Introducon:

The branch of semancs that deals with word meanings is called lexical
semancs. (George
Yule,).
The lexical relaon is used to indicate any paradigma c rela on among words. It
is not just a
semanc relaon; so, it includes phone c rela ons such as rhyme and
alliteraon,
morphological relaons such as inflec onal varia ons and morpho-syntac c
relaons such as
co-membership in a grammacal category.
The term lexical relaon is ambiguous in that it could refer to rela ons among
words or to
relaons among lexical items within the mental lexical. ([Link] Murphy, 2003).
Psychologist have determined that some types of seman c rela ons e.g.
antonyms are easier
for adults and children to comprehend and process than others. (Chaffin & Herrman,
1987;
Herrman & Chaffin, 1986).
Murphy (2003) stated that most lexical seman c rela ons have some kinds of
similarity and
contrast elements e.g. synonyms are similar in meanings but different in lexical
forms and
antonyms have contrasng posion on the same dimensions.
Types of lexical relaon:
“Lexical relaons are relaonships of the meanings of the words to other
words ” (Bolinger, 1968:11). “Meaning property is one of several features or
component which
together can be said to make up the meanings of a word or u erance” (Lyons,
1977:57). All of
lexical relaons and meaning properes can be di fferenated by looking all the
words or
sentences. There are many kinds of semanc/lexical rela ons which can be
disnguished by its
use in any text or context. The kinds of lexical rela ons are Synonymy, Antonymy,
Homonymy,
Polysemy, Hyponymy, Meronymy, Metonymy, Prototype and Colloca on.
SYNONYMY:
Synonymy means the “sameness of meanings”. The sets of words that have same
meanings are
called the synonymy of one another(F. R. Palmer: p.88).
“Synonyms is the term that overlap in denota ve meanings, connota ve
meanings or both. The
best known of these relaons is synonymity in which terms have the same
denotaon.”e.g.
“car-auto” (Hermann, 1978; Ness,1953).
There are two types of synonymity:
1. Dimensional synonymity (similarity)
2. Aribuve synonymity (similarity)
Dimensional similarity:
It involves denotave agreement that is not su fficient for synonymity but that
occur at adjacent
points on a common dimensional. E.g. laugh-smile. (Flavell & Flavell, 1958).
Aribuve similarity:
The term in which salient aributes of one term reasonable of another is called
aribuve
similarity. E.g. rake-fork. (Perfe, 1967).
George Yule (1996), stated that synonyms are different phonological words which
have the
same or very similar meanings. As Couch/sofa, boy/lad, lawyer/a orney,
toilet/lavatory,
large/big. Lyons (1995) said that absolute synonymy is very rare and he defined
synonymy as,”
two expressions are absolutely synonymous if all their meanings are iden cal in all
linguisc
contexts.”
According to Lyons common types of synonyms are:
1. Near synonyms:
The synonyms which have no iden cal senses but are closed in meanings are near
synonyms.
e.g. Mist and fog, stream and brook, dive and plunge.
2. Sense synonyms:
The term which share one or more senses are called sense synonyms. Sense
synonym share at
least one sense and match in every other property for that sense are completely
synonyms.
(Lyons,1981).
e.g.
3. Paral synonyms:
The term which shares some senses but differs in some aspects is
called paral synonymy, i.e. The way they are used or in some dimension of
meaning. (Crus,
1986; Lyons, 1995).
According to F. R. Palmer if we look at possible synonyms there are at least five
ways in which
they can be seen differ which are as follows:
• First, some sets of synonyms belong to different dialects of the language. E.g. the
term
“fall” is used in the united states and its synonymous term “ autumn” is used in
western
countries of Britain.
• Secondly, there are the words that are used in different styles. This is similar to
the first
one but the difference lies in the use. E.g.
• Thirdly, some word may be said to differ only in their emove or evaluang
meanings.
E.g. polician and statesman, hide and conceal, liberty and freedom, each implying
approval or
disapproval and there lies the emove di fference between these words. There are
the words
that are used purely for evaluave purposes such as good and bad.
• Fourthly, some words are colloca onally restricted that is they occur only in
conjuncon
with other words. E.g. “Rancid” occurs with bacon or bu er and “addled” occurs
with eggs or
brains. Perhaps these are true synonyms differencing only in that they occur in
different
environments.
• Fiſthly, it is that many words are close in meanings or that their meanings overlap.
E.g.
the possible synonyms of the word “mature” are adult, ripe, perfect and due.
