英语词汇学-Unit-06-Sense-relations.doc

l Synonymy 同义关系
l synonym 同义词
l Antonymy 反义关系
l antonym 反义词
l Polysemy 多义关系
l polyseme 多义词
l Homonymy 同音(同形)异义关系
l homonym 同音同形异义词，homograph同形异义词，homophone 同音异义词
l Hyponymy 上下义关系
l superordinate 上义词, hyponym下义词
l Taxonymy 分类关系
l superordinate上类词, taxonym 分类词
l Meronymy 部分整体关系
l superordinate 总项词, meronym 分项词
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Synonymy
l Synonymy is a relationship of ‘sameness of meaning’ that may hold between two words.
l Synonym: a word that means the same as another.
l Linguists make a distinction between ‘strict’ or ‘absolute’ synonymy and ‘loose’ or ‘relative’ synonymy.
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Strict synonymy
l Strict synonyms refer to two words which are identical in meaning in all its aspects. They are interchangeable in all contexts.
l Strict synonyms are very rare, and some linguists even argue that strict synonyms do not exist.
l Strict synonymy is uneconomical; it creates unnecessary redundancy in a language.
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Loose synonymy
l 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.
l John found/discovered the basketball in the grass.
l Maria Curie discovered radium in 1898.
l *Maria Curie found radium in 1898.
discover: be the first one to come across something
find: experience something in some way
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Distinguishing synonyms
l We often take the following things into consideration when we try to find the differences between synonyms.
l Different English dialects
l Different stylistic meanings
l Different connotative meanings

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

BrE
AmE
BrE
AmE
lift
elevator
farm
ranch
lawyer
attorney
biscuit
cookie
rubbish
garbage
pavement
sidewalk

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

Informal
Formal
Informal
Formal
die
decease
daddy
father
blame
chide
guy
man
west
occidental
praise
eulogy

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Synonyms with different connotative meanings
l Synonyms may have different emotive associations (connotative meanings).

famous
notorious
(disreputably)
misuse
abuse
(of privilege or power)
ambiguous
equivocal
(deliberately)
new
novel
(strikingly)
hate
loathe
(with disgust)
obtain
procure
(with effort)

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

English
French
Latin
ask
question
interrogate
time
age
epoch
begin
commence

buy
purchase

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Antonymy (反义关系)
l Antonymy is a relationship of ‘meaning opposition’ that may hold between two words.
l Antonyms can be defined as words which are opposite in meaning.
l Major types of antonyms：
l Gradable antonyms
l Contradictory or complementary antonyms
l Converse antonyms
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Gradable antonyms
l Gradable antonyms include pairs like the following:
l beautiful ugly
l expensive cheap
l fast slow
l hot cold
l long short
l rich poor
l 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.
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Contradictory (complementary) antonyms
l Contradictory antonyms include pairs like the following:
l asleep awake
l dead alive
l on off
l remember forget
l win lose
l true false
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.
幻灯片14Converse antonyms (逆行)
l The following are examples of converse antonyms：
l lend borrow
l husband wife
l above below
l before after
l behind in front of
l buy sell
l give receive
l parent child
l speak listen
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.
幻灯片15Contradictory antonyms vs. Converse antonyms
1,The bridge is above the river.
The river is below the bridge. Converse antonyms are relational antonyms.

2,This behavior is allowed.
This behavior is not prohibited. Contradictory antonyms are either/or antonyms.

幻灯片16Polysemy
l When a word is first coined, it is always the case (true) that it has only one meaning (monosemic). But in the course of development, the same symbol may be used to express new meanings. The result is polysemy.
l Polysemy shows the economy and efficiency of human languages.

幻灯片17Two processes leading to polysemy
l There are two important processes in the development of meaning:
l Radiation (发散)
l Concatenation(串联)

幻灯片18Radiation
l Radiation is a process in which the primary meaning stands in the center, and the derived meanings radiate from it in every direction like rays.
l All the derived meanings can be traced back to the primary meaning.

