Chapter 2: Word meaning

• Words are regarded as the smallest indivisible

meaningful units of a language which can
operate independently.

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 Forms and Expressions
• Words are also considered expressions.
• Words and word forms are distinguished from
each other in terms of the distinction between
lexical and grammatical meanings.
• Forms of one and the same word have the same
lexical meaning whereas different words have
different lexical meanings.

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 Homonymy & Polysemy

• Definition

• Classification

• Distinction

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 Homonymy - Definition

• A homonym is a word that is written and/or

pronounced the same way as another, but has
a different meaning.
e.g. tail vs. tale / cite vs. sight vs. site
book (v) vs. book (n)
lead (v) vs. lead (n)

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 Polysemy - Definition

• Polysemy refers to a word that has two or

more meanings:
“foot” The house is at the foot of the mountain.

One of his shoes felt too tight for his foot.

“head”(n) the top part of the body

(n) the leader or the most important

person 5
 Homonyms - classification

Bank (n) a financial institution

Absolute
Bank (n) the side of the river homonyms

Rose (n) a kind of flower

Partial
Rose (v) past tense of rise
homonyms

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 Absolute homonyms
• Absolute homonyms should satisfy the following
three conditions:
- they must be unrelated in meaning
- all their forms will be identical
- the identical forms must be grammatical
equivalent
e.g. bank (n) vs. bank (n)
To poach (v) vs. To poach

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 Partial Homonyms
• Perfect / Full homonyms: Identical in pronunciation
and spelling
fast (a): acting or moving rapidly
fast (v): abstain from food
• Homophones: Identical in pronunciation
air vs heir
• Homographs: Identical in spelling
wind /wind/ (n) a current of air
wind /waind/ (v) to empower a clock
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 The role of contexts - ambiguity

• Lexical context • Grammatical context

The words or phrases The grammatical structure in
that are used with the which a homonym or poly-
homonyms or poly- semantic word is used.
semantic words
e.g. What does she mean?
e.g. warm weather
vs. She’s very mean
vs. a warm welcome
We can sing vs. We can some
a music band vs. a of our fruit.
rubber band

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They found hospitals and charitable
institutions

Lexical ambiguity Grammatical ambiguity

• to establish, to set up • present tense of found

• to discover, to come • past tense of find
across

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 To eliminate ambiguity

 Grammatical equivalence
• They have found hospitals and charitable institutions.
• He/ she founds hospitals and charitable institutions.

 Context
• They found hospitals and charitable institutions, which have
brought a lot of benefit to the local residents.
• They found hospitals and charitable institutions on the way
they headed for the city center.
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 Sources of homonyms
• Disintegration / split of polysemy
buxus (Latin)
box (a kind of small evergreen shrub)
box (a receptacle made of wood)
box (to put in a box)
box (a slap with the hand on the ear)
box (a sport term)
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 Sources of homonyms
• Convergent sound development

– sound - healthy  zesund (healthy)

– sound - strait  sund (swimming)

• Borrowing

– sound ( measure the depth of the sea)

– sonus (French) (to measure the depth)

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 Homonymy vs. Polysemy
Criteria for distinction

• Relatedness in meaning

• Etymology (historical source of the words)

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 Example
bat1 (n) furry mammal with membranous wings

bat2 (n) striking a ball in certain games

Unrelated meaning HOMONYMS

Different source
bat1: from Middle English, bakke
bat2; from old English, batt
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 Example

sole1 (n) bottom of foot or shoe

sole2 (n) kind of fish

Same source HOMONYMS

Unrelated meaning

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 Examples of Polysemy

wealthy, having lots of money

• Rich
containing a lot of

one part of the body

• Head a person
a leader

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 Homonymy or polysemy?

Bò (n): cow
Bò (v): to crawl

Đá (v): to kick smt

Đá (v): to leave your partner (informal)

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 Exercise
Homonymy or Polysemy?

1. (a) Don’t spit in the well, you may need its water.

(b) All is well that ends well.

2. (a) There were 12 hands employed at this farm.

(b) The hands of the clock showed half past ten.

(c) The voting was done by the show of hands.

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 Question
Train 1 (n)
1 a line of carriages pulled by an ENGINE, which travels
along a railway and carries people or goods
2 train of thought a series of connected ideas
3 a long line of moving people or animals
Train 2 (v)
1 [I] to study how to do a job
2 [T] to teach someone how to do something, especially the
practical skills they need to do a job
3 [I,T] to prepare for a sports event by exercising and
practising, or to help someone to prepare by improving their
skills 20
 Synonymy

• Definition

• Classification

• Sources of Synonyms

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 Definition

Synonyms are actually words of the same

parts of speech which have similar or
identical denotation, but differ in shades of
meaning, connotation or combinability with
other words.