Synonyms are mutually interchangeable in all the environments. And it is that case
that no total
synonyms in this sense i.e no two words have exactly the same meaning. And he
found that
some words are interchangeable in certain environments only, e.g. the words deep
or profound
may be used with sympathy but only deep with water. And road may be broad or
wide but an
accent only broad. (F. R. Palmer; p. 91).
Synonyms differ in their “connotaons” i.e “secondary meanings”. It oſten refers to
emove or
evaluave meanings. It also refers to stylis c or dialectal di fferences or even
small differences
that are found near-synonyms. E.g. woman has the connota on “gentle” and pig
has the
connotaon “dirty”.
Phenomena in synonyms:
There are two phenomena that somemes come under synonymy which are as
follows:
1. Context-dependent synonymy, In which two items appear to be synonymous in a
parcular context.
2. Synonymy between bull and male adult bovine animal in which the test of
interchange
ability says that these are completely synonymous, even though in some sense the
two items
seem to have the same meaning.
Antonyms:
According to George Yule, antonyms are words which are “opposite” in meanings. it
is useful to
idenfy several different types of relaonship under opposion. “/” sign is used
to indicate
antonymy. As Good/bad, life/death, come/go, dead/alive, pass/fail.
The term antonym is used for “oppositeness of meaning” words that are opposite
are
antonyms. Antonymy is oſten thought of as the opposite of synonymy, but the
status of the two
antonyms are very different. (F. R. Palmer, p.94). e.g. wide/narrow, old/young,
big/small, etc.
The relaon among words in which the meanings of one term contrast, oppose or
contradicts
the other term is called antonyms (Bolinger & Sears, 1981; Cruse; 1976; Lyons,
1968).
Types of antonyms:
There are four types of antonyms which are as follows:
1. Contradictory antonyms:
These are terms opposed dichotomously e.g. alive-dead.
2. Contrary antonyms:
These are terms are opposed symmetrically on a con nuous dimension. E.g. hot-
cold.
3. Direconal antonyms:
These are concepts opposed in me or space. E.g. before-a ſter, above-below.
4. Reverse antonyms:
Reverse antonyms, somemes called converses, represent opposed ac ons. E.g.
buy-
sell.
Types of relaons (Relaons that are not regarded as antonymous)
1. Asymmetric antonyms:
It is opposed on a connuous dimension but the term indicates asymmetrically i.e.
imperfect
symmetry. E.g. hot-cool.
The imperfect symmetries is the reason the rela onship is not generally regarded
as antonymic
(Katz, 1972).
2. Incompable antonyms:
It is a term in which denotave meaning of one term is opposed to only part of the
denotave
meaning of the other term. E.g. “frank” is incompa ble with hypocri cal in that
hierocracy
involves dishonesty, whereas, frankness involves both honest and outspoken
involves. Because
the opposion does not involve the full denota ve meanings of these terms, they
are not
antonyms (Grove, 1973).
3. Pseudo Antonyms:
These are so called pseudo antonyms because they opposi on is based on a
connotave
meaning of one term. E.g. “popular” and “shy” are opposed because popularity
connotes
extroversion, which is denotavely opposed to shyness (Hermann at al., 1979).
According to George Yule there are four types of antonyms which are as follows:
1. Simple antonyms
2. Gradable antonyms
3. Reverses
4. Converses
Simple antonyms:
The relaonship between the words in which the nega ve of one implies the
posive of the
other is called simple antonyms. The pairs are also some mes called
complementary pairs or
binary pairs. As Dead/alive (e.g. human beings), pass/fail (e.g. exams); hit/miss (e.g.
a target).
Lyons (1968: 460) stated that the terms male/female, married/unmarried,
alive/dead are
complementary to each other. These belong to the set of incompa ble terms. They
are the
members of two terms sets instead of mulple term sets. They are in some ways
similar to
gradable antonyms i.e. both exhibits incompa bility. E.g. if something is wide it
means that is
not narrow.
Gradable antonyms:
The relaonship between opposites is that the posi ve of one term does not
necessarily imply
the negave of the other. As Rich/poor (e.g. status), fast/slow (e.g. speed),
young/old (e.g. age),
beauful/ugly (e.g. complexion). This rela on is associated with adjec ves and it
has two major
features which are as follows:
1. They are usually intermediate terms between the gradable antonyms. E.g. hot
and cold.
This means that something may be neither hot nor cold.
2. The terms are usually relave. E.g. a thick pencil is likely to be thinner than a
thin girl.
Sapir (1944) argued that the comparave forms of the adjec ves (ending with –er
or occurring
with more) are explicitly graded, so we can say that one road is wider than another.
Thus Sapir
said that these are graded antonyms.
