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Chapter 9

Chapter 9 of the document discusses semantics, the study of meaning in language, focusing on concepts such as semantic features, roles, and lexical relations. It explains how words can have different meanings and relationships, including synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, and polysemy, as well as the concepts of homophony and metonymy. The chapter also touches on collocation and its relevance to corpus linguistics.

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28 views16 pages

Chapter 9

Chapter 9 of the document discusses semantics, the study of meaning in language, focusing on concepts such as semantic features, roles, and lexical relations. It explains how words can have different meanings and relationships, including synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, and polysemy, as well as the concepts of homophony and metonymy. The chapter also touches on collocation and its relevance to corpus linguistics.

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Thu Trang Nguyễn
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Introduction to Linguistics

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CHAPTER 9
Semantics

Instructor: Lam Hoang Phuc


9.1. Semantics – Some important concepts

 Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases,


and sentences.
 Semantic analysis focuses on the basic, literal meanings of
a word (conceptual meanings), rather than the
connotations people might attach to this word (associative
meanings).
E.g. for the word low-calorie:
o “producing a small amount of heat or energy” is the
conceptual meaning.
o “healthy” is an associative meaning.
9.2. Semantic features

 One approach to semantic analysis is to view a word’s


meaning as having certain features. These features are
called semantic features.
E.g. (+) indicates a feature is present.
(-) indicates a feature is not present.
9.2. Semantic features

 Semantic features help explain why using certain words in


certain places in a sentence makes that sentence
semantically odd.
E.g. using table or horse in the following sentence will make
its meaning odd since these nouns lack the feature
[+human].
The _____ is reading the newspaper.
 However, this approach to semantic analysis is not
effective in analysing the meanings of more abstract words
(e.g. advice, threat, warning) since it is difficult to think of
the features we can use to differentiate them.
9.3. Semantic roles

 Another approach to semantic analysis is to view a word’s


meaning as fulfilling a certain role within the situation
described by a sentence. This role is called a semantic role.
 Common semantic roles:
o Agent: performing the action.
o Theme/Patient: involved in or affected by the action.
o Instrument: used by the agent to perform the action.
o Experiencer: having a feeling, perception or state.
o Location: designating where an entity is.
o Source: designating where an entity moves from.
o Goal: designating where an entity moves to.
9.3. Semantic roles

 Examples of semantic roles:


 Match the lexical relations with their examples:

1. joyful / upbeat a. hyponymy


2. blunt / sharp b. metonymy
3. colour / cyan c. synonymy
4. knight / night d. polysemy
5. ink pen / slave pen e. antonymy
6. She hit him! / Hit the button! f. homonymy
7. Give me a hand. g. homophony
9.4. Lexical relations

 Semantic analysis also concerns the relationships between


words’ meanings. These relationships are called lexical
relations.
 Synonymy
 Synonymy is the case of two or more words having very
closely related meanings. These words are called
synonyms.
 Synonyms may not have exactly the same meaning and
thus cannot substitute each other in certain cases.
 Synonyms may also differ in terms of formal versus
informal uses.
9.4. Lexical relations

 Antonymy
 Antonymy is the case of two words having opposite
meanings. These words are called antonyms.
 Antonyms are usually divided into:
o Gradable antonyms (opposites along a scale): can be
used in comparative constructions; the negative of one
member of a gradable pair does not necessarily imply
the other.
o Non-gradable antonyms (direct opposites): not normally
used in comparative constructions; the negative of one
member of a non-gradable pair does imply the other.
 If two non-gradable antonyms are opposite in terms of one
being the reverse of the other, they are called reversives.
9.4. Lexical relations

 Hyponymy
 Hyponymy is the case when the meaning of one word is
included in the meaning of another.
E.g. a rose is a flower so the meaning of flower is included in
the meaning of rose.
rose is called a hyponym of flower.
flower is called the superordinate of rose.
 Words with the same superordinate are called co-
hyponyms. E.g. rose, violet, daisy are co-hyponyms of the
superordinate flower.
 The most characteristic hyponym of a superordinate is
called its prototype.
E.g. robin is considered the prototype of bird.
9.4. Lexical relations

 Homophony
 Homophony is the case when two or more words have
different written forms and meanings but the same
pronunciation. These words are called homophones.
 E.g. bare/bear, meat/meet, right/write
 Homography
 Homography is the case when two or more words have
different pronunciation and meanings but the same
written form. These words are called homographs.
E.g. tear /tɪə/ (a drop of liquid that comes out of your eye)
and tear /teə/ (to pull something apart or into pieces) have
the same written form but different meanings and
pronunciation.
9.4. Lexical relations

 Homonymy
 Homonymy is the case when one word has two or more
unrelated meanings, i.e. when two or more words with
separate histories and meanings coincidentally have the
same written form and pronunciation. These words are
called homonyms.
E.g. race (contest of speed) and race (ethnic groups) have the
same written form and pronunciation.
9.4. Lexical relations

 Polysemy
 Polysemy is the case when one word has multiple
meanings that are all related by extension.
 E.g. head has multiple related meanings: (1) the object on
top of your body, (2) the froth on top of a glass of beer, (3)
the person at the top of a company or department.
 We can use a dictionary to distinguish between homonymy
and polysemy:
o Homonymy: when the meanings are in separate entries.
o Polysemy: when the meanings are in the same entry.
 Homophony, homonymy and polysemy are the basis of a
lot of word play.
9.4. Lexical relations

 Metonymy
 Metonymy is the case of using a word (called a metonym)
which has a close connection to another word to refer to
that word. This close connection can be based on:
o Container – contents: e.g. bottle/water
o Whole – part: e.g. house/roof
o Representative – symbol: e.g. king/crown
 While many examples of metonymy are highly
conventionalised and easy to interpret, others can be
contextualised, i.e. dependent on an ability to infer what
the speaker has in mind.
9.5. Collocation

 Collocation is the case when two or more words are often


used together, in a way that happens more frequently than
would happen by chance. This combination is also called a
collocation.
 The analysis of collocations is closely connected to corpus
linguistics.
 A corpus (plural corpora) is a large collection of texts,
spoken or written, typically stored as a database in a
computer.
 Some well-known corpora: BNC: British National Corpus,
COCA: The Corpus of Contemporary American English.
REFERENCES

Yule, G. (2010). The study of language (4th ed.).


Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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