Chapter 6 --Sense relation and semantic field （语义关系和语义场）

Polysemy（多义关系）

Two approached to polysemy: diachronic approach(历时方法) synchronic approach (共时方法)

Two processed of development: radiation （辐射型）and concatenation （连锁型）

Homonymy（同形/同音异义关系）

It refers words different in meaning but either identical both in sound and spelling or identical only in sound or spelling.

Types of homonyms

1）Perfect homonyms（完全同音同形异义词）2）Homophones（同音异义词）3)Homographs（同形异义词）

Origins of homonyms

1）change in sound and spelling 2）borrowing  3）Shortening(缩略)

The differences between polysemes（多义词） and homonyms（同音同形异义词）  ).

1)Homonymy refer to different words which happen to share the same form and polysemy are the one and same word which has sevral distinguishable meaning.

2)Homonymy are from different sources. Polysemy are from the same source.

3)The various meanings of polysemy are correlated and connected to one central meaning.Meanings of different homonymy have nothing to do with one another.

values: Polysemic and homonymous word are stlyistically useful to achieve humour or irony（反话，讽刺）,or to heighten（提高） dramatic effect.

Synonymy (同义关系):one of two or more words in the English language which have the same or very nearly the same essential meaning : absolute synonyms and relative synonyms

Sources of synonyms(同义词) are :

1)Borrowing  2)Dialects and regional English  3)Figurative and euphemistic use of words  4)Coincidence with idiomatic expressions

Antonymy (反义关系)

It is concerned with semantic opposition. Antonyms can be defined as words which are opposite in meaning.

1)contradictory terms (矛盾反义词):these antonyms truly represent oppositeness of meaning, such antonyms are non-gradable. They cannot be used in comparative degrees. (single/married)

2)contrary terms （对立反义词）:antonyms of this type are best viewed in terms of a scale running between two poles or extremes.(old/young)

3)relative terms（关系反义词）：（parent/child）sell/buy

Some of the characteristics of antonyms反义关系的特点

1)antonyms are classified on the basis of semantic opposition

2)a word which has more than one meaning can have more than one antonym

3)antonyms differ in semantic inclusion

4)contrary terms are gradable antonyms

The uses of antonyms

To express economically the opposite of a particular thought for the sake of contrast.(idiom:now and never)

To form anithesis(对比法) to achieve emphasis by putting contrasting idea together.(proverbs and sayings:easy come , easy go)

Hyponymy(上下义关系)

Hyponymy deals with the relationship of semantic inclusion. The meaning of a more specific word is included in that of another more general word. For example, a cat is hyponym of animal

Superordinate and Subordinate (118)

Semantic Field(词义场)

Viewing the total meaning in this way is the basis of field theory

e.g.(apple, pear, peach,date,mango,orange,lemon, etc. make up the semantic field of ‘fruits’)

The semantic field of the same concept may not have the same members in different language.

e.g.(aunt in English, may means “父亲的姐姐， 妈妈的姐姐，父亲哥哥的妻子” in Chinese.(122)