Lexical relations

Introduction:
The branch of semantics that deals with word meanings is called lexical semantics. (George
Yule,).

The lexical relation is used to indicate any paradigmatic relation among words. It is not just a
semantic relation; so, it includes phonetic relations such as rhyme and alliteration,
morphological relations such as inflectional variations and morpho-syntactic relations such as
co-membership in a grammatical category.

The term lexical relation is ambiguous in that it could refer to relations among words or to
relations among lexical items within the mental lexical. (M.Lynne Murphy, 2003).

Psychologist have determined that some types of semantic relations e.g. antonyms are easier
for adults and children to comprehend and process than others. (Chaffin & Herrman, 1987;
Herrman & Chaffin, 1986).

Murphy (2003) stated that most lexical semantic relations have some kinds of similarity and
contrast elements e.g. synonyms are similar in meanings but different in lexical forms and
antonyms have contrasting position on the same dimensions.

Types of lexical relation:

Lexical relations are relationships of the meanings of the words to other
words (Bolinger, 1968:11). Meaning property is one of several features or component which
together can be said to make up the meanings of a word or utterance (Lyons, 1977:57). All of
lexical relations and meaning properties can be differentiated by looking all the words or
sentences. There are many kinds of semantic/lexical relations which can be distinguished by its
use in any text or context. The kinds of lexical relations are Synonymy, Antonymy, Homonymy,
Polysemy, Hyponymy, Meronymy, Metonymy, Prototype and Collocation.

SYNONYMY:
Synonymy means the sameness of meanings. The sets of words that have same meanings are
called the synonymy of one another(F. R. Palmer: p.88).

Synonyms is the term that overlap in denotative meanings, connotative meanings or both. The
best known of these relations is synonymity in which terms have the same denotation.e.g.
car-auto (Hermann, 1978; Ness,1953).

There are two types of synonymity:

1. Dimensional synonymity (similarity)

2. Attributive synonymity (similarity)

Dimensional similarity:

It involves denotative agreement that is not sufficient for synonymity but that occur at adjacent
points on a common dimensional. E.g. laugh-smile. (Flavell & Flavell, 1958).

Attributive similarity:

The term in which salient attributes of one term reasonable of another is called attributive
similarity. E.g. rake-fork. (Perfetti, 1967).

George Yule (1996), stated that synonyms are different phonological words which have the
same or very similar meanings. As Couch/sofa, boy/lad, lawyer/attorney, toilet/lavatory,
large/big. Lyons (1995) said that absolute synonymy is very rare and he defined synonymy as,
two expressions are absolutely synonymous if all their meanings are identical in all linguistic
contexts.

According to Lyons common types of synonyms are:

1. Near synonyms:

The synonyms which have no identical senses but are closed in meanings are near synonyms.
e.g. Mist and fog, stream and brook, dive and plunge.

2. Sense synonyms:

The term which share one or more senses are called sense synonyms. Sense synonym share at
least one sense and match in every other property for that sense are completely synonyms.
(Lyons,1981).

e.g.

3. Partial synonyms:

The term which shares some senses but differs in some aspects is
called partial synonymy, i.e. The way they are used or in some dimension of meaning. (Crus,
1986; Lyons, 1995).

According to F. R. Palmer if we look at possible synonyms there are at least five ways in which
they can be seen differ which are as follows:

First, some sets of synonyms belong to different dialects of the language. E.g. the term
fall is used in the united states and its synonymous term autumn is used in western
countries of Britain.

Secondly, there are the words that are used in different styles. This is similar to the first
one but the difference lies in the use. E.g.

Thirdly, some word may be said to differ only in their emotive or evaluating meanings.
E.g. politician and statesman, hide and conceal, liberty and freedom, each implying approval or
disapproval and there lies the emotive difference between these words. There are the words
that are used purely for evaluative purposes such as good and bad.

Fourthly, some words are collocationally restricted that is they occur only in conjunction
with other words. E.g. Rancid occurs with bacon or butter and addled occurs with eggs or
brains. Perhaps these are true synonyms differencing only in that they occur in different
environments.

Fifthly, it is that many words are close in meanings or that their meanings overlap. E.g.
the possible synonyms of the word mature are adult, ripe, perfect and due.

Synonyms are mutually interchangeable in all the environments. And it is that case that no total
synonyms in this sense i.e no two words have exactly the same meaning. And he found that
some words are interchangeable in certain environments only, e.g. the words deep or profound
may be used with sympathy but only deep with water. And road may be broad or wide but an
accent only broad. (F. R. Palmer; p. 91).

