University of Port Harcourt

College of graduate studies

Faculty of Humanities
English studies Department
Question:
a. What do you understand by semantic field, semantic relation and semantic
component?
b. Characterize the semantic field of motor vehicles in terms of semantic component.
c. What advantages and disadvantages can you see in the use of field relations and
components to describe the meaning of words?

Ukpabi, Benedict Orji

A Paper

on

Semantic field, Semantic Relation and Semantic Component

Course: Semantics (EST 802.2)

December 2014

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Abstract
This paper discussed semantic field, semantic relation and semantic components. It characterised
the semantic field of motor vehicles in terms of semantic component and discussed the
advantages and disadvantages in the use of field relations and components to describe the
meaning of words.

Keywords: Semantic field, semantic relations, semantic components, words, meaning.

Introduction
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Semantic fields, semantic relations and semantic components are vital areas of consideration in
the study of semantics. As we consider these concepts, the simplest kind of generalisation
assigns meaning to the same lexical set based on the semantic similarities. This kind of lexical
set is what we refer to as semantic field or lexical field. Semantic fields may have or show a
paradigmatic and syntagmatic structures and stand in complex paradigmatic and syntagmatic
relations to other fields. By complex paradigmatic structures, we mean the involvement or
inclusion of one lexical set within another lexical set; the overlapping of sets, or disjoint sets.
Paradigmatic structures involve similarity relations such as hyponymy, hyperonymy, antonymy,
and synonymy.
Complex syntagmatic structures involve lexical items which constitute larger items. Syntagmatic
structures involve frame-like contextual properties of words. These shall be discussed in detail
below.

Semantic field

Adrienne Lehrer (1985) defined semantic field as a set of lexemes which cover a certain
conceptual domain and which bear certain specifiable relations to one another. What this means
is that semantic field is a set of words or lexemes related in meaning; also called lexical field,
field, or field of meaning. The words in a semantic field share a common semantic property.
Most often, fields are defined by subject matter, such as body parts, landforms, diseases, colours,
foods, or kinship relations. For examples, the field of 'stages of life' is arranged sequentially,
though there is considerable overlap between terms like, child, toddler as well as some apparent
gaps e.g., there are no simple terms for the different stages of adulthood. The term such as minor
or juvenile belongs to a technical register, a term such as kid or tot to a colloquial register, and a
term such as sexagenarian or octogenarian to a more formal register. The semantic field of
'water' could be divided into a number of subfields; in addition, there would appear to be a great
deal of overlap between terms such as cove/harbour/bay.

Semantic field Analysis

Semantic field analysis is the arrangement of words or lexemes into groups or fields on the basis
of an element of shared meaning. This is also known as lexical field analysis.

Although the terms lexical field and semantic field are usually used interchangeably, Siegfried
Wyler (1992) made a distinction between the two. According to him, a lexical field is a structure
formed by lexemes while a semantic field is the underlying meaning which finds expression in

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lexemes. There are lexical groups or components that made up semantic field also used for
semantic field analysis. They are as follows:

Meronymy
A meronym is a word that denotes a constituent part or a member of something. For example,
apple is a meronym of apple tree; Finger is a meronym of hand.

The opposite of a meronym is a holonym. Holonym is the name of the whole of which the
meronym is a part. For example, Apple tree is a holonym of apple; hand is a holonym of finger
while body is a holonym of others parts of the body like the hand, legs, ear, head, etc. They share
semantic field of part/whole relation. Other examples of meronym are:

o Part meronym: a tyre/ a car

o Member meronym: a car/a traffic jam; church congrgation/a worshipper

o Substance (stuff) meronym: a car tyre is made from rubber

Sememe
Sememe is a unit of meaning conveyed by a morpheme that is, a word or word element.
A sememe is a semantic language unit of meaning correlative to a morpheme. It is a proposed unit of
transmitted or intended meaning; atomic or indivisible. A sememe can be the meaning expressed by a
morpheme, such as the English pluralizing morpheme -s, which carries the sememic feature [+ plural].
Alternatively, a single sememe (for example [go] or [move]) can be conceived as the abstract
representation of such verbs as skate, roll, jump, slide, skip or turn. A seme is the name for the smallest
unit of meaning recognized in semantics, referring to a single characteristic of a sememe.
There are five types of sememes: two denotational and three connotational, with connotational
occurring only in phrase units (they do not reflect the denotation):

