现代英语词汇学概论chapter7

SENSE RELATIONS BETWEEN WORDS,Chapter VII,1,Words are arbitrary symbols and independent identities so far as their outer facet- spelling and pronunciation, is concerned. But semantically, all words are related in one way or another. A word which is related to other words is related to them in sense, hence sense relations.Moreover, the discussion will also cover semantic field, which is commonly felt to be an integral part of sense relations,2,A dog is an animal that thinks its human;A human is an animal that thinks its not an animal;Therefore, a dog is an animal that thinks its an animal that thinks its not an animal.,3,Sense relationsPolysemyHomonymy(同形异义关系/同音异义关系/同音同形异义关系)HomophonesHomographsPerfect homonymsSynonymy 同义关系synonym 同义词semantic similarityAntonymy 反义关系antomym 反义词semantic oppositionHyponymy 上下义关系semantic inclusion,4,Synonymy,Synonymy is a relationship of sameness of meaning that may hold between two words.Synonym: a word that means the same as another. Or exactly one of two or more words which have the same or very nearly the same essential meaning.,5,Types of Synonyms Synonyms can be classified into two major groups: absolute/complete synonyms and relative synonyms. 1) absolute/complete synonyms, also known as complete synonyms are words which are identical in meaning in all its aspects, i.e. both in grammatical meaning and lexical meaning, including conceptual and associative meanings. Rare, non-existentAbsolute synonyms are restricted to highly specialized vocabulary, such as scarlet-fever/ scarlatina in medicine,6,2) Relative synonyms, also called near-synonyms, are similar or nearly the same in denotation, but embrace different shades of meaning or different degrees of a given quality.E.g.: change / alter /varychange: to put another thing in its placealter: to make it different from which it was beforevary: to alter it in different manner and at different timesA man changes his habits, alters his conduct, and varies his manner of speaking,7,Relative synonyms may be different in the following aspects:In degree of a given quality or in shade of meaning;In affective meaning, and stylistic meaning;In collocation and distribution;Some sets of synonyms belong to different dialects of the language,8,Sources of Synonyms1) Borrowing“ the richness of English in synonyms is largely due to the happy mingling of Latin, French and native elements.”(Baugh, 1978)Native French Latinask question interrogatefast firm secure2) Dialects and regional Englishrailway (BrE) railroad (AmE)3) Figurative and euphemistic use of wordsoccupation (profession) walk of life (fig)4) Coincidence with idiomatic expressionsdecide make up one s mind,9,Discrimination of SynonymsThe differences between synonyms boil down to three areas: denotation, connotation, and application.1) Difference in denotationSynonyms may differ in the range and intensity of meaning. Some words have a wider range of meaning than others. comprehend / understandextend / increase / expandlaugh: chortle, chuckle, giggle, guffaw, snicker/snigger, titter,10,2) Difference in connotation.By connotation, we mean the stylistic and emotive coloring of words. Some words share the same denotation but differ in their stylistic (emotional) appropriateness. unlike / dissimilar homely / domesticLook at that lovely little boy.Look at that small boy.Look at that tiny boy.3) Difference in application.Many words are synonymous in meaning but different in usage in simple,11,3) Difference in applicationMany words are synonymous in meaning but different in usage in simple terms. They form different collocations and fit into different sentence patterns (distribution: pre- or post- modifier). empty (box, street, room), vacant (seat, chair, apartment), blank (check, a blank sheet of paper)accuse.of, chargewith, rebukefor, reproachwith/for,12,Discrimination of synonymsThe losing team was from further competition.Firefighters a big fire.The meeting has been because of the flu.The government the tax on alcohol.,abolish, cancel, extinguish, eliminate,extinguished,eliminated,cancelled,abolished,Exercises,13,It is to judge a foreign culture only by its food.There was an idea that the earth was flat and motionless.You were very to trust him.The boss him strongly for his negligenceThe police him of theft.The police him with