Transcript Presentación de PowerPoint - Introduction to Linguistic

The branch of
semantics that
deals with word
meaning is
called lexical
semantics.
It is the study of systematic meaning related structures
of words. Lexical field or semantic field is the
organization of related words and expressions in to a
system which shows their relationship within one
another
Lexical semantics examines
relationships among word meanings such
as:
Synonyms
Antonyms
Hyponyms
Prototypes
What are Synonyms?
Synonyms are different words with identical or
at least similar meanings. Words that are
synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the
state of being a synonym is called synonymy.
An example of synonyms are the words car and
automobile, or announcement and
declaration.
Near-synonyms or IDEOGRAPHICS
Cognitive synonyms or STYLISTICS
Absolute synonyms
Synonyms can be any part of
speech (e.g. nouns, verbs,
adjectives, adverbs or
prepositions), as long as both
members of the pair are the
same part of speech. More
examples of English
synonyms are:
noun
• "student" and "pupil"
verb
• "buy" and "purchase"
adjective
• "sick" and "ill"
adverb
• "quickly" and "speedily"
preposition
• "on" and "upon"
Antonyms are words that have
opposite meanings.
Come
Go
This distinction applies mostly to
adjectives and adverbs
Gradable antonyms represent
points on a scale that are roughly
equal in distance from the middle
of the scale.
Non-gradable antonyms represent
opposed states that cannot be
measured on a scale.
Gradable antonyms
Non - Gradable antonyms
wet - dry
male - female
young - old
true - false
easy - difficult
north - south
happy - sad
single - married
big - small
full - empty
long - short
before - after
This distinction applies mainly to nouns, verbs and
adverbs.
Reciprocal antonyms are pairs in which each
member depends upon the other. We can say that
‘you can’t have one without the other’.
Reversive antonyms are pairs in which each
member expresses the reverse of the other. In this
case, you can have one without the other.
Reciprocal antonyms
Reversive antonyms
teacher - student
enter - exit
boyfriend - girlfriend
bring - take
give - take
arrive - depart
borrow - lend
come - go
inside - outside
towards - away from
above - below
up - down
The word which is more general in meaning
is called the super-ordinate, and the more
specific words are called its hyponyms.
Hyponyms of the same super-ordinate are
co-hyponyms to each other.
Hyponymy is a
relationship
between two
words in which
the meaning of
one of the
words includes
the meaning of
the other word.

The term extent
(Extension) of the
Hyponyms is smaller
than the term extent
of the Hyperonyms.
Each Basset is a dog,
but not each dog is a
Basset.

term contents
(Intension) of the
Hyponyms are larger
than term contents of
the Hyperonyms. The
Hyponym has at
least a semantic
characteristic more
than the Hyperonym.
Hyponymy involves the
logical relationship of
entailment.
E.g.
‘There is a horse’ entails
that ‘There is an animal.’



Hyponymy often
functions in discourse
as a means of lexical
cohesion by establishing
referential.
equivalence to avoid
repetition.
The concept of a ‘prototype’ is usually interpreted as
the ‘clearest example’, or the ‘exemplar of certain
words.
Prototype theory
relates to someone or
something that serves
to illustrate the typical
qualities of a class or
the original or model on
which something is
based or formed. This
is, of course culture
bound, People of
different countries
consider words or
expressions related to
taboo in different ways.
The following is a chart showing the ‘prototype’ of a ‘bird’. It
was established that the robin is the clearest example, or the
exemplar of a ‘bird’.

People usually
identify each
category on the basis
of a mental picture
which typically
represents all that
the category stands
for, and the best
example of this idea
is the prototype.

Members which bear
a strong
resemblance too the
prototype are called
central members
while those that do
not have a strong
resemblance to the
prototype are called
peripheral
members.
Lexical semantics examines relationships
among word meanings. It is the study of
how the lexicon is organized and how the
lexical meanings of lexical items are
interrelated, and it’s principal goal is to
build a model for the structure of the
lexicon by categorizing the types of
relationships between words.