Semantics Topic Word Meaning Homonymy And Polysemy; Synomyms And Antonyms Bài Tiểu Luận Nhóm Mình Thực Hiện Cho Môn Ngữ Nghĩa Học_.Pdf

Meanings Polysemy has different, yet Dictionaries Polysemous words are listed under one entry in dictionaries.. The meaning of homonymous words cannot be guessed since the words have unr

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY - -

B THEORY OF WORD MEANING 6

I WORDS AS MEANINGFUL UNITS 6

II FORMS AND EXPRESSION 6

III HOMONYMY 6

1 Definition 6

2 Types of homonyms 7

3 Sources of homonyms 8

IV POLYSEMY 11

1 Definition 11

2 Ambiguity and the role of contexts 11

3 Difference Between Polysemy and Homonymy 12

V SYNONYMY 13

1 Definition 13

2 Classification 14

3 Sources of synonyms 17

VI ANTONYMY 18

1 Definition 18

2 Characteristics 19

3 Classification 19

C EXERCIES 20

D CONCLUSION 24

List of members of Group 6 and Task Assignment

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List of members of Group 6:

Ordinal

numbers

Task Assignment:

Synonymy Nguyễn Thùy Linh

Introduction + Words as meaningful units

and Forms and expression

Nguyễn Thị Thùy Linh

Homonymy Tráng Thùy Linh

Polysemy + Sum Word, Powerpoint text

file up

Trần Phương Linh (Leader)

Antonymy + Closing + Control a game Lê Thị Ngọc Mai

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A INTRODUCTION

Semantics introduces the basic concepts and methods of analyzing themeaning of natural languages with a wide range of topics on the meaning oflanguage

The course helps students work with real data languages Exercises arebased on semantic concepts and philosophical and practical problems, encouragingstudents to build a solid knowledge of semantics, clarify problems by analyzing andsynthesize different semantic features in English The content covers topics insemantic theory, semantic categories, context and inference, topic roles (words),and speech acts

As learners, we discussed the topic “Word meaning: Homonymy andpolysemy; synomyms and antonyms” Learning a word's meaning is just one part ofunderstanding that word Once we know a word's antonyms, synonyms, andhomonyms, we can add lots of variety to speech and writing But what aresynonyms and antonyms, and what do they have to do with homonymy, polysemy?Learn more about each type of word and how they can help increase yourvocabulary

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B THEORY OF WORD MEANING

I WORDS AS MEANINGFUL UNITS

- Words are regarded as the smallest indivisible meaningful units of a language which can operate independently

- i.e: book, bookish: word

-ish: not word

real, unreal: word

un- : not word

II FORMS AND EXPRESSION

- There are 9 forms but only 8 word-expressions

- Words are also considered expressions

- Words and words forms are distinguished from each other in terms of the distinction between lexical and grammatical meanings

i.e: There is no way of telling what it is

I do not like what you do everyday

Modern English is exceptionally rich in homonymous words and word-forms

It is held that languages where short words abound have more homonyms thanthose where longer words are prevalent The definition of homonymy is ratherbroad, therefore, what is the meaning of homonyms? Homonyms are words whichare identical in sound and spelling, or at least, in one of these aspects, butdifferent in their meaning

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I hope you are not lying to me

My books are lying on the table

Absolute homonyms should satisfy 3 conditions:

+ They will not be related in meaning

+ All their forms will be identical

+ Similar forms are grammatically equivalent each other in terms of

Example:

“Found” /fɑʊnd/ (past tense of the verb: “find” /faɪnd/; tìm thấy, nhận ra) and

“Found” /fɑʊnd/ (verb: thành lập)

- I just found a suitable organization for me to do volunteer work, and I also want

to found my own charity fund one day

Homophone" ("homo-" means "giống" and "-phone" means "âm"): words withdifferent meanings but with the same pronunciation, may or may not have thesame spelling

Example: “flour” /ˈflaʊə(r)/ (noun: bột) and “flower” /ˈflaʊə(r)/ (danh từ: hoa)

My mom buys some flour to make cakes for me

Her husband gave her flowers on their wedding anniversary

 Homographs: same spelling

Homograph" ("homo-" means "giống" and "-graph" means "viết"): words withdifferent meanings but with the same spelling, which may or may not have thesame pronunciation

Example: “Present” /ˈpreznt/ (noun: món quà) and “present” pri’zent/ (verb: trìnhbày, giới thiệu)

I gave her a present on her graduation ceremony

My teammates must present the research to the class in 15 minutes

3 Sources of homonyms

 Phonetic change (Convergent sound development)

+ Two or more words pronounced differently on an earlier date can developidentical sound patterns

For example:

new - knew (k - was pronounced in old English)

The verb “to write” in O.E had the form “to writan” and the adjective “right”had the form “reht” or “riht.”