Reverses:
This is a relaonship between the terms describing movements, where one term
describes
movement in one direcon while the other term describes the same movement in
the opposite
direcon. As Push/pull (e.g. door), come/go (e.g. walk), ascend/descend (e.g.
inclined plane).
Converses:
This is the term which describes the rela on between two en es from di fferent
viewpoints. As
Above/below, employer/employee, own/belong to, etc. Antonyms signify the
semanc
incompability of the contrasng words. Antonyms are the subtype of the
contrast in that it is
contrast within a binary paradigm while the term antonym is some mes reversed
for more
specific relaons. It is used here for only binary seman c contrast among lexical
items whereas
opposite is used more broadly here not limited to contrast.
Homonymy:
Homonyms are un-related senses of same phonological word. Homophones and
homographs
come under homonyms (Yule, 1996). As Bear (to carry) and bear (animal), tale and
tail, etc. the
term homonymy adds two further categories in it which are homophones and
homogragrph.
These terms show the sameness in words.
Homophones:
Homophones are the senses of the same “spoken words”. E.g. site and sight right
and write,
etc.
Homographs:
Homographs are senses of same wrien word. E.g. lap “circuit of a course” and lap
“part of
body when sing down”.
According to F. R. Palmer, homonymy is that there are several words with the same
shape. And
homonymous are those which have separate entry for each of the homonyms. E.g.
the word
flight has five homonyms for mail_ armour, post, halfpenny, payment and sport, and
important
thing is that they are different meanings of same word.
George Yule disnguishes different types of homonym depending on their
syntacc behavior
and spelling such as:
1. Lexemes of the same syntacc category, and with the same spelling: e.g. lap
“circuit of
house” and lap “part of body when si ng down”
2. Of the same category, but with different spelling: e.g. the verb ring and wring;
3. Of different categories, but with the same spelling: e.g. the verb keep and the
noun
keep;
4. Of different categories, and with different spelling: e.g. not, knot.
There are some complicaons in the fact that we do not make the same
disncon in wring
and speech. There are some words such as lead (metal) and lead (dog’s lead) are
spelt in the
same way but pronounced differently. They come under homography. There are
some words
such as site and sight, rite and right are spelt differently but pronounced in the
same way. They
come under homophony. (F. R. Palmer, p.101).
There are some homonyms and homophones that are also very nearly antonyms.
E.g. cleave
(part asunder) and cleave (unite), raise and raze. (F. R. Palmer, p.102).
There are some variaons in pronunciaon and it means that all the speakers do
not have the
same set of homonyms. For example, English speaker pronounce the pairs click and
clique, talk
and torque in the same way. (George Yule, p.64).
Polysemy:
This term refers that not only different word have different meanings but it is also
the case that
same word may have a set of different meanings. This is called polysemy and such
a word is
called polysemic. (F.R. Palmer, p.100).
Examples:
There is a word “flight” and diconary defines it in many ways which are as
follows:
Passing through the air, power of flying, air journey, unit of the air force, volley,
digression,
series of steps, etc.
“The term polysemy refers to mulple senses of the same phonological word. It is
the word
with two or more meanings”. (George Yule, p.64). E.g. foot in:
1. He hurt his foot
2. She stood at the foot of the stairs.
A praccal problem is that if one form has several meanings, it is not always clear
as it
happened in polysemy in which a word has several meanings. E.g. in dic onary the
word
“flight” is a single polysemic word but it recognizes no less than for words for mail
such as
armour, post, halfpenny, payment and spot. And important thing is that they are not
shown as
different meanings of the same word. And polysemic item is treated as a single
entry. (F. R.
Palmer, p.101).
Problems associated with polysemy and homonymy:
According to F. R. Palmer the problem is to decide when we have polysemy (words
with
different meanings) and when we have homonymy (two different words with same
shape)?
There are number of ways to decide when polysemy is used and when there is the
use of
homonymy.
1- If the same forms have different origins in diconaries, it will be termed as
homonymous but if a form of word has one origin and has different meanings, it will
be
called polysemy.
2- The other way to find out whether the word falls in polysemy or homonymy is to
look
for the central meanings of the word. The best example is metaphor or of
transferred
meaning as for sad and score. But in general, it would be difficult to find out that it
is
central meaning or core meaning.
Conclusion:
The lexical relaons are the relaonship of the meanings of the words with the
other
words’. But this relaonship cannot be judged by analyzing the individual words.
The
lexical/semanc relaons can be found by analyzing the words in any text or
context. The
different kinds of lexical relaon may have ambiguity in defining their exact
category as
polysemy and homonymy have some complexity in differenang both
categories. The use of
word with it proper conveyed meaning tells that the word falls in which category.