Lecture2(Revised)

7/29/2019 Lecture2(Revised)

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1

Chapter 2: Word meaning

• Words are regarded as the smallest indivisible

meaningful units of a language which can

operate independently.



2

Forms and Expressions

• Words are also considered expressions.

• Words and word forms are distinguished from

each other in terms of the distinction between

lexical and grammatical meanings.

• Forms of one and the same word have the same

lexical meaning whereas different words have

different lexical meanings.



3

Homonymy & Polysemy

• Definition

• Classification

• Distinction



4

Homonymy - Definition

• A homonym is a word that is written and/or pronounced the same way as another, but has

a different meaning.

e.g. tail vs. tale / cite vs. sight vs. site

book (v) vs. book (n)

lead (v) vs. lead (n)



5

Polysemy - Definition

• Polysemy refers to a word that has two or

more meanings:

“foot” The house is at the foo t of the mountain.

One of his shoes felt too tight for his foot .

“head” (n) the top part of the body

(n) the leader or the most important person



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Homonyms - classification

Bank (n) a financial institution

Bank (n) the side of the river

Rose (n) a kind of flower

Rose (v) past tense of rise

Absolutehomonyms

Partialhomonyms



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Absolute homonyms

• Absolute homonyms should satisfy the followingthree conditions:

- they must be unrelated in meaning

- all their forms will be identical- the identical forms must be grammatical

equivalent

e.g. bank (n) vs. bank (n)

To poach (v) vs. To poach



8

Partial Homonyms

• Perfect / Full homonyms: Identical in pronunciationand spelling

fast (a): acting or moving rapidly

fast (v): abstain from food

• Homophones: Identical in pronunciation

air vs heir

• Homographs: Identical in spelling

wind /wind/ (n) a current of air

wind /waind/ (v) to empower a clock



9

The role of contexts - ambiguity

• Lexical context

The words or phrases

that are used with the

homonyms or poly-

semantic words

e.g. warm weather

vs. a warm welcome

a music band vs. arubber band

• Grammatical context

The grammatical structure in

which a homonym or poly-

semantic word is used.

e.g. What does she mean ?

vs. She’s very mean

We can sing vs. We can some

of our fruit.



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They found hospitals and charitable

institutions

Lexical ambiguity Grammatical ambiguity

• to establish, to set up

• to discover, to come

across

• present tense of found

• past tense of find



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To eliminate ambiguity

Grammatical equivalence• They have found hospitals and charitable institutions.

• He/ she founds hospitals and charitable institutions.

Context

• They found hospitals and charitable institutions, which have

brought a lot of benefit to the local residents.

• They found hospitals and charitable institutions on the way

they headed for the city center.



12

Sources of homonyms

• Disintegration / split of polysemybuxus (Latin)

box (a kind of small evergreen shrub)

box (a receptacle made of wood)

box (to put in a box)

box (a slap with the hand on the ear)

box (a sport term)



13

Sources of homonyms

• Convergent sound development

– sound - healthy zesund (healthy)

– sound - strait sund (swimming)

• Borrowing

– sound ( measure the depth of the sea)

– sonus (French) (to measure the depth)



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Homonymy vs. PolysemyCriteria for distinction

• Relatedness in meaning

• Etymology (historical source of the words)



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Example

bat 1 (n) furry mammal with membranous wings

bat 2 (n) striking a ball in certain games

Unrelated meaning

Different source

bat1: from Middle English, bakkebat2; from old English, batt

HOMONYMS



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Example

sole1 (n) bottom of foot or shoe

sole2 (n) kind of fish

Same source

Unrelated meaning HOMONYMS



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Examples of Polysemy

wealthy, having lots of money

• Rich

containing a lot of

one part of the body

• Head a person

a leader



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Homonymy or polysemy?

Bò (n): cow

Bò (v): to crawl

Đá (v): to kick smt

Đá (v): to leave your partner (informal)

E ercise



19

Exercise

Homonymy or Polysemy?

1. (a) Don’t split in the well, you may need its water.

(b) All is well that ends well.

2. (a) There were 12 hands employed at this farm.

(b) The hands of the clock showed half past ten.

(c) The voting was done by the show of hands.

Q i



20

QuestionTrain 1 (n)

1 a line of carriages pulled by an ENGINE, which travels

along a railway and carries people or goods

2 train o f though t a series of connected ideas

3 a long line of moving people or animals

Train 2 (v)1 [I] to study how to do a job

2 [T] to teach someone how to do something, especially the

practical skills they need to do a job

3 [I,T] to prepare for a sports event by exercising and

practising, or to help someone to prepare by improving their

skills



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Synonymy

• Definition

• Classification

• Sources of Synonyms



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Definition

Synonyms are actually words of the same

parts of speech which have similar or

identical denotation, but differ in shades of

meaning, connotation or combinability with

other words.



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Example

• Laugh - chuckle - giggle - snigger - chortle: different in

denotation

• Man - dude - fellow - bloke - chap - guy: different in

connotation

• To make - to produce - to create - to fabricate - to

manufacture.

