Chapter 5 Sense Relations

Chapter Five: SemanticsI. 名词解释1.（南开大学2001，中山大学2004年考题）hyponymy考点分析：考查“上下义关系”的定义Answer: Hyponymy refers to the sense relations between a more general, more inclusive words and a more specific word. The word that is more general in meaning is called the superordinate, and the more specific words are its hyponyms.2. (南开大学2000年考题) sense考点分析：“意义”的定义Answer: Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of a linguistic form. It is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form; it is abstract and decontextualized. It is the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are interested in. for example, the word dog is given the definition ―a domestic canine animal, occurring in many breeds that show a great variety in size and form‖. This does not refer to any particular dog that exists in the real world, but applies to any animal that meets the features described in the definition. So this is the sense of the word dog.3. (华南理工大学2004年考题) reference考点分析“所指/参照”的定义Answer: Reference means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the nonlinguistic world of experience. If we say ―The dog is barking‖, we must be talking about a certain dog existent in the situation; the word dog refers to a dog known to both speaker and the hearer. This is the reference of the word dog in this particular situation.4.(华南理工大学204年考题) interlanguage考点分析“中介语”的定义Answer: The type of language constructed by second or foreign language learners who are still in the process of learning a language is often referred to as interlanguage. As the name suggests, interlanguage is a language system between the target language and the learner’s native language. It is imperfect compared with the target language, but it is not mere translation from the learner’s native language.5.(中山大学2003年考题)error analysis考点分析：“错误分析”的定义Answer: Error analysis is the study and analysis of error and is confined to the language learner. Here, ―error‖ refers generally to the learner’s grammatical or pragmatic misuse or misunderstanding of the target language.II. 判断正误1.（大连外国语学院2001年考题）―Kids‖and ―children‖are synonyms despite their stylistic difference考点分析：同义关系的辨别Answer: T2. (大连外国语学院2002年考题) In the following pair of sentences, Sentence (a) presupposes Sentence (b)（a）John managed to finish in time（b）John tried to finish in time.考点分析：判断句子之间有何种意义关系Answer: T3. (东南大学2003年考题)If a word has sense, it must have reference.考点分析：考查sense 和reference之间的对应关系.(Note: Every word has a sense, but not every word has a reference.)Answer: F4. (上海外国语大学2000年考题) Regardless of their ethnic and cultural backgrounds, children of all colors and societies follow roughly the same route/order of language development, though they may differ in the rate of learning.考点分析：语言习得过程的普遍特点Answer: T5. (吉林大学2000年考题)Overgeneralization is a common error made by an early foreign language learner.考点分析：考查“语法规则过度概括”在什么情况下产生。

河北师范大学《语言学概论》课程教学大纲课程代码：0510010390课程英文名称：A Brief Introduction to Linguistics学分：3学时：54适用对象/专业：英语专业学生先修课程：英语语法，英美文化概况授课语言：英语、汉语开课单位：外国语学院课程负责人：张玲玲一、课程性质及教学目标1. 课程性质和类别“语言学概论”课程是英语专业本科高年级阶段的专业必修课程，为报考本专业硕士研究生必考课程之一。

课程通过讲授语言学的基础知识、基本理论、研究成果和研究方法，使学生了解语言学领域中的一些基本概念的内涵；了解语言学传统分支领域的基础理论知识；基本了解各个语言学流派的观点和主张；旨在运用语言学的知识提高他们的语言修养，言语交际效果和具备初步的科研能力。

2. 教学目标本课程的教学目的是向学生讲授英语语言的属性、功能、起源和内部层次，掌握英语语言学基本特征和主要分支的基本概念，了解语言在时空中的变异及其与社会、文化、语境、思维等外部因素的关系，同时了解部分主要语言学流派，使学生通过对该课程的学习，既能借助语言学理论整理和吸收语言知识，又能运用正确的观点评价语言，并为进一步的深造打下基础。

二、理论教学内容及要求Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguistics主要内容：1.1 Why Study Language?1.2 What Is Language?1.3 Design Features of Language;1.4 Origin of Language;1.5 Functions of Language;1.6 What Is Linguistics?1.7 Main Branches of Linguistics;1.8 Macrolinguistics;1.9 Important Distinctions in Linguistics基本要求：掌握语言的区别性特征和语言学里一些重要区别性概念。

