Key Concepts in Lexical Semantics and Grammatical Roles

Understanding Marked and Unmarked Terms

Within an opposition, the difference between a marked term and an unmarked term can be explained as follows:

The negative terms of an opposition are often formally marked: happy, unhappy; like, dislike. The morphologically simple term may have an alternative simple partner: unmarried-single; untrue-false. Sometimes there are differentiating nuances, in that the morphologically marked word suggests that the other term was expected: unsafe-dangerous; unclean-dirty; unkind-cruel; unhappy-sad.

• Cases with formal marking in both members include: increase-decrease; accelerate-decelerate.
• Perceptual salience tends to be associated with the positive term in gradable concepts: long-short; fast-slow; heavy-light. The perceptually salient terms are used in neutral 'how'-questions. (Exception: difficult-easy). Consider old and young (in past times and nowadays in many cultures, old was associated with prestige and power).

Canonical vs. Facultative Meronyms

Meronymy is the semantic relation between a lexical item denoting a part and that denoting the corresponding whole (meronym-holonym).

Canonical versus facultative meronyms/holonyms depend on their obligatoriness or optionality.

For example:

• Finger is a canonical meronym of hand. (Obligatory: Hands are composed of fingers.)
• Museum is a facultative meronym of town. (Optional: A town may not have a museum.)

Types of Collocational Anomalies

Two types of collocational anomalies, with examples, are:

Anomalies due to the semantic traits of the node and the collocate:

• Paradox: the cat barked
• Contradiction: a married bachelor
• Improbability: the kitten drank a bottle of claret

Attributes in Material Process Clauses

Yes, an Attribute can appear in a clause with a material process.

For instance, in Causatives with a resulting attribute.

For example: They are making the road wider and safer.

Agent | Material Process | Affected | Attribute

Recipient vs. Beneficiary Roles

With processes that encode transfer such as give, send, lend, charge, pay, offer, the action expressed by the verb extends to a third inherent participant, the Recipient.

Examples:

• Eva gave the cat a bit of tuna.
• Tom’s father has lent us his car.

The Recipient is the one who usually receives the "goods," permission, or information.

The Beneficiary, by contrast, is the optional, not inherent, participant for whom some service is done. Verbs such as fetch, get, make, buy, order, and many verbs like cook, bake, or mix (which can often be replaced by make) are associated with beneficiaries.