Synonyms differ in their connotations i.e secondary meanings. It often refers to emotive or
evaluative meanings. It also refers to stylistic or dialectal differences or even small differences
that are found near-synonyms. E.g. woman has the connotation gentle and pig has the
connotation dirty.

Phenomena in synonyms:
There are two phenomena that sometimes come under synonymy which are as follows:

1. Context-dependent synonymy, In which two items appear to be synonymous in a

particular context.

2. Synonymy between bull and male adult bovine animal in which the test of interchange
ability says that these are completely synonymous, even though in some sense the two items
seem to have the same meaning.

Antonyms:
According to George Yule, antonyms are words which are opposite in meanings. it is useful to
identify several different types of relationship under opposition. / sign is used to indicate
antonymy. As Good/bad, life/death, come/go, dead/alive, pass/fail.

The term antonym is used for oppositeness of meaning words that are opposite are
antonyms. Antonymy is often thought of as the opposite of synonymy, but the status of the two
antonyms are very different. (F. R. Palmer, p.94). e.g. wide/narrow, old/young, big/small, etc.

The relation among words in which the meanings of one term contrast, oppose or contradicts
the other term is called antonyms (Bolinger & Sears, 1981; Cruse; 1976; Lyons, 1968).

Types of antonyms:
There are four types of antonyms which are as follows:

1. Contradictory antonyms:

These are terms opposed dichotomously e.g. alive-dead.

2. Contrary antonyms:

These are terms are opposed symmetrically on a continuous dimension. E.g. hot-cold.

3. Directional antonyms:

These are concepts opposed in time or space. E.g. before-after, above-below.

4. Reverse antonyms:

Reverse antonyms, sometimes called converses, represent opposed actions. E.g. buy-
sell.

Types of relations (Relations that are not regarded as antonymous)

1. Asymmetric antonyms:

It is opposed on a continuous dimension but the term indicates asymmetrically i.e. imperfect
symmetry. E.g. hot-cool.

The imperfect symmetries is the reason the relationship is not generally regarded as antonymic
(Katz, 1972).

2. Incompatible antonyms:

It is a term in which denotative meaning of one term is opposed to only part of the denotative
meaning of the other term. E.g. frank is incompatible with hypocritical in that hierocracy
involves dishonesty, whereas, frankness involves both honest and outspoken involves. Because
the opposition does not involve the full denotative meanings of these terms, they are not
antonyms (Grove, 1973).

3. Pseudo Antonyms:

These are so called pseudo antonyms because they opposition is based on a connotative
meaning of one term. E.g. popular and shy are opposed because popularity connotes
extroversion, which is denotatively opposed to shyness (Hermann at al., 1979).

According to George Yule there are four types of antonyms which are as follows:

1. Simple antonyms

2. Gradable antonyms

3. Reverses
4. Converses

Simple antonyms:
The relationship between the words in which the negative of one implies the positive of the
other is called simple antonyms. The pairs are also sometimes called complementary pairs or
binary pairs. As Dead/alive (e.g. human beings), pass/fail (e.g. exams); hit/miss (e.g. a target).

Lyons (1968: 460) stated that the terms male/female, married/unmarried, alive/dead are
complementary to each other. These belong to the set of incompatible terms. They are the
members of two terms sets instead of multiple term sets. They are in some ways similar to
gradable antonyms i.e. both exhibits incompatibility. E.g. if something is wide it means that is
not narrow.

Gradable antonyms:
The relationship between opposites is that the positive of one term does not necessarily imply
the negative of the other. As Rich/poor (e.g. status), fast/slow (e.g. speed), young/old (e.g. age),
beautiful/ugly (e.g. complexion). This relation is associated with adjectives and it has two major
features which are as follows:

1. They are usually intermediate terms between the gradable antonyms. E.g. hot and cold.
This means that something may be neither hot nor cold.

2. The terms are usually relative. E.g. a thick pencil is likely to be thinner than a thin girl.

Sapir (1944) argued that the comparative forms of the adjectives (ending with er or occurring
with more) are explicitly graded, so we can say that one road is wider than another. Thus Sapir
said that these are graded antonyms.

Reverses:
This is a relationship between the terms describing movements, where one term describes
movement in one direction while the other term describes the same movement in the opposite
direction. As Push/pull (e.g. door), come/go (e.g. walk), ascend/descend (e.g. inclined plane).

