SENSE RELATIONS • SEMANTICS - science dealing with meanings - linguistics: roots, affixes, words, phrases, sentences, larger units of discourse - lexicology: lexical units; the meaning of words, their parts and combinations - lexical unit = not only words but also sub-words/sub-units (affixes, compound words and phrases) SYNONYMY • Words of the same language having the same meaning • FULL/TOTAL synonyms – rare (noun = substantive, kind = sort, …) • Cognitive (descriptive) synonymy every word – its own history, motivation, context synonyms = words not absolutely identical but just similar in meaning, belonging to the same part of speech and interchangeable in some contexts (quick – fast – rapid, scarcely – hardly, begin – start) • Near-synonyms – lexemes whose meaning is close or similar (mist/fog, stream/brook, …); overlapping, but not completely; unlike cognitive synonyms, they can contrast in certain contexts (he was killed but not murdered); • Contextual synonyms – similar in meaning only under some specific conditions, in the context (I‘ll go to the shop and buy/get some bread.) SYNONYMS • GROUPPED: (1) hope – (2) expectation – (3) anticipation (1) synonymic dominant, general, native, neutral (2) and (3) formal and literary (Romance origin) • CLOSE RELATION BETWEEN COLLOCATIONS AND SYNONYMS they differ in collocation (arrangement or joining together) to lose hope X to lose expectation/anticipation, Jane began/started to cry soon after they had left. I couldn‘t begin my car; the battery was flat. Before the world started, only God existed. SYNONYMS • EMOTIONAL COLOURING: alone – lonely • VALENCY: win (a victory, a war) – gain (a victory, a war) • STYLE: begin (neutral) – commence (literary) • TRIAD: ascending formality from: (1) native words to (2) the French words and (3) Greek/Latin words to ask – to question – to interrogate, belly – stomach – abdomen SYNONYMS DIFFERENT FUNCTIONAL STYLES: professional/non-professional, e.g. variola/smallpox formal/neutral/informal, e.g. offspring/children/kids formal/informal, e.g. insane/loony informal/technical, e.g. salt/sodium chloride DIALECT DIFFERENCE: American/British English, e.g. autumn/fall standard/regional, e.g. sandwich/butty SLANG: money (bread), police (cop), drunk (legless), stupid (nerd), lavatory (loo/john), drugs (grass/vitamin A/snow), racial and national slang (wasps/priviledged white American, jungle bunnies/Blacks, slant eyes/Asian, …) PROFESSIONAL SLANG: (US truckers) grandma lane (slow lane), doughnuts (tyres), motion lotion (fuel), five finger discount (stolen goods, eyeballs (headlights, super cola (beer), … ANTONYMY • Lexemes opposite in meaning • Do not differ in style, emotional colouring or distribution • Word – different antonyms in different context, e.g. single/return ticket, she is single/married • Classification according to word-derivational structure (based on the form) - root (absolute) antonyms - derivational antonyms - mixed ROOT (ABSOLUTE) & MIXED ANTONYMS • lexemes with different roots • Proper absolute antonyms = contrary – polar members e.g. old – new, rich – poor • intermediary elements (gradual opposition) e.g. beautiful – pretty – good-looking – plain – ugly • mixed: correct – incorrect – wrong married – unmarried – single • scales: hot – warm – tepid – cold – icy wet – misty – dampish – dry COMPLEMENTARY/RELATIONAL ANTONYMS • complementarity = binary opposition • two members only • the denial of one member means the assertion of the other, e.g. not male means female, not true means false buy – sell, wife – husband, borrow – lend, absent – present, below – above • relationship = reciprocal • converses → one and the same subject – from different points of view e.g. subj. – obj., family – social relations, space – time relations: borrow – lend, husband – wife, before – after DERIVATIONAL ANTONYMS • affixes X quality in the stem, e.g. happy – unhappy • negative prefixes: dis-, il-, im-, in-, ir-, un-, mis-, non• suffix: -less is contrasting to the suffix –ful (not the stem!) hopeful – hopeless, useful – useless contrasting to the stems hope – hopeless, selfish – unselfish, not selfish – *selfishless CONTRONYMS • words which are their own antonyms to dust to remove fine particles, e.g. Dust the cabinets. to add fine particles, e.g. Dust the bread with flour. fast – rapid/unmoving, e.g. fast asleep, stuck fast handicap – advantage (in golf); permanent physical/mental disadvantage fix – restore/castrate (veterinary medicine) wind up – start up (a watch); end something, … POLYSEMY • relation among different meanings (head of cabbage, head of department) • one word – several meanings • polysemantic – in the system of language in a particular utterance – limited meaning • monosemantic w. = rare; technical/scientific usage (e.g. noun, phoneme, morpheme) • 25,000 of meanings/100 most frequent English words (25 average) • SYNCHRONIC basic meaning/1st place in d. (face – obličej) figurative meaning/certain contexts (face – ciferník) • DIACHRONIC various meanings – etymological development POLYSEMY • to run = to go by moving the legs quickly, e.g. I began to run. • other meanings: The bus runs between X and Y. This shop is run by the co-op. The car runs on petrol. The bank of the river runs up steeply. • basic meaning – the process of thinking – appropriate for its new meaning • process is not finished, e.g. *The Internet runs slowly. • connection: old - new meaning SPECIALISED meanings GENERAL MEANING case = circumstances in which a person or a thing is SPECIALISED MEANINGS LAW terminology: question decided in a court MEDICINE t.: a patient, an illness GRAMMAR t.: paradigm e.g. There are seven cases in the Czech language. GENERALISATION of the meaning • ready = prepared mentally or physically for some experience or action original m.: to be prepared for a ride • fly = to move in or through the air or space; to move, pass or act swiftly original m.: to move in or through the air by means of wings HOMONYMY • relation among lexemes (liver = 1st living person, 2nd the organ that produces bile) • two or more words/lexical units/items • the same form (spelling, pronunciation) • different meaning • Etymology - divergent development of several meanings (split of polysemy), e.g. flower X flour - convergence of sounds (two or three words of different origin coincide in sound) e.g. I X eye - borrowing e.g. port: porto – Portuguese (Oporto), portus – Latin „heaven, harbour“) - clipping, e.g. fan (OE