Linguistics调整后Lecture08Semantics幻灯片.pptVIP

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * In addition to agent, patient, experiencer, instrument, and cause, a noun phrase can be a recipient (that which receives a physical object), a benefactive (that for which an action is performed), a locative (the location of an action or state), or temporal (the time at which the action or state occurred). (36) I gave John a puppy. (recipient) (37) John passed the message to me for Tom. (benefactive) (38) Beijing is cold in winter. (locative) (39) She left home the day before yesterday. (temporal) The point of this theory is to characterize all possible semantic roles that noun phrases can play in a sentence. Every noun phrase in a clause is assigned a semantic role, and, aside from coordinate NPs, the same semantic role cannot be assigned to two different noun phrases within the same clause. So, for example, a sentence like the following is ruled out as being semantically anomalous because it contains two different instrumental noun phrases, namely the two italicized noun phrases: (40) *This ball broke the window with a hammer. In addition, in most cases a single noun phrase can be assigned only one semantic role. In rare cases, a noun phrase can be assigned two different roles. In the sentence (41) John rolled down the hill. If John rolled down the hill deliberately, he is both agent and patient, because he is at once the responsible initiator of the action and the entity that undergoes the change of state. So far we can say that sentential semantics is concerned with semantic roles and with the relationship between words within a sentence. 4.3 Semantic relationships  between sentences 4.3.1 Entailment If “John often beats his wife” is true, we know that “John is married” is also true. If knowing that one sentence is true gives us certain knowledge of th