胡壮麟《语言学教程》（修订版）测试题——第五章：意义Chapter 5 Meaning1~5 ABDDB 6~10 CACDAI. Choose the best answer. (20%)1. The naming theory is advanced by ________.A. PlatoB. BloomfieldC. Geoffrey LeechD. Firth2. “We shall know a word by the company it keeps.” This statement represents _______.A. the conceptualist viewB. contexutalismC. the naming theoryD. behaviorism3. Which of the following is NOT true?A. Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form.B. Sense is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form.C. Sense is abstract and decontextualized.D. Sense is the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are not interested in.4. “Can I borrow your bike?”_______ “You have a bike.”A. is synonymous withB. is inconsistent withC. entailsD. presupposes5. ___________ is a way in which the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features.A. Predication analysisB. Componential analysisC. Phonemic analysisD. Grammatical analysis6. “Alive” and “dead” are ______________.A. gradable antonymsB. relational antonymsC. complementary antonymsD. None of the above7. _________ deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience.A. ReferenceB. ConceptC. SemanticsD. Sense8. ___________ refers to the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form.A. PolysemyB. SynonymyC. HomonymyD. Hyponymy9. Words that are close in meaning are called ______________.A. homonymsB. polysemiesC. hyponymsD. synonyms10. The grammaticality of a sentence is governed by _______.A. grammatical rulesB. selectional restrictionsC. semantic rulesD. semantic featuresIV. Explain the following terms, using examples. (20%)31. Entailment: It is basically a semantic relation (or logical implication), and it can be clarified with the following sentences:a. Tom divorced Jane.b. Jane was Tom’s wife.In terms of truth value, the following relationships exist between these two sentences: when A is true, B must be also true; when B is false, A must also be false. When B is true, A may be true or false. Therefore we can say A entails B.32. Proposition: It is the result of the abstraction of sentences, which are descriptions of states of affairs and which some writers see as a basic element of sentence meaning. For example, the two sentences “Caesar invaded Gaul” and “Gaul was invaded by Caesar” hold the same proposition.33. Compositional analysis: It defines the meaning of a lexical element in terms of semantic components, or semantic features. For example, the meaning of the word boy may be analyzed into three components: HUMAN, YOUNG and MALE. Similarly girl may be analyzed into HUMAN, YOUNG and FEMALE.34. Reference:It is what a linguistic form refers to in the real world; it is a matter of the relationship between the form and the reality.V. Answer the following questions. (20%)35. What are the sense relations between the following groups of words?Dogs, cats, pets, parrots; trunk, branches, tree, roots （青岛海洋大学，1999）Hyponymy, metonymy or part-whole relationship36. What are the three kinds of antonymy? （武汉大学，2004）VI. Analyze the following situation. (20%)37. For each group of words given below, state what semantic property or properties are shared by the (a) words and the (b) words, and what semantic property or properties distinguish between the classes of (a) words and (b) words.(1) a. bachelor, man, son, paperboy, pope, chiefb. bull, rooster, drake, ram(2) a. table, stone, pencil, cup, house, ship, carb. milk, alcohol, rice, soup(3) a. book, temple, mountain, road, tractorb. idea, love, charity, sincerity, bravery, fear （青岛海洋大学，1999）answer: (1) The (a) words and (b) words are male.The (a) words are human, while the (b) words are non-human.(2) The (a) words and (b) words are inanimate.The (a) words are instrumental, while the (b) words are edible.(3) The (a) words and (b) words are worldly or conceptual.The (a) words are material, while the (b) words are spiritual.。

