WORD MEANING A word is a dialectical unity of form and content, an independent unit of language to form a sentence by itself. book, bookish: words -ish: not word +Unity of form (formal unity): Formal unity separates the word from word groups whose components possess a certain structural freedom
CHAPTER WORD MEANING Word Definition A word is a dialectical unity of form and content, an independent unit of language to form a sentence by itself book, bookish: words -ish: not word + Unity of form (formal unity): Formal unity separates the word from word groups whose components possess a certain structural freedom, e.g book, table, chair, eat, nice, tall, short: words bright light, to take for granted: word groups + Unity of meaning: a word conveys only one concept e.g a blackbird (a type of bird – chim hét) A word group: Each word in the group conveys separate concepts e.g a black bird black: a colour bird: a kind of living creature (con chim màu đen) Forms and Expressions Eg: There is no way of telling what it is There are forms but only expressions Words and word forms are distinguished from each other in terms of lexical and grammatical meanings I have a book I not like what you everyday Forms and Expressions Forms of one and the same word have the same lexical meaning Different words have different lexical meanings Lexical and Grammatical meaning revisited - Different forms of the word will have the same lexical meaning, but different grammatical meanings eg: lovely, lovelier, loveliest - Different words may have the same grammatical meaning but different lexical meanings eg: love, hate, eat, drink Polysemy vs Homonymy • Homonymy Homonyms (Gr homes (similar) + onoma (name): words identical in pronunciation and/or spelling, but different in meaning They are not connected semantically (They have no semantic relation) They are quite different words • He ran fast (quickly) • They stand fast (firmly) • Who feasts till he is sick, must fast till he is well (go without food) (proverb) • A clean fast is better than a dirty breakfast (proverb) Homonymy A relation that holds between two lexemes that have the same form with unrelated meanings • Homophones • Homographs • Full homonyms Partial homonyms Homonymy - Absolute homonymy should satisfy the following three conditions: They will be unrelated in meaning All their forms will be identical The identical forms will be grammatically equivalent Eg: bank, sole (a fish, and bottom of the foot or shoe) Homonymy - Partial homonymy: Find (v) and found (v) share found (past tense form of find), and the base found + Depending on the sameness of forms, including pronunciation and spelling, homonymy may be classified into: Full homonymy, homophones, homographs Synonymy Stylistic synonyms: differ in terms of their connotation Policeman – bobby-cop Before – ere Father – dad Fellow – chap – lad Semantic-stylistic synonyms: differ both in denotational and connotational meaning Eg: house - shack, slum, pad (sl.) Synonymy Phraseological synonyms: differ in their collocations Eg: - make language - tongue Territorial synonyms: employed in different regions like Britain, Australia or the United States Eg: sidewalk - pavement Synonymy Euphemisms, which literally means “speak well” Eg: Die vs be no more/be gone WC vs the restroom/bathroom Sources of synonyms: Borrowings: Many words were borrowed from Greek, Latin and French Eg: To ask – to question (French) – to interrogate (Latin) Synonymy The change of meaning: Eg: “hand” acquired the meaning “worker” and became synonymous to this word Word building - Use/ creation of phrasal verbs: to rise – to get up - Conversion: to laugh a laugh – laughter - Shortening: popular - pop Synonymy - Means of derivation and composition: Deceptive – deceitful Trader – tradesman Lexical variants and paranyms - Lexical variants for one word are just examples of free variation language, in so far as they are not conditioned by the contextual environment but are optional with speakers Eg: Northward vs northwards Lexical variants and paronyms - Paronyms are words that kindred in origin, sound form and meaning but different semantically and in usage: Ingenious: clever Ingenuous: frank, artless Affect: influence Effect: produce Antonymy Words are opposite in meanings are called antonyms male - female married - single The basic property of two words that are antonyms: share all but one semantic property (one present in one but absent in the other) Antonymy Common characteristic: one is marked and the other unmarked Old vs young Tall vs short There are four kinds of antonyms: Antonyms proper: represents contrary notions Grading is based on the operation of gradation Antonymy big / small hot / cold Complementary antonyms (binary antonyms): involve two items and presuppose that the assertion of one is the negation of the other: alive - dead awake - asleep Antonymy Conversives or relational opposites: denote one and the same situation as viewed from different points of view, with a reversal of the order of participants and their roles: give - receive left - right Antonymy Directional antonyms: the difference between them is based on an opposition between motion toward or away from a place: come - go up - down Full and Empty words - Full words: express a notion or concept (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs) study, tree, table - Empty words: not have lexical meaning (articles, conjunctions, certain pronouns, prepositions) the, in, on, because, off, of Questions - List all the basic terms with examples to show what is what - Distinguish the distinction between polysemy and homonymy; synonyms and homonyms? THE END ... synonymous to this word Word building - Use/ creation of phrasal verbs: to rise – to get up - Conversion: to laugh a laugh – laughter - Shortening: popular - pop Synonymy - Means of derivation and composition:... their roles: give - receive left - right Antonymy Directional antonyms: the difference between them is based on an opposition between motion toward or away from a place: come - go up - down Full and... connotation Policeman – bobby-cop Before – ere Father – dad Fellow – chap – lad Semantic-stylistic synonyms: differ both in denotational and connotational meaning Eg: house - shack, slum, pad (sl.)