Linguistics - Semantics and its branches

Linguistics Studies 

Semantics and Its branches

Linguistics Studies 

Semantics.

 Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentence.( Read What is semantics

? 

Semantics Branches:

SEMANTICS FEATURES, SEMANTICS ROLE, Logical RELATION

Semantic Features:

Basic elements used in an analysis of the component of word meaning.

+human,  -human / +female, -female / +animate, -animate / +adult, -adult.

Example:

- The horse listens to the radio. ( this sentence is meanless because the subject is -human )

- The table is drinking water. ( this sentence is meaning less because the subject is -animate )

- The............is reading newspaper. ( in this sentence, we need +human because reading a newspaper is feature of human being. For example : The student, The girl, The teacher.....

Semantic Role:

Agent, Theme, Experiencer, Goal, Source, Location, Instrument.

1). Agent: Identifying the one who performs the action of verb in an event.

2). Theme: Identifying the entity involved in one effected by the action of verb in event. 

e.g. The player kicked the ball ( The player: agent / The ball: theme )

NOTE: If the verb is of action se can use the term ( agent ) form the subject.

3). Experiencer: Identifying the entity that has the feeling, perception or state described by the verb.

If the verb isn't a verb of action, we can use the term ( experiencer ) for the subject. 

e.g. The boy saw the man ( The boy: experiencer )

4). Instrument: Identifying the entity that is used the performed the action of the verb.

5). Location: Identifying where the entity is from.

6). Source: Identifying where the entity moves from.

7). Goal: Identifying where the entity movies to.

Example: 

- She borrowed a magazine from Adam.

  Agent                   Theme              Source

-  She squashed the bug with the magazine.

  Agent               Theme            Instrument

- Marry saw fly on the wall.

 Experiencer Theme   Location

- She handed the magazine back to Adam.

  Agent              Theme                    Goal

Lexical relations:

Synonymy, Antonyms, Hyponymy, Prototypes, Homophones, Homonyms, Polysemy, Metonymy, Collocation.

- Synonymy: 

  Two  words with same meaning . e.g. concept/ term, large/ big, broad/ wide.

- Antonyms:

  Two words with opposite meaning. e.g. long/ short, male/ female, dead/ alive.

Antonyms divided into two types:

Gradable: 

 Two antonyms related in such away that more of one is the meaning of the other. 

e.g. cool/ warm (more warm is less cool )

Non-gradable: 

 Two antonyms related is such a way that the negation of one is the meaning of the other.

e.g. alive/ dead ( alive means not dead )

- Hyponymy: 

 

A Lexical relation in with the meaning of one is included in the meaning of another. 

e.g. blue, white and red are hyponyms of the word color, triangle is a hyponym of polygon.

_ Color and polygon are called superordinate.

_ Red, white and blue are called co-hyponyms.

                                ( FLOWER  ) > Superordinate 

( ROSE )   ( TULIP  )     (  LILY ) > Co-hyponyms

- Prototypes: 

  The idea of ' characteristic instance ' of a category is known as a prototypes.

e.g. A Robin is best text example of bird. ( Robin is famous bird in America )

Chair is a prototype of furniture.

Carrot is a prototype of vegetable.

People might disagree on considering tomato or avocado as fruits rater than vegetables.

- Homophone: 

  When two or more different forms have same pronunciation.

e.g. too/ two, pail/ pale, flour/ flower, right/ write.

- Homonyms: 

  One form ( spoken or written ) has two or more unrelated meaning. 

e.g. Bat can be an object used in sport or a flying creature.

       Bank can be side of river or a financial institution.

- Polysemy: 

  A word having two or more related meaning. ( foot, a person, of bed, of mountain ).

Head: means the part on top of our body or the one who is on top of department or a company.

Bright: means shining and intelligent. 

- Metonymy: 

 A word used in place of another with which it is closely connected is every day experience.

• The close connection can be based or contain-content relation.

e.g. Battle/ Water.

• Whole-part relation.

e.g. Car/ Wheel.

• Representation-symbol relation.

e.g. King/ Crown, President/ White house.

- Collocation:  

  A relationship between words that frequently occur together.

e.g. Salt/ Pepper, Hammer/ Nail, Table/ Chair.