Chapter7

Semantic Relations

Words do not exist in isolation. Their meanings are defined through

their relations to other words, and it is through understanding these

connections that we arrive at our understanding of words.—Richards (1985)

1.Polysemy

1.1 Definition

Polysemy means that one single word has two or more senses at thesame time. The bulk of English words are polysemantic, such as albatross;one-meaning words are rare and are mainly scientific terms, such as hydrogen.

hydrogen

Howard Morland wrote a magazine article explaining how an"H-Bomb" -- or "thermonuclear bomb" -- is made, using onlypublicly available information.

Albatross

1)Another study done by Henri Weimerskirchconcluded that there are only two ways to protectalbatrossfromextinction.

2)Three years on, it and the questionablelegality of the war are still hanging round Blair’s neck like analbatross.

3)The project is an economicalbatrossfrom the start.

1.2 processes ofdevelopment

The development of word meaning from monosemy to polysemy followstwo courses which are calledradiation(辐射型) andConcatenation(连锁型）.

Radiation

Semantically, radiation is the process in which theprimary or

centralmeaning stands at the center whilesecondarymeaningsradiate from it in every direction like rays. Each of the secondary meaningsmight have developed from the central meaning without regard to any of theothers.

head

1)from head to foot

2)the head of the river

3)five head of cattle

4)to count heads

5)the head of a delegation

6)use your head

7)lose one’s head

Concatenation

Concatenation is asemantic processin which themeaning of a word moves gradually away from its first sense by successiveshifts until there isno connectionbetween the sense that isfinally developed and the primary meaning.

candidate

1)White-robed

2)Office seeker inwhite gowns

3)A person who seeksan office

4)A person proposedfor a place, award, etc.

board

1)The notice boardis designed to help you find information that facilitates your life and study.

2)A host familyprovides love, support and council as well as board and lodging, just as fortheir own children.

cf. A cupboard is a type of cabinet, oftenmade of wood, used indoors to store household objects, such as food andpottery.

1.3Polysemy and context

Polysemy does not create much confusion in daily use because thecontext generally reveals which meaning out of all its possible meanings is tobe attached to the word.

man

1)Hetippedthe chessboard, dumping themen to the floor.

2)The visitor sent hismanfor theluggage.

3)Manthe language lab.

Exercise:Try topin down the meaning of the following italicized words according to thecontext.

1)Turn on thelight, please.

2)This box is verylight.

3)Can youlightmy cigarette for me?

4)The water islightblue.

5)He had alightattack of measles.

6)This is alightwine.

7)Lighttravels at 300,000 km/s.

2.

Hyponymy

From the above diagram, we can see theword food is a general term, linguistically called a superordinate term, i.e.,it includes all the other terms listed underneath it. Meat, vegetable, andfruit are specific terms and they are all hyponyms/subordinate terms of food.The relationship between specific words and general words are called hyponymy,so it is a relationship of inclusion.

2.1 Functions

a)Hyponymy serves as aneffectiveway to enlarge yourvocabulary.

b)Hyponymy, avoiding simple repetition, makesa discourse more coherent.

There wasa finerocking-chairthat his father used to sit in, adeskwherehe wrote letters, a nest of smalltablesand dark, imposing bookcase.Now all thisfurniturewas to be sold, and with it his own past.

c)The hyponyms (or specific words) can makeour speech and writing morevividandexpressive,while using too much general terms can result in vagueness and triteness.

1)Fido is the most lovablecreatureIknow.

2)Fido is the onlyanimalI have everkilled.

3)Fido is one of our threedogs.

4)Fido is the fastesthoundI’ve everseen.

5)We have two hounds: agreyhoundnamedMick and a basset named Fido.

Tip:

A goodpiece of writing often involves both superordinates and subordinatesworking

mutuallyto achieve the desired effect.

3.Synonymy

Words which have the same or nearly the same meanings as other wordsare calledsynomymsand the relationship between them is one ofsynomymy.

1)He hid hemoney under the bed.

2)He concealedthe money under the bed.

3.1 Synonymous Patterns

3.1.1Doublets

In English, there are countless pairs of synonyms in which a native termcoexists with the one borrowed from French, Latin or Greek.

Exercise 1: identifythe counterparts of the following underlined native terms.

