Semantics

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6.3 Complementary antonymy


The members of a pair complementary to each other. They divide the whole of a semantic field completely. The assertion of one means the denial of the other and the denial of one means the assertion of the other. There is no intermediate ground between the two. Distinction between gradable and complementary contrary and contradictory
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3.2 Connotative meaning



the emotional association which a word or a phrase suggests in one’s mind. It is the supplementary value added to the purely denotative meaning of a word. Mother a female parent connotes love, care and tenderness. Dogs have different connotative meaning between Chinese and English.
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3.7 Thematic meaning

determined by the order of the words and the different prominence they each receive.

“I want the apple.”
Lexical meaning: Reference & Sense
Reference 指称:
what a linguistic form refers to in the real physical world; dealing with the relationship between language and the world.
“dog”:
4-legged mammal, hairy, canine, definitely loyal
(newsworthy)
What is Meaning?
Scholars under different scientific backgrounds have different understandings of language meaning. Linguistic views:
The conceptualist view 概念论
The semantic triangle 语义三角
(Ogden & Richards 1923) Thought/Reference 思想/指称 (concept)
“dog”
Symbol/Form 符号/形式 (word/phrase/sentence)
Meaning & Language: Semantics
Definition
Semantics: the study of meaning in language.
It deals with the meaning of words (lexical semantics). And how meaning of sentences (compositional semantics) is derived from words.

SemanticsSemanticsSemantics is the study of the meaning of linguistic units, words and sentences in particular.Semantics = Theory of MeaningIts goal is to reveal how language are matched with their proper meanings by the speakers of that language.Lexical semantics—the study of word meanings. it deals not only with the meanings of individual words but also the relationship between the meanings of different words.Compositional semantics—is concerned exclusively with the meanings of phrases and sentences.History of Semantics1893 - French linguist Breal coined ―semantique‖.1897 – Breal first use it as the science of meaning.1900 – Its English version came out.1980s – semantics began to be introduced into China.One of the most famous books on semantics is The Meaning of Meaning(1923). Semantic Triangle 语义三角Concept（meaning）refers tosymbolizesSymbol Thing（word）（referent）stands forThe Referential Theory 指称论Concept (Meaning): the mental image, the abstraction or generalization of objects of the same kind.Referent (Thing): the physical entity or actual object, event, idea or whatever if denoted by a word, phrase or expression.Concept VS. Referent (Thing)A referent may exist in the physical world.The concept is abstracted from the referent and labeled by a word.Sense 语义Sense is the inherent meaning of the linguistic form independent of situational context.It’s abstract and de-contextualized.Sense RelationsSense relations between wordsWords are in different sense relations with each other.There are generally 5 kinds of sense relations:1) synonymy 同义2) antonymy 反义3) hyponymy 上下义4) polysemy 一词多义5) homonymy 同音同形异义1. SynonymyIt is the sameness or close similarity of meaning.Words that are close in meaning are called synonyms.2. AntonymyIt is the oppositeness of meaning.Words that are opposite in meaning are antonyms.Oppositeness can be found on different dimensions:Gradable antonymyComplementary antonymyConverse antonymy (relational opposites)Gradable antonymy 分级反义词good/ bad, long /short, narrow/ wideThe members of a pair differ in terms of degree. The denial of one is not necessarily the assertion of the other. There are often intermediate forms between them.Not good≠badHot ---warm---cool---coldComplementary antonymy 互补反义词alive/ dead, male/ female, present/ absent, pass/ fail , boy/ girlIt is characterized by the feature that the denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of the other and the assertion of one means the denial of the other.Converse antonymy 换位反义词(relational opposites关系对立反义词)buy/ sell, lend/ borrow, before /after,teacher/ student, above /belowThe members of a pair do not constitute a positive-negative opposition. They show the reversal of a relationship between two entities.ExerciseClassify the following pairs of antonyms:Gradable antonymyComplementary antonymyConverse antonymymarried-single male-female hot-coldgive-take big-small awake-asleepnorth-south logical-illogical win-losebuy-sell doctor-patient above-below3. Hyponymy上下义关系It is the sense relation between two words in which the meaning of one word is included in the meaning of another word.HyponymyMusical instruments ---piano flute guitar violin tuba tromboneFish---snapper salmon bass sole troutSalmon---chinook spring coho king sockey4. PolysemyA word is polysemic if it has more than one meaning.Wood:family treea geographical area with many trees5. HomonymyWhen two or more words are the same in pronunciation or in spelling or in both but different in meaning, they are called homonyms.3 types of homonyms:perfect homonyms(同音同形异义词)homographs（同形异义词）homophones (同音异义词).Perfect homonymsPerfect homonyms are words which are the same in both pronunciation and spelling but different in meaning.bank (银行、河岸)bear (容忍、生（孩子）)sound (声音、完美的)HomographsHomographs are words which are the same in spelling, but different in pronunciation and meaning."bow" /bəʊ/ -----"弓―"bow" /bau/ -----"鞠躬"HomophonesHomophones are words which are the same in pronunciation, but different in spelling and meaning.tail / taleto / two / toopair / pearsee / seaI / eyepiece / peace。

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。