chapter5semantics语言学语义学是对语言单位，尤其是词和句子意义的研究。

1.“意义”的意义G.Leech提出7种意义：概念意义，内涵意义，社会意义，感情意义，反射意义，搭配意义，主题意义。

G.Leech的概念意义包括两个方面：涵义和指称。

涵义和指称的区别类似内涵与外延：前者指一个实体的抽象属性，后者指拥有这些属性的具体实体。

每个单词都有涵义，即概念意义，否则他们无法使用或理解，但并非每个单词都有指称。

2.指称论（命名论）：该理论把词语意义与词所指或词所代表的事物联系起来。

该理论对于解释专有名词或在现实中有所指的名词时很有效。

但其无法指称抽象概念。

有时同一东西会有不同词语的表达。

3.概念论。

代表是语义三角说。

该理论认为，词和所指事物之间没有直接关系，而是以抽象的概念为中介。

4，语境论认为应该在具体语境中研究词的意义. 语境包括情景语境和上下文两种。

5.行为主义理论认为词的意义是说话者说话得情景及听话人的反应6.意义关系词语词之间的主要意义关系：相同关系，相反关系，包含关系a.同义关系。

完全同义关系很少，所谓的同一都依赖语境，并总在某方面不同。

（方言，内涵，文体等）b.反义关系主要包括：等级反义关系，互补反义关系，关系反义关系。

1）等级反义的特点：第一，否定一方并不必然是肯定另一方，还有中间状态；第二，没有绝对评判标准，标准随对象而改变。

第三，通常用其中表示较高程度的词来覆盖整个量级。

覆盖性词被称为“无标记的”，即一般性的；被覆盖词被称为“有标记的”，即特殊的。

一般使用覆盖性词语。

一旦使用被覆盖词语，表示有某种特殊的、不一般的情况。

第四，可用very修饰，可有比较级最高级2）互补反义关系，第一，肯定一方意味着否定另一方。

反之亦然。

第二，不用very修饰，没有比较级最高级。

第三，评判标准绝对。

没有覆盖性词语3）关系（反向）反义关系，表现两个实体间的一种反向关系，不构成肯否定对立。

一个预设着另一个的存在。

语言学重点章节介绍三星级重点章节07年冬天，学校组织了一个讲座，请老师给我们谈考试重点，同时学生有什么问题，可以当面问他。

他说前五章是最重要的，第七和第八次之，第六，第九和第十二章也有考的内容，但不会很多，剩下的十章和十一章可以不看！所以，我就用三颗星表示最重要；俩颗星表示第二重要，一颗星表示第三重要。

王老师说只要把胡壮麟那本书背会了，肯定能考好！因为考试覆盖的知识点都在书上！其实，背会那本书是不实际的，而把那本书过5到6遍是可能的，也是必须的。

而且重点章节要在理解的基础上反复看。

虽然我们文科的知识，背时关键，但是理解更重要，尤其语言学这门课，比较抽象，不理解就背，效果不好，不容易背会。

北语没有提供考纲之类的东西，只告诉语言学参考书是胡壮麟的《语言学教程(修订版)》。

（09年不知是否会换成该书的第三版）所以能知道该书哪些章节是重点，能让我们有的放矢。

我这里所说的三星级重点，即最重要的章节是该书的前五章。

不知道外校的考生，他们学校开过这门课没有！我们北语大三下学期讲前五章，大四上学期讲的6，7，8，9，12这几章。

下面，我们先谈谈前五章该如何复习。

Chapter1: Invitations to linguistics；Chapter2: Speech Sounds；Chapter3: Lexicon；Chapter4: Syntax (新版中，这章改成From Word to Text，是变化最大的一章，变化的结果是比以前的简单了）；Chapter5: Meaning。

这五章可以说是语言学的基础和考试的重点。

我们一定要反复看，理解其中的定义等知识点。

一定要在理解的基础上记忆。

Chapter1: Invitations to linguistics这章是该书的开篇，目的是让大家对语言学这门课有个初步的了解，为后面几章作个铺垫。

也许你会说这种章节肯定不重要。

错！奇怪的是这一章居然很重要。

因为考点还不少！Design features of language: Arbitrariness, duality, creativity, displacement. 这四个特征要求理解，牢记，能背出定义。

Chapter 5 Meaning1. Semantics(语义学)Semantics is the study of meaning of the linguistic units, words and sentences in particular. (语义学是对语言单位，尤其是词和句子的意义的研究。

)2. Meanings of “meaning”1). Meaning:Meaning refers to what a language expresses about the world we live in or any possible or imaginary world.（意义是指语言所表达的关于现实世界或者想象中的世界的想法。

）2). Connotation: （内涵）Connotation means the properties of the entity a word denotes.(内涵指的是一个词所指称的实体的特征。

)3). Denotation: （外延）Denotation involves the relationship between a linguistic unit and the non-linguistic entity to which it refers. Thus it is equivalent to referential meaning. (外延涉及语言单位与非语言实体之间的关系。

在这个意义上，它跟指称意义是一样的。

)3. The difference between meaning, concept, connotation, and denotationMeaning refers to the association of language symbols with the real world. There are many types of meaning according to different approaches.Concept is the impression of objects in people’s mind.Connotation is the implied meaning, similar to implication.Denotation, like sense, is not directly related with objects, but makes the abstract assumption ofthe real world.4. The referential theory1). DefinitionThe theory of meaning which relates the meaning of a word to the thing it refers to, or stands for, is known as the referential theory.(把词语意义跟它所指称或代表的事物联系起来的理论，叫做指称理论)2). The semantic triangle （语义三角）Ogden and Richards presented the classic “Semantic Triangle”as manifested in the following diagram。