1. Denotational 1: Primary denotation, for example "head" (body);

2. Denotational 2: Secondary denotation by resemblance with other denotation: "head" (ship);

3. Connotational 1: High position, as the role or function of "head" in the operation of the human
body;

4. Connotational 2: Emotive, e.g., meaning in "honey";

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 5. Connotational 3: Evaluative, e.g., meaning in "sneak" move silently and secretly for a bad
purpose. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sememe

Sememes are referred to as meaningful elements in Language.

A sememe is the smallest unit of semantics, responsible for transmitting meaning in all natural
languages. Sememes are a basic component of language that "can be used independently" and
"expressed by specific linguistic form." For example, the sememe move means to move, but
also conveys meanings for roll, jump, or turn in an abstract sense. The analysis of sememes
involves observing the primary motive of the sememe, rather than looking at how it can be
manipulated to create other meanings. When studied scientifically, one can analyze a sememes
primary meaning to determine the viability of the sememes more abstract meanings. Retrieved
from:
http://www.fgcnp.org/uhc/linguistics/sememes-meaningful-elements-language

From the explanation of sememe given by the two sources above, we can understand that a
sememe is related to polysemy in a way. It is a unit of meaning of a polysemous word, for
example:
i. Table: A piece of furniture, menu, cuisine, flatland, plateau, diagram with columns of
information, a proposition, etc.
ii. Bank: financial institution, cliff, coast, riverside, row or tier of objects, etc. an item in
each of the semantic classifications is a sememe.
It also shows the difference in meaning created by a plural morpheme as in boy, boy(s).

Semantic Relations
Semantic relations or meaning relations are words that are semantically related to other words.
Modern studies of semantics are interested in meaning primarily in terms of word and sentence
relationships. Semantic relations are considered in terms of the following relations:
Synonymy: Akwanya (1996) in Umera-Okeke (2008 p. 47) defined synonyms as different
phonological words having similar meanings. Palmer (1996) also in Umera-Okeke opined that
synonymy is used to mean sameness of meaning. Umera-Okeke p. 49 in defining synonym,
summarily stated that synonym is one meaning, different forms. Synonyms usually differ in at
least one semantic feature. Sometimes the feature is objective (denotative), referring to some
actual, real world difference in the referents; example: walk, lumber, stroll, meander, lurch,
stagger, stride, mince. Sometimes the feature is subjective (connotative), referring to how the
speaker feels about the referent rather than any real difference in the referent itself; example:

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die, pass away, give up the ghost, kick the bucket, croak. Ndimele (1997 pp.56-58) stated that
there are different types of synonyms, namely:
Absolute synonyms: those words which mean exactly the same thing and have the same
communicative effect in all the contexts in which they are used. They can be used in identical
environments all the time without a change in meaning. Examples:
Anybody/anyone everybody/everyone
Frequently/often rarely/seldom
Nobody/ no one somebody/someone
Hardly/scarcely noon/midday
Bandit/brigand embezzle/defalcate
Near or broad synonyms: those words which have the same reference but differ in their
associative meanings. They have the same communicative effect in some contexts but not in all
contexts. Example: slender/thin/skinny, deep/profound, ripe/mature, little/small, hide/conceal,
etc.
However another source identified a third type of synonym known as partial synonym. One
special type of partial synonym is called a paronym. Paronyms are words with associated
meanings which also have great similarities in form; example: proscribe/prescribe,
industrial/industrious, except/accept, affect/effect. Many errors in speech and writing are due
to mix-ups involving paronyms. Retrieved from
http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test3materials/semanticsHANDOUT.htm
Other examples of synonyms are found in the list below using commonly used descriptive
adjectives to illustrate them:
Beautiful: attractive, pretty, lovely, stunning
Fair: Just, objective, impartial, unbiased
Funny: humorous, comical, hilarious, hysterical
Happy: content, joyful, mirthful, upbeat
Hardworking: diligent, determined, industrious, enterprising
Honest: honourable, fair, sincere, trustworthy
Intelligent: smart, bright, brilliant, sharp
Introverted: shy, bashful, quiet, withdrawn
Kind: thoughtful, considerate, amiable, gracious
Lazy: idle, lackadaisical, lethargic, indolent
Mean: unfriendly, unpleasant, bad-tempered, difficult