Converses:
This is the term which describes the relation between two entities from different viewpoints. As
Above/below, employer/employee, own/belong to, etc. Antonyms signify the semantic
incompatibility of the contrasting words. Antonyms are the subtype of the contrast in that it is
contrast within a binary paradigm while the term antonym is sometimes reversed for more
specific relations. It is used here for only binary semantic contrast among lexical items whereas
opposite is used more broadly here not limited to contrast.

Homonymy:
Homonyms are un-related senses of same phonological word. Homophones and homographs
come under homonyms (Yule, 1996). As Bear (to carry) and bear (animal), tale and tail, etc. the
term homonymy adds two further categories in it which are homophones and homogragrph.
These terms show the sameness in words.

Homophones:

Homophones are the senses of the same spoken words. E.g. site and sight right and write,
etc.

Homographs:

Homographs are senses of same written word. E.g. lap circuit of a course and lap part of
body when sitting down.

According to F. R. Palmer, homonymy is that there are several words with the same shape. And
homonymous are those which have separate entry for each of the homonyms. E.g. the word
flight has five homonyms for mail_ armour, post, halfpenny, payment and sport, and important
thing is that they are different meanings of same word.

George Yule distinguishes different types of homonym depending on their syntactic behavior
and spelling such as:

1. Lexemes of the same syntactic category, and with the same spelling: e.g. lap circuit of
house and lap part of body when sitting down

2. Of the same category, but with different spelling: e.g. the verb ring and wring;

3. Of different categories, but with the same spelling: e.g. the verb keep and the noun
keep;

4. Of different categories, and with different spelling: e.g. not, knot.

There are some complications in the fact that we do not make the same distinction in writing
and speech. There are some words such as lead (metal) and lead (dogs lead) are spelt in the
same way but pronounced differently. They come under homography. There are some words
such as site and sight, rite and right are spelt differently but pronounced in the same way. They
come under homophony. (F. R. Palmer, p.101).

There are some homonyms and homophones that are also very nearly antonyms. E.g. cleave
(part asunder) and cleave (unite), raise and raze. (F. R. Palmer, p.102).

There are some variations in pronunciation and it means that all the speakers do not have the
same set of homonyms. For example, English speaker pronounce the pairs click and clique, talk
and torque in the same way. (George Yule, p.64).
Polysemy:
This term refers that not only different word have different meanings but it is also the case that
same word may have a set of different meanings. This is called polysemy and such a word is
called polysemic. (F.R. Palmer, p.100).

Examples:

There is a word flight and dictionary defines it in many ways which are as follows:

Passing through the air, power of flying, air journey, unit of the air force, volley, digression,
series of steps, etc.

The term polysemy refers to multiple senses of the same phonological word. It is the word
with two or more meanings. (George Yule, p.64). E.g. foot in:

1. He hurt his foot

2. She stood at the foot of the stairs.

A practical problem is that if one form has several meanings, it is not always clear as it
happened in polysemy in which a word has several meanings. E.g. in dictionary the word
flight is a single polysemic word but it recognizes no less than for words for mail such as
armour, post, halfpenny, payment and spot. And important thing is that they are not shown as
different meanings of the same word. And polysemic item is treated as a single entry. (F. R.
Palmer, p.101).

Problems associated with polysemy and homonymy:

According to F. R. Palmer the problem is to decide when we have polysemy (words with
different meanings) and when we have homonymy (two different words with same shape)?
There are number of ways to decide when polysemy is used and when there is the use of
homonymy.

1- If the same forms have different origins in dictionaries, it will be termed as

homonymous but if a form of word has one origin and has different meanings, it will be
called polysemy.
2- The other way to find out whether the word falls in polysemy or homonymy is to look
for the central meanings of the word. The best example is metaphor or of transferred
meaning as for sad and score. But in general, it would be difficult to find out that it is
central meaning or core meaning.
Conclusion:
The lexical relations are the relationship of the meanings of the words with the
other words. But this relationship cannot be judged by analyzing the individual words. The
lexical/semantic relations can be found by analyzing the words in any text or context. The
different kinds of lexical relation may have ambiguity in defining their exact category as
polysemy and homonymy have some complexity in differentiating both categories. The use of
word with it proper conveyed meaning tells that the word falls in which category.
Refences:

Chaffin, R., & Herrmann, D. J. (1987). Relation element theory: A new account of the
representation and processing of semantic relations.

Cruse, D. A. (1986). Lexical Semantics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Lyons, J. (1977). Semantics (2 vols.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Murphy, M. Lynne. (2003). Semantic relations and the lexicon. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

Palmer, F. R. (1976). Semantics. (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Yule, G. (1996). The study of language. (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.