5.

3 Wording Meaning
The Third Week

Key Points:
Componential analysis
Homonymy
Synonymy
Antonymy
Hyponymy

Difficulties:
Homonymy
Synonymy
Antonymy
Hyponymy
Meronymy

5.3.3 Semantic Field

Semantic or lexical field is a
set of words with an
identifiable semantic
connection.

Lexical gap
The absence of a word in a particular
place in a semantic field of a language
is called lexical gap.
horse ---stallion and mare
uncle--- , ,

Marked and Unmarked Item

A marked item is a member

word in a semantic field that
its conceptual meaning is
specific and limited
compared to its synonym
with a more general meaning.

 An unmarked item is a
member word in a semantic
field that its conceptual
meaning is more general
and inclusive.

5.3.4 Componential analysis

All lexical items can be analyzed into
a set of semantic features or
semantic components which may be
universal. This semantic theory is
called Componential Analysis (CA).

Samples:

How
How
How
How
How
How

old are you?

big is the picture?
big the picture is!
old the grandpa is!
powerful are your glasses?
powerful the cannon is!

 old/young
big/small
powerful/weak
tall/short

Definition of CA:
CA is a way proposed by the
structural semanticists to analyze
word meaning. It believes that
the meaning of a word can be
dissected into meaning
components called semantic
features.

Example of the kinship terms

[MALE]

Father
Mother
Uncle
Aunt
Brother
Sister
Son
Daughter
Nephew
Niece
Cousin

+
-

[ASCEND]

[DESCEND]

[LINEAL]

Advantage of CA:
CA allows a highly explicit and
economical account of meaning
relations such as hyponymy and
incompatibility.
Woman: + HUAMN +ADULT
Spinster: +HUMAN +ADULT
-MARRIED

+ FEMALE
+FEMALE

 Bachelor: +HUAMN +ADULT +MALE

-MARRIED
Spinster: +HUMAN +ADULT -MALE
-MARRIED
+HUMAN +ADULT -MALE +
Wife:
MARRIED

Thus, spinster is incompatible with

bachelor by contrast of gender
specification; and with wife by the
marital specification.

Problem with CA:

It is not easy to work out the
set of features which could
be widely acclaimed and
accepted.

5.3.5 Semantic relationships

between words

Homonymy
Polysemy
Synonymy
Antonymy
Hyponymy
Meronymy

5.3.5.1 Homonymy

It refers to the phenomenon

that words has one form,
either in spelling or in
pronunciation, or both, but
more than one unrelated
meanings. These words are
called homonyms.

Homophones
When two words are identical in
pronunciation, but different in
spelling and meaning, they are called
homophones.
Samples:
rain/reign night/knight piece/peace
bare/bear sun/son flour/flower

Homographs
When two words are identical in
spelling, but different in
pronunciation and meaning, they are
homographs.
Samples:
bow n./bow v. tear n./tear v.
lead n./lead v. close v./close adj.

Complete homonyms:
When two words are identical in
both pronunciation and spelling, but
different in meaning, they are
called complete homonyms.
fast/fast scale/scale bank/bank
pupil/pupil mole/mole

5.3.5.2 Polysemy

When a word has two or more

meanings that are related
conceptually or historically, it is
said to be a polysemous or
polysemic word. The phenomenon
is termed as polysemy.

The distinction between

homonymy and polysemy:
One indication of the distinction can
be found in the typical dictionary
entry for words. If a word has two or
more meanings (polysemic), then
there will be a single entry, with a
numbered list of the different
meanings of the word. If two words
are treated as homonyms, they will
typically have two separate entries.

5.3.5.4 Synonymy
Words that sound different but
have the same meaning are called
synonyms, and the sense relation
of sameness of meaning is
called synonymy.
Ex. answer/reply big/large
liberty/freedom

 Synonyms may be different in

dialect, style, emotion and
collocation.
elevator/lift
start/commence
did/offspring
economical/ stingy
accuse of/charge with

5.3.5.5 Antonymy
Words that are opposite in meaning
are often called antonyms. The
oppositeness of meaning is called
antonymy.
They can be grouped into 3 types:
gradable, complementary, and
relational antonyms.

 (1)

Gradable antonyms

The members of a pair differ in

terms of degree. The denial of one
is not necessarily the assertion of
the other. Ex. Rich---poor; high--low; wide---narrow; heavy---light;
good---bad

(2) Complementary antonyms

The members of a pair in this
type are complementary to each
other. Not only the assertion of
one means the denial of the
other, the denial of one also
means the assertion of the other.
Ex. male/female alive/dead
married/single

(3) Relational antonyms

They show the reversal of a
relationship between two entities.
father/son
Ex. Husband/wife
teacher/pupil doctor/patient
buy/sell let/rent above/below

of markedness. In certain pairs of gradable antonyms,

one word is marked and the other unmarked. That is,
usually the term for the higher degree serves as the
cover term.

Ex. a How old are you? is instead of How

young are you?, the word old is used here to
cover both old (unmarked) and
young(unmarked).
b. How heavy is it?(unmarked) ---light
(marked)
c. How tall are you?(unmarked)---short
(marked)
d. How hot is it?(unmarked)---cold
(marked)

5.3.5.6 Hyponymy

Hyponymy is a matter of class

membership which indicates a
category to which the words
all belong.

 The upper term in this sense

relation, i.e. the class name, is
called SUPERORDINATE, and
the lover terms, the members,
HYPONYMS. A superordinate
usually has several hyponyms,
these members of the same class
are CO-HYPONYMS.

For example

potato

Vegetable

cabbage

carrot

5.3.5.7 Meronymy

Meronymy refers to the

phenomenon that a word
means a part of another.
Samples:
body/neck drawer/desk

A small section of the

system of body-part terms
in English is given
body

Head

neck

trunk

leg

arm

Distinction between
meronymy and hyponymy
Meronymy can be expressed by the
pattern X is a part of Y, whereas
hyponymy is by the pattern X is a
kind of Y. For example, head is a part
of body, but not a kind of body, while
potato is a kind of vegetable, but not
a part of vegetable.