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 Outgoing: friendly, sociable, warm, extroverted
Rich: affluent, wealthy, well-off, well-to-do
Strong: stable, secure, solid, tough
Unhappy: sad, depressed, melancholic, miserable
Lucky: auspicious, fortunate
Positive: optimistic, cheerful, starry-eyed, sanguine
Bossy: controlling, tyrannical

Baffle: confuse, deceive

Hypocrisy: duplicity, falseness

Pacify: appease, placate

Recalcitrant: obstinate, stubborn

Turbulent: disordered, violent

Valid: authorized, legitimate

Old: antiquated, ancient, obsolete, extinct, past, prehistoric, venerable, aged

True: genuine, reliable, factual, accurate, precise, correct, valid, real

Important: required, substantial, vital, essential, primary, significant, requisite, critical

Weak: frail, anemic, feeble, infirm, languid, sluggish, puny, fragile

Antonyms

An antonym is a word that is the opposite meaning of another. It comes from the Greek words
anti for opposite and onym for name. Since language is complex, people may at times,
disagree on what words are truly opposite in meaning to other words.

There are three categories of antonyms:

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 (i) Graded antonyms deal with levels of the meaning of the words, like if something is
not good, it may still not be bad. There is a scale involved with some words, and
besides good and bad there can be average, fair, excellent, terrible, poor, or
satisfactory.

Examples include:

Fat and skinny

Young and old

Happy and sad

Hard and soft

Last and first

Foolish and wise

Fast and slow

Warm and cool

Wide and narrow

Abundant and scarce

Joy and grief

Dark and light

Dangerous and safe

Clever and foolish

Early and late

Empty and full

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 Smart and dumb

Risky and safe

Bad and good

Pretty and ugly

Best and worst

Simple and challenging

Soft and hard

Worried and calm

Sane and crazy

Rich and poor

Cool and hot

Wet and dry

Late and early

Ignorant and educated

Big and small

Optimistic and pessimistic

Excited and bored

Dull and interesting

(ii) Complementary antonyms have a relationship where there is no middle ground.

There are only two possibilities, either one or the other.

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Examples include:

Man and woman

Push and pull

Dead and alive

Off and on

Day and night

Absent and present

Exit and entrance

Sink or float

True or false

Pass and fail

Former and latter

Input and output

Interior and exterior

Exhale and inhale

Input and output

Occupied and vacant

Leave and arrive

Pre and post

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 Question and answer

Single and married

Hired and fired

Brother and sister

Before and after

Crooked and straight

Identical and different

Natural or artificial

Silence or noise

Identical or different

Yes and no

Wet and dry

Sharp and dull

Raise and lower

Fantasy and reality

(iii) Relational antonyms are sometimes considered a subcategory of complementary

antonyms. With these pairs, for there to be a relationship, both must exist.

Examples are:

Husband and wife

Doctor and patient

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 Buy and sell

Predator and prey

Above and below

Give and receive

Teach and learn

Instructor and pupil

Servant and master

Borrow and lend

Come and go

Toward and away

Divisor and dividend

Parent and child

East and west

North and south

Seller and buyer

Mother and daughter

Slave and master

Floor and ceiling

Front and back

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 Up and down

Win and lose

Part and whole

Offense and defense

Behind and ahead

Before and after

On or off

Trap and release

Lost and found

Left and right

Give and get

Employer employee

Retrieved from http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-antonyms.html 25/12/14.

