Lexical Relation

04/18/23 aya/semantics/LR 1

LEXICAL RELATION and DERIVATIONAL RELATION

Homonymy Polysemy

Synonymy Antonymy

Hyponymy Meronymy

Causative Verb Agentive Noun


Lexical Relation

A particular lexeme may be simultaneously in a number of relations so that it may be more accurate to think the lexicon as a network

Lexical field is a group of lexemes which belong to a particular activity or area of specialist knowledge. e.g. terms in cooking, computers, medicine, etc.

One effect of lexical fields are lexical relations are more common between lexemes in the same field e.g. peak (part of a mountain) summit peak (part of a head) visor


Homonymy Homonyms are unrelated senses of the same

phonological word We can distinguish different types depending

on syntactic behavior, and spelling1. Lexemes of the same syntactic category, and

with the same spelling. e.g. lap ‘circuit of a course’ with lap ‘part of body when sitting down’

2. Of the same category, but with different spelling. e.g. ring v and wring

3. Of different category, but with the same spelling e.g. keep v/n

4. Of different category, and with different spelling e.g. not, knot


Polysemy

Homonymy and polysemy deal with multiple senses of the same phonological word, but polysemy is invoked if the senses are judged to be related

Lexicographers tend to use criteria ‘relatedness’ to identify polysemy. These criteria include speaker’s intuition and what is known about historical development of the items. e.g. hook

Such decision is not always clear cut. Speaker’s may differ in the intuition and historical fact may contradict speaker’s intuition. e.g. sole


Synonymy Synonyms are different phonological words

which have the same or very similar meanings

Clearly, the notion of synonymy and sense are interdependent. You can’t understand one without understanding the others

Synonyms often have different distributions along a number of parameters, such as dialect the guards-police officer, formality cop-police officer, etc.

The synonyms may be collocationally restricted context-dependant e.g. a big house : a large house

my big sister : my large sister


Antonymy In traditional terminology, Antonyms are words

which are opposite in meaning There are a number of relation which seems to

involve words which are at the same time related in meaning yet incompatible or contrasting. Those are

1. Simple Antonyms2. Gradable antonyms3. Reverses4. Converses5. Taxonomic Sisters6. Member Collection7. Portion mass


Simple Antonyms

It is a relation between words such that positive of one implies the negative of the other

The pairs are also sometimes called complementary pairs or binary pairs

The examples are dead/alive, pass/fail, hit/miss


Gradable antonyms

This is a relationship between opposites where the positive of one term does not necessarily imply the negative of the other

The examples are rich/poor, fast/slow, young/old The relation is typically associated with adjectives and

has three major identifying characteristics 1 there are usually intermediate term e.g.hot warm, tepid, cool cold , 2 the terms are usually relative e.g. a thick book is thinner than a thin girl, and 3 in some pairs, one term is more basic and common, e.g. it’s more common to ask how long is it? than how short is it?


Reverses

The characteristics reverse relation is between terms describing movement, where one term describes movement in one direction →, and the other the same movement in the opposite direction ←

The examples are come/go, up/down, left/right, fill/empty, knit/unravel, etc


Converses

These are terms which describe a relation between two entities from alternative point of view

The examples are own/belong to, above/ below, employer/employee


Taxonomic Sisters The term antonymy is sometimes used to

describe words which are at the same level in a taxonomy

Taxonomies are classification systems, e.g.red blue yellow green

red and blue are sister member of the same taxonomy and therefore incompatible with each other

Some taxonomies are closed, e.g. days of the week

Others are open, e.g. flavors of ice cream


Hyponymy

Hyponymy is a relation of inclusion. A Hyponym includes the meaning of a more

general word, e.g. dog and cat are hyponym of animal.

animal

dog cat etc The more general term is called superordinate

or hypernym Different from taxonomic sisters which describes

horizontal relationship, Hyponym describes vertical relationship


Meronymy

Meronymy is a term used to describe a part-whole relationship between lexical items.

It reflects hierarchical classifications in the lexicon somewhat like taxonomies

car

wheel engine door window etc

piston valve etc

Meronymic hierarchies are less clear cut and reguler than taxonomies. Meronyms vary for example in how necessary the part is to the whole

Meronymy also differs from hyponymy in transitivity

How to identify meronymy?

X is a meronym of Y if X is a part of Y, or Y has X

Meronymy reflects hierarchical classifications in the lexicon

the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. In other words, it is a language's inventory of lexemes.

Examples:

Cover and page are parts of book, thus they are meronyms of book

A finger is a part of a hand, thus finger is a meronym of hand

Nose is a meronym of face (necessary)Collar is a meronym of shirt (usual but not

obligatory)

Meronymy VS hyponymy

Hyponymy is always transitive, meaning that if an item is a part of a part, then that first item is part of the larger whole. Examples: hawk is a hyponym of bird, and bird is a hyponym of animal, so hawk is a hyponym of animal

Meronymy may or may not be transitive.transitive example: nail is a meronym of finger, and finger

of hand, we can say that nail is a meronym of hand, for we can say hand has nails.

Intransitive example: hole is a meronym of button, and button of shirt, but we can’t say that hole is a meronym of shirt, for we can not say shirt has holes.

Formula to distinguish meronymy and hyponymy:Meronymy: oxygen is a part of airHyponymy: Cheetah is a kind/a type of cat


Member Collection and Portion Mass

Member Collection is a relationship between the word for a unit and the usual word for a collection of the unit.e.g. book library

bird flock Portion mass is relation between a mass noun

and the usual unit of measurement or divisione.g. drop of liquid

grain of salt/sand/wheat sheet of paper


Derivational Relations 1 Lexical relation can also be seen from derivational relations,

such as causative verbs and agentive nouns In causative verb, there are relationship among

1. adjective describing a state adjective e.g. The road is wide 2. a verb describing a beginning or change of a state, incohative

intransitive e.g. the road widened3. a verb describing the cause of the change of state causative

transitive e.g. The city council widened the road In other cases, incohative and causative verbs are

morphologically derived from the adjective, e.g. ripe ripening

Often, there are gaps in the relation because the word can’t be used in all form

Another element in this relation can be an adjective describing the state which is the result of the process resultative e.g. hot state adj—heat incohative—heat causative—heated resultative

However, not all verbs are inherently causative, e.g. dead-die-kill


Derivational Relations 2

There are several different types of agentive nouns. One well-known type is derived from verb and ends in the written form –er or –or, e.g. actor, walker, etc

The process of forming nouns in –er is more productive than in –or

Some nouns do not go through the same process, e.g. footballer

Some nouns may have several senses which are quite far from the associated verb, e.g. undertaker mortician, muffler US car silencer, renter slang a male prostitute

Documents

Lexical Relation