SEMANTICS LXICAL DERIVATIONAL RELATIONS LEXICAL UNIVERSALS Overview 1

SEMANTICS LXICAL, DERIVATIONAL RELATIONS & LEXICAL UNIVERSALS

Overview 1. Lexical Relations. v Homonymy – Polysemy – Synonymy – Antonymy – Hyponymy – Meronymy Member _ Collection & Portion _ Mass. 2. Derivational Relations. v Causative verbs v Agentive nouns 3. Lexical Universals. v Colour terms v Core vocabulary v Universal lexemes

1. Lexical Relations Lexicon: A stock of lexemes of a given language (network). A dictionary: A list of all the words in a language together with idiosyncratic information. Lexical Field: A group of lexemes which belong to a particular activity or area of knowledge. Blanket: (V) to cover with blanket. Blanket: (V) Sailing. To block another vessel`s wind by sailing close to it on the windward side. Lexical relations between words are more common between words in the same field. Peak (mountain) = summit. Peak (hat)= visor.

1. Homonymy Types of Lexical Relations • Two unrelated meanings of the same phonological word. The same syntactic category • Lap (N) = circuit of a course. • Lap (N) = part of the body. and spelling Homonymy Polysemy Synonymy Antonymy The same syntactic category, • Ring (V) = to surround. • Wring (V) = to squeeze or twist tightly so liquid is forced out but different spelling Different categories, but the • Keep (N) = notice. Member Hyponymy Meronymy • Keep (V) = to maintain possession. same spelling Collection Different categories and different spelling • Not = Adverb, conjunction or interjection. • Knot = V, N Portion Mass

2. Polysemy • Multiple senses of the same phonological word, but these senses are related. They are listed under the same lexical entry. Homonymous words are not related, therefore, they are given separate entries. • Hook (n. ) 1. a piece of material, usually metal, curved or bent and used to suspend, catch, hold or pull something. 2. a trap or snare. 3. something that attracts or intended to be attractive. • Hooker (n. ) 1. a commercial fishing boat using hooks and lines instead of nets. 2. a sailing boat of the west of Ireland formerly used cargo and now for pleasure sailing and racing. • Hooker (n. ) 1. a person or thing that hooks. 2. US and Canadian slang; a draught of alcoholic drink. Relatednes s Arguments Gay Lively or bright Homosexual

3. Synonymy • Different phonological words with the same meanings, e. g. couch=sofa, boy=lad, large=big … etc. • Different distributions of synonyms along different parameters: POLICE : police officer, cop or copper. Dialect • Irish English : the guard. • British English: the old Bill • American English : the heat Formality • Formal : police officer. • Colloquial : cop People`s attitudes • Positive / neutral : cop • Negative : pigs Collocations • Police car or cop car, but not an Old Bill car

4. Antonymy (Opposition) • Words that are opposite in meaning. They are of different types: 1. Simple antonyms: Two words, the negative one implies the positive of the other. They are also called complementary pairs or binary pairs, e. g. dead x alive / pass x fail. *My cat is dead, but luckily it`s still alive. 2. Gradable antonyms: two opposites where the positive of one of them does not necessarily imply the negative of the other, e. g. rich x poor & beautiful x ugly. a. This relation is typically associated with adjectives. b. There is an intermediate term between the gradable antonyms, e. g. hot (warm) cold. c. They can be used in comparative constructions, e. g. bigger/ smaller (Yule, 1996: 118). d. In SOME pairs, there is one item that is more basic or common that the other, e. g. long x short. We usually ask How long is it? Not How short is it? .

3. Reverses: A relation between terms that describes movement. One term describes movement in one direction ( ) and the other describes the same movement in the opposite direction ( ), e. g. push x pull, come x go, left x right … etc. 4. Converses: A term describes the relation between two entities from alternate points of view, e. g. above x below & employer x employee. Tom is Helen`s employer = Helen is Tom`s employee. My office is above the library = the library is below my office. 5. Taxonomic sisters: A term describes words which are at the same level in a taxonomy. A taxonomy is a classification of things or concepts. Red orange yellow green blue purple brown (open) Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday & Saturday (closed)

Sub-cases of Taxonomy Adult – Young relation Male – Female pairs • 1. dog puppy • 1. dog bitch • 2. cat kitten • 2. tom queen • 3. piglet • 3. hog sow • 4. bull cow • 4. cow calf

5. Hyponymy • It is a relation of inclusion; a hyponym includes the meaning of a more general word. For example, dog & cat are hyponyms of animals. Similarly the words mother & sister are hyponyms of woman. Animal Superordinate hypernym Mother Dog Cat Horse Woman Superordinate hypernym Sister Aunt

Trees Pine Banyan Palm Plants Lily Daffodil Flowers Carnation

6. Meronymy It is a part-whole relation between the lexical items. Wheel car / collar shirt / cover book Meronyms differ in terms of : 1. How necessary the part is to the whole. 2. They differ from hyponyms in transitivity. Hyponymy is a transitive relation while meronymy may or may not be. Pane Nail Window Finger Room Hand

Lexical Relations Similar to Meronymy Member - collection Portion - mass • It is a relation between the word • A relation between a mass noun for a unit and the word for the collection of the units. • Ship fleet • Tree forest • Fish shoal • Book library and the unit of measurement. • A drop of liquid. • A grain of salt/ sand/ wheat. • A sheet of paper. • A strand of hair.

