English Lexicology Meaning Relations Week 10 Instructor: Liu Hongyong

We are going to discuss Words that have the “same” meaning: synonymy Words that have “opposite” meaning: antonymy Hierarchies of meaning: hyponymy and meronymy Meaning and word combination: collocation

Synonymy ( 同义关系 ) Synonymy is a relationship of ‘sameness of meaning’ that may hold between two words. Synonyms ( 同义词 ) are traditionally defined as words having different form but identical or similar meaning.

Problems with the definition It is possible that a polysemous word just shares one meaning with another word. Are the two words synonyms? There are no such thing as true synonymy. freedom of choice a person a person who leads a headmaster head: the upper part of the body 1) chief 2) boss 3) leader mental ability the top of something

Problems with the definition Besides the denotative meaning, a word may also have connotative meaning, stylistic meaning, and affective meaning. adult: [+human, +adult] grown-up: [+human, +adult] formal Informal/colloquial Denotative meaning is the same, but the stylistic meaning is different. Can they be called synonyms?

Strict (absolute) synonymy Linguists make a distinction between ‘strict’ or ‘absolute’ synonymy and ‘loose’ or ‘relative’ synonymy. Strict synonyms refer to two words which are identical in meaning in all its aspects. They are interchangeable in all contexts. Strict synonyms are very rare, and some linguists even argue that strict synonyms do not exist.

Strict (absolute) synonymy Strict synonymy is uneconomical; it creates unnecessary redundancy in a language. When two words are in danger of becoming strict synonyms, one of them would either  change its meaning, or  fade away from the language and become an archaic word.

Loose (relative) synonymy When we speak of synonymy, we mean ‘loose’ or ‘relative’ synonymy, where we find not only a significant overlap in meaning between two words, but also some contexts where they cannot be used interchangeably. John found/discovered the basketball in the grass. Maria Curie discovered radium in *Maria Curie found radium in discover: be the first one to come across something find: experience something in some way

Differences between loose synonyms We often take the following things into consideration when we try to find the differences between synonyms.  Different English dialects  Different stylistic meanings  Different connotative meanings

Synonyms from different dialects Some synonym pairs differ in that they belong to different dialects of English. Here are some examples of synonyms from British and American English: BrEAmEBrEAmE liftelevatorfarmranch lawyerattorneybiscuitcookie rubbishgarbagepavementsidewalk

Synonyms with different stylistic meanings One of a pair of synonyms may be used in a more formal context than the other. Here are some examples of synonym pairs. InformalFormalInformalFormal diedeceasedaddyfather blamechideguyman westoccidentalpraiseeulogy

Synonyms with different connotative meanings Synonyms may have different emotive associations (connotative meanings). famousnotorious (disreputably) misuseabuse (of privilege or power) ambiguousequivocal (deliberately) newnovel (strikingly) hateloathe (with disgust) obtainprocure (with effort)

Source of synonyms Why are there so many synonyms in English?  The primary reason for this has to do with the heavy borrowing from other languages, especially from French and Latin. EnglishFrenchLatin askquestioninterrogate timeageepoch begincommence buypurchase

Antonymy ( 反义关系 ) Antonymy is a relationship of ‘meaning opposition’ that may hold between two words. Antonyms can be defined as words which are opposite in meaning. Major types of antonyms ：  Gradable antonyms  Contradictory or complementary antonyms  Converse antonyms

Gradable antonyms Gradable antonyms include pairs like the following: beautifulugly expensive cheap fastslow hotcold longshort richpoor wide narrow These pairs are called gradable antonyms because they do not represent a more/less relation. The words can be the end-points of a continuum ( 连续体 ). Since they are gradable, they allow comparison.

Contradictory (complementary) antonyms Contradictory antonyms include pairs like the following: asleepawake deadalive onoff rememberforget winlose truefalse These pairs are called contradictory antonyms because they represent an either/or relation. If you permit some behavior, then it is not forbidden. Since they are not gradable, they do not allow comparison.

Converse antonyms ( 逆行 ) The following are examples of converse antonyms ： lendborrow husbandwife above below beforeafter behindin front of buysell givereceive parentchild speaklisten Lend is the converse of borrow and vice versa; i.e. the substitution of one member for the other does not change the meaning of a sentence if it is accompanied by the change of subject and object. John lent Mary five dollars. Mary borrowed five dollars from John.

The bridge is above the river. The river is below the bridge. This behavior is allowed. This behavior is not prohibited. Mary is John’s wife. John is Mary’s husband. ? ？ Mary is not John’s husband. I allow you to introduce Mary. *You forbidden me to introduce Mary. Contradictory antonyms vs. Converse antonyms Converse antonyms are relational antonyms. Contradictory antonyms are either/or antonym. I don’t forbidden you to introduce Mary.

Hyponymy( 词义之间的 ) 下义关系 Hyponymy is the sense relationship that relates words hierarchically. The underlying observation is that some words have a more general meaning, while others have a more specific meaning, while referring to the same entity. FOOD MEAT We are not going to have any food today. We are not going to have any vegetables today. VEGETABLE

MEATVEGETABLE FRUIT BEEFPORKMUTTON CABBAGECELERYSPINACH APPLEPEACHORANGE superordinate They are subordinate terms. They are hyponyms of the superordinate term FOOD. FOOD Reading from the bottom of the hierarchy, ORANGE is a ‘kind of’ fruit, which is a kind of food. They are subordinate terms. They are hyponyms of the superordinate term MEAT.

Meronymy Metonymy ( 借喻修辞手法 )  simile; metaphor; metonym Meronymy (the part-of relation)

Meronymy Different from the kind-of relation displayed by hyponymy, meronymy involves part-whole relation between words. arm: body wheel: car An arm is part of a body; A wheel is part of a car.

主攻 Outside hitters 二传 Setters 接应 Opposite hitters 自由人 Liberos 排球队 (volleyball team) 副攻 Middle hitters 排球队员 (volleyball player) Hyponyms of ??? 【 kind-of 】 Meronyms of ??? 【 part-of 】

Collocation: a structural relation ( 搭配关系 ) Collocation refers to a structural or syntagmatic relation. It refers to meaning relations that a word has with other words in the same sentence. If the noun ‘kettle’ occurs in a sentence, there is a high chance that the verb ‘boil’ will also occur, e.g. I will boil a kettle. Is the kettle boiling now?

Collocation  Grammatical collocation (e.g. fond+of, want+to, etc.)  Meaning collocation (our focus) Collocation refers to a meaning relation of predictable co-occurrence. There is a mutual expectancy between two collocated words. The force may be weak or strong. We can use corpus to identify the collocation patterns.

Example of collocation (Corpus Data ） Word: political (from a small (90,000 word) corpus of obituary texts) left 2left 1right 1right 2 4 of4 his3 career3 the 2 the3 a2 life3 to 3 of2 courage3 in 2 into2 in 2 great

Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations …ofhispoliticallifein… private professional academic … A word has the paradigmatic relation with other words which can be used in the same position in a sentence. It is a kind of substitution relation. A word has the syntagmatic relation with its neighboring words. It is a kind of collocation relation.