(Tiểu luận) discussion english semantics topic sense relations

The course introduces the basic concepts of meaning and characteristics of meaning, mainly focusing on the meaning of words word meaning and some sentence meanings.. In this topic, we wi

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH

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DISCUSSION

ENGLISH SEMANTICS

TOPIC

SENSE RELATIONS

Supervisor : PhD Nguyen Thi Thuy Chung

Hanoi, 2/2023

Presentation

1 Lê Th Thúy Hi n ị ề Introduction, definition, conclusion

sentences

INTRODUCTION 1

CONTENT 2

1 Sense relations 2

1.1 Definition 2

1.2 Groups of sense relations 2

1.2.1 Synonymic group 2

1.2.2 Antonymic group 3

1.3 Types of sense relations 4

1.3.1 Coordination 4

1.3.2 Superordination 5

1.4 Some features of hymonomy 6

1.4.1 The relation of hyponymy is often defined in terms of inclusion 6

1.4.2 Hyponymy relations makes substitution possible 6

1.4.3 Hyponymy is a transitive relation 6

1.4.4 Hyponymy is related to synonymy 6

1.4.5 Meronymy 7

2 Semantic fields 7

2.1 Definition 7

2.2 Ways of grouping words 8

2.2.1 Thematically 8

2.2.2 Ideographically 8

3 Entailment and the truth of sentences 8

3.1 Entailment 8

3.1.1 Definition 8

3.1.2 Types of entailment 9

3.2 The truth of sentences 9

CONCLUSION 11

REFERENCES 12

1

INTRODUCTION

English semantics is a subject of the linguistics group English (Linguistics) The course introduces the basic concepts of meaning and characteristics of meaning, mainly focusing on the meaning of words (word meaning) and some sentence meanings

Whether or not the study of sense relations can provide a solid basis for the development of semantic theories (and there are good reasons for assuming they cannot), nevertheless the elaboration and discussion of such meaning relations can shed light on the nature of the problems we confront in providing such theories, not least in helping to illuminate features of meaning that are truly amenable to semantic analysis and those that remain mysterious

In this topic, we will learn about Sense relations and discuss some issues related

to it

2

CONTENT

1 Sense relations

1.1 Definition

According to Mathew (1997), sense relations refer to any relation between lexical units within the semantic system of a language This means that it has to be a relation in meaning between lexical units of a language It does not matter if this relation expresses some kinds of identity or non-identity Sense relation is relations of meaning between words, as expressed in synonym, hyponymy, and antonym Thus, sense relation can be seen from the similarity of meaning as in synonymy, the inclusion of meaning as in hyponymy, and oppositeness of meaning as in antonymy (Kreidler, 1998)

Hence, sense relation can be defined as the relations between words or predicates

in which a linguistic unit enters through being contrasted or substitutable in a particular environment with other similar units so as an individual lexical unit can be replaced by another

1.2 Groups of sense relations

Cruse (2004) classifies sense relations into two classes:

The first class discusses the sense relations between words whose meanings are similar or included in other ones

The second class discusses the sense relations between words whose meaning are opposite or excluded from other words

1.2.1 Synonymic group

This class discusses the sense relations between words whose meanings are similar or included in other ones, it includes the notions of synonyms, homonymy, and hyponymy

a Synonym

Richard and Schmidt (2002) define sense relations as a word which has the same sense, or nearly the same as another word These words have the same or nearly the same meaning but these words cannot be used in another context to bring the same sense

 The student speaks with a broad British accent

 The student speaks with a wide British accent

Hence they have the same or nearly the same sense but not in the other contexts

to mean the same However this kind of sense relation means words of the same meaning" (Leech, 1981) Synonym is a condition in which two lexemes or words have

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more or less the same lexical meaning This condition results from the contiguity or sameness in meaning between two lexemes or words

b Homonomy

Homonyms are generally defined as words different in meaning but either identical both in sound and spelling or identical only in sound or spelling Homonym's words are written the same way and sound alike but which have different meanings

