Chapter 7  Sense relations between words

Synonymy (同义关系) --similarity:It refers to the words which have nearly the same denotative meaning(外延意義) are synonyms,and the relationship between them is synonymy. 

A synonym refers to one of two or more words in the English language which have the same or very nearly the same essential meaning

1.        comment on the traditional definition of synonyms

syn-together

noyma-name

traditionally defined as word differing in sound form but identical or similar in meaning

    What is your definition for synonyms?

     Similarity

2.        Types of synonyms:Complete or absolute synonyms,Relative synonyms

3.        What do we mean by complete synonyms?

Absolute (Complete) Synonyms--are words, which are identical in meaning in all its aspects, i.e. both in grammatical meaning and lexical meaning, including conceptual and associative meanings. Absolute (Complete) Synonyms are restricted to high-specialized vocabulary.
For instance, composition / compounding. They have the perfect same meaning in Lexicology.

4.        What do we mean by relative synonyms?

are similar or nearly the same in denotation but embrace different shades of meaning or different degrees of a given quality.
e.g. Change/alter/vary
Take stagger/reel/totter for example.
Stagger implies unsteady movement characterized by a loss of balance and failure to maintain a fixed course. E.g. stagger under a heavy load;
Reel suggests a swaying or lurching so as to appear on the verge of falling. E.g. The drunken man reeled down the hall;
Totter indicates the uncertain, faltering steps of a feeble old person or of an infant learning to walk.

5.        in what respects do synonymous words differ?

1)       In degree of a given quality or in shade of meaning

Anger(生氣), rage(憤怒), fury(狂怒),indignation（憤概）

2)       In affective情感 meaning, and stylistic文體meaning

Afftective(emotive):a number of english words have affective meaning as an integral part of their word meaning

e.g  little and small are synonyms, but if any emotion is associated with the designation , we must choose little

stylistice meaning: there are many words which refer to the same thing but belong to different stylistic layer :neutral(common),colloquial（口語）,literary(文學),slang(俚語),vulgar,scientific and technical, and so on

e.g. man(neutral)    guy(slang)   fellow(colloquial)

3)       In collocation 搭配 and distribution分配

A good number of synonyms are used in different collocations ,but sometimes they may be used in the same ones

e.g pretty girl, pretty child, pretty flower,pretty colour

    handsome boy, handsome man, handsome car

 

6.        Antonymy(反義關系)—It is used for “oppositeness of meaning”,words that are opposite are antonyms

7.        types of antonyms

basis of semantic 語義contrast  and morphological 形態 structure 

8.        types of semantic contrast:

contraries, complementaries and conversives

9.        what is meant by contraries相對性反意詞,

contraries display a type of semantic contrast, illustrated by such pairs as rich and poor, heavy and light, deep and shallow, they are all gradability.

10.    what is meant by complementaries or contradictories? 互補反意詞

complementaries or contradictories represent a type of binary(二元) semantic opposition. In a complementary pair the contrast between the two term is absolute

alive—dead, single-married, present and absent, male and female, perfect and imperfect

11.    what is meant by conversives換位反意詞 or related opposite ?

another important type of binary opposition is called conversives or relational opposites, E.g lend and borrow, husband and wife , employer and employee, above and below

12.    Morphological structure, traditionally many linguists have adhered to a classification of root antonyms and derivational 派生的 antonyms based on morphology(形態學的), derivational antonyms are words with same roots having negative affixes, such as happy-unhappy, conformist-nonconformist,possible-impossible, loyal-disloyal, prewar-postwar, code-decode, harm-harmful  

13.    some relevant points about antonyms

1)       marked and unmarked members

tiger(unmarked)---tigress(marked)

so, the unmarked member is used much more widely than merely as a contrast with the mark one, which is more specific in denotation

2)       some words without antonyms

3)       different antonyms under different circumstances(环境)

an old man—an young man

an old house-a modern/new house

a thin slice—a thick slice

a thin man—a fat man

a tall building---a low building

a tall man---a short man

4)       lexical antonymy(语汇反意) and syntactic negation（句法否定）

impossible—not possible

unfair---not fair

disloyal---not loyal

to disobey—not to obey

word order of antonymous pairs, some phrases contain pairs of antonyms and we must pay attention to the word order of the antonymous in such phrase

译法的顺序同中国一致

heaven and earth

man and wife

cause and effect

come and go

far and near

black and white

thichk and thin

译法的顺序同中国不一样

fire and water

heat and cold

eat and drink

right and left

rich and poor

old and new

heavy and light

sooner and later

 

14.    Hyponymy上下義關系， Hyponymy’ is the relationship which obtains between specific and general lexical items, such that the former is “included” the latter

A cat is a hyponym of animal, chair of furniture

15.    Semantic field(语义场): ,semantic field theory” took the view that the vocabulary of a given lanuage is not simply a listing of independent items, but is organised into areas, or fields, within which words interrelate and define each other in various ways

e.g  the words red, green, blue,white, gray, orange, rose,olive,purple may be said to make up the semantic field of colours

the words father , mother, son , daughter, brother , sister make up the field of kinship

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