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 Example
• Laugh - chuckle - giggle - snigger - chortle: different in
denotation
• Man - dude - fellow - bloke - chap - guy: different in
connotation
• To make - to produce - to create - to fabricate - to
manufacture.
• Angry - furious - enraged
• Usually in such a synonymic group, there is a synonymic
dominant which is the most neutral word.
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• 8000
synonymic
groups

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 Classification
1. Absolute(total) Synonyms
2. Semantic Synonyms
3. Stylistic Synonyms
4. Semantic Stylistic Synonyms
5. Phraseological Synonyms
6. Territorial Synonyms
7. Euphemisms
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 Absolute Synonyms

1. All their meanings are identical

2. They are synonymous in all contexts
3. They are semantically equivalent on all
dimensions of meanings.
e.g. semantics - semasiology
begin - start

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 Semantic Synonyms
Semantic Synonyms are those which differ in terms
of their denotation.
e.g: Bad - terrible - awful - appalling - dreadful
Discuss - debate - argue
Wound - injure
Good-looking - pretty - handsome -
beautiful
Friend - ally - partner
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 Stylistic Synonyms

Stylistic Synonyms are those that differ in terms

of their connotation.
e.g: friend - peer - mate - buddy - pal - chum
police - bobby - cop
father - dad - daddy
begin - commence

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 Semantic Stylistic Synonyms
Semantic Stylistic Synonyms are words that
differ both in denotational and connotational
meaning.
e.g: meal - snack - bite - refreshment - feast
talk - speak - say
sell - vend - push - flog
allow - permit - let

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 Phraseological Synonyms

Phraseological Synonyms are words that differ

in their collocations.
e.g. do - make
say - tell
pair - couple
much - many
tongue - language

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 Territorial Synonyms
Territorial Synonyms are those employed in
different regions.
e.g. go to the loo (Aus.E)
go to the restroom (Am.E)
go to the toilet/lavatory/WC (Br.E)

autumn - fall
pavement - sidewalk
football - soccer
flat - apartment
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 Euphemism Synonyms
Euphemism Synonyms are synonyms that are
used to reduce the unpleasant / offensive effect.
e.g: die - pass away - be gone - perish - breathe
your last breath
dead -late - deceased
corpse - remains
crisis - slow down - depression

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 Sources of synonyms

1. Borrowings
2. The change of meaning
3. Word-building

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 Borrowing

coup d'etat - overthrow

ask - question - interrogate
gather - assemble - collect
end - finish - complete
belly - stomach - abdomen

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 Change of meaning
• Hand - worker - side, direction
• Busy - engaged (telephone line)
• Rich - fertile (soil)

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 Word-building

1. Use of phrasal verb

to investigate - to look into
to take care - to look after
to postpone - to put off
to cancel - to call off

2. Conversion
Laughter - laugh
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3. Shortening
telephone - phone
refrigerator - fridge
minimum - min
maximum – max

4. Derivation and composition

police - policeman - policewoman
deceitful - deceptive
creativity - creativeness
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 Antonymy

1. Definition

2. Characteristics

3. Classification

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 Definition
• Words of the same part of speech that are opposite
in meanings are called antonyms.
• Many words, especially those denoting concrete
object have no antonyms.
• Usually adjectives denoting quality, verbs denoting
actions or states and abstract nouns have
antonyms.
e.g: ugly - pretty give - take
mean - generous joy - sorrow
tidy - messy old - young 39
 Characteristics
• Belong to the same semantic field, nearly
identical in distribution.

e.g. big - small

(adj, about size)

• Do not differ either in style or emotional

coloring.

e.g. Is she slender / slim / thin or fat?

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 Characteristics
• In many pairs of antonyms, one is marked and
the other unmarked

e.g. “How tall is he?”

Not “How short is he?”

heavy - light thick - thin

deep - shallow wide - narrow

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Antonyms conventionally classified
• Root word antonyms (Antonyms proper)
Words that are of different forms and of opposite meanings.
e.g. old - young love - hate hot - cold
• Derivational antonyms
Words of the same root, one of which have a negative affix.
e.g. appear - disappear logical - illogical
useful - useless regular - irregular

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 John Lyon’s classification

• Antonyms proper

• Complementary antonyms

• Conversives

• Directional antonyms

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Antonyms proper (Gradable antonyms)

• Antonyms proper are easily gradable, based on the

operation of gradation. They are opposite ends of a
continuous scale of values.
e.g. hot - warm - cool - cold love - hate
ugly - pretty
thin - fat
clever - stupid

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 Complementary (binary) antonyms
• Involve two items: the assertion of one is the negation
of the other.
• Binary antonyms come in pairs and between them
exhaust all relevant possibilities. If one is applicable,
then the other can’t be, and vice versa.

e.g. alive - dead same - different

awake - asleep

male - female
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 Conversives

• Conversives denote the same situation but

from different points of view, with a reversal of
the order of participants and their roles.
e.g. borrow - lend
sell - buy
employer - employee
above - below
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 Directional antonyms

• Present opposite directions of motion.

e.g. come - go

arrive - depart

back - forward

up - down

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