Lecture 9 Sense Relations

Polysemy
Definition of polysemy Polysemy is an English word of Greek origin. "Poly" 'many', "semy" 'meanings'. Polysemy (一词多义) refers to a word that has two or more closely related meanings. Polyseme is a word with multiple meanings.
The use of Antonyms
Antonyms are helpful in defining the meanings of a given word. e.g.Unlike her gregarious sister, Mary is a shy, unsociable person. Antonyms can be used to form antithesis(对比) to achieve emphasis. "We find ourselves rich in goods but ragged in spirit, reaching with magnificent precision for the moon but falling in a raucous discord on earth. We are caught in war wanting peace. We're torn by division wanting unity.” -- Richard M. Nixon
Borrowing Dialects
Sources of Synwenku.baidu.comnyms
buy purchase wise sage
Native: room leave Foreign: chamber depart BrE: railway railroad (AmE) BrE: girl lass (Scot)
Coincidence with idiomatic expressions
win: gain the upper hand finish: get through
decide: make up one’s mind hesitate: be in two minds
Difference in Range:
Discrimination of Synonyms
Some words have a wider range of meaning than others. R(geedy)>R(avaricious) R=range
Difference in Intensity
genius, ability & talent genius: great and rare powers of skill ability: having the skill that are needed. talent: special natural ability or skill. I(genius)>I(talent)>I(ability) I=intensity
Synonymy Synonymy is used to mean “sameness of meaning.” Synonyms are different phonological words (different words) which have the same or very similar meaning (J. L. Saeed, 1997). Three criteria of synonyms:
聚合关系 组合关系
Substitutional (Paradigmatic) Relations
Subtitutional sense relations exist among those words that exist in the same category such as noun, verb, adjective and adverb. Since they are in the same category, they share the syntactic functions and semantic features (vertical relation). E.g., synonymy, antonymy, ploysemy, homonymy, hyponymy
Types of synonyms
Absolute Synonyms (Complete Synonyms): They are words which are identical in meaning meeting all the three criteria. Absolute synonyms, if any, highly specialized. e.g., aecitis--- typhliti (盲肠炎) Absolute synonyms are extremely rare.
Many words are synonymous in meaning, but different in collocations. answer the letter reply to the letter answer the door
Antonymy
Antonymy deals with semantic opposition. Words with opposite meanings are called antonyms. One member of a pair of antonyms is more basic and easier to learn than the other. Unmarked: old, long, Marked: young, short, Test: how…?
lift elevator (AmE) liquor whiskey (Irish)
Euphemistic use of words
drunk: elevated lie: distort the fact house wife: domestic manager gardener: landscape architect
Difference in stylistic feature
A: answer storm wood unlike handy homely B: respond tempest forest dissimilar manual domestic native words, neutral (A) from French or Latin, more formal (B) fleshy carnal
Syntagmatic (cominbinatorial)
The relation between one and others in a linear sequence, or between elements which are all present. e.g., collocation (horizontal relation)
Types of antonyms
Complementary antonyms These antonyms truly represent oppositeness of meaning. The assertion of one is the denial of the other. e.g. single/married male/female alive/dead Such antonyms are non-gradable. They do not allow adverbs like very to qualify them. Gradable antonyms It is the relation of those antonyms which are gradable, because there are often intermediate forms between the pairs. The gradable antonyms can be modified by adverbs. beautiful/pretty/good-looking—plain/ugly; warm-cool; cold-hot, wet-dry, Converse antonyms Converse antonyms indicate a reciprocal social relationship. husband/wife give/receive employer/employee
All their meanings are identical. They are synonymous in all contexts. They are semantically equivalent on all dimensions of meaning, descriptive and non-descriptive.
Sense Relations & semantic field
Outline
Synonymy Antonymy Polysemy Homonymy Hyponymy
Sense Relations
According to the relations and restrictions in semantic features that language elements have, there are two kinds of relations: substitutional and cominbinatorial (Lyons, 1995) or paradigmatic and syntagmatic.
Difference in affective values
Result: neutral consequences: negative The high level of unemployment has produced harmful social consequences.
Difference in Application
Relative Synonyms (near-synonyms): They are words that are similar in denotation, but embrace different shades of meaning. mellow-mature; 快捷-迅速 Partial-synonyms: Words that are identical in meaning but not to satisfy all the three criteria. tree-willow, ox-cow, supermarket-shop [+/- polysemous], [+/- female], [+/- free selection]
Two Processes of Development Radiation(词义辐射): is a semantic process in which the primary meaning stands at the center and the secondary meanings radiate form it in every direction like rays. Example: neck n. (1) that part of man or animal joining the head to the body