Chapter 5 Semantics 语义学1.What is semantics？什么是语义学？Semantics can be simply defined as the study of meaning in language.语义学可定义为对语言意义的研究。

2.Some views concerning the study of meaning语义研究的几种主要理论1)The naming theory 命名论It was proposed by the ancient Greek scholar Plato. According to this theory, the linguistic forms or symbols, in other words, the words used in a language are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for. So words are just names or labels for things.命名论是最原始的语义理论，是古希腊学者柏拉图提出的。

该理论把词看作是该词所指事物的名称或标记。

2)The conceptualist view 意念论The conceptualist view holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to; rather, in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.意念论认为，语言形式及其所代表的对象之间（即语言与现实世界之间）没有直接联系；确切地说，在理解语义时，是通过大脑中存在意念这一中介物来联系的。

C h a p t e r-F i v e-S y n t a x-(I)-----S y n t a c t i c-R e l a t i o n sChapter Five Syntax (I) --- Syntactic Relations0. IntroductionChapter 4 deals with the smallest meaningful unit at the grammatical level --- morpheme. Chapters 5, 6, 7 are about syntax, which is concerned with the largest meaningful unit at the grammatical level --- sentence.Two ways to study sentences: In syntax, sentences can be studied in two different ways:i. The static study（静态研究）of sentences means that we describe the structures of sentences to illustrate the parts of a sentence and relationships among them.ii. The dynamic study（动态研究）of sentences means that we examine how sentences are generated by syntactic rules.Two theoretical bases:i. The static study follows the theory of structural linguistics（结构语言学).ii. The dynamic study follows the theory of Transformational-Generative Grammar (TG grammar) (转换生成语法).To make a structural description of sentences, we shall describe various kinds of relations between words and phrases of sentences. There are three kinds of relations between them.1. Sequential (syntagmatic) relations（顺序／横向关系）i. Definition: In syntax, sequential or syntagmatic relation refers to the linear ordering of the words and the phrases within a sentence.ii. Rearrangement of the words of a sentence yields either an ungrammatical sentence or a different sentence.2. Substitutional (paradigmatic) relations（替换／纵向关系）i. Definition: substitutional or paradigmatic relation is a kind of relation between linguistic forms in a sentence and linguistic forms outside the sentence. That is to say, if the words or phrases in a sentence can be replaced by words and phrases outside the sentence and the resulting sentence is still grammatical, then we say the replacing forms and replaced forms have paradigmatic relations.ii. Syntactic category （句法范畴）A. Definition: The linguistic forms that have paradigmatic relations belong to the same syntactic category.B. Classification: The syntactic categories can be further divided into two groups: lexical category and nonlexical category.D. Attention: A phrase often, but not always contains more than one word. Sometimes, it may be a single word.3. Hierarchical relations（等级关系）i. Definition: Hierarchical relation shows us the inner layering of sentences.ii. What means can we use to reveal the hierarchical structure of a sentence? IC analysis.例如iii. Three levels or hierarchies: sentence-level, phrases-level, word-leveliv. Three terms: ultimate constituents, immediate constituents, constituentsv. Structural ambiguity（结构歧义）：The same phrase or sentence may have two or more interpretations depending on the hierarchical arrangement of its constituents. Such a case is called structural ambiguity 结构歧义.例如：参见课本120页例（6）、（7）4. Identifying syntactic categories 鉴别句法范畴4.0 How can we decide to which syntactic category a certain linguistic form belongs?Answer: As has been said before, the linguistic forms that have substitutional relations belong to the same syntactic category. Thus, if we can label the linguistic forms with appropriate syntactic categories, we then can decide whether they have substitutional relations or not. Then how can we decide to which syntactic category a certain linguistic form belongs? Generally speaking, we may determine it according to morphological 词法特征 and distributional 分布特征features shared by linguistic forms that belong to the same class. Here, morphological features refer to inflectional and derivational affixes the linguistic forms in question can take; distributional features refer to the syntactic contexts in which the linguistic forms in question can occur.4.1 Nouns and noun phrasesi. Morphological featuresA. inflectional suffixes: ｛z｝1 (plural number marker) and ｛z｝2 (possessive case marker)B. derivational suffixes: -ment, -ion, -hood, -ship, -ness, -ence, -anceii. Distributional featuresThe test-frames used to test nouns or noun phrases:A. The _______ was lost.B. There is a ______ in the room.C. He saw _______.D. ________ was in the garden.4.2 Verbs and verb phrasesi. Morphological featuresA. inflectional suffixes: ｛z｝3 (third person singular present tense marker); ｛d｝ (past tense marker); ｛en｝(past participle); and ｛iN｝(present participle)B. derivational affixes: de-, be-, dis-, en-, -en, -ify, -ize, -ateii. Distributional featuresThe test frames used for verbs and verb phrases:A. Let us __________.B. The boy ________.4.3 Adjectivesi. Morphological featuresA. inflectional suffixes: -er, -estB. derivational suffixes: -ish, -ful, -y, -less, -ary, -ousii. Distributional featuresThe test frames used for adjectives and adjective phrases:A. The very ________ girl was very ______.B. Horses are ________ animals.4.4 Adverbsi. Morphological featuresA. inflectional suffixes: -er, -estB. derivational suffixes: -lyii. Distributional features:With regard to the distribution of the class Adverb and Adverbial phrase, we cannot describe it in terms of a frame as we did for the other categories because they usually do not have a fixed position in a sentence. They may be used to modify adjectives, other adverbs, verbs or sentences.Hierarchies and Labeled IC analysis5.1 句子等级结构的四种表示法：1）直接成分分析；2）标记法直接成分分析；3）短语标记法；4）括号标记法。

