Semantics: Project 3 (Individual: 10)
The final project for Semantics.
Identify and annotate idioms (4 x 2.5%)
- The main goal for this task is to help you think about
compositionality and how words build up meaning.
- The secondary goal is to make you closely read the story ---
we hope your new knowledge will make it even more
enjoyable.
- Look at either the Czech or English version of The War with the Newts
- Read the story.
- Find 4 examples of multiword expressions or metaphors where the
meaning is non-compositional (i.e. you can't get it directly from
the meanings of the individual words)
e.g. knock up "awaken someone"
buried in the deepest thought "thinking very deeply"
NOT guard dog "a dog that guards something"
don't chose TIME is SPACE (too many)
They can come from anywhere in the story (they don't have to be from the sentences you tagged)
- Enter the following information into the online form (there is a
link for it below, you will have to click it
once for each MWE, that is four times):
- name
- ID (I had two students with the same name once)
- language: en/cs
- sentence
- MWE (idiom or metaphor)
- definition/paraphrase
- metaphor mapping (TARGET is SOURCE) or NONE if it is not a metaphor
- comment
- e.g.
- Herlock Sholmes
- ID
- en
- "My companion sat in the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the deepest thought"
- buried in the deepest thought
- thinking very deeply
- IDEAS are (HEAVY) OBJECTS
- he is so surrounded by his thoughts that it is as though he
is buried in them --- slightly mixed metaphor: the thoughts are
deep, but he is under them.
- e.g.
- Herlock Sholmes
- ID
- cs
- 'Very sorry to knock you up, Watson,' said he, 'but it's the common lot this morning.
- knock up
- awaken
- NONE
- not used much in modern English
Assessment
You will be assessed on
- Completion: did you find four non-compositional multiword expressions/metaphors
- Understanding: does your definition/paraphrase adequately express the meaning
- Does it have an interesting translation (if you provide a translation)
- Insight: did you say anything insightful in the comments.
- One very long interesting discussion and a few short ones is also
possible, we will be flexible with marking here
Estimated time 1-2 hours.
Students
Contributors: Francis Bond, Luís Morgado da Costa, Tuan Anh Le.
Francis Bond
<bond@ieee.org>
Division of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies
Nanyang Technological University
Level 3, Room 55, 14 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637332
Tel: (+65) 6592 1568; Fax: (+65) 6794 6303