murder.,absurd, ridiculous, silly,ridiculous,absurd,silly,accuse, charge, rebuke,rebuked,accused,charged,14,AntonymyAntonomy is concerned with semantic opposition. Antonyms can be defined as words which are opposite in meaning. There are a variety of oppositeness. antonyms can be classified on the basis of A. semantic contrastB. morphological structure,15,types of antonyms,Morphological classificationroot antonymsderivational antonymsSemantic classificationContraries/ Gradable 相对反义词Complementaries 互补反义词Conversives 换位反义词,16,A. antonyms classified on the basis of semantic contrastContrariesComplementariesCoversives,17,a) Contraries /gradable antonyms(相对反义词)Antonyms of this type are best viewed in terms of a scale running between two poles or extremes. The two opposites are gradable.hot, warm, cool, coldbeautiful, pretty, good-looking, plain, uglyold-young, open-close, big-small, poor-rich,18,b) Complementaries (绝对反义词/互补反义词)These antonyms truly represent oppositeness. They are so opposed to each other that they are mutually exclusive and admit no possibility between them (non-gradable).The assertion of one is the denial of the other.dead-alive, present-absent, male-female, true-false, approval-disapproval, capable-incapablePrefixes: dis-, in-, il-, ir-, im-, un-,19,a,b,a,b,gradable complementary contrary contradictory,20,c) Conversives (换位反义词/关系反义词)This third type consists of relational opposites.one member of the antonyms pair presupposes the other member.Husband-wife, fianc-fiance, employer-employee, debtor-creditorAbove-below, in front of-behind, up-downBuy-sell, give-receive, go-come, gain-lose,21,B. antonyms classified on the basis of the morphological structureroot antonymsclear vague; large smallderivational antonymspolite impoliteprewar - postwar,22,Some features of antonyms1) Marked and unmarked members (有标记项和无标记项)E.g.: tiger(unmarked), tigress(marked)The unmarked member is used much more widely than merely as a contrast with the marked one, which is more specific in denotation.More examplesOld/young; “How old / young are you?”big/small; “How big ?”wide/narrow;“How wide ?”Heavy/lightWhich one in each pair is unmarked?The cover term is called “unmarked”, i.e. usual; and the covered “marked”, or unusual.,23,2) Some words without antonymsNot all words have antonyms: House, window, forest, book, coal3) Polysemous words can have more than one antonymfast: secureloosequickslow,24,Stylistic purpose of the use of antonyms 勤学如春起之苗，不见其增，日有所长；辍学如磨刀之石，不见其损，日有所亏United we stand, divided we fall.Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.He is too old to work, but too young to die.One hundred years later，Negro lives on a lonely lsland of poverty In the midst of vast oeean of material Prosperity. (Martin Luther King: I Have a Dream)Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but difficult to slave. (Henry Peter Brousham, Political Leadership),25,HyponymyThe relationship of semantic inclusion between words is called hyponymy, i.e. the meaning of a more specific word is included in that of another more general word.Examples: cat is a hyponym(下义词) of animal, flute of instrument, chair of furniture,26,Food is a superordinate (上义词), meat, vegetable and fruit are hyponyms(下义词) or subordinates of food, and they are co-hyponyms(共下义词).But their status either as superordinate or subordinate is relative to other terms.,27,The set of terms which are hyponyms of the same superordinate terms are called co-hyponyms, which are also knows as semantic fields.The words of language can be classified into sets which are related to conceptual fields and divide up the semantic space or the semantic domain in certain ways. For example, apple, pear, date and etc. make up the semantic field of “fruits”.The German linguist Jost Trier saw vocabulary as an integrated system of lexemes interrelated in sense. Therefore, the words of language can be classified into semantically related sets of fields.,Semantic Field 语义场,28,语义场理论 Semantic Field Theory德国 Jost Trier 20世纪30年代,物理原术语语义场又叫词汇场集合、聚集、组合语义的类聚共同语义特征,29,Vocabulary of a given language is not simply a listing of independent items, but is organised into areas, or fields, within which words interrelate and define each other in various ways. -Crystal (1980)Semantic field of colours: red, orangeSemantic field of kinship: son,fatherThe semantic field of kinship: father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister,30,联系性 I l