DERIVATIONAL RELATIONS • Derivational relations are the relations between words with a common root but of different derivational structure. • The gates are open. • Derivational structure : the nature, type and arrangement of the • The apples are ripe. components of the word. • The soil is rich. • 1 Causative Verbs • The gates open at 9. • The apples are ripening. • * The soil is enriching. State Change of state (inchoative) Causative • The porters open the gates at 9. • The sun is ripening the apples. • The gardener is enriching the soil.

Resultative Adjective • It describes the state which is a result of the process and it has the form of the past participle, e. g. closed, broken, tired… etc. • Hot state adj. • Heat inchoative V. • Heat causative V. • Heated resultative adj. ØThere are verbs that are inherently causative and not derived from an adjective, such as kill; cause to kill. ØDead die kill.

2. Agentive Nouns • They have the meaning of “ the entity that performs the action” and they are formed by adding –er or –or to the verb; teacher & sailor. • Why do lexicographers list agentive nouns in dictionaries? Regular irregular 1. There are irregular form such as footballer. Nouns With no basic verbs 2. Some nouns may have several senses that are far from the associated • biker • cook • Meter verb, e. g. muffle= mute muffler= silencer/scarf. • seller • Dependent 3. There are different strategies forming agentive nouns, e. g. dependent.

LEXICAL UNIVERSALS ØAre there universals of lexical organization? ØDo lexemes have correspondences in all the languages of the world? 1. Colour terms. A. Basic colour terms 1. The term is monoleximic, blue-grey is not basic. 2. The term is not a hyponym of any other colour term, scarlet is not basic. 3. The term has a wide applicability, English blonde is not basic. 4. The term is not a semantic extension of something manifesting that colour. Thus, turquoise and gold are not basic.

Universal Colour Terms • Berlin and Kay`s study (1969) came up with the following conclusions: 1. Within the range of each colour, there is a basic colour which is universal 2. There are only eleven basic categories that form the following hierarchy: • White • Black Red Blue • Green • Yellow Brown • Purple - Pink • Orange -Grey

2. Core Vocabulary Each language has a core vocabulary of basic words. 1)This core (list) is more resistant to loss or change than other parts of the vocabulary. 2) This core vocabulary can be used to trace the lexical links between languages to establish family relations between them. 3) The membership of this core vocabulary is the same or similar in all languages. 4) Comparison of the lists in different languages may show cognates that are descended from a common ancestor language.

3. Universal Lexemes • An investigation has been made by a number of scholars to establish a core set of universal lexemes. One feature of this approach is the avoidance of formal metalanguages. A metalanguage is a language that is used to examine another language. Instead, scholars use what is referred to as “ reductive paraphrase in natural language”. • This assumption implies the existence of “semantic primes”; a finite set of indefinable expressions such as words, bound morphemes and phrasemes. The semantic primes (primitives) are elements that can define the meanings of words, but cannot define themselves (Wierzbica, 1996: 10). • Phrasemes: They are combinations of two or more words which together constitute one lexical unit with a metaphorical meaning (which cannot be decomposed into the meanings of its parts) such as idioms and collocations.

Example of Semantic Primes • About 60 semantic primes have been proposed such as: 1. Determiners: This, the same, other. 2. Quantifiers: one, some, many, much. 3. Descriptors: big, small. 4. Existence and possessions: is, have. 5. Evaluators: good, bad. 6. Space: where, above, below.

References ØSaeed, J. I. (2009). Semantics. Oxford: Blackwell. ØYule, G. (2010). The Study of Language. Cambridge: CUP. ØWierzbicka, Anna (1996). Semantics : Primes and Universals. USA: Oxford University Press.

QUIZ – 6 April 2014 • FOR EACH SENTENCE PAIR BELOW DISCUSS ANY MEANING RELATIONS YOU IDENTIFY BETWEEN THE VERBS MARKED IN BOLD 1. A – Freak winds raised the water level b- the water level rose 2. a. Fred sent the package to Mary b. Mary received the package from Fred 3. a. Ethel tried to win the cookery contest b. Ethel succeeded in wining the cookery contest 4. a. she did not tie the knot b. she untied the knot