 Borrowing

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+ A borrowed word may duplicate in form either a native word or anotherborrowing.

For example: Leg (n) - leggr (Borrow Old Norse)

 Disintegration or split of polysemy

+ Different meanings of the same word move so far away from each other thatthey come to be regarded as two separate units

Example: spring

– the act of springing, leap

– a place, where a stream of water comes up out to the sky

– a season of the year

Historically all three originate from the same verb with meaning ‘to jump, toleap’ This is the Old English word “springun”

 Word-formation

- Conversion

+ Homonyms of this type, which are the same in sound and spelling but refer todifferent categories of parts of speech, are called lexico-grammatical homonyms.Example:

“comb” (n) – “comb” (v)

“pale” (adj) – “pale” (v)

- Shortening is a further type of word-building which increases the number ofhomonyms

Example:

Boom: a deep and loud hollow sound

Boom: to increase or become successful and produce a lot of money very quickly

IV POLYSEMY

1 Definition

Polysemy refers to a word that has two or more meanings and the meanings arerelated to each other to some extent The phenomenon of polysemous words is observed in most languages of the world

E.g.

→ man: người đàn ông

He is not the man who Mary is looking for (Anh ấy không phải là người đàn ông

mà Mary đang tìm kiếm)

→ man: con người

The damage caused by man to the environment is serious

=> That’s a case of polysemy

2 Ambiguity and the role of contexts

 Lexical context

The words or phrases that are used with the homonyms or poly-semantic word

E.g., Hot weather vs hot news (Polysemy)

An example about ambiguity:

We found schools and hospitals

Lexical ambiguity Grammartical ambiguity

+ To set up, to establish

+ To discover, to come across

+ Present tense of found+ Past tense of find

So, to eliminate ambiguity in this example, we can change it as followed:

 Grammatical equivalence

+ We have found schools and hospitals

+ He/ she founds shools and hospitals

 Context

+ We found schools and hospitals which help people have a better life

+ We found schools and hospitals on the way we headed for the city center

3 Difference Between Polysemy and Homonymy

Polysemy HomonymyDefinition The coexistence of many

possible meanings for a word or phrase

The existence of two or morewords having the same spelling or pronunciation but different meanings and origins

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Meanings Polysemy has different, yet

Dictionaries Polysemous words are listed

under one entry in dictionaries

Homonymous words are listed separately

Guessing the

Meaning

Polysemous words can be understood if you know the meaning of one word

The meaning of homonymous words cannot

be guessed since the words have unrelated meanings

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Instead, most synonyms can only substitute for the original word in certain circumstances (Murphy, 2010).

 In a synonymic group, there is usually a synonymic dominant which is themost neutral

 Currently, there are 8000 groups of synonyms

Example: Look – Stare – Gaze – Glance: Look

→ All four words above mean look but at different levels:

Look: Look, this is the best word to describe this action

Stare: Stare, usually used in case of looking out of curiosity or judging someone Gaze: Staring, usually used in the case of looking at in surprise or admiration Glance: Quick glance, to give a quick short look

And in this group the word look will be the most used and neutral word.

+) Beautiful - attractive - pretty - lovely - stunning

+) Funny - humorous - comical - hilarious - hysterical

2 Classification

2.1 Absolute (total) synonyms

 Absolute synonyms are words that can replace the original word in all cases without changing the meaning of the sentence (Matthews, 2014) In other words, absolute synonyms are words that have the same definition as the original word, and there is no difference in meaning between the two words

 Absolute synonyms must satisfy the following three conditions:

 All their meanings are identical

 They are synonymous in all contexts

 They are semantically equivalent

 This type of word is very rare in English and probably with other languages

as well However, a few examples of this synonymy phenomenon can befound, including:

- Example:

Furze/gorse (both refer to a European grass) (Murphy, 2010)

Semantics/semasiology

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Fatherland/ motherland

2.2 Semantic synonyms

 Semantic synonyms are words differing in denotational meaning and theyare similar in connotational meaning, so they are almost not interchangeable.These words make up many synonyms in English

- Example:

Cry - weep - scream: They all refer to the state of human tears

Cry - tears shed because of misfortune, fear or pain

Weep - can express crying for joy

Scream - to cry on a high note, especially because of strong emotions such as fear,excitement, or anger

Good - looking - pretty - handsome - beautiful: They all refer to the pretty and

cute, the good side of something or someone But we can see these words don'tshow any element in terms of symbolic meaning, when we talk about these words,

we won't show any emotional element when we say so they can be understood asdifferent in their denotational meaning and similar in their connotational meaning

Look – Stare – Gaze – Glance

Discuss - debate - argue.

