English LexicologyMeaning Relations

We are going to discuss

Words that have the “same” meaning: synonymy

Words that have “opposite” meaning: antonymy

Hierarchies of meaning:

hyponymy and meronymy Meaning and word combination:

collocation

Synonymy

Synonymy is a relationship of ‘sameness of meaning’ that may hold between two words.

Synonyms are traditionally defined as words having different form but identical or similar meaning.

Problems with the definition

It is possible that a polysemous word just shares one meaning with another word. Are the two words synonyms?

There are no such thing as true synonymy.

freedom of choice

a person

a person who leads

a headmaster

head: the upper part of the body

1) chief

2) boss

3) leader

mental ability

the top of something

Problems with the definition

Besides the denotative meaning, a word may also have connotative meaning, stylistic meaning, and affective meaning.

adult: [+human, +adult]

grown-up: [+human, +adult]

formal

Informal/colloquial

Denotative meaning is the same, but the stylistic meaning is different. Can they be called synonyms?

Strict (absolute) synonymy

Linguists make a distinction between ‘strict’ or ‘absolute’ synonymy and ‘loose’ or ‘relative’ synonymy.

Strict synonyms refer to two words which are identical in meaning in all its aspects. They are interchangeable in all contexts.

Strict synonyms are very rare, and some linguists even argue that strict synonyms do not exist.

Strict (absolute) synonymy

Strict synonymy is uneconomical; it creates unnecessary redundancy in a language.

When two words are in danger of becoming strict synonyms, one of them would either change its meaning, or fade away from the language and become an

archaic word.

Loose (relative) synonymy

When we speak of synonymy, we mean ‘loose’ or ‘relative’ synonymy, where we find not only a significant overlap in meaning between two words, but also some contexts where they cannot be used interchangeably.

John found/discovered the basketball in the grass.

Maria Curie discovered radium in 1898.

*Maria Curie found radium in 1898.

discover: be the first one to come across somethingfind: experience something in some way

Differences between loose synonyms

We often take the following things into consideration when we try to find the differences between synonyms. Different English dialects Different stylistic meanings Different connotative meanings

Synonyms from different dialects

Some synonym pairs differ in that they belong to different dialects of English. Here are some examples of synonyms from British and American English:

BrE AmE BrE AmE

lift elevator farm ranch

lawyer attorney biscuit cookie

rubbish garbage pavement sidewalk

Synonyms with different stylistic meanings

One of a pair of synonyms may be used in a more formal context than the other. Here are some examples of synonym pairs.

Informal Formal Informal Formal

die decease daddy father

blame chide guy man

west occidental praise eulogy

Synonyms with different connotative meanings

Synonyms may have different emotive associations (connotative meanings).

famous notorious

(disreputably)

misuse abuse

(of privilege or power)

ambiguous

equivocal

(deliberately)

new novel

(strikingly)

hate loathe

(with disgust)

obtain procure

(with effort)

Source of synonyms

Why are there so many synonyms in English? The primary reason for this has to do with the heavy

borrowing from other languages, especially from French and Latin.

English French Latin

ask question interrogate

time age epoch

begin commence

buy purchase

Antonymy

Antonymy is a relationship of ‘meaning opposition’ that may hold between two words.

Antonyms can be defined as words which are opposite in meaning.

Major types of antonyms： Gradable antonyms Contradictory or complementary antonyms Converse antonyms

Gradable antonyms

Gradable antonyms include pairs like the following:

beautiful ugly

expensive cheap

fast slow

hot cold

long short

rich poor

wide narrow

These pairs are called gradable antonyms because they do not represent a more/less relation. The words can be the end-points of a continuum (连续体 ). Since they are gradable, they allow comparison.

Contradictory (complementary) antonyms

Contradictory antonyms include pairs like the following:

asleep awakedead aliveon offremember forgetwin losetrue false

These pairs are called contradictory antonyms because they represent an either/or relation.

If you permit some behavior, then it is not forbidden.

Since they are not gradable, they do not allow comparison.

Converse antonyms

The following are examples of converse antonyms：

lend borrowhusband wife above belowbefore afterbehind in front ofbuy sellgive receiveparent childspeak listen

Lend is the converse of borrow and vice versa; i.e. the substitution of one member for the other does not change the meaning of a sentence if it is accompanied by the change of subject and object.

John lent Mary five dollars.

Mary borrowed five dollars from John.

The bridge is above the river.

The river is below the bridge.

This behavior is allowed.

This behavior is not prohibited.

Mary is John’s wife. John is Mary’s husband.

? ？ Mary is not John’s husband.

I allow you to introduce Mary.

*You forbidden me to introduce Mary.

Contradictory antonymsvs. Converse antonyms

Converse antonyms are relational antonyms.

Contradictory antonyms are either/or antonym.

I don’t forbidden you to introduce Mary.

Hyponymy

Hyponymy is the sense relationship that relates words hierarchically. The underlying observation is that some words have a more general meaning, while others have a more specific meaning, while referring to the same entity.

FOOD

MEAT

We are not going to have any food today.

We are not going to have any vegetables today.

VEGETABLE

MEAT VEGETABLEFRUIT

BEEF PORK MUTTON

CABBAGE CELERY SPINACH

APPLE PEACH ORANGE

superordinate They are subordinate terms. They are hyponyms of the superordinate term FOOD.

FOOD

Reading from the bottom of the hierarchy, ORANGE is a ‘kind of’ fruit, which is a kind of food.

They are subordinate terms. They are hyponyms of the superordinate term MEAT.

Meronymy

Metonymy (借喻修辞手法 ) simile; metaphor; metonym

Meronymy (the part-of relation)

Metonymy

Different from the kind-of relation displayed by hyponymy, meronymy involves part-whole relation between words.

arm: body

wheel: car

An arm is part of a body;

A wheel is part of a car.

主攻

Outside hitters

二传

Setters

接应

Opposite hitters

自由人

Liberos

排球队 (volleyball team)

副攻

Middle hitters

排球队员 (volleyball player)

Hyponyms of ??? 【 kind-of 】

Meronyms of ??? 【 part-of 】

Collocation: a structural relation

Collocation refers to a structural or syntagmatic relation. It refers to meaning relations that a word has with other words in the same sentence.

If the noun ‘kettle’ occurs in a sentence, there is a high chance that the verb ‘boil’ will also occur, e.g.

I will boil a kettle.Is the kettle boiling now?

Collocation

Collocation Grammatical collocation (e.g. fond+of, want+to, etc.) Meaning collocation (our focus)

Collocation refers to a meaning relation of predictable co-occurrence. There is a mutual expectancy between two collocated words. The force may be weak or strong. We can use corpus to identify the collocation patterns.

Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations

… of his political life in …

private

professional

academic

…

A word has the paradigmatic relation with other words which can be used in the same position in a sentence. It is a kind of substitution relation.

A word has the syntagmatic relation with its neighboring words. It is a kind of collocation relation.