• Angry - furious - enraged

• Usually in such a synonymic group, there is a synonymic

dominant which is the most neutral word.



24

• 8000

synonymic

groups



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Classification

1. Absolute(total) Synonyms

2. Semantic Synonyms

3. Stylistic Synonyms

4. Semantic Stylistic Synonyms

5. Phraseological Synonyms

6. Territorial Synonyms

7. Euphemisms



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Absolute Synonyms

1. All their meanings are identical

2. They are synonymous in all contexts

3. They are semantically equivalent on all

dimensions of meanings.

e.g. semantics - semasiology

begin - start



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Semantic Synonyms

Semantic Synonyms are those which differ interms of their denotation.

e.g: Bad - terrible - awful - appalling - dreadful

Discus - debate - argue

Wound - injure

Good-looking - pretty - handsome - beautiful

Friend - ally - partner



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Stylistic Synonyms

Stylistic Synonyms are those that differ in terms

of their connotation.

e.g: friend - peer - mate - buddy - pal - chum

police - bobby - cop

father - dad - daddy

begin - commence



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Semantic Stylistic Synonyms

Semantic Stylistic Synonyms are words that

differ both in denotational and connotational

meaning.

e.g: meal - snack - bite - refreshment - feasttalk - speak - say

sell - vend - push - flog

allow - permit - let



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Phraseological Synonyms

Phraseological Synonyms are words that differ

in their collocations.

e.g. do - make

say - tell

pair - couple

much - many

tongue - language



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Territorial Synonyms

Territorial Synonyms are those employed in

different regions.

e.g. go to the loo (Aus.E)

go to the restroom (Am.E)

go to the toilet/lavatory/WC (Br.E)

autumn - fall

pavement - sidewalk

football - soccer

flat - apartment



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Euphemism Synonyms

Euphemism Synonyms are synonyms that are

used to reduce the unpleasant / offensive

effect.

e.g: die - pass away - be gone - perish - breathe

your last breath

dead -late - deceased

corpse - remainscrisis - slow down - depression



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Sources of synonyms

1. Borrowings

2. The change of meaning

3. Word-building



34

Borrowing

coup d'etat - overthrow

ask - question - interrogate

gather - assemble - collectend - finish - complete

belly - stomach - abdomen



35

Change of meaning

• Hand - worker - side, direction• Busy - engaged (telephone line)

• Rich - firtile (soil)



36

Word-building

1. Use o f ph rasal verb

to investigate - to look into

to take care - to look after

to postpone - to put off to cancel - to call off

2. Conversion

Laughter - laugh



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3. Sho rtening

telephone - phone

refrigerator - fridge

minimum - min

maximum – max

4. Derivat ion and composi t ion

police - policeman - policewoman

deceitful - deceptivecreativity - creativeness



38

Antonymy

1. Definition

2. Characteristics

3. Classification

Definition



39

Definition

• Words of the same part of speech that are opposite

in meanings are called antonyms.

• Many words, especially those denoting concrete

object have no antonyms.

• Usually adjectives denoting quality, verbs denotingactions or states and abstract nouns have

antonyms.

e.g: ugly - pretty give - takemean - generous joy - sorrow

tidy - messy old - young



40

Characteristics

• Belong to the same semantic field, nearly

identical in distribution.

e.g. big - small

(adj, about size)

• Do not differ either in style or emotionalcoloring.

e.g. Is she slender / slim / thin or fat?

Ch i i



41

Characteristics

• In many pairs of antonyms, one is marked andthe other unmarked

e.g. “How tall is he?”

Not “How short is he?”

heavy - light thick - thin

deep - shallow wide - narrow

Antonyms conventionally classified



42

Antonyms conventionally classified

• Root word antonyms (Antonyms proper)

Words that are of different forms and of opposite

meanings.

e.g. old - young love - hate hot - cold

• Derivational antonyms

Words of the same root, one of which have a

negative affix.

e.g. appear - disappear logical - illogical

useful - useless regular - irregular

J h L ’ l ifi ti



43

John Lyon’s classification

• Antonyms proper

• Complementary antonyms

• Conversives

• Directional antonyms

A t (G d bl t )



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Antonyms proper (Gradable antonyms)

• Antonyms proper are easily gradable, based on the

operation of gradation. They are opposite ends of a

continuous scale of values.

e.g. hot - warm - cool - cold love - hate

ugly - pretty

thin - fat

clever - stupid

Complementary (binary) antonyms



45

Co p e e ta y (b a y) a to y s

• Involve two items: the assertion of one is the negation

of the other.

• Binary antonyms come in pairs and between them

exhaust all relevant possibilities. If one is applicable,

then the other can’t be, and vice versa.

e.g. alive - dead same - different

awake - asleep

male - female

Conversives



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Conversives

• Conversives denote the same situation butfrom different points of view, with a reversal of

the order of participants and their roles.

e.g. borrow - lend

sell - buy

employer - employee

above - below

Directional antonyms



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Directional antonyms

• Present opposite directions of motion.

e.g. come - go

arrive - depart

back - forward

up - down

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Lecture2(Revised)

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