2.3 Stylistic synonyms

Stylistic synonyms are words differing in connotational meaning and they aresimilar in denotational meaning

- Example:

Police - bobby - cop

In the group of synonyms above, the word ‘policeman’ has a neutral meaning Use'cop' with disrespect or contempt, while the word 'bobby' is often used in speech.When speaking it shows different attitudes and points of view, so they are the same

in terms of denotational meaning

Father - dad - daddy

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2.4 Semantic - stylistic synonyms

 Semantic - stylistic synonyms are words differing both in denotational andconnotational meaning

- Example:

 To end - to finish - to complete

To end - is the end, the end of something even though there may be no results

To finish - you have done a predetermined part of the job or one of the assignedtasks

To complete - means you have completed all the assigned tasks/responsibilities

 To dismiss – to fire – to sack

In the group of synonyms above, 'to dismiss' is a neutral word, meaning 'to let go'.+ 'to fire' means to force

+ And 'to sack' is to remove someone from a job, not to do it often because ofincompetence

 House - shack - slum - pad

2.5 Phraseological synonyms

Phraseological synonyms are words which are different in their collocation(combinability: ability to be combined with different words)

- Example:

Do – make (to do exercises but to make money)

Language – tongue (native language, but to know languages)

To lift – to raise (to raise or lift a finger but to raise prices, wages, questions)Meaning – sense (the word has 2 senses or 2 meaning but a man of sense)2.6 Territorial synonyms

Territorial synonyms are words employed in different regions (the words aredifferent in Britain, Canada, The US, and Australia)

- Example:

Sidewalk (common in the US) - pavement (common on the other side of theAtlantic)

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2.7 Euphemism

Literally means “speak well” => this is a soft, indirect way of talking toachieve a less unpleasant or offensive effect

- Example:

Redundant - be out of job/ unemployment.

In the group of synonyms above, the word 'redundant' does not refer directly to jobloss as the word 'unemployed' or 'be out of job' Therefore, using this word willavoid rudeness, lack of tact or impoliteness

The underprivileged – the poor

3 Sources of synonyms

3.1 Borrowing

G.S Nguyen Hoa, in the book 'An Introduction to Semantics', pointed out that the origin of most synonyms in English is due to borrowing, mainly from Greek, Latin and French They become synonyms of the original words, forming groups of synonyms, in which the root word is usually a neutral word French words are often used in literature, and Latin and Greek words are used in science and ritual texts.

Some examples about words borrowed:

Native English words Words borrowed from French Words borrowed from Latin

to ask to question to interrogate

to gather to assemble to collect

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3.2 The change of meaning

- Example:

Hand - worker: “hand - means the part of the body at the end of the arm that is usedfor holding, moving, touching, and feeling things and then it changes the meaning

to become synonymous with worker

Rich - fertile (soil)

3.3 Word - building

3.3.1 Use/Creation of phrasal verbs

- Example:

To take care - to look after

to investigate - to look into

think of antonyms as opposites For example, hot and cold are antonyms, as aregood and bad.

Antonyms can be all types of words: verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, andeven prepositions Usually, adjectives denoting quality, verbs denoting actions orstates and abstract nouns have antonyms

In fact, there are many words, especially those denoting concrete objects such

as dog, cake, desk, that have no antonyms

2 Characteristics

Antonymy has three characteristics

First, antonyms have to belong to the same semantic field, nearly identical indistribution

Second, they do not differ either in style or emotional coloring Just look atanother three pairs, heat/cold, single/married, and beauty/ugly Although either ofthem is opposite in meaning, they could not be regarded as antonyms in that theyare not the same in grammatical units

Third, in many pairs of antonyms, one is marked and the other unmarked The

unmarked member is the one used in questions of degree We ask ‘How high is

it?’(not ‘How low is it?’) or ‘How tall is she?’ We answer ‘Three hundred metershigh’ or ‘one and a half meters tall’ but never ‘One and a half meters short’, excepthumorously High and tall are the unmarked members of high/low and tall/short

3 Classification

According to conventional classification, there are two types of antonyms: Thefirst one is the group of words of different forms and of opposite meanings, calledroot word antonyms or antonyms proper The other is the class of words of thesame root, one of which have a negative affix, called derivational antonyms

In addition to the above classification, there is John Lyon’s classification thatincludes four main types: First, gradable antonymy is the commonest type ofantonymy Antonyms proper are easily gradable, based on the operation ofgradation They are opposite ends of a continuous scale of values Second,complementary antonyms involve two items: the assertion of one is the negation of

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