MEANING RELATION INTRODUCTION

MEANING RELATION

INTRODUCTION

            Semantic is one of the branches of linguistics. As we know the linguistics divided some course or subject, such as: phonology, morphology,syntax and the last is semantics.Before going any further, first thing

that we have to know what the definitions of semantic. Semantics is the study of meaning that is used to understand human expression through language. It is a wide subject within the general study of language. An understanding of semantics is essential to the study of language acquisition (how language users acquire a sense of meaning, as speakers and writers, listeners and readers) and of language change. It is important for understanding language in social contexts, as these are likely to affect meaning, and for understanding varieties of English and effects of style. It is thus one of the most fundamental concepts in linguistics.

Through this paper we will restrict our attention here to discuss about meaning relation or semantic relation in semantics field like synonymy, antonymy, polysemy, homonym, hyponymy and idiom. In this paper I am not just giving the definition each topic but we will give the example and the type of each topic. To make reader understanding about my material we will use simple language. It’s has function making reader easy to get the point.

DISCUSSION

Like we said before, in this paper we will try to discuss meaning relation.Meaningrelation are the associations that there exist between the meanings of words (meaning relation at word level),between the meanings of phrases, or betweenthe meanings of sentences (semantic relationships at phrase or sentence level).

 In meaning relation, we will restrict our discussion in some topics such as like synonymy, antonymy, polysemy, homonym, hyponymy and idiom.

1.      Synonymy

Synonymy is a meaning relation which involves two or more expression having the same interpretation. Synonymy will always mean one of two or more words in the English language which have the same or very nearly the same essential meaning and the concrete name of synonymy is called “Synonym”. So, Synonym is words which have the same meaning.

The list below gives us more examples:

Small                           =          little

Big                              =          large

Mother and father       =          parents

Remember                   =          recall etc

            Synonymy can be adjectives, nouns, verbs, adverbs or prepositions as long as both words are the same part of speech.

            In topic synonymy there are some types, such as true synonymy, Close synonymy and Partial synonymy.

Three kinds of synonymy: 

1.True synonymy is a meaning relation which involves two or more sentences having the same exact meaning.
For example:

"Uncle is a true synonymy of the brother of one’s father or mother, or the husband of one’saunt."
2. Close synonymy is a meaning relation which involves two or more expressions of which the interpretation is not entirely the same but very close.
for example :

war, battle, combat, fight, struggle.
3. Partial synonymy is a meaning relation in which the meaning or interpretation of one lexicon only a part of the meaning of the other.

For example:

Hen is partial meaning of chicken.

2.      Antonymy

Antonymy is a meaning relation which involves two or more lexicons having opposite interpretations/meanings.
There are Fourkindsofantonymy:
1. True antonymy: the meaning relation which involves two or more lexicons having trueopposite meaning.

For examples: male vs. female 

                          true vs. false

2. Reciprocal antonymy: the meaning relation which involves two or more lexicons having reciprocal opposite meaning. Usually, it is in the form of actions.

For examples: close vs. open 

                         sleep vs. awake

3.Gradual antonymy: the meaning relation which involves two or more lexicons having gradual opposite meaning.

For examples:  uninjured- barely injured –injured- badly wounded- died 

      big – medium – small

4.One- to- many antonymy: the meaning relation in which one lexicons has many opposite meanings.
for example: sweet vs bitter

                      salty

                      sour

3.      Polysemy

Polysemy is the semantic relationship that exists between a word and its multiple conceptually and historically related meanings or the simple meaning of polysemy isa word or phrase  with multiple related meaning

For example:

foot = 1. part of body, 2. lower part of something

plain = 1. Clear, 2. Unadorned, 3. obvious.

nice = 1. Pleasant, 2. Kind, 3. friendly; etc

Bright=1.shining, 2.intelligent

Mouse=1.animal,2.on a computer

            There are some process of polysemy:

1.Radiation

            Semantically, radiation is the process in which the primary or central meaning stands at the center while derivative /secondary meanings radiate from it in every direction like rays.

2.Concatenation

            Concatenation is from Latin catena “chain”, meaning “linking together”.  It means that the meaning of a word moves gradually away from its original sense as a result of successive semantic changes till, in many cases, there is not a trace of connection between the sense that is finally developed and the primary sense.

3.Proliferation

            Proliferation in fact is a comprehensive process in which a single primary meaning of a word developed to polysemic by means of radiation and concatenation or by extension, narrowing or transference.

4.      Homonymy

Homonymy is the relationship that exits between two (or more) words which belong tothe same grammatical category, have the same spelling, may or may not have the samepronunciation, but have different meanings and origins. E.g., to lie (= to rest, be, remain, be situated in a certain position), and to lie (= not to tell the truth); to bear (= to give birth to) and to bear (= to tolerate);bank (= the ground near a river) and bank (= financial institution).Lexical items which have the same sound or spelling or both, but differ in meaning are called homonyms.

There are three kinds of homonyms:

1.Perfect Homonyms

Words identical in sound and spelling, but different in meaning are called perfect homonyms

For example: Title:  (1) name of a book, picture, etc. (2) word used to show a person’s rank, occupation, status, etc

2.Homophones

            Words identical in sound but different in spelling and meaning are called homophones. For example: meat-meet-mete, dear-deer etc.

3.Homographs/Heteronyms

            Words identical in spelling but different in sound and meaning are called homographs. For instance:TEAR/teə r / (noun) drop of salty water coming from the eye, TEAR /tɪə r / (verb). pull sharply apart or to pieces

5.      Hyponymy

Hyponymy is the state or phenomenon that shows the relationship between more general term (lexical representation) and the more specific instances of it. The lexical representation of: red, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, is [+color]. We say that the term whose meaning isincluded in the meaning of the other term(s) is the general term; linguists usually refer to itas a superordinate or hypernym. The term whose meaning includes the meaning of theother term is the specific term; linguists usually refer to it as a hyponym. If the meaning ofa superordinate term is included in the meaning of several other more specific words, theset of specific terms which are hyponyms of the same superordinate term and are called hyponyms

examples:

Superordinate: vehicle

Hyponyms bus,car, lorry, van etc

6.      Idiom

An idiom is a group of words in which the meaning cannot be explained in terms of the habitual meanings of the words that make up the piece of language. In idiom there are four types the first is

1.alliterative comparisons

Examples: dead as dodo(dead as in exticnt)

                   As good as gold(well behaved)

2.noun phrases

Example: a close shave( a narrow escape)

3.prepositional phrase

For examples: as sixes and sevens(unable/unwilling to agree)

4.verb+ noun phrase

Kick the bucket(die)

5.verb+preposition phrase

Examples: be in clover(be exceptional comfortable)

6.verb+adverb

Examples: put down(kill)

CONCLUSSION

After we have discussed part of meaning relation such as synonymy, antonymy,polysemy, homonym, hyponymy and idiom. We knowwhat is the meaning and different in each topics. Synonyms are words that have nearly the same meaning and antonyms are word that have opposite meaning.Polysemy isa word or phrase with multiple related meaning.Homonyms are words which are identical in sound and spelling or at least in one of those aspects in their meaning. Hyponymy is the state or phenomenon that shows the relationship between more general term (lexical representation) and the more specific instances of it.An idiom is a group of words in which the meaning cannot be explained in terms of the habitual meanings of the words that make up the piece of language. And based on example we showed, we know what different each topics. Through examples, Reader knows very clearly about the different in polysemy and homonymy. Examples we give have purpose to make reader easy understanding about topics.