UNIVERSITY OF MOSTAR

FACULTY OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

Anto Misura

LEXICAL SEMANTIC RELATIONS

Seminar paper

MENTOR: prof. dr. sc. Ivana Grbavac

MOSTAR, 2015

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION .3
1. Other meaning relations connected to spelling and pronunciation.....................................4
2. Homonymy..............................................................................................................................5
3. Hyponomy and hypernymy ....................................................................................................6
4. Holonymy and meronymy ..
7
5.

Holonymy

and

antonomy...

..7
6.
Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION

In this seminar paper we will talk about the relations between meanings and the research on
meaning and different aspects of it. The relations that are formed between meanings are called
lexical semantics meaning relations and they observe relations between lexical items. Lexical
semantics relations play an essential role in lexical semantics and intervene at many levels in
natural language comprehension and production. They are also a central element in the
organization of lexical semantics knowledge bases. There are different types of lexical
meanings which can be divided into two groups, hierarchical and non hierarchical meaning
relations. Lexical semantics looks at how the meaning of the lexical units correlates with the
structure of the language or syntax. Lexical units, also referred to as syntactic atoms, can
stand alone such as in the case of root words or parts of compound words or they necessarily
attach to other units such as prefixes and suffixes do. It explores the paradigmatic semantic
relations between words, such as synonymy, antonymy and hyponymy, and their relevance to
the mental organization of our vocabularies.

1. MEANING RELATIONS CONNECTED TO SPELLING AND

PRONUNCIATION

Homophony is a term used to define words that have a same pronunciation regardless
of their spelling. If they are spelled the same way then they are homographs too, but if they
are spelled differently then they are heteronyms. Total homonymy is when two lexemes with
the same form that share all distinctive properties (grammatical category and grammatical
properties, the set of grammatical forms, sound form and spelling.
Examples:
Sealing the popcorn ceiling will not eliminate that old-fashioned cottage cheese look.
Pay is higher when there is greater competition to hire people.
Her technique is a model, to some observers, of what makes an interview great; to others, of
what makes an interview grate.
Homography is when a set of words are spelled identically, but have different
meanings. It is not necessary for homographic words to be pronounced the same way, which
is called homophony.
Examples:
I saw a bat flying over my head and tryed to hit him with my cricket bat.
Jeremy loves to fish because he likes to catch big fish.
I will be there in a minute. That is very minute.
Heteronomy includes words that share the spelling and have different meanings and
pronunciation.
Examples:
grain = heteronym of wheat, rye, corn, millet
wheat = rye = corn = millet
Capitonymy refers to those words that have a same spelling but different meaning
when capitalized.
Examples:
mercurynouna chemical element
Mercury noun a planet
polishverbto shine, to make shiny
Polishadjectiveoriginating from Poland

2. HOMONOMY
The word Homonym has been derived from Greek term Homoios which
means identical and onoma which means name Homonymy and polysemy both
involve one lexical form that is associated with multiple senses and as such both are
possible sources of lexical ambiguity. But while homonyms are distinct lexemes that
happen to share the same form, in polysemy a single lexeme is associated with
multiple senses. The distinction between homonymy and polysemy is usually made on
the basis of the relatedness of the senses: polysemy involves related senses, whereas
the senses associated with homonymous lexemes are not related. Homonymy is
concerned with words that have a same form but different meanings. Of course, if
mentioning homonymy (coincidental homonyms) it is necessary to mention and
explain the polysemy (polysemous homonyms) because both of them enquire and
observe words that have the same form and different meanings, with the difference
that homonymy includes those words whose identical form is not a matter of historical
background but a pure coincidence whereas polysemy includes those words that are
historically related. Coincidental homonyms are the result of such historical accidents
as phonetic convergence of two originally different the borrowing of a new word
which happens to be identical to an old word. A distinction is sometimes made
between "true" homonyms, which are unrelated in origin, such as skate (glide on ice)
and skate (the fish), and polysemous homonyms, or polysemes, which have a shared
origin, such as mouth (of a river) and mouth (of an animal). In non-technical contexts,
the term "homonym" may be used to refer to words that are either
homographs or homophones. The words row (propel with oars) and row (argument)
and row (a linear arrangement of seating) are considered homographs, while the
words read (peruse) and reed (waterside plant) would be considered homophones;
under this looser definition, both groups of words represent groups of homonyms.

