Semasiology

1.

Types of semantic relations
Semantic classifications of words
Synonyms
Antonyms

2. Types of semantic relations

There are four basic types of semantic
relations:
proximity,
equivalence,
inclusion,
opposition.

3. Types of semantic relations

beautiful extremely good-looking, much more
so than most women
pretty good-looking in an ordinary way but
not really beautiful or sexually exciting
attractive good-looking, especially in a way
that makes you feel sexually interested
striking very attractive, especially because a
woman has a particular feature, such as hair
or eyes, that is beautiful and unusual
handsome good-looking in an unusual way,
especially because a woman is tall or strong
or looks as if she has a strong character

4. Types of semantic relations

Semantic proximity implies that two
(or more) words however different may
enter the semantic relations of
proximity if they share certain semantic
features, e.g. the words red and green
share the semantic features of ‘colour’,
‘basic or rainbow colour’,
‘complementary colour’, etc.

5. Types of semantic relations

Semantic equivalence implies full
similarity of meaning of two or more
language units. Being an extreme case of
semantic proximity it is qualitatively
different from all other cases suggesting
the existence of units different in form but
having identical meaning, i.e. one and the
same content side.
E.g. John is taller than Bill // Bill is shorter
than John; stops // plosives

6. Types of semantic relations

Inclusion exists between two words if the
meaning of one word contains the semantic
features constituting the meaning of the
other word. The semantic relations of
inclusion are called hyponymic relations.
E.g. vehicle includes car, bus, taxi, tram;
flower includes daffodil, carnation,
snowdrop, lily.

7. Types of semantic relations

The hyponymic relation may be viewed as
the hierarchical relationship between the
meanings of the general and the individual
terms.
The general term — vehicle, tree, animal — is
referred to as the classifier or the
hyperonym.
The more specific term is called the hyponym
(car, tram; oak, ash; cat, tortoise).

8. Types of semantic relations

Plant
grass
bush
pine
white pine
tree
oak
shrub
ash
yellow pine
flower
maple

9. Types of semantic relations

The contrast of semantic features helps to
establish the semantic relations of
opposition.
Polar oppositions
E.g. rich — poor, dead — alive,
young — old.
Relative oppositions
E.g. to leave – to arrive

10. Semantic classifications of words

synonyms;
lexical and terminological sets;
lexico-semantic groups;
semantic fields;
antonyms.

11. Synonyms

Synonyms are usually defined as two or more
words of the same language, belonging to the
same part of speech and possessing one or
more identical or nearly identical denotational
meanings, interchangeable, at least in some
contexts without any considerable alteration in
denotational meaning, but differing in
morphemic composition, phonemic shape,
shades of meaning, connotations, style, valency
and idiomatic use. They are characterized by the
semantic relations of equivalence or by the
semantic relations of proximity.

12. Types of synonyms

Total (absolute) synonyms
E.g. inflexion – functional affix, linguistics –
philology;
The degree of semantic proximity is best of all
estimated in terms of the aspects of meaning, i.e.
the denotational, the connotational, and the
pragmatic aspect.
1. the difference in connotation E.g. famous //
notorious;
2. the difference in the pragmatic value of words
E.g. brotherly — fraternal, bodily — corporal.

13. Types of synonyms

Stylistic synonyms
E.g. girl (neutral), girlie (coll.), lassie, lass (dial.),
bird, birdie, jane, fluff, skirt (sl.), maiden (poet.),
damsel (arch.)
Ideographic synonyms
E.g. to smile – to have or make a smile – an
expression of the face with the mouth turned up at
the ends and the eyes bright, that usually
expresses amusement, pleasure, approval,
happiness; to grin – to make a wide smile, which
usually shows the teeth; leer – is an unpleasant
smile suggests cruelty, thoughts of sex; smirk – is a
silly, satisfied smile;

14. Types of synonyms

Ideographic-stylistic synonymy
E.g. ask — inquire, expect — anticipate.
Contextual (or context-depending)
synonyms
E.g. ‘buy’ and ‘get’ in ‘I’ll go to the shop and
buy some bread’ // I’ll go to the shop and
get some bread;
‘bear’ and ‘stand’ in the negative form:
‘can’t bear’ and ‘can’t stand’.

