Dr. Mohammad Alharbi
[email protected]
Semantics (LANE 423)
Notes for Week 5
Sense Relations
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Language has several sense relations such as Antonymy, Synonymy, Hyponomy,
Polysemy, Entailment, Paraphrase etc.
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These are semantic concepts which express semantic relations between words or
sentences.
(1)
Antonymy
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Antonyms are two words encoding opposite meanings.
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Antonymy (oppositeness) refers to the situation where semantic oppositeness holds
between two words. This is illustrated in the following examples:

good → bad

possible → impossible

long → short

male → female

hot → cold

easy → difficult
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
day → night

single → married

true → false

high → low

on → off
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Antonymy is linked to entailment.
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There are words which do not have antonyms. Some adjectives describing colours, for
instance, such as ‘red’ or ‘blue’ do not have antonyms.
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Similarly, nouns which refer to certain entities such as ‘glasses’, ‘bottle’, water etc. don’t
have antonyms.
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Moreover, certain verbs describing particular actions such as ‘eat’, ‘kick’, ‘publish’ don’t
have antonyms.
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An antonym cannot be formed by placing the negative word (not) before the noun or the
adjective. For instance, it is not possible to say that the antonyms of nouns like (table,
train, house etc.) are (not a table, not a train, not a house etc.).
(2)
Synonymy
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Synonymy refers to the relationship that holds between two words that have similar
meanings.
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Synonyms can often (but not always) be used interchangeably in sentences.
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Examples of synonyms are given below:
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
answer → response → reply

taxi → cab

wide → broad

kid → child

begin → start

mistake → error

big → large

buy → purchase

lavatory → toilet → loo → WC

ill → sick

comprehend → understand

hide → conceal

finish → complete
It should be noted, however, that in certain cases that a word can be more suitable than its
synonym in a sentence. For example, the words (buy) and (purchase) are synonyms.
However, it is more acceptable to use (buy) in a sentence like (I bought a book) than
(purchase) (I purchased a book).
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The same applies to the following examples:

She is my child is more suitable than She is my kid.

She has a broad smile is more suitable than She has a wide smile.

It is a wide road is more suitable than It is a broad road.
It is possible to say either
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Let us hide the book.
Or: Let us conceal the book.
Yet, it is ungrammatical to say: *Let us conceal.
But, it is fine to say:
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Let us hide.
The following two sentences are both grammatical
We have finished our homework.
We have completed our homework.
However, we can only say:
We have finished.
But we cannot say:
*We have completed.
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This is because some words have a formal meaning such as (purchase).
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Therefore, formal and informal style and different contexts create partial synonyms.
Types of Synonyms
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There are two main types of synonymy.
i.
Complete (Absolute) Synonymy.
ii.
Partial (Near) Synonymy.
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(1)
Complete (Absolute) Synonymy
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This type of synonymy refers to the situation where two words have identical meaning and
we are given the choice to use them interchangeably in the sentence. I.e. we can use one of
them in the place of the other.
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Examples of complete synonymy are given below.

I spent my holidays in Jeddah.

I spent my vacation in Jeddah.

I sleep at 9 pm.

I go to bed at 9 pm.

The students understood the lesson.

The students comprehended the lesson.

I feel ill.

I feel sick.
Or
Or
Or
Or
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(2)
Partial (Near) Synonymy.
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This type refers to the situation where the synonyms have partial semantic similarity.
They are not very similar in meaning.
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We cannot use the two synonyms interchangeably in different contexts.
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Near synonyms have different parts of meaning and different connotations.
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Examples of partial synonyms are given below:

big → large

almost → nearly

brave → courageous

Consider the following examples:

He is a big baby.

#He is a large baby.

Ahmad looks almost Nigerian.

#Ahmad looks nearly Nigerian.

Yam doesn’t want to go to the dentist. He is not brave.

Yam doesn’t want to go to the dentist. #He is not courageous.
(Yet, big and large are synonyms.)
(Yet, brave and courageous are synonyms.)
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Formal and informal style and different contexts create partial synonyms.
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