3. SYNONYMY AND ANTONYMY

Synonymy deals with cases in which the same concept or similar concepts are
expressed by different words or expressions. Two expressions are synonymous if the
substitution of one for the other never changes the truth value of a sentence in which
the substitution is made. By that definition, true or absolute synonyms are rare, if they
exist at all.
Synonymy is concerned with word that have similar meaning. It is a symmetric and
reflexive relation. Some of the examples of synonymy are buy/purchase, big/large,
autumn/fall etc. However, as it can be concluded they usually differ in at least one
semantic feature. Complementary pairs are antonyms in which the presence of one
quality or state signifies the absence of the other and vice versa, e.g. aunt/uncle,
married/single, groom/bride, buy/steal etc. They cannot be graded. Relational
opposites are antonyms which share the semantic features, only the focus or direction
is reversed, e.g. tie/untie, buy/sell, give/ receive, father/son etc. But, some concepts
lack logical opposites that can be described in terms of any special word, which can be
pointed out in the example of colours. Such concepts may form relational antonyms,
however, through symbolic systems of thinking, as American/Russians in Cold War,
Democrats/Republicans in US politics etc. Directional opposites include pairs such as:
in front of/behind, left/right, above/bellow, east/west etc. For each such pair there is a
point of reference from which one looks in opposite directions on certain axis. Here is
the example in front of (you)/behind (you). The two directions are distinguished in
several ways, because the body has a front and a back so when one walks in the usual
way one walks into the direction that is in front of one. Thus, the body defines an axis
in

space.

There

are

horizontal

(forwards/backwards,

in

front

of/behind,

advance/retreat etc.), vertical (top/bottom, up/down, rise/fall etc.), time axis

(before/after, since/until, precede/follow etc. which are concerned with before vs
after or later vs earlier) axes. For the better-known European languages at least,
there are a number of dictionaries 'of synonyms and antonyms' available, which are
frequently used by writers and students to extend their vocabulary and achieve a
greater variety of style. The fact that such special dictionaries are found useful in
practice is an indication that words can be more or less satisfactorily grouped into sets
of synonyms and antonyms. There are two points that should be stressed, however, in
this connexion. First, synonymy and antonymy are semantic relations of a very
different logical nature: 'oppositeness of meaning' (love:hate, hot:cold, etc.) is not
simply the extreme case of difference of meaning. Second, a number of distinctions
6

have to be drawn within the traditional concept of 'antonymy': dictionaries of

'antonyms' are only successful in practice to the degree that their users draw these
distinctions (for the most part unreflectingly).

4. HYPONYMY AND HYPERNYMY

Hyponymy shows the relationship between the more general terms (hypernyms) and the
more specific instances of it (hyponyms). A hyponym is a word or phrase whose semantic
field is more specific than its hypernym. The semantic field of a hypernym, also known as a
superordinate, is broader than that of a hyponym. An approach to the relationship between
hyponyms and hypernyms is to view a hypernym as consisting of hyponyms. This, however,
becomes more difficult with abstract words such as imagine, understand and knowledge.
While hyponyms are typically used to refer to nouns, it can also be used on other parts of
speech. Like nouns, hyponyms in verbs are words that refer to a broad category of actions.
For example, verbs such as stare, gaze, view and peer can also be considered hyponyms of the
verb look. This word finds its roots in the Greek words taxis meaning arrangement and nomos
meaning science. It has a hierarchical structure, in which more general is at the top while
below there are more specific classifications that present subsets of the total set. For example:
if colour is a hypernym then hyponyms are yellow, blue, red, pink, brown etc; if a body is a
hypernym then hyponyms are head, stomach, legs, nose etc, if a house is a meronym then
hyponyms are kitchen, bedroom, living room etc. These examples shows us the case of cohyponyms that are mostly incompatible, because head is not a stomach, legs are not nose, pink
is not brown.

5. HOLONYMY AND MERONYMY

Holonymy is a semantic relation. Holonymy defines the relationship between a term
denoting the whole and a term denoting a part of, or a member of, the whole.
Holynymic/meronymic relations are considered from the paradigm of canonical/prototypical
relations that which is considered an essential component/characteristic/part of the unit in
question. Cruse uses the example of a "door-handle" relation compared to a "body-ear"
relation: not every "door" has a handle, essentially (e.g. sliding doors, swinging doors), but
every "body" (i.e. human body) does have an "ear". He refers to the former as a "facultative"
relationship. A handle represents an optional relation.

Meronymy

is

a semantic

relation specific

to linguistics,

distinct

from

the

similar meronomy. A meronym denotes a constituent part of, or a member of something.

Meronymy is the opposite of holonymy. A closely related concept is that of mereology, which
specifically deals with part/whole relations and is used in logic. It is formally expressed in
terms of first-order logic. A meronymy can also be considered a partial order.

6. CONCLUSION
We learned about the complexity of the subject of lexical-semantic relations and
addressed semantic, lexicographic and computational issues on an array of meaning
relations in different languages. We demonstrated how all the factors contribute
profitably to gain insights into the nature of the paradigmatics in actual language use.
English is full of synonyms and antonyms, hypernyms and hyponyms, holonyms and
meronyms, troponyms and homonyms. They are all different in the way through which
the connection is established, so it is possible to differ them in accordance to their
transitivity and hirerarchy. It also shows us that it is necessary to follow one words
development, or changing through the history and connections it used to have. So, it is
not always an easy thing to define the relationship between meanings since many
aspects need to be observed and satisfied.