Polysemy
This is a meaning relation whereby a single lexical item has several (apparaently) related
meanings. That is the several meanings of a polysemous word must belong to a common
semantic field. The word, bank, has at least two meanings: side of a river and financial
institution. But unfortunately, it does not qualify as a polysemous word because these two
meanings are totally unrelated. Examples of polysemous words in English:

Mouth: (i) as part of the body

(ii) as where rivers flow into the sea
(iii) as entrance of a cave
Ear: (i) part of the body

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 (ii) Part of a plant (such as maize)
Flight: (i) as passing through the air (birds flight)
(ii) As air journey
(iii) Power of flying
Head: (i) leader of a group
(ii) Part of body
(iii) Part of furniture
(iv) Part of a coin
Eye: (i) as part of the body
(ii) as a hole in a needle through which thread passes
Foot: (i) as part of the body
(ii) as part of a mountain
(iii) as part of a bridge
(iv) as part of a bed ( Ndimele 1997, pp. 60-61).

Antagonymy
A word that can mean the opposite of itself is an antagonym.

Examples:

bound (bound for Chicago, moving)

bound (tied up, unable to move)

cleave (to cut apart)

cleave (to seal together)

buckle (buckle your pants -- to hold together)

buckle (knees buckled -- to collapse, fall apart)

citation (award for good behaviour)

citation (penalty for bad behaviour)

clip (attach to)

clip (cut off from)

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cut (get into a line)
cut (get out of a class)

dust (remove dust)

dust (apply dust -- fingerprints)

fast (moving rapidly)

fast (fixed in position)

left (remaining)
left (having gone)

moot (arguable)
moot (not worthy of argument)

oversight (watchful control)

oversight (something not noticed)

They are also known as contranyms or autoantonyms

Retrieved from http://www.usingenglish.com/glossary/antagonym.html 25/12/14.

Homonymy

A Homonym is a word that is written and pronounced the same way as another, but which has a
different meaning.

Examples of a homonym:

'Lie' can be a verb meaning to tell something that is not true or to be in a horizontal position.
They look and sound the same, but are different verbs as can be seen from their forms:

Lie; lied, lied (to say something untrue)

Lie; lay, lain (to be in a horizontal position)

Feet/feat; soul/sole; principle/principal; row/row/row; altar/alter; vain/vein

flour/flower; buy/bye; break/brake; read/red; floor/flaw; etc.

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Homonyms are made up of homophone and homographs.

Hyponymy/hypernymy

Hyponymy is a sense relation in semantics that serves to relate word concepts in a hierarchical
fashion. Hyponymy is a relation between two words in which the meaning of one of the words
includes the meaning of the other word. The lexical relation corresponding to the inclusion of
one class in another is hyponymy. Examples are : apple- fruit ; car- vehicles ; chair- furniture ;
cow - animal.

The more specific concept is known as the hyponym, and the more general concept is known as
the hypernym or superordinate. Apple is the hyponym and fruit is the superordinate / hypernymy.
Hyponymy is not restricted to objects, abstract concepts, or nouns. It can be identified in many
other areas of the lexicon.
Examples:
a. the verb cook has many hyponyms.
Word: Cook (hypernym)
Hyponyms: Roast, boil, fry, grill, bake.

b. the verb colour has many hyponyms

Word: colour (hypernym)
Hyponyms: blue, red, yellow, green, white, black, purple and pink.
Hyponymy involves the logical relationship of entailment. Example: There is a horse entails
that There is an animal. Hyponymy often functions in discourse as a means of lexical cohesion
by establishing referential equivalence to avoid repetition. Retrieved from:
http://learningcommunity-akbar.blogspot.com/2009/11/homonimy-polysemy-and-
hyponymy.html

Semantic components

A semantic component is a potentially contrastive part of the meaning of a lexical unit.

Example: The focal semantic component of execute is put to death.

Kinds of semantic components:

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 Here is a table that describes some kinds of semantic components:
Semantic Component Description Example
Contrastive, also known as: Distinguishes one lexical Male is the contrastive
diagnostic, distinctive, unit from another semantic component

essential distinguishing man from

woman, and boy from girl.
Shared, also known as Occurs in each member of a Human is a shared
common group of lexical units component for man, woman,
boy, and girl.

Shared, also known as Occurs in each member of a Animal is a shared

common group of lexical units component for goat, cow,
dog, cat, antelope.