1)To each and every one of you we give aheartyhug and thanks.

Havinggiven her a cordial hug, Mr. Price observed that his daughter has grown into awoman.

2)Motherlylove isunconditional and never expects reciprocation.

Maternalaffection was likely to be lacking after delivery if the mother had experienceda painful and unpleasant labour.

3)Ourfoeshave declaredthis very intention, and have been caught seeking these terrible weapons.

The sight of this doubled his anger, and hestruck at his enemy with such fury that the Knight reeled twice, and seemedlikely to fall.

4)I listened to thisinnervoice and decided that I would follow my heart; I would continue doingsomething I loved.

Yourinterior thoughts can be mingled with exterior thoughts.

3.1.2Triplets

Exercise : Match thenative terms with their counterparts.

NativeFrenchLatin/Greek

beginmountepoch

risestomachinterrogate

timequestioninitiate

bellyageascend

askcommenceabdomen

In this pattern, native, French, and Latin or Greek words co-exist.

3.1.3BrE. andAmE. Pattern

British EnglishAmerican English

servanthelp

liftelevator

petrolgasoline

3.2 Discrimination of synonyms

1) Difference inrange and intensity of meaning

extend, increase, expand

①Thecompany has decided toincreaseits sales by ten per cent next year.

②The ownerof the restaurant is going toextendthe kitchen.

③The metalwillexpandifheated.

work, toil

①Theworkwas not hard and she soonlearned to do it well.

②The wealth of industrial society could onlycome from thetoilof the masses.

2) Difference in stylistic features

①The priceof meat has beendecliningalarmingly. (written)

②The priceof meat has beengoing downsteeply. (spoken)

③Theyapproved

ofthe plan for the development of the inner city. (formal)

④Theyagreed

tothe plan for the development of the inner city. (informal)

3)Difference in emotive coloring

①Look atthat lovelylittleboy.

②Look atthatsmallboy.

③Look atthattinyboy.

4) Difference in collocation

accuse, charge, denounce, blame

①Thewriteraccusedthe criticoffailing to do justice to his maidenwork.

②At themeeting hechargedhis opponentwithevasion of the basic issues.

③He wasdenounced

forneglect of duty.

④Who canblamehimforwantingto stick with the small town life?

rancid, addled,sour, rotten

①I have been twice brought to the gates ofdeath by this disease, and both times it was occasioned by eatingrancidbacon.

②Occasionally she would even point out thatwe had brought in anaddled/rottenegg from the henhouse.

③The hotweather hassouredthe milk.

üIf they have bread, salt and some garlic oran onion and a kind ofsour milkwhich they call yogurt,they ask for nothing more.

üHave you ever seenrancidmilk? Itseparates into slightly yellowish chunks, suspended in greeny liquid.

a flock of, a herd of, a school of, a pride of

①Once I hada flock of sheep. I tookthem out to graze the grass. (seagulls/ducks/sparrows)

②A herd of cowswere scattered overthe field. (swans/elephants/deer/turkeys)

③Many fishermen and boats surroundeda

school ofwhales. (fish/dolphins)

④The main story focuses ona pride oflions, fantastic unique animals. (peacock)

4.Antonymy

Words that are in opposition are antonyms and the term antonymy isused for “oppositeness of meaning”.

Categories

Examples

Contraries相对反义词

wide/narrow, old/young, big/small

Complementaries互补反义词

male/female, true/false, single/married,  dead/alive

Conversives换位反义词

buy/sell, husband/wife,  employer/employee

4.1 Contraries

Contraries show a type of oppositeness ofmeaning, illustrated by such pairs as wide/narrow, old/young, big/small, etc.

beautiful – pretty – good-looking – plain –ugly

Contraries can be placed at both extremesof a scale, between which there may be gradable lexical items.

4.2 Complementaries

Complementaries represent a type of binarysemantic contrast which admits of no gradability between the items, e.g.male/female, single/married etc.

4.3 Conversives

Conversives display a type of oppositenessof meaning, illustrated bysuch pairs asbuy/sell, debtor/creditor, fiancé/fiancée etc.

If A sells a watch to B, B buys a watchfrom A.In such a relationship, there isan interdependence of meaning, i.e., one member of the pair presupposes theother member.

