BY:ABILL WIMANDA

AYU MONITA

LEXICAL RELATIONSCHAPTER 5

DIAN NUSWANTORO UNIVERSITYSEMARANG

2013

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Content

1. Lexical field2. Kinship3. Hyponymy4. Synonymy

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A lexeme is a minimal unit that can take part in referring or predicating.

All the lexemes of a language constitute the lexicon of the language, and all the lexemes that you know make up your personal lexicon.

Lexical relation means two or more things are connected with the words of language.

In this chapter, we are going to learn what kind of lexical relations in this world and how they can be made up.

Two or more lexemes may have some semantic relationship:

FATHER and MOTHER

FATHER and SON

FATHER and PATERNAL

EMPLOYER and EMPLOYEE

BIG and LARGE

BIG and LITTLE

REDYELLOWBLUE

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Two approaches to describe lexical relations:

1. Semantic Field Theory2. Truth Conditional Semantics1.SEMANTIC FIELD THEORY

Field theory is an attempt to classify lexemes

according to shared and differentiating features.

E.g: wasp, hornet, bee ‘flying, stinging insects’

moth and housefly ‘insects that fly but do not

sting’

ant and termite ‘names of insects that

neither fly nor sting’

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2. TRUTH CONDITIONAL SEMANTICS

- It studies lexical relations by comparing

predications that can be made about the same

referring expression.

- Its task is to account for the meaning relations

between different in a language.

- Three such relations are:

Entailment

Paraphrase

Contradiction

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ENTAILMENT is the relation

between two

propositions.

Truth Table for entailment:

a b

T T

F T or F

F F

T or F T

Example 1:

a. My necktie is (entirely) maroon.b. My necktie is red.

Look how this would work for our examples:

Q: If a is true (T) that my necktie is (entirely) maroon, is b true that my necktie is red?

A: Yes, it is true.Q: If b is true that my necktie is red,

is a true that my necktie is maroon?

A: It can be true or false.

A entails B so that if A then automatically B (John I. Saeed,2003 : 87)

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Example 2:

a. The anarchist assassinated the emperor.b. The emperor died.

How this relation would work? Check this out!

Step 1: If a (The anarchist assasinated the emperor) is true, is b (The emperor died) automatically true? YES.

Step 2: If b (The emperor died) is false, is a (The anarchist assasinated the emperor) also false? YES.

Step 3: Then a entails b. Note if a is false then we can’t say anything about b; it can be either true or false.

a b

T T

F T or F

F F

T or F T

9PARAPHRASEis a sentence which expresses the same proposition as another sentence.

Table Truth of Paraphrase.

Example 1.a. My necktie was cheap.b. My necktie was inexpensive.

Example 2.c. John sold the book to a grandson of

W.B. Yeats.d. A grandson of W.B Yeats bought the

book from John.

Caution: Thus (A) has the same truth value as (B), so that if (A) is true, (B) is true and vice versa.Also if (A) is false, then (B) is false and vice versa.(Huford&Heasley ,1983: 105)

a b

T T

F F

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CONTRADICTIONis a negation of

the other propositions.

Example 1.a. My necktie was cheap.b. My necktie was expensive.

a b

T F

F T

T F

F T

1. LEXICAL FIELD

An important organizational principle in the lexicon (word).This is a group of lexemes which belong to a particular activity or area of specialist knowledge.

Example: The differences using of the

terms in cooking or sailing; or the

vocabulary used by doctors, coal miners,

or mountain climbers. (John I. Saeed: 63)11

1. LEXICAL FIELD

To some extent we can ‘define’ a lexeme by telling what ‘set’ it belongs to and how it differs from other members of the same set.

It is not difficult to say what the members of each set have in common. It may be more troublesome to say just how much is included in the set and to find the truly essential characteristics that differentiate each lexeme in a set from all the others in the same set, to establish the most economical system of features that explains how the members of the set are related to one another.12

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Male Female

Adult man Woman

Child boy girl

The words man, woman, boy and girl.

[Human] is the semantic feature shared by all members of the set.Bracket is used to indicate

such semantic feature.

[male/female] and [adult/child] are the features or components, that differentiate the members of the set from one another.

Componential Analysis

(the determination of such features)

Human

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stool chair bench sofa

[piece of furniture]

[furniture for

sitting]

For one person

Having back

stool + -

chair + +

bench - +/-

sofa - +

* A better candidate for a differentiating feature is [having upholstery]; A sofa must be [+upholstery] and bench is [-upholstery]

for example table, but not by door.

table does not share.

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The important point here is the recognition of two kinds of features; distinctive and non-distinctive. All features that can be recognized in an entity are part of its description, but the definition of a lexeme within a set or field requires us to note what feature or features distinguish it from other members of the set and what features are just ‘there’, not distinctive.

