Semantics is the branch of linguistics that studies meaning in language. It is generally accepted that words, phrases, and sentences have meaning. Semantics is divided into:
-Lexical semantics that studies the meanings of words and sense relations (such as synonymy, antonymy, and hyponymy).
-Sentence semantics (or sentential semantics) that is concerned with the meaning of sentences.
It is possible to analyze meanings of words decomposing them into more basic semantic features. Thus the noun man can be described as having the features [+HUMAN], [+MALE], and [+ADULT]. Componential analysis helps to clarify how words relate to other words. Comparing man and boy, it can be noted that the two words are differentiated only by one semantic feature: boy is characterized as [- ADULT].
Linguists acknowledge that it is difficult both to define and to analyze the meaning of a word. One of the reasons is that word meaning is not homogeneous. A distinction is drawn between denotation, which is understood as the relationship between words and the entities in the world to which they refer, and connotation, which is understood as the additional (often emotional or evaluative) associations suggested by words. Denotations of words are more stable and established, while connotations are less determinate.
Within the vocabulary, words are semantically related to one another in different ways. Sense relations are paradigmatic, i.e. they reflect the choice and the substitution of one word for another in a particular context. They are:
- Synonymy, or sameness of meaning. However, there are no strict or perfect synonyms, i.e. two words usually do not have exactly the same meaning. Compare the adjectives beautiful and pretty. Both mean someone or something that is attractive to look at. Beautiful describes someone who is good-looking in a very special and even exceptional way, whereas pretty refers to someone or something that is pleasant to look at but not impressive.
- Antonyms are words that are opposite with respect to some element of their meaning; for example, big and small both describe size but opposite in regard to the extent of the size. A large number of antonymic pairs are adjectives, but this sense relation is also found among other word classes. Three different types of oppositeness of meaning can be distinguished:
- Gradable antonyms represent a more or less relation, i.e. more of one is less of the other. For example, rich-poor, fast-slow, tall-short.
- Complementaries represent an either/or relation, which means that the negation of one is the meaning of the other. For example, dead–alive, married–single.
- Converses, one describes a relation between two objects and the other describes the same relation when the two objects are reversed. For example, teacher–pupil, parent-child, buy–sell.
Let's see some exercises to understand better these issues.
Exercise 1. Determine whether the given pairs of words represent synonymy or antonymy.
- long - short -> antonymy
- casual - informal -> synonymy
- instantly - immediately -> synonymy
- rebellious - obedient -> antonymy
- give - take -> antonymy
- lucky - fortunate -> synonymy
- free - independent -> synonymy
- promote - downgrade -> antonymy
- above - below -> antonymy
- private - public -> antonymy
Exercise 2. Linguists say that synonyms are never completely equivalent in their meaning. Check the definitions of the given synonyms in a dictionary and determine their meaning differences.
- clever: quick to understand, learn, and devise or apply ideas
- intelligent: having or showing intelligence, especially of a high-level.
- intellectual: possessing a highly developed intellect.
- brainy: having or showing intelligence.
- smart: having or showing a quick-witted intelligence
- bright: (of a person, idea, or remark) intelligent and quick-witted.
Exercise 3. There are several kinds of oppositeness of meaning. Indicate whether the pairs of words are gradables, complementaries or converses.
- husband - wife -> complementary
- soft - hard -> gradable
- false - true -> complementary
- father - son -> converse
- buy - sell -> converse
Semantic relations among sentences
- Paraphrases: If two sentences have the same meaning, they are called paraphrases of each other. For example, the sentence The cat chased the mouse. is a paraphrase of the sentence The mouse was chased by the cat.
- Entailment: it is a semantic relation between two sentences when the truth of one sentence implies the truth of another but not vice versa. For example, the sentence Peter saw a fox. entails Peter saw an animal. However, to say that Peter saw an animal does not mean that he saw a fox – he might have seen a wolf, a lion, etc.
- Contradiction: two sentences are contradictory when they both cannot be true at the same time. In other words, if one sentence is true, the other has to be false. For example, Miranda is alive. is a contradiction to Miranda is dead.
Let's see another exercise for this part.
Exercise 4. Which of the three semantic relations (paraphrase, entailment, and contradiction) is represented in the given pairs of sentences?
1) My brother studies at Vilnius University.
My brother is a student. }Entailment
2) My uncle built this house twenty years ago.
This house was built by my uncle twenty years ago. }Paraphrase
3) Susan is the only child.
William is Susan’s brother. }Contradiction
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