Sense Relations
Sense Relations
• Language has several sense relations such as Antonymy, Synonymy,
Hyponomy, Homophony, Homonomy, Metonomy, Collocation,
Meronymy, Polysemy, Entailment, Equivalence, Paraphrase,
Contradiction, Extension and Intension etc.
• These are semantic concepts which express semantic relations between
words or sentences.
Antonymy
• Antonyms are two words encoding opposite meanings.
• Antonymy (oppositeness) refers to the situation where semantic
oppositeness holds between two words.
Antonymy
• Antonymy is illustrated in the following examples:
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good → bad
possible → impossible
long → short
male → female
hot → cold
easy → difficult
day → night
single → married
true → false
high → low
on → off
Antonymy
• Antonymy is linked to entailment.
• There are words which do not have antonyms. Some adjectives
describing colours, for instance, such as ‘red’ or ‘blue’ do not have
antonyms.
Antonymy
• Similarly, nouns which refer to certain entities such as ‘glasses’,
‘bottle’, water etc. don’t have antonyms.
• Moreover, certain verbs describing particular actions such as ‘eat’,
‘kick’, ‘publish’ don’t have antonyms.
Antonymy
• 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.).
Synonymy
• Synonymy refers to the relationship that holds between two words that
have similar meanings.
• Synonyms can often (but not always) be used interchangeably in
sentences.
Synonymy
• 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
Synonymy
• 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).
Synonymy
• 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.
Synonymy
• It is possible to say either
Or:
Let us hide the book.
Let us conceal the book.
• Yet, it is ungrammatical to say:
But, it is fine to say:
*Let us conceal.
Let us hide.
Synonymy
• 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.
Synonymy
• This is because some words have a formal meaning such as
(purchase).
• Therefore, formal and informal style and different contexts create
partial synonyms.
Types of Synonyms
• There are two main types of synonymy.
1. Complete (Absolute) Synonymy.
2. Partial (Near) Synonymy.
Complete (Absolute) Synonymy
• 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.
Complete (Absolute) Synonymy
• Examples of complete synonymy are given below.
i.
I spent my holidays in Jeddah.
I spent my vacation in Jeddah.
ii. I sleep at 9 pm.
I go to bed at 9 pm.
Or
Or
Complete (Absolute) Synonymy
iii.
The students understood the lesson.
The students comprehended the lesson.
iv. I feel ill.
I feel sick.
Or
Or
Partial (Near) Synonymy.
• This type refers to the situation where the synonyms have partial
semantic similarity. They are not very similar in meaning.
• We cannot use the two synonyms interchangeably in different
contexts.
• Near synonyms have different parts of meaning and different
connotations.
Partial (Near) Synonymy.
• Examples of partial synonyms:
• big → large
• almost → nearly
• brave → courageous
Partial (Near) Synonymy.
• Consider the following examples:
• He is a big baby.
• #He is a large baby.
• Ahmad looks almost Nigerian.
• #Ahmad looks nearly Nigerian.
(Yet, big and large are synonyms.)
Partial (Near) Synonymy.
• 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, brave and courageous are synonyms.)
• Formal and informal style and different contexts create partial synonyms.