Lexical Semantics

Abstract

Abstract Lexical semantics is to be treated as a mental phenomenon, deeply connected to and supported by the human conceptualization of the world. In this light, the unlimited number of possible word meanings must be accounted for in terms of a generative system that constructs word meanings from a finite set of primitives and principles of combination. This chapter sets out some basic elements of this system: the contribution of spatial cognition; nonperceivable features such as modality and the type-token distinction; semantic decomposition into other than necessary and sufficient conditions, such as prototypical conditions; a rich ontology including objects, events, locations, trajectories, amounts, and manners; polysemy that straddles ontological categories; “dot-objects” and the notion of person; argument structure and thematic roles; and the relation of lexical meaning to world knowledge.