 Our house is on the West bank of the river

 I want to save my money in the bank

c Hyponomy

According to Richard and Schmidt (2002) hyponymy is the relationship between two words in which the meaning of one of the word includes the meaning of other words For instance, this can be seen in the relationship between cat and animal, pigeon and bird, orchid and flower In these examples cat is said to be a hyponymy of animal, pigeon is said to be the hyponymy of bird, and orchid is said to be the hyponymy of flower Therefore, animal is said to be the super-ordinate (also called hyperonym) of cat

Cat, dog, cow, donkey, and goat are animals on which the word animal is their super-ordinate

1.2.2 Antonymic group

This is the sense relation whereby words are related by having opposite meaning According to Leech, (1981), antonymy is the standard technical term for opposite meaning between lexemes

There are three types of antonyms (Cruse, 2004)

a Polar antonyms

This is the type of oppositeness which can be easily modified with degree modifiers such as very, rather, quite, slightly, extremely, and the like

 The essay is very long

 The test is quite easy

 His performance is not extremely bad

b Equipollent antonyms

This type of antonym refers to subjective sensation as hot - cold bitter - sweet, painful - pleasurable, or emotions as happy - sad, proud of - ashamed of

c Overlapping Antonyms

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Kind of an antonym whereby pairs have an evaluative polarity as part of their meaning as good – bad, cruel - kind and clever - dull Cruse (2004) generally explains the words which have opposite meaning hence t S quite meaningful connection to the definition given by Leech (1981) which is that antonym is the sense relation whereby words arc related by having opposite meaning By considering their idea, antonym concerns words or pairs of opposite meaning

1.3 Types of sense relations

1.3.1 Coordination

a Substitutional (paradigmatic)

Substitutional relations are those existing between members of the same grammatical category

 She is nice/cute/lovely

-> Relations between nice/cute/lovely may be described as substitutional since they are interchangeable and belong to the same category of adjectives, their lexical meanings are not the same

 The weather is very hot today

-> The adjective “hot” could be substituted with a synonym like “sweltering” or

“scorching” without changing the overall meaning of the sentence

Overall, substitution occurs in many different contexts and serves a variety of functions, such as reducing repetition and adding variety to language

b Combinatorial (syntagmatic)

Combinatorial relations normally hold between items of different grammatical categories, such as adjectives which co-occur with nouns

 Relations between “nice” and “woman” in “a nice woman” is combinatorial because we can not speak about interchangeability whatsoever in this case Rather, it is a case involving an adjective and a noun

 Another example of combinatorial is the way in which words can be combined

to form sentences For example, the words “The cat” can be combined with

the verb “is” and the adjective “hungry” to form the sentence “The cat is

hungry” This combination of individual linguistic units follows the rules of English syntax and creates a meaningful sentence

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Overall, the combinatorial nature of language allows for an infinite variety of linguistic structures to be created from a finite set of linguistic units This ability to combine and recombine linguistic units is what allows us to create and understand complex language

 Note: A number of words tend to co-occur with others which are described as

collocational (e.g: False/forged passport, To make friends, To commit a crime…)

1.3.2 Superordination

a Hyponymy

- Definition:

Defined in terms of inclusion

Hyponymy is the relationship between two words in which the meaning of one

of the words includes the meaning of the other

This relationship is “Asymmetrical” (hierarchical) relationship

 A example of hyponymy in semantics is the relationship between the words

“dog” and “poodle” The word “poodle” is a hyponym of “dog” In other words, “poodle” is a more specific term that falls under the more general category of “dog”

 Another example of hyponymy is the relationship between the words “Lotus” and “flower” The word “Lotus” is a hyponym of “flower”

Hyponymy is a fundamental aspect of language, and it allows speakers to communicate more efficiently and effectively by using more specific and precise language to convey their meaning

b Meronymy

- Definition: Defined as part-whole relation

 An example of meronymy is the relationship between the words “finger” and

“hand” The word “finger” is a part of the larger whole of the “hand”, which means that “finger” is a meronym of “hand”

