Understanding Linguistic Semantics: Meaning and Relations

Understanding Linguistic Semantics

Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences. Linguistic semantics deals with the conventional meaning—words found in a dictionary—conveyed by the use of words and sentences in a language.

Types of Meaning

• Conceptual meaning: Covers the basic components of meaning conveyed by the literal use of a word. This is the type of meaning dictionaries describe. Example: Needle: thin, sharp, steel instrument.
• Associative meaning: Refers to the different associations or connotations a person might attach to a word. Example: Needle: pain, blood, illness.

Semantic Analysis

• Semantic feature: The analysis of words in terms of specific properties. This expresses the existence or non-existence of pre-established features (e.g., +animate, -animate, +human, -human).
• Semantic role: The relationship that a participant has with the main verb in a clause.

Common Semantic Roles

• Agent: The entity that performs the action. Typically human, but can be non-human entities (e.g., natural forces).
• Theme: The entity involved in or affected by the action (sometimes called the “patient”).
• Instrument: An entity used by an agent to perform an action.
• Experiencer: An entity that has a feeling, perception, or state.
• Location: The position where the entity is (e.g., on the table).
• Source: Where the entity moves from (e.g., from Chicago).
• Goal: Where the entity moves to (e.g., to Chile).

Lexical Relations

Lexical relations characterize the meaning of a word based on its relationship to other words rather than its component features.

• Synonymy: Two or more words with closely related meanings (e.g., big/large, couch/sofa, cab/taxi).
• Antonymy: Two forms with opposite meanings (e.g., old/new, rich/poor, true/false).
• Hyponymy: When the meaning of one form is included in the meaning of another (e.g., animal/dog, vegetable/carrot, flower/rose).
• Prototypes: The characteristic instance of a category.
• Homophones: Different written forms that have the same pronunciation (e.g., flower/flour, right/write, pail/pale).
• Homonyms: One form, written or spoken, that has two or more unrelated meanings (e.g., mole: skin blemish/small animal; race: speed contest/ethnic group).
• Polysemy: One form having multiple meanings that are related by extension (e.g., head: of a person, of a company; run: person does, colors do, water does).
• Metonymy: A close connection in everyday experience, often based on a container-contents or representative-symbol relationship (e.g., bottle/water, king/crown). We use these words to refer to the other (e.g., He drank the whole bottle).
• Collocation: Words that tend to occur together (e.g., chair/table, butter/bread).