chapter 5.ppt

ENGLISH LEXICOLOGY
CHAPTER 5
SENSE
RELATIONS
1. Introduction
2. Characteristics of Sense Relations
3. Synonymy
4. Antonymy
5. Hyponymy
6. Meronymy
7. Collocation
8. Sense development
1. Introduction
The meaning of a word can be understood and learnt in terms of its relationship with other words in the language. In this chapter, we are going to explore various types of semantic relations that may hold between words, both within the vocabulary as a whole and in use in sentences. We shall first of all examine synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy and meronymy. Then, we shall move to collocation and metaphorical extension.
2. Characteristics of Sense Relations
1. referent (physical world) → thought (mental ability) → word (semantic )
2. Sense is an internal meaning relation;
3. The meaning is related to each other;
4. Words contract semantic relations.
3. Synonymy
Synonyms are different words with identical or very similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy or synonymity.
The term synonymy refers to the relationship of sameness of meaning that may hold between words, . royal/regal, handsome/pretty, pavement/sidewalk.
Synonymy is a widespread relation in the vocabulary of English.
As noted by Palmer (1981), English is particularly rich in synonyms for the historical reason that its vocabulary e mostly from two different sources, from Anglo-Saxon on the one hand and from French, Latin and Greek on the other.
Definition
The term synonymy is used in semantics to refer to a major type of sense-relation between lexical items. The lexical items which have the same meanings are synonyms, … For two items to be synonyms, it does not mean that they should be identical in meaning, . interchangeable in all contexts, and with identical connotations.
[from A First Dictionary
of Linguistic and ics]
by David Crystal
Some other sayings in dictionaries
Definitions:
Word identical & coextensive i