UC 00902:MEANING IN COMMUNICATION CONTEXT

LESSON 4: Meaning and Lexime

WHAT IS LEXICAL SEMANTIC

Study of word is called lexicologyA collection of words is called lexicon eg. DictionaryWord is lexical item or lexemeStudy of word meaning is lexical semantic

HOW TO EXPLORE LEXEME/WORD

There are two main modes for exploring word meaning: in relation to other wordsin relation to the world

HOW TO EXPLORE LEXEME/WORD

Lexical/sense relations (meaning in relation to other words)Semantic field Synonymy & antonymy Hyponymy & meronymySemantic Primes (NSM) Componential analysisDenotation (meaning in relation to the world)

LEXICAL/SENSE RELATION

While analysis of the semantic content of an utterance is possible using differently sized chunks of language (phrases, sentences, entire texts), it is common to start on the word level and to examine words that intuitively seem to go together. Drawing up a map of sense relations is possible only after developing terms to describe these relations. Are two terms neighbors? Opposites? Do they have a part-whole relationship?

WHAT IS SEMANTIC FIELD?

As has already been discussed, semantics is concerned with meaning. One way of defining meaning is by looking at the relationship of a group of terms in unison. eyes, hands, nose, feetgreen, red, purple, yellowcut, chop, slice

WHAT IS SYNONYMY?

Synonymy is the degree of sameness (in regards to meaning) that two terms share. Natural languages afford fairly little space for complete synonyms (that would not be economical) and accordingly, small meaning differences exist. Buy and purchase are an example for two near-complete synonyms.

WHAT IS ANTONYMS?

Antonyms are binary opposition pairs such as happy unhappy, tall short, young old, war peace. Their decisive quality is that the meaning of one term automatically excludes the other someone who is tall is not short and someone who is unhappy is not happy.

WHAT IS HYPONOMY?

Hyponomy describes hierarchical relations between terms. If we can say that X is a kind of Y, a hyponymous relationship exists between X and Y. The two examples below illustrate this kind of connection. color | blue red green yellow purple white black cook | toast boil fry grill roast bake microwaveIn the examples, the terms color and cook are superordinates, while the words listed below them are their hyponyms.

WHAT IS MERONYMY?

A part of something bigger eg names for parts: finger is a meronym of hand.Hard disc is a meronym of comuputer

WHAT IS SEMANTIC PRIMES/NSM?

Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM; Goddard and Wierzbicka 2007):the components that linguists have traditionally used to performcomponential analysis dont reflect indigenous conceptualizations. Forexample, componential analyses of the terms man, woman and child typicallyinvolve concepts for which not all languages have words: male, female, adult.

WHAT IS NSM?

Substantives: I, YOU, SOMEONE, SOMETHING/THING,PEOPLE, BODY Relational substantives: KIND, PART Determiners: THIS, THE SAME, OTHER/ELSE Quantifiers: ONE, TWO, MUCH/MANY, SOME, ALL Evaluators: GOOD, BAD Descriptors: BIG, SMALL Mental predicates: THINK, KNOW, WANT, FEEL, SEE, HEAR Speech: SAY, WORDS, TRUE Actions, events, movement, contact: DO, HAPPEN, MOVE, TOUCH

WHAT IS NSM?

Location, existence, possession, specification: BE (SOMEWHERE),BE/EXIST, HAVE, BE (SOMEONE/SOMETHING)Life and death: LIVE, DIETime: WHEN/TIME, NOW, BEFORE, AFTER, A LONG/SHORT TIME, FOR SOME TIME, MOMENT/IN ONE MOMENTSpace: WHERE/PLACE, HERE, ABOVE, BELOW, NEAR, FAR,SIDE, INSIDELogical concepts: NOT, MAYBE, CAN, BECAUSE, IFIntensifier, augmentor: VERY, MORESimilarity: LIKE/AS

WHAT IS COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS?Words can be analyzed and described in terms of their semantic components, which usually come in pairs called semantic oppositions: "Up" and "Down, "plus and "minusmore or less

Binary taxonomy+LIVE = alive -LIVE = deadPolarity^SIZE = large vSIZE = smallRelation>PARENT = is the parent of

DENOTATION (MEANING IN RELATION TO THE WORLD)Language talks about the world, and ultimately, in order to know what a word like horse or despair means, it is necessary to know something about the world.One wayof getting at the connection between meaning and the world is to considertruth conditionsentailmentpresuppositionsselectional restrictionsimplicatureconnotationvagueness

JOURNAL 4

Give 2 examples of Synonymy in Malay and EnglishGive 2 examples of Antonymy in Malay and EnglishGive 2 examples of Hyponymy in Malay and English Give 2 examples of Meronymy in Malay and English Give examples of 2 words and their difference by Semantic Primes in Malay and English Give examples of 2 words and their difference by Componential analysis in Malay and English