ◽  
Factor I ◽  
Syntactic Relation

The author understands the ?case? as a semantically motivated syntactic relation between the predicate and its implied argument. The semantic motivation of the relation means that the semantic role of the respective argument is coded in the semantic structure of the controlling predicate. Traditional adverbal cases such as Nominative, Dative, Accusative, Instrumental, Locative imply primarily arguments functioning as agent (N), addressee/beneficient (D), object (A), accompanying factor (I), location (L) - the above labels should be understood as generalized semantic roles. The set of concrete roles is open and it is impossible and unnecessary to compile a universal inventory of semantic roles.

The semantic structure of nominal compounds in modern Hebrew

1980 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-196
Author(s):  
Raphael Nir
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Modern Hebrew ◽  
Nominal Compounds

The term ‘derivation’ denotes a process of linguistic creativity. It does not involve creating something out of nothing, rather of availing oneself of material already existing in the language in order to create new lexemes (i.e. new ‘lexical words’). Clearly, the lexicon is not enriched through derivation only; generally speaking, derivation is not involved when a word is borrowed from outside, i.e. from another language. The borrowed word enters the Hebrew lexicon as a moneme, so there is no creativity (or very little of it) involved in the borrowing process.

Semantic Structure and Episodic Context: The Analogy Between LSA and TCM

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc W. Howard ◽  
Aditya V. Datey ◽  
Hong-Liang Gai
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Structure
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