幻灯片19Radiation Example: face
We can get the derived meanings by extension, narrowing, analogy, transfer, etc.

the front of the head(Primary Meaning): 1a person,2self-respect,3outward appearance,4the surface of a thing,5countenance(Derived Meaning)
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Concatenation
l Concatenation is a process in which the meaning of a word moves gradually from its primary meaning by successive shifts, like the links of a chain, until there is no connection between the meaning that is finally developed and the primary meaning.
l Unlike radiation where each of the derived meaning is directly related to the primary meaning, concatenation is a process where each of the later meaning is related only to the preceding one.
1→2→3→4→5→6
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Concatenation Example: candidate
A a person dressed in white

A+B(bridging context) a white robed applicant for office (because the Romans wore white robes when standing for office)
B a person taking an examination

There is no connection between A and B, because the middle link (A+B) has vanished.
The primary meaning A has also vanished. Now the derived meaning has become the central meaning.
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Homonymy
l Homonymy is the relation between two words that are spelled or pronounced in the same way but differ in meaning.
l Such words are called homonyms.
l lie vi. / lie vi. -- perfect homonyms
l tear n./ tear vt.--homographs
l coarse/course --homophones

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Perfect homonyms
l Perfect homonyms: words identical in both sound and spelling, but different in meaning
l bank: n./ bank: n.
l bear: n./ bear: vt.

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Homographs
l Homographs: words identical only in spelling but different in sound and meaning.
l bow: vi. to bend one’s head as a greeting
l bow: n. the device used for shooting arrows
l sow: n. female pig
l sow: vi. to scatter seeds
l perfect: v. /- ’-/
l perfect: adj. /’- -/

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Homophones
l Homophones: words identical only in sound but different in spelling and meaning.
l sun/son
l deer/dear
l right/write
l pair/pear
l stationary/stationery

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Differentiation of perfect homonyms from polysemous words
the same lexeme which has several different meanings
perfect homonyms
having different sources
polysemous words
developed from the same source
different lexemes which have the same form
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The use of polysemy and homonymy
l Polysemous words and homonyms are often used as puns, to achieve certain literary effect, such as humor, irony, etc.
l Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland
l “How is bread made?”
l “I know that!” Alice cried eagerly. “You take some flour.”
l “Where do you pick the flower?” the White Queen asked. “In a garden, or in the hedges?”
l “Well, it isn’t picked at all,” Alice explained: “it’s ground.”
l “How many acres of ground?” said the White Queen.

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Hyponymy
l 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.
We are not going to have any food today.
We are not going to have any vegetables today.

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FOODhave a more general meaning(superordinate): FRUIT, MEAT, VEGETABLE(They are subordinate terms. They are hyponyms of the superordinate term FOOD.)
MEAT: BEEF, PORK, MUTTON(They are subordinate terms. They are hyponyms of the superordinate term MEAT.)
VEGETABLEhave a more specific meaning:(CABBAGE,CELERY,SPINACH)
FRUIT: APPLE, PEACH, ORANGE(Reading from the bottom of the hierarchy, ORANGE is a ‘kind of’ fruit, which is a kind of food.)
幻灯片30Taxonymy
l Taxonymy is the relationship in which “X is a kind of Y” (Cruse 1986).
l Not all hyponyms are good taxonyms.
l Hyponyms large spoon, deep spoon are not “a kind of spoon”
l Taxonyms teaspoon, soup spoon are “a kind of spoon”
幻灯片31Taxonymy - Focal orientation
l Focal orientation: this is a perspective that the taxonym and superordinate term must share so that the relationship works
l A blonde is not a kind of woman because blonde has a hair color focal orientation that woman lacks.
幻灯片32Taxonymy – distinctive feature
l It appears that a taxonym must engage with the meaning of its superordinate in a particular way, by further specifying what is distinctive about it. (p.121)
l A strawberry blonde is a type of blonde.
l (Distinctive f. of blonde: fair hair)
l ?A blonde is a type of woman.
l (Distinctive f. of woman: sex)
l ?A stallion is a type of horse.
l (Distinctive f. of stallion: sex)
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Hierarchical characteristic of Taxonymy

l Pine is a kind of conifer, which is a kind of tree, which is a kind of plant.

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Taxonymy vs Hyponymy
Hyponymy

分类关系具有严格的层次性，一般不
超过五层，每个层次的词项必须严格地遵守同一分类标准；而上下义关系中的词项
虽然也能够划分层次，但没有严密的定义标准，对层次的数目也没有规定。

Taxonymy
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Meronymy
l Different from the kind-of relation displayed by hyponymy, meronymy involves part-whole relation between words.

l arm: body
l wheel: car

An arm is part of a body;
A wheel is part of a car.
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排球队 (volleyball team):主攻Outside hitters 二传Setters(Meronyms of...【part-of】
) 接应Opposite hitters 自由人Liberos 副攻Middle hitters <排球队员 (volleyball player)>(Hyponyms of ??? 【kind-of】)