Shared, also known as Occurs in each member of a Female is a shared

common group of lexical units component for woman, girl,
mare.

b. Characterize the semantic field of motor vehicles in terms of semantic

component.
This could be diagrammatically characterized or illustrated as shown below:

Motor vehicle

Automobile

Motor car bus truck van motor cycle

Jeep luxury bus lorry pickup van power bike
Taxi school bus trailer railway baggage car water bike

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Sports car air bus tanker small truck etc
Estate car sea bus wagon caravan
Jalopy old unreliable car tipper camper
Hybrid car electric conductor wares cart
Rail car busbar of computer bargain wagon
Elevator commerce a preposition
Limousine army wing or division
Police car
Hearse
Convertibles
Gulf cart
Amphibious vehicles

Looking at the diagram above, the semantic field of motor vehicle has a wide spectrum of
meanings. Some of the lexical items in a field are compatible synonyms or co-hyponyms. For
example, in the semantic field of car, jeep, taxi, sports car, limousine, convertibles are co-
hyponyms and are synonymous. On the contrary, in the semantic field of truck, lorry, trailer,
tanker, tipper, are compatible or co-hyponymous but commerce, bargain, wares are incompatible
with other lexical items in the semantic field. The same phenomenon occurs in the semantic field
of van and bus.
c. What advantages and disadvantages can you see in the use of field relations
and components to describe the meaning of words?

Advantages
(1). In terms of a small set of semantic features one can show the similarities and differences
between the senses of lexical items. It is, therefore, a technique for making economic statements
about the sense relations holding between lexemes (Kempson, 1977: 18).
(2). Field relations and componential analysis can account for selectional restrictions imposed
upon the occurrence of lexemes more explicitly and economically. One way of doing this is to
say that the relevant semantic features of lexical items occurring together in syntagms must not
be contradictory. For example, the lexeme 'pregnant, contains a semantic feature, namely
(Female), which restricts its occurrence with nouns containing that feature. On the basis of this
fact, such syntagms as pregnant woman' or a 'pregnant mare' (female horse) would be
acceptable whereas other syntagms such as 'pregnant man' or 'pregnant stallion' would be
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excluded as meaningless. Whether such syntagms as 'pregnant duck' are acceptable would
presumably be decided with reference to further features of sense or field relation associated
with the lexeme 'duck' and further restrictions imposed upon the occurrence of 'pregnant' with
other lexemes (Lyons, 1968: 475).
(3). Field relations and components provide a wide spectrum of meaning of a lexeme thereby
providing the linguistic contextual opportunity for hedging in communication.

Disadvantage(s)
Field relations and semantic components of lexical items create room for ambiguity of meaning.
Finding a specific meaning of a lexeme becomes difficult except on pragmatic ground where
context of usage could help to deduce the meaning of a lexeme. For example, the lexeme van,
how can we know what the speaker refers to; a pickup van, a caravan, wagon, army wing, or
camper? Therefore meaning of a lexical item is inconsistent and might be misleading.

References:

Bendix, E. M. (1966). Componential analysis of general vocabulary. The Hague: Mounton.

Kempson, R. M. (1977). Semantic theory. Cambridge: Cambridge university press.

Leech, G. N. (1981). Semantics: the study of meaning. 2nd ed. Harmondsworth:

Penguin education.

Lehrer, A. (1985). The influence of semantic fields on semantic change. In Historical semantics

Historical word formation. Jacek Fisiak, (ed.) pp283-96. Berlin: Mounton de Gruyter.

Lyons, J. (1968). Introduction to theoretical linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge university press.

Ndimele, O. (1997). Semantics and the frontiers of communication. 2nd ed. Port Harcourt:

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 University of Port Harcourt press.

Umera-Okeke, N. (2008). Semantics and pragmatics: theories of meaning and usage in English.

Awka: Fab Anieh Nigeria Ltd.

Wikipedia. (2014). Sememe. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sememe

Wyler, S. (1992). Colour and language: colour terms in English. Retrieved from

http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/semanticfieldterm,htm 09/12/14.

Yourdictionary.com (2014). Antonymy. Retrieved from

http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-antonyms.html 25/12/14.

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