Lexical Relations

Group 3 :   Tsania Padhila

·                                     Kurniati

·                                     Dicky Nurhuda Winata

LEXICAL RELATIONS

 “Lexical relations are relationship of the meanings of the words to other words” (Bolinger, 1968:11).

A lexeme is a minimal unit that can take part in referring or predicating. All the lexemes of a language constitute the lexicon of the language, and all the lexemes that you know make up your personal lexicon. Lexical relation means two or more things are connected with the words of language. Kind of lexical relations :

             A. Lexical Field

the lexical field refers to words that belong to the same group according to lexemes.Example :neighboor, neighbourhood. 

An important organizational principle in the lexicon (word). This is a group of lexemes which belong to a particular activity or area of specialist knowledge. Example : The differences using of the terms in cooking or sailing; or the vocabularly used by doctors, coal miners, or mountain climbers.

To some extent we can ‘define’ a lexeme by telling what ‘set’ it belongs to and how it differs from other members of the same set. It is not difficult to say what the members of each set have in common. It may be more troublesome to say just how much is included in the set and to find the truly essential characteristics that differentiate each lexeme in a set from all the others in the same set, to establish the most economical system of features that explains how the members of the set are related to one another.

The words man, woman, boy and girl, all denoting humans, are interrelated this way:

Human	Male	Female
Adult	man	woman
Child	boy	girl

[Human] is the semantic feature shared by all members of the set and through which tiger, tree and numerous other lexemes are excluded from the set. Using square brackets to indicate such semantic features, [male/female], and [adult/child] are the features, or components, that differentiate the members of the set from one another. The determination of such features has been called componential analysis. The paradigm provides definitions (man=[adult male human], and so on) and analogies (man is to woman as boy is to girl, boy is to man as girl is to woman); in other words, a paradigm shows that lexemes are systematically related. Definitions can be made somewhat more sophisticated through binary features; instead of [male] and [female] the labels can be [+male] and [-male] (or [-female] and [+female]), and instead of [adult] and [child] we may have [+adult] and [-adult] (or [-child] and [+child]).

          B.Kinship

Theme	Predicate	Associate
Harold	Father-of	Alice
Rose	Sister-of	Jery

Kinship systems make an interesting area for componential analysis. Kinship is universal since all humans are related to other humansthrough blood ties and through marriage, but kinship systems differfrom society to society. A relationship is a kind of predicate. Sentencessuch as Harold is Alice’s father and Rose is Jerry’s sister have apropositional content that we represent this way :

Some of the predicate relations in all kinship systems can be described with four primitive features: [parent], [offspring], [sibling] and [spouse]. We also need the components [male] and [female], of course, which we will indicate as M and F, respectively. Combining M and F with the four basic features gives definitions of eight predicates: father=M parent, mother=F parent, brother=M sibling, sister=F sibling, son=M offspring, daughter=F offspring, husband =M spouse, wife=F spouse. Other relations are defined by combinations of features: grandmother=parent’s F parent, grandfather=parent’s M parent, granddaughter=offspring’s F offspring, grandson=offspring’s M offspring.

Some kinship system have ‘cross-siblings’. Tokpisin, the national language of Papua New Guinea, the way the vocabulary is used often reflects a different cultural outlook.

	Male sibling	Female sibling
Male speaker	borata	sesta
Female speaker	sesta	borata

The word ‘borata’, from English ‘brother’, means sibling of the same sex as oneself, and ‘sesta’, from ‘sister’, is a sibling of the opposite.

             C.   Hyponymy

Hyponymy is a relation of inclusion. A hyponym includes the meaning of a more general word, e.g.

            1a. My necktie is maroon.

            1b. My necktie is red.

            2a. There are tulips in the vase.

            2b. There are flowers in the vase.

The term maroon is a hyponym of red and tulip is a hyponym of flower. Red and flower are the supordinates or hypernym of maroon and tulips.

hyponym are words whose semantic range is included within another word. For example : scarlet, vermilion, carmine and crimson are all hyponyms of red which in turn is a hyponym of colour.

D.  Synonymy

6a Jack is a seaman

6b Jack is a sailor

Assuming that Jack refers to the same person in the two sentences, then if 6a is true, 6b is true; if 6b is true, 6a is true; and if either is false, the other is false. This is our basis for establishing that seaman and sailor are synonyms: when used predications with the same reffering expression, the predications have the same truth value. The lexemes seaman and sailor are synonyms; sentences 6a and 6b are paraphrases of each other.

Synonyms can be nouns, as in 6a and 6b, or adjectives, adverbs, or verbs.