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There is a problem, however, about the lexeme stool.A so-called ‘bar stool’ longer legs than

most stools, may have back.

Advantage Probably Disadvantage

It reflects the system through which lexeme have their respective senses.

To tell what something is requires us to tell what it is not, what it contrast with; and what feature or features make the contrast possible.

We may find ourselves unduly concerned with classification of the phenomenon represented in language, forgetting that our concern is language itself.

Componential Analysis

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2. KINSHIP

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Interesting area for componential analysis,

Universal, Differ from society to society.

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a. Harold is Alice’s father.b. Rose is Jerry’s sister.

Theme Predicate Associate

Harold father-of AliceRose sister-of Jerry

A relationship is a kind of predicate.

2. KINSHIP

2. KINSHIP

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Some of the predicate relations in all kinship systems can be described : [parent], [offspring], [sibling] and [spouse].We also need the components: [male] & [female], which we’ll indicates as M and F. father = M parent mother = F parent brother = M sibling sister = F sibling son = M offspring daughter = F offspring husband = M spouse wife = F spouse

grandfather= parent’s M parent grandmother= parent’s F parent grandson= offspring’s M offspring granddaughter=offspring’s F offspring

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2. KINSHIP

Some kinship systems have ‘cross-siblings’. Tok Pisin, the national language of Papua New Guinea, the way the vocabulary is used often reflects a different cultural outlook.

The word ‘borata’, from English ‘brother’, means sibling of the same sex as oneself, and ‘sesta’, from ‘sister’, is a sibling of the opposite sex.

male sibling female sibling

Male speaker borata sesta

Female speaker sesta borata

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2. KINSHIP

Kinship systems in Mandarin Chinese uses

terms that distinguish older and younger

siblings. For example, ge for ‘older brother’ ;

di ‘younger brother; jie ‘older sister’, mei

‘younger sister’.

In English grandmother names the mother

of one’s mother and the mother of one’s

father, and grandfather is similarly the father

of either parent; the sex of the person named

is distinguished but not the sex of the

intermediate relative.

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Cont’...

Compare the Swedish terms farfar, farmor, morfar

and mormor, which, rather transparently, distinguish

the four grandparents from one another. Similarly, the

words used in English for siblings of one’s parents

and offspring of one’s siblings have rather wide

application.

The lexeme cousin is the only English kinship term

that does not

distinguish sex (though it was borrowed from French,

in which the

distinction is made—cousin, cousine). We restrict the

lexeme here

to ‘first cousin.’

cousin=parent’s sibling’s offspring

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Cont’...

Relations that exist from birth are consanguineal

relations. Relationships that are established through

marriage are called affinities (such as kinship

system of Russian).

These are expressed in English with the suffix -in-law.

mother-in-law/father-in-law=spouse’s F/M

parent

daughter-in-law/son-in-law=offspring’s F/M

spouse

sister-in-law=spouse’s F sibling; sibling’s F

spouse

brother-in-law=spouse’s M sibling; sibling’s M

spouse

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3. HYPONYMY

Hyponymy is a relation of inclusion. A hyponym includes the meaning of a more general word, e.g.1a. My necktie is maroon.1b. My necktie is red.2a. There are tulips in the vase.2b. There are flowers in the vase. The term maroon is a hyponym of red and tulip is a hyponym of flower. Red and flower are the superordinates or hypernym of maroon and tulip.

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2. HYPONYMY

Note that the denotation of the hyponym is included in the denotation of the superordinate, but the meaning of the superordinate is included in the meaning of the hyponym.

A sentence with a hyponym (e.g. There is a Palomino in that field) is more informative than a sentence with the corresponding superordinate (There’s a horse in that field).

27HYPONYMYTable truth of hyponymy:

=

a b b a

T T T ?

F ? F F

The relationship between two sentences [a] and [b] that differ only in that [a] contains a hyponym and [b] contains a superordinate can be summarized this way: a b ~ a ? b ? ~ b ~ a3a. Rover is a collie and (Rover is) a dog.Sentence 3a is a tautology. A tautology is a sentence with two predications, such that one entails the other.

a b

T T

F T or F

F F

T or F T

3. HYPONYMY

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Much of the vocabulary is linked by such systems of inclusion, and the resulting semantic networks form the hierarchical taxonomies. bird

crow hawk duck etc.

kestrel sparrowhawk etc.

Source: John I. Saeed,2003:69

One term may be a superordinate to various hyponyms and at the same time be a hyponym of some higher superordinate.

4. SYNONYMY

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Synonyms are different phonological words which have

the same or very similar meaning. (John I. Saeed)

Some examples might be the pairs below:

couch/sofa boy/lad lawyer/attorney

toilet/lavatory large/big

Synonymy is the relationship between two predicates

that have the same pairs. (Huford&Heasley)Examples: a. Jack is a seaman. b. Jack is a sailor.