Chapter5SenseRelationsChapter 5 Sense RelationsI. Choose the one that would best complete the statement and put the letter in the bracket.D1. In diachronic approach, other meanings apart from the primary meaning of a word were acquired by______.A .extension B. narrowing C. analogy D. all the aboveC 2. The basic meaning of a word is the core of word –meaning called the _______meaning.A . first B. derived C.central D. none of the aboveB 3. Two processes of development of word-meaning from monosemy to polysemy are______.A . diachronic approach and synchronic approachB. radiation and concatenationC. diachronic approach and radiationD. synchronic approach and concatenationB4. Homonyms are generally words different in______ but either identical both in ______ or identical only in_____.A. sound/meaning and spelling/meaning or spellingB. meaning/sound and spelling/sound or spellingC. spelling/meaning and spelling/meaning or soundD. none of the aboveB5. Of the types of homonyms, ______ constitute the largest number and the most common.A. perfect homonymsB. homophonesC. homographsD. antonymyA 6. Homophones are words identical only in ______ butdifferent in two other aspects.A. soundB. meaningC. spellingD. senseC 7. Homographs are words identical only in______ but different in two other aspects.A. soundB. meaningC. spellingD. senseD 8. The origins of homonyms have______.A. change in soundB. spellingC. borrowingD. all the aboveA 9. “On Sunday they pray for you and on Monday they prey on you .”In this sentence, ______is created .A. punB. personificationC. metaphorD. similesC10. ______are words which have the same or very nearly the same essential meaning.A. AntonymsB. MetaphorsC. SynonymsD. SimilesB11. Absolute synonyms are______.A. numerousB. rareC. popularD. commonC12. Relative synonyms also called near-synonyms are similar or nearly the same in _______.A. stylistic meaningB. affective meaningC. conceptual meaningD. collocative meaningA13. “Composition/compounding” in lexicology are_____.A. absolute synonymsB. relative synonymsC. near synonymsD. not synonymsB14. The most important sources of synonyms is perhaps______.A. dialects and regional EnglishB. borrowingC. figurative and euphemistic use of wordsD. coincidence with idiomatic expressions D15. Antonymy is concerned with semantic_______.A. relationB. similarityC. differenceD. oppositionB16. Antonyms can be classified into the following types except______.A. contradictory termsB. absolute termsC. contrary termsD. relative termsB17. ______is contrary antonymy.A. “True/false”B. “Rich/poor ”C. “Parent/child ”D. “Male/female”B18. “Teacher /student” are _____.A. contradictory antonymsB. relative antonymsC. contrary antonymsD. not antonymsD19. ______ deals with the relationship of semantic inclusion.A. PolysemyB. HomonymyC. AntonymyD. HyponymyA20. As for the hyponymy we have ______and ______.A. superordinates, subordinatesB. antonyms, synonymsC. monosemy, polysemyD. radiation, concatenationB 21. The status either as superordinate or subordinate is ______to other term .A. absoluteB. relativeC. fixedD. stableC22. A semantic field is a meaning area where words share the same ______.A. pronunciationB. spellingC. conceptD. tenseC23. In concatenation, between the latest sense and the original sense, there is _______.A. direct connectionB. semantic connectionC. no direct connectionD. no any connectionB24. Radiation and concatenation are different stages of the development leading to polysemy. Generally, radiation ________ concatenation.A. is behindB. precedesC. is withD. makes up forII. Fill in the blanks according to first letter that has been given.1.Synchronically, polysemy is viewed as the c________ of various meaning of the sameword in a certain historical period time. coexistence2. A word has many meanings, but when a word is first coined, it is always m_______.monosemic3.When a word is created, it has only one meaning. The first meaning is p________meaning. primary4.Concatenation describes a process where each of the later meaning is related only to thep_________ like chains. preceding one5.Perfect homonyms and p_________ are fully identical with regard to spelling andp_________. polysemants, pronunciation6.Absolute synonyms are restricted to highly