4.4 The use of antonyms

handsome

1)All the fivemembers of our family are employed with handsome income and have full faith inalmighty GOD.

2)We only comeacross a few small farmhouses, where the highland farmers scratch a meagerincome from the steep, infertile land beside the forest.

Freshbread/air/flowers

1)Reheating can’t makestalebreadfresh.

2)When a home is sealed tightly to keep outdrafts, however, the air can feel stuffy and stale.

3)The ground is covered with yellow fadedflowers in showers.

It wasthebestof times, it was theworstof times, it was the age ofwisdom,it was the age offoolishness, it was the epoch ofbelief, it wasthe epoch ofincredulity, it was the season oflight, it was theseason ofdarkness, it was thespring of hope, it was thewinter

of despair…(fromA Tale of Two

Cities)

5.Homonymy

Homonyms arewords which have the same phonological or spelling form but differ in meaning.Such a linguistic phenomenon, i.e. identity of form and diversity of meaning isreferred to as homonymy.

ØHomographs（同形异义词）

ØHomophones（同音异义词）

Øperfect homonyms（完全同音同形异义词）

Øfull homonyms（实足同形同音异义词）

5.1 Homographs

Homographs are words identical inspelling, but different in sound andmeaning.

minute

1)It’s justminutesfrom the hotel tothe station.

2)The kitchen isminute, with barelyroom for two people to turn round.

sow

1)The dry crop land was not suitable tosowseeds since it lacked irrigation sources.

2)Asowgives birth to a group of 8 -12 piglets, called a litter.

sewer

1)The computerprompts the sewer to replace the thread or make any other adjustments whennecessary. Obviously, this sort of high-tech sewing machine is a lot morecomplex than the fully manual sewing machines of 200 years ago.

2)Salt Lake City isexploring a pilot project that would convert sewer waste into energy to run aheating and cooling system in a downtown building.

5.2 Homophones

Homophones are words identical insoundbut differentin spelling and meaning.

meet/meat/mete

To set themetesand bounds of freedom of religion.

write/rite

Do you want to know more about marriage and funeralritesandrituals of various Buddhist cultures?

sent/scent

There's nothing more that evokes passion & romance than abeautiful perfume & perhaps this is one of the reasons whyscentbottles are one of the most collected items the world over.

5.3 Perfect homonyms

Perfect homonyms are words identical in sound and spelling butdifferent in meaning.

bark n. / v.

1)Just as human beings have a protective outerlayer all over their bodies known as skin, so do trees have a protective outerlayer calledbark. Damage to the bark can prove fatal to the tree.

2)Barking is the one of the noises mostcommonly produced by dogs. They maybarkto attract attention, tocommunicate a message, or out of excitement.

5.4 Full homonyms

Full homonyms are words identical in sound, spelling and part ofspeech, but different in meaning.

pupiln. / n.

1)They were pupils of the old painter.

2)The size of the pupil determines the amountof light that enters the eye.

seal n. / n.

1)Both individuals and organizations haveofficialseals, and they often have multiple seals in differentsizes and styles for different situations.

2)Our story has helped expose the cruelty ofthe hunt to the international community and put in motion national bans on theimport ofsealskins.

6. The stylisticvalue of polysemy and homonymy

1)---“I do look nice in the picture, don’t I?”

---“well, the answer lies in the negative.”

2)Customer:I wouldlike to buy a book, please.

Bookseller:Something light?

Customer:That doesn’t matter; I have my carwith me.

3)On Sunday theyprayfor you and onMonday theypreyon you.

4)— Some boys think I’m pretty and some boysthink I’m ugly. What do you think, Tom?

— A bit of both.

— What do you mean?

—Prettyugly.

5)—“How is bread made?”

—“I know that!”Alicecried eagerly. “youtake someflour…”

—“Wheredo you pick theflower?” the White Queen asked. “in a garden orin the hedges?”

—“Well, it isn’t picked at all,”Aliceexplained: “it’sground…”

— “How many acres ofground?”said the White Queen.

(Alice’s adventures in

Wonderlandby Lewis Carroll)

Skillof Memorizing a Word

His wife is driving himbananas.

Go bananas

I willgo bananasif she doesn't show up in ten minutes.

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