15. Types of synonyms

Intensifying synonyms (relative
synonyms)
E.g. to ask – to beg – to implore;
to like – to admire – to love – to adore –
to worship;
gift – talent – genius;
to surprise – to astonish – to amaze – to
astound;
to shout – to yell – to bellow – to roar.

16. Synonyms

Syntactical distribution: alone can be used
only predicatively; solitary and lonely can be used
both predicatively and attributively;
Morphological distribution: concerns the use
of prepositions; E.g. to answer a question, but
reply to a question;
Lexical distribution: is based on the difference
in valency; E.g. to win/ gain a victory; but to win
a war.

17. Synonyms. The synonymic dominant

Characteristic features:
its semantic structure is quite simple: it consists only of
denotative component and it has no connotations;
neutral stylistic connotation;
the meaning is equal to the denotation common to all the
synonymic group; it expresses the notion common to all
the synonyms of the group in the most general way;
its meaning is broad and generalized, covers the meanings
of the rest of synonyms, so that it may be substituted for
any of them;
the highest frequency of use;
broad combinability, i.e. ability to be used in combinations
with various classes of words.

18. Synonyms. The synonymic dominant

leave — depart — quit — retire — clear out
to make – to produce – to create – to
fabricate – to manufacture;
to shine – to flash – to blaze – to gleam – to
glisten – to sparkle – to glitter – to shimmer
– to glimmer;
furious – angry– enraged;
terror – horror – fear.

19. Sources of Synonymy

borrowing from another language; E.g. belly (Native)
– stomach (French) – abdomen (Latin); gather (Native) –
assemble (French) – collect (Latin); end (Native) – finish
(French) – complete (Latin);
borrowing from a territorial variant; radio – wireless;
borrowing from a dialect; E.g. girl – lass (Scottish);
charm – glamour (Scottish); liquor – whiskey (Irish);
word-formation; E.g. memorandum – memo; vegetables
– vegs; microphone – mike; popular song – pop song
(due to shortening, mostly stylistic); commandment –
command; laughter – laugh (conversion); anxiety –
anxiousness; effectivity – effectiveness (affixation);
amongst – among; await – wait (loss of affixes);
euphemistic transfers: sweat – perspiration;
drunkenness – intoxication; naked – in one’s birthday suit;
poor – unprivileged.

20. Lexical and terminological sets

E.g. the words lion, tiger, leopard, puma, cat
refer to the lexical set of ‘the animals of the
cat family’.
names of ‘musical instruments’: piano,
organ, violin, drum;
names of ‘parts of the car mechanism’:
radiator, motor, handbrake, wheels.

21. Lexico-semantic groups

Words describing different sides of one and the
same general notion are united in a lexicosemantic group:
‘colours’ - pink, red, black, green, white;
‘ physical movement’ — to go, to turn, to run;
‘destruction’ — to ruin, to destroy, to explode,
to kill.

22. Semantic fields

E.g. the words cosmonaut (n), spacious (adj),
to orbit (v) belong to the semantic field of
‘space’ .
J. Trier’s (a German linguist; the
beginning of the 20th century)

23. Antonyms

Contradictories, e.g. dead — alive, single —
married; not dead = alive; not single =
married.
Contraries, gradable antonyms, e.g. ‘old’
and ‘young’ are the most distant elements
of the series: old – middle-aged – young;
‘hot’ and ‘cold’ form a series with
intermediate ‘cool’ and ‘warm’.

24. Antonyms

Morphologically (or structurally) antonyms are
classified into:
absolute antonyms – root words; E.g. right –
wrong; love – hate; early – late; usually are
contrary notions – beautiful – pretty – goodlooking – plain – ugly;
derivational antonyms – the presence of
negative (positive) affixes, negative affixes serve
to deny the quality stated in the stem; E.g. appear
– disappear; selfish – unselfish; prewar – postwar;
logical – illogical.