Lexical Semantics Week 4

7/27/2019 Lexical Semantics Week 4

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Week 3

Lexical semantics and word meaningLexical relations (antonymy, polysemy,

meronymy, synonymy)


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Traditional aims of lexical semantics:

a structuralist approach

To represent the meaning of each

word in the language

To show how the meanings ofwords in a language are interrelated

Words (orthographic words)

Lexemes (semantic words)


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Troubles with words

Word-a minimum free form, a smallestunit of speech although many formslie on the borderline between boundforms and words

A lexical entry (lemma) can containseveral lexemes or senses

Collocation- tendency of words to occur

together repeatedly Collocations undergo a fossilization of

meaning until they become idioms p.60


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Homonymy- unrelated senses

Homonyms are morphologically unrelatedsenses of the samephonological/orthographic word (samepronunciation/spelling):

a. homographs (same spelling eg. saw (n),saw (verb, past tense) and

b. homophones (same pronunciation eg.no, know, rose (n), rose (verb, past tense))

Homomorphs (same morphological formbut different syntactic function (eg. fast

(Adj), fast (Adv))


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Polysemy-related senses

Synonymy-similar senses

Polysemy- multiple senses of the same phonological word

Polysemous senses are listed under the same lexicalentry p.64

Synonymy- different phonological words which have thesame or very similar meanings

True synonyms are rare, there are mostly near synonyms

Synonyms can have different connotations and canbelong to different registers (styles of language thatbelong to different situations) eg. die, kick the bucket


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Antonymy-opposites

Words which are opposite in meaning

Simple antonyms (binary pairs): the positive of one impliesthe negative of the other (eg. pass/fail, dead/alive, hit/miss)

Gradable antonyms (two major identifying characteristics

with intermediate terms in between) (eg. hot, (warm, tepid,cool) cold

Reverses (antonyms between terms describing movementin opposite direction)- (eg. up/down, go/return, right/left

Converses (terms which describe a relation between twoentities from alternate viewpoints) eg. own/belong to,employer/employee)- part of the speakers semanticknowledge that can be arrived at through paraphrasing

Taxonomy- classification system (eg. Monday-Sunday,numbers, colors etc.)


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Hyponymy (relation of inclusion)

A hyponym includes the meaning of

a more general word (eg. dog, cathyponyms of animal)

Also, male-female, adult-young

relationships


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Meronymy (part-whole

relationship)

Reflects hierarchical relationships (x isa meronym of y if x has y)

(y) Book- cover, page, jacket (x) Car- wheel, engine, door, window

Member-collection relationship (eg.

ship, fleet; tree, forest; bird, flock Portion-mass relationship (eg. drop of

liquid, grain of salt, lump of coal)


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Extensions of meaning-literal and

non-literal meaning

Literal meaning- neutral, fairly

accurate way Non-literal (figurative) meaning-

deliberately talking in untrue or

impossible terms in order to achievespecial effects


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Figurative use of language

Metaphor (personification, proverbs)- is

based on resemblance, irony,

Metonymy (based on contiguity,

association),

Hyperbole (overstatement),

Litotes (understatement) eg. I couldnt

disagree less, That was no big deal.


11/18

Metaphor

Transferred meaning, not merely decorative features but anessential component of our cognition

Metaphors involve:

a. source domain (usually concrete and familiar),

b. target domain (abstract, less structured) and

c. a set of mapping relations or correspondences (epistemic andontological)

The meaning of a word constructs a semantic field (core-periphery)

The semantic field of a word is the set ofsememes (distinctmeanings) expressed by the word. For example, the semantic fieldof "dog" includes "canine" and "to trail persistently" (also, to hound).

Examples: anger is heat or fluid in container, more is up less is

down, linear scales are paths p.207-209 (Cruse)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sememehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sememehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word


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Metonymy (responsible for

regular polysemy)

Relies on an (actual, literal)

association between two

components within a single domain

Strategy of reference


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Patterns of metonymy

1. Container for the contained

a. The kettles boiling.b. Room 44 wants a bottle of

champagne.

c. The car in front decided to turn

right.


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2. Possessor for

Possessed/Attribute

a. Where are you parked?

b. Shares fall 10% after Enron.


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3. Represented entity for

Representative

a. England won the World Cup in 1966.

b. The government will announce newmeasures.


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4. Whole for Part (Synecdoche)

a. I am going to fill up the car with

gas.

b. Do you need to use the bathroom?


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5. Part for Whole (Synecdoche)

a. The are too many mouths to feed.

b. I noticed several new faces

tonight.


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6. Place for institution

(Synecdoche)

a. The White House announced.

b. The Kremlin said..

Documents

Lexical Semantics Week 4