 Another example of meronyms is the relationship between the words “wheel” and “car” The word “wheel” is a part of the larger whole of the “car”, so

“wheel” is a meronym of “car”

Meronymy is a useful linguistic relationship that helps us describe complex concepts by breaking them down into their constituent parts It allows us to be more

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specific and precise in our language use and facilitates communication by providing

a shared understanding of the relationships between words

1.4 Some features of hymonomy

1.4.1 The relation of hyponymy is often defined in terms of inclusion

This relation can be exemplified by such pairs as "animal" and "tiger”, of which

"tiger" is the hyponym of "animal" "Animal" is the superordinate The hyponym is the member whose intensional meaning is specific enough to cover the meaning of the superordinate whereas the superordinate member is the one whose extensional meaning is broad enough to cover the hyponym The sense of "tiger" includes the sense of "animal", not necessarily the other way round A tiger is an animal, but not every animal is a tiger "Tiger, bear, lion" are co - hyponyms of "animal" Other examples include " flower/ rose", "car / Mercedes", "color / red"

1.4.2 Hyponymy relations makes substitution possible

The relation of Hyponymy reflects the point of view of intention and extension

It means the term of Hyponym already involves both a wider meaning of the term of Hypernym and the specific meaning of itself (e.g rose is a member of flower; thus it ‚ ‚ has both general characteristics of a flower and individual one of a rose); therefore it

is possible for them to exchangeable

 I bought a Honda yesterday The car is not expensive

 However, if an X is a Hyponym of Y, whether it is possible to say that:

 A small spoon is a kind of spoon

 A white shirt is a kind of shirt

The answer is it is not because the terms ‚small spoon‛ and ‚white shirt‛ are respectively not exactly a kind of spoon and shirt It is only possible to say "a small spoon is a spoon or a white shirt is a shirt, although it is rather forced

1.4.3 Hyponymy is a transitive relation

If X is a hyponym of Y and Y is a hyponym of Z , then X is the hyponym of Z For example, "cow" is a hyponym of "mammal" and "mammal" is a hyponym of

"animal" Therefore , "cow" is a hyponym of "animal"

1.4.4 Hyponymy is related to synonymy

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In such a way that if X is a hyponym of Y and Y is a hyponym of X , then X and Y are synonyms of each other For example , "mercury" and "quicksilver" are hyponyms of each other , then they are synonyms It is observed that synonymy can

be seen as a special case of hyponymy, symmetrical hyponymy

1.4.5 Meronymy

Part - whole relation is another kind of sense relations , different from the hierarchical relationship of hyponymy This is exemplified by "arm", "eye", "hand",

"head" An arm is not a kind of body like a rose is a kind of flower , but a part of our body Thus, a phrase like "arms and other kinds of body" is nonsensical

There are various kinds of parts - whole lexical relations in language The part

- the whole relation which holds between discrete referents is clearly transitive: If something X is part of something Y which is part of something Z, then X is described

as part of Z

For example, the "drive" is part of the "CPU", and the "CPU" is part of the "computer" Thus, in a sense, we can speak about "drive" as the part of the computer That would not speak about a computer with a drive

2 Semantic fields

2.1 Definition

The theory of semantic fields was first put forward by a number of German and Swiss scholars in the 1920s and 1930s such as Ipsen (1924), and notably Trier (1934) Trier’s theory is based on Saussure’s theory of language as a system of networks held together by differences, oppositions and values

A semantic field is a set of words (or lexemes) which are related in meaning Semantic field is also known as a word field, lexical field, field of meaning, and semantic system (Nordquist, 2017) Semantic field more specifically is as a set of lexemes which covers a certain conceptual domain and which bear certain specifiable relations to one another (Lehrer (1985, cited in Nordquist, 2017) In order to clarify the meaning of semantic field and exemplify it, Nordquist (2017) states that “the words in a semantic field share a common semantic property Most often, fields are defined by subject matter, such as body parts, landforms, diseases, colours, foods, or kinship relations” (p.1)

 A lexical/semantic field is the organization of related words and expressions into

a system which shows their relationships to one another