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SYNONYMY

Table truth of Synonymy

Synonymy same truth value in words

Paraphrase same truth value in sentences.

a b & b a (The truth of [a] entails the

truth of [b], and vice versa.)~a ~b & ~b ~a (The falsity of [a] entails the

falsity of [b],and vice versa.)

a b

T T

F F

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As Palmer (1981) notes, the synonyms often have different

distributions along a number of parameters. They may have

belonged to different dialects and then become synonyms for

speakers familiar with both dialects .Or the words may belong to

different registers, those styles of language, colloquial, formal,

literary, etc. That belong to different situations. (John I. Saeed,

2003: 65)

deep profound

a. You have my deep sympathy.

b. This river is very deep.

a. You have my profound sympathy.

b. This river is very profound.

√×

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Example:

c. Mr. Jenkins is our postman.d. Mr. Jenkins is our mailman.

Comment: While postman and mailman make equivalent predications, we consider this a dialect difference rather than an instance of synonymy.

Some speakers of English know only one of these terms, but which term it is depends on where the speaker lives, or where the speaker grew up. Some speakers know both lexemes but use one more than the other or use one exclusively but recognize the other.

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Continue ...

Other synonyms that are dialectally different are lift and elevator, firefly and lightning bug, skillet and frying pan. Here too we are dealing with a difference in pragmatic value. If you use one of the lexemes in any of these pairs almost exclusively, you may well associate the other one with some particular person(s) or situation(s)— the term may elicit in you a reaction that is more than just a matter

of reference or predication. (Kreidler,1998:98)

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Synonymy is an instance of mutual entailment, and synonyms are instances of mutual hyponymy.For example, large is a hyponym of big, and big is a hyponym of large.

If we join two of these sentences with and, The rock is large and (it is) big.we create a tautology.If we combine two of them but have themdiffer in polarity,The train traveled fast but (it did) not (travel) rapidly.the result is a contradiction.

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a. Mr Jenkins is our postman.b.Mr Jenkins is the person who delivers our mail.paraphrase

synonym

Synonyms are typically single lexemes of the same weight. Dictionaries typically provide a number of synonyms for at least some of the lexemes they define, and in fact there are whole dictionaries of synonyms. Synonymy is not a simple matter, for two lexemes never have the same range of syntactic occurrences, and even where they share occurrences and make predications about the same class of referring expressions, they are likely to differ in what they suggest.

In summary, the chart will show you the relationship of entailment, paraphrase, hyponymy, and synonymy .

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Relation between pairs of

sentences

Relation between pairs of words

Not necessary symmetric (i.e. can be ‘one way)

Symmetric (i.e. “both ways”)

ENTAILMENT

PARAPHRASE

HYPONYMY

SYNONYMY

(Huford and Heasley, 1983: 109)

The relationship between entailment and paraphrase is parallel to the relationship between hyponymy and synonymy. Synonymy is to paraphrase as hyponymy is to entailment.

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Summary

Lexemes are related to other lexemes on various semantic criteria.

Field theory tries to discover sets of lexemes such that members of a set share some semantic feature(s) and are differentiated from one another by other systematically distributed features.

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Summary

All societies have kinship systems, which can be analyzed in terms of a few semantic features that co-occur. The features parent, offspring, sibling and spouse are universal. Older and younger siblings are named differently in some cultures. Gender figures differently in different systems, so that relations on the mother’s side may have different names than those on the father’s side, and similarly for the bride’s family as distinct from the bridegroom’s family.

Logical entailments, paraphrases, and contradictions derive from conjunctions, negative ‘not,’ and quantifier pronouns like ‘no one’ and ‘someone.’ Meaning relations of this sort are used to make inferences.

Truth conditional semantics investigates the relations among lexemes that can be predicates for the same referring expression. Two such predicates may be related to each other as synonyms, as hyponym and superordinate.

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THANK YOU

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Evaluation from Mr. Arief

1. Di contoh Semantic Field Theory sudah menunjukan contoh Hyponym. Pada point wasp, hornet, bee itu sendiri sebenernya juga punya ciri pembedanya juga.

2. Semantic Field theory bertujuan untuk menentukan :

1. Distinctive feature2. Non-distinctive feature

3. Cakupan lexical relationship:sentences words

EntailmentParaphraseContradiction

KinshipSynonymyHyponymyAntonym

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4. Lexical Field componential analysis ------- using [bracket]

distinctive feature non distinctive feature [+] [-]Cth: stool [+back]5. Kinship system di negara itu minimal ada 4 point utama: a. Parent b. Offspring c. Sibling d. Spouse6. Hyponymy denotation : all set of something contoh: all set of cihuahua must be a hyponym of dog. but all sets of dog doesn’t include in chihuaha.Hyponym supordinateHyponym superordinate