6.3 Semantic relations and features

Words are more than just sounds or symbols. They carry meaning, and those meanings are interconnected in fascinating ways. Semantic relations explore how words relate to each other, from similar meanings to opposites, and hierarchies to part-whole relationships.

Semantic features and fields delve deeper into word meanings. By breaking down words into basic components and grouping related terms, we can better understand how language organizes and expresses concepts across cultures and languages.

Semantic Relations

Types of semantic relations

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• Synonymy: Words with similar meanings (big/large) vary in degree of similarity from near-synonyms to absolute synonyms

• Antonymy: Words with opposite meanings categorized into gradable (hot/cold), complementary (alive/dead), and reversive (enter/exit) types

• Hyponymy: Hierarchical relationship between words with superordinate term (animal) and subordinate terms (dog, cat, horse)

• Meronymy: Part-whole relationship between words where holonym represents whole (car) and meronyms represent parts (wheel, engine, door)

• Polysemy: Single word with multiple related meanings (bank as financial institution or river bank)

• Homonymy: Words with same form but unrelated meanings including homophones (same pronunciation, different spelling) and homographs (same spelling, different pronunciation)

Semantic Features and Fields

Role of semantic features

• Semantic features: Distinctive components of word meaning often expressed as binary features ([+/- animate], [+/- human]) help differentiate related words

• Componential analysis: Breaks down word meanings into semantic features facilitates comparison and contrast between words

• Prototype theory: Categories organized around central typical members (prototypes) with other members judged by similarity to prototype

• Semantic primes: Basic undefinable semantic components used to define more complex concepts

Organization of semantic fields

• Semantic fields: Groups of words related by common theme or concept (colors, emotions, furniture)

• Lexical sets: Subgroups within semantic fields (shades of red within color field)

• Semantic networks: Visual representations of word relationships with nodes (words) connected by labeled edges (relationships)

• Frame semantics: Words understood within conceptual frames or scenarios ("buy" frame includes buyer, seller, goods, money)

Cross-linguistic semantic variation

• Lexical gaps: Concepts lexicalized in one language but not in another (schadenfreude in German)

• Semantic universals: Concepts found across all or most languages (basic color terms, kinship terms)

• Cultural influence on semantics: Culture shapes word meanings and categories (snow terminology in Inuit languages)

• Metaphorical concepts: Cross-linguistic similarities and differences in metaphors (time as space in many languages)

• Semantic change: Word meanings evolve over time through processes of broadening, narrowing, amelioration, pejoration

• Translation challenges: Issues arise from semantic mismatches between languages requiring strategies for non-equivalent terms