Introducing Lexical Relations

By:Arsalan Ali QadirShaswar Kamal Mahmud

12th of November 2011

What‘s Lexical Relations?The Definition:A lexical relation is a culturally recognized pattern of association that exists between lexical units in a language.

Why it’s important?Not only can words be treated as ‘ containers’ or as fulfilling ‘roles’, they can also have ‘relationships’. In every day talk, we frequently give the meanings of words in terms of their relationships.

conceal = hideshallow X deepDaffodil as “it’s a kind of flower”

Lexical Relations

There are 2 fundamental types of sense relations:

–Paradigmatic: A paradigmatic relationship is one where an individual item may be replaced by another. Paradigmatic – reflect semantic choices available (within a lexical field): a bottle of __(milk/juice/beer, etc)

–Syntagmatic: A syntagmatic relationship is one where signs occur in sequence or parallel and operate together to create meaning. It’s the relation between linguistic items in a sentence.

4 basic relations between classes:

• Identity• Inclusion• Overlap• Disjunction

Congruence Relations

Congruence Relations

1. ~identity: Synonymy

• Different lexemes have the same or similar meaning• Synonyms occur due to different dialects or different

origins (cloth OE &Fabric Lat)

X and Y are cognitive synonyms if- they are syntacticly identical.- S1 containing X has the same truth-conditions as an

identical sentence S2 in which X is replaced by Y.

example: he plays violin <-> he plays fiddle

Congruence Relations

2. ~inclusion:Hyponymy

• When the meaning of one form is included in the meaning of another. X is a kind of Y. •Hyponymy is a relation of inclusion. A hyponym indicates the meaning of a more general word.

dog and cat are hyponyms of animalsister and mother are hyponyms of women.

There is hierarchical relationship. In ‘hyponymy’, the higher level terms are called superordinates or hypernym, while the lower level terms are called hyponyms. In addition, two or more words that share the same superordinate term are co-hyponyms.

Congruence Relations

2. ~inclusion:Hyponymy

There is hierarchical relationship. In ‘hyponymy’, the higher level terms are called superordinates or hypernym, while the lower level terms are called hyponyms. In addition, two or more words that share the same superordinate term are co-hyponyms.

Example: Music (superordinate= hypernym)

pop jazz hip hop (hypnyms & cohyponyms)

Congruence Relations

• ~overlap: Compatibility

• overlap : E1 and E2 have a non-empty intersection, but one is not included in the other,

• A pair of compatibles must have a common superordinate.

this is a dog / this is a pet

Congruence Relations

• ~disjunction : Incompatibility

• E1 and E2 have no element in common.

this is a dog vs. this is a cat

BA

Partial relations

Partial relations• = relations between lexical items which don't always occur at the same

place in a sentence, i.e. which aren't exactly syntacticly the same.

• Example: „finish“ and „complete“

Quasi-relations• = relations between lexical items which meet the semantic

requirements, but are of different syntactic category• Example: „it is red/yellow/green“ with „it is coloured“ as quasi-

superordinate.

Partial relations

Pseudo-relations• = 2 lexical items do not stand in any relation, but under certain

circumstances they show one or more characteristics of a certain relation.• Example: „This triangle has 3 equal sides“ and „This triangle has 3 equal

angles“.

Para-relations• = relations between lexical items which are expected rather than

necessary• Example: „dog“ and „pet“. -It‘s a dog, but it`s a pet.

Homonymy

• Homonymy is a lexical relation where ‘one form (written or spoken) has two or more unrelated meanings’ .Words of this type are called homonyms. For example,

• bank (of a river) – bank (financial institution)• bat (flying creature) – bat (used in sports)• race (contest of speed) – race (ethnic group)

• Homonyms are words that have separate histories and meanings, but have accidentally come to have exactly the same form.

HomonymyHomophony

• Homophony is a lexical relation where ‘two or more different (written) forms have the same pronunciation’ .

meat/meet, flour/flower, right/write, to/too/two, leek/leak.

• Homophones usually ‘have unrelated meanings and different spellings but have the same pronunciation’.

HomonymyHomography

• Homography is a lexical relation where words are ‘pronounced differently but spelt the same’).

• For example, a live concert, but where do you live?; a lead pipe, but a lead singer.

• These are called homographs (literally ‘same writing’).

PolysemyPolysemy

• Unlike word of the ‘homonymy’ relationship, some words with the same form do have related meanings, and these words are very common in English.

• Polysemy can be defined as one form (written or spoken) having multiple meanings that are all related by extension.

• head, ( of your body, person at the top of a company or department) • foot (of person, of bed, of mountain).• run (person does, water does).

PrototypePrototype

• The concept of a ‘prototype’ is usually interpreted as the ‘clearest example’, or ‘exemplar’ of certain words.

• English native speakers might wonder if ostrich and penguin should be hyponyms of bird, but have no trouble with pigeon.

• Reem , Amana (kind of bus) , Sardi ( all cold drinks)

Metonymy

Metonymy

• This word relation can be ‘based on a container-contents relation (bottle/water, can/juice), a whole-part relation (car/wheels, house/roof) or a representative-symbol relationship (king/crown, the President/the White House).

• Unlike ‘hyponymy’, which is a ‘kind of’ relation, ‘metonymy’ is a ‘part of’ relation.

Metonymy• This ‘part of’ relation can also be represented by a hierarchy of

super-ordinate and subordinate (meronym) terms.

For example:Plant

flowers stem

petal stamen

Anomaly

Anomaly• Anomaly means irregularity. It is a concept that has been used in many

other disciplines, such as astronomy, geophysics, medicine, and religion.

• It is also used in linguistics (particularly in semantics) referring to ‘meaninglessness’.

• Anomaly is a ‘deviation from normal semantic rules to create ‘nonsense’ of something irregular, contradictory.

• A famous example of anomaly (meaninglessness) is ‘Colorless green ideas sleep furiously’ by Noam Chomsky.

Metaphor

Metaphor• Metaphor (from the Greek: metapherin) is language that directly compares

seemingly unrelated subjects. More generally, a metaphor describes a first subject as being or equal to a second subject in some way.

• Metaphors usually allow people to understand one thing as another, without getting confused

Time is money Life is a journey

• A metaphor is usually contrasted with a ‘simile’. A simile is a comparison of two unlike things, typically marked by use of ‘like’, ‘as’, ‘than’…

The fog was as thick as pea soup Madder than a bull

IdiomsIdioms• An idiom is an expression (i.e., term or phrase) whose meaning cannot be

deduced from the literal definitions and the arrangement of its parts. But refers instead to a figurative meaning that is known only through common use.

• kick the bucket = To die.• dog eat dog (a situation of fierce competition in which people are willing to

harm each other in order to succeed).

• Idioms require some foundational knowledge, information, or experience, to use only within a culture and they are not considered an official part of the language, but rather a part of the culture.

Sources

1. Saeed,John I.(2009): Semantics . Wiley-Black Well.2. Yule George,(2006),The study of language,2nd ed. Cambridge

university press. 3. Session 6: Lecture notes; semantics:

http://engres.ied.edu.hk/vocabulary/vocab2yr08-09L-6.html4. www.ling.uni-potsdam.de/~das/teaching/lexsem04/grubic.ppt -5. http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsAL

exicalRelation.htm6. http://changingminds.org/explanations/critical_theory/concepts/sy

ntagm_paradigm.htm