7a The rock is large.

7b The rock is big.

8a The train traveled fast.

8b The train traveled rapidly.

9a The bus left promptly at 10.

9b The bus departed promptly at 10.

E.  Antonymy

      16a Alvin is watching television now.

      16b Alvin isn’t watching television now.

Two sentences that differ in polarity like these are mutually contradictory. If one is true, the other must be false. Two sentences that have the same subject and have predicates which are antonyms are also mutually contradictory.

   17a The television is on now.

      17b The television is off now.

      18a Mr Adams is an old man.

      18b Mr Adams is a young man.

      19a The road is wide here.

      19b The road is narrow here.

Lexemes like on and off, old and young, wide and narrow are pairs of antonyms. Antonym are opposite in meaning, and when they occur as predicates of the same subject the predications are contradictory. Antonyms may be nouns like Communist and non-Communist or verbs such as advance and retreat, but antonymous pairs of adjectives are especially numerous.

F.  Binary and non-binary antonyms

There are different kind of antonymous relationships. On and off are binary antonyms: an electric light or radio or a television set is either on or off; there is two middle ground. Other binary pairs are open/shut, dead/alive, a sleep/a wake. The terms old and young are non-binary antonyms and so are wide and narrow. They are opposite ends of a scale that includes various intermediate terms: Mr Adams may be neither old nor young, the road may be something between wide and narrow. (No-binary antonyms are also called polar antonyms; like the North and South Poles, they are at opposite  ends with territory between them. Analogously, binary antonyms might be called hemispheric antonyms; as with the Northern and Southern hemispheres [or the Eastern and Western hemispheres], there is no space in between, only a line of demarcation. Some semanticists use the term ‘complementary antonyms’ in place of ‘binary antonyms’ and ‘contrary’ instead of ‘non-binary.’)

G.    A Comparision of four relation

Synonyms Hyponym and Superordinate

(p) Jack is a seaman. (p) Rover is a collie,

(q) Jack is a sailor.    (q) Rover is a dog.

p Û q <=> p Û <=> q p Û q <=>q Û <=>p

(The symbol Û indicates double entailment: the truth of [p] entails the truth of [q], and the truth of [q] entails the truth of [p].)

Non-binary antonyms Binary antonyms

(p) Luke is rich. (p) The window is open,

(q) Luke is poor. (q) The window is closed,

p ® <=>q q ® <=>p p Û <=>q <=>p ® q

We see from this table that synonyms and binary antonyms are mirror images of each other: if one of two sentences containing synonyms is true, the other is true; if one is false, the other is false. Of two sentences with binary antonyms, if one is true, the other is false,  and if one is false, the other is true. Non-binaries are like bïnaries in that the truth of either member of the pair entails the falsity of the other member, but unlike binary antonyms, both members of a non-binary pair can be false. Hyponym and superordinate form a still different pair: the truth of the hyponym entails the truth of the super ordinate, and the falsity of the superordinate entails the falsity of the hyponym.

H.    Converse antonyms

To illustrate synonymy, hyponymy and antonymy in the previous sections we presented pairs of sentences; each sentence of a pair had the same subject and different predicates; each predicate had a valency of one—there was only a subject and no other referring expression. The next paired sentences contain converse predicates, which necessarily have a valency of 2 or more.

20a The map is above the chalkboard.

20b The chalkboard is below the map.

21a Sally is Jerry’s wife. (Sally is the wife of Jerry)

21b Jerry is Sally’s husband. (Jerry is the husband of Sally)

Converseness is a kind of antonymy between two terms. For any two converse relational terms X and Y, if [a] is the X of [b], then [b] is the Y of [a]. In 20a map has the role of Theme and chalkboard the role of Associate; in 20b the roles are reversed. The same applies to Sally and Jerry in 21a and 21b.

The features [parent] and [offspring], introduced in section 5.2, are converse features: if A is the parent of B, B is the offspring of A (represented symbolically: A parent-of B ? B offspring-of A). Common converse pairs include kinship and social roles (husband-of/ wifeof, employer-of/employee-of) and directional opposites (above/ below, in front of/behind; left-of/right-of; before/after, north-of/south-of; outside/inside). There are a few pairs of converse 3-argument predicates: giveto/receive-from; sell-to/buy-from; lend-to/borrow-from.

22a Dad lent me a little money.

22b I borrowed a little money from Dad.

If A gives X to B, B receives X from A. All three of these pairs of predicates are built around the relationship of source and goal, which we examine in Chapter  6.

23a Danny broke a window.

23b A window was broken (by Danny).

24