NGỮ NGHĨA HỌC.

UNIT6

UNIT OUT LINE

I. MEANING RELATION
1. Word relation
2. Sentence relation
II. TYPES OF SENTENCE BASING ON TRUTH VALUE
1. Analytic sentence
2. Synthetic sentence
3. Contradictory sentence

MEANING RELATION
A. WORD RELATION
1. Synonymy: Two words of the same or almost the same denotative meaning. Test: A= B
Ex: broad = wide; movie = film; deep = profound; buy = purchase
Partial Synonym: a word that share one of the meanings with another.
Ex: Way How to do something = method
Where to walk on # method
2. Antonymy: Two words of opposite meanings.
Types of Antonym
a. Gradable Antonym: There are intermediate grades / levels between the two
extremes. For example:
Cold → cool → lukewarm → warm → Hot
Hate → dislike → be indifferent → like → be fond of → love
Test: very/ how? + Adj/ Adv much / very much / how much? + Verb
Ex: Old # Young => He is very old / very young
Love # Hate => I love you very much!
b. Complementary / Non-gradable / Contradictory / Binary Antonym
Two words are complementary antonyms when they exclude each other. In other
words, ‘if one word is applicable, then the other cannot be.’ (Hurford & Heasley.
1983:114)
Test: A = not B (and vice versa)
Ex: alive # dead => alive = not dead ; dead = not alive
open # close => close = not open ; open = not close
fail # pass => fail = not pass ; pass = not fail
c. Relational Antonym / Converses
Two words are relational antonyms when ‘they describe the same relationship
but they are mentioned in the opposite order.’ (Hurford & Heasley. 1983:116)
Test: if A is … of B; then B is … of A
Ex: husband # wife => If A is husband of B; then B is wife of A.
teacher # student => If A is the teacher of B; then B is a student of A.
buy # sell => If A sells a car to B; then B buys the car from A.
d. Incompatibility
Words which are mutually opposite or incompatible but belong to the same
lexical field (semantically related / sharing the same hypernym); in other words

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 they are hyponyms in the same lexical field and form a system of multiple
incompatibility or oppositions.
Ex: - Season system: Spring – Summer – Autumn – Winter. (the relation between
spring & summer is incompatibility; spring ↔ autumn; summer ↔ winter etc.)
3. Homophony
Words of the same sound, but different spellings, and different meanings
Ex: you – ewe; meat – meet; flour – flower
our – hour; too – two; meat – meet
4. Homography
Words of the same spelling, but different sounds, and different meanings
Ex: a present /’preznt/ – to present /prı´zent/
the lead /led/ – to lead /li:d/
the wind /wınd/ – to wind /waınd/
5. Homonymy
Words of the same sound, same spelling, but different meanings
Ex: bank (n): ngân hàng – bank (n): bờ sông
bear (n): con gấu – bear (v): mang, chịu đựng
fine (adj): tốt đẹp – fine (n) tiền phạt
Note: There is no relation between the meanings of homonyms.
6. Polysemy
One word with different but related meanings (There is some semantic relation
among the meanings)
Ex: fork for eating
for gardening
of a road all share the same form of a fork
of a river

7. Hyponymy: The one way relationship from hyponyms to hypernym (see lexical field).
For example:
Human (B) Hypernym

Hyponymy
Bachelor Father Mother Baby Uncle Sister

(A)Hyponyms
Test: A (hypo) is a kind of B (hyper)
Ex: A bachelor is a kind of human
A baby is a kind of human

B. SENTENCE RELATION
1. Entailment: A sentence A entails a sentence B if the truth of B follows necessarily
from the truth of A. (Hurford & Heasley. 1983:107)
Test: A is true ⇒ B is true one-way relation
A entails B
Ex: I bought some roses ⇒ I bought some flowers
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 Not: I bought some flowers ⇒ I bought some roses

However,
He eats all my roses ⇐ He eats all my flowers
He did not eat my roses ⇐ He did not eat my flowers
I saw a mouse ⇒ I saw an animal
I saw a big mouse ⇒ I saw an animal
But, I saw a big mouse # I saw a big animal (no entailment of any direction ⇒no relation)
2. Contradiction: 2 sentences in isolation, they are normal syntactically &
semantically
in combination, they contradict each other
Ex: I am a bachelor & I am a father
This ant is alive & This ant is dead
John killed Bill & Bill is still alive
Mary is my sister & I am the only child in the family
3. Paraphrase
A paraphrase of a sentence is a sentence which expresses the same proposition as
another sentence. (Hurford & Heasley. 1983:114)
A paraphrase of a sentence is another sentence that has virtually the same meaning.
(Peccei, 1999:3).
Types of paraphrase
1. Lexical: Paraphrases that contain synonyms (same structure, same meaning,
different words )
Ex: I’m very happy to see you
I’m very glad to see you
The house was concealed by the trees
The house was hidden by the trees
2. Structural: Two sentences of different structures but same meaning. The difference
in structure is not enough to change the meaning.
Ex: The lion bit the hunter
The hunter was bitten by the lion
Paul opened the door with a key
Paul used a key to open the door

C. TYPES OF SENTENCES BASING ON TRUTH VALUE (True/False)

 Analytic: “An analytic sentence is one that is necessarily true, as a result of the
senses of the words in it.” (Hurford & Heasley, 1984: 91-92)
Ex: A cat is an animal (hyponymy)
A rose is a kind of flower (hyponymy)
A bachelor is an unmarried man (synonymy)
 Synthetic: “A synthetic sentence is one that may be either true or false, depending
on the way the world is.” (Hurford & Heasley, 1984:92)
Ex: Cats can live till 20 years.
David is from England.

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 Contradictory: A contradictory sentence “is a sentence that is necessarily false, as a
result of the senses of the words in it.” (Hurford & Heasley, 1984: 93) In other words,
the sentence contains words that contradict each other.
Ex: My father [+ married] is a bachelor [- married]
My aunt [- male] is a man [+ male]