s________. specialized vocabulary7.The words which are fully i__________ in meaning are called a_______ synonyms.identical, absolute8.Synonyms may differ in the aspects of denotation, connotation and the a_____.application9.H_______ refers to the relationship the meaning of a more specific word is included inthat of another more general word. HyponymyIII. Complete the following sentences with an appropriate word according to the instructionsgiven in the brackets.1.Absence sharpens love, ______ strengthens it. (antonym) presence2.Bill moved _________ and earth to get a ticket for Mary. (antonym) heaven3.I saw her gathering up her bits and _________ for the move to the cabin. (synonym)pieces4.Having learned that he was admitted to the university, he was so excited that he tossedand _________ on the bed all through the night without a wink of sleep. ( synonym) turned5.If we do not hang together, we shall ________ separately. ( homonym) hang6.While the prospects are bright, the road has _________ and turns. (synonym) twists7.Under _________ on the menu is listed such drinks as tea, coffee, beer, fruit juice, and soon. (superordinate) beverage8. A week without sleep can make a person very _________. (homonym) weak9. A good ________ makes a good ending. (antonym) beginning10.For＄30, the Smiths bought a very nice_______, the furniture to store utensils in thekitchen. (subordinate) cupboardIV. Comment on the following sentences using the theory of hyponymy and then improve the sentences.1.Trees surround the water near our summer place.2.He bought a piece of furniture and found it in poor condition.Reference：Tree is a superordinate, governing a lot of subordinates such as willow, pine, elm, etc. This sentence can be more vivid if put this way: Willow trees surround the lake near our summer resort. Again, here “water” is also a superordinate, “lake” is specific, and “summer place” is not so specific as “summer resort”.V. Answer the following questions.1.What are the differences between homonyms and polysemants?a.Homonym refers to different words which happen to share the same form andpolysemants is the one and same word which has several distinguishable meanings.b.Homonyms are from different sources. A polysemant is from the same source.c.The various meanings of a polysemant are correlated and connected the one centralmeaning. Meanings of different homonyms have nothing to do with one another.2.What are the characteristics of antonyms?a.Antonyms are classified on the basis of semantic opposition.b. A word which has more than one meaning can have more than one antonym.c.Antonyms differ in semantic inclusion.d.Contrary terms are gradable antonyms, differing in degree of intensity, so each has itsown corresponding opposite.3.What are the characteristics of contradictory antonymy?a.These antonyms truly represent oppositeness of meaning. They are so opposed to eachother that they are mutually exclusive and admit no possibility between them. The assertion of one is the denial of the other.b.These antonyms are non-gradable.VI. Analyze and comment on the following.1. A ball rolled into the ball suddenly.Explain tw o “ball” meaning in this sentence. Which kind of sense relation do they belong to?Give the explanation of their origins.The first “ball” means a round object to play with. The second “ball” means a dancing party.They belong to homonym. The former is borrowed from“beallu” in old English. The latter is borrowed from “ba l ler” in old French.2. employer/ employeeIllustrate which kind of antonymy they belong to and the characteristics of this kind of antonymy.They are relative antonyms. This type consists of relational opposites such as “parent –child”. The pairs of words indicate such a reciprocal social relationship that one of them can’t be used without suggesting the other.3. a. I met a writer who is the relative of a politician.b. I met a newspaper reporter who is the brother of Senator Buckley.Study these two sentences, and explain what relationship is between each corresponding part in the two sentences? Which sentence is better and why?The relationship between corresponding parts is hyponyms. Subordinates are used in sentence b, thus sentence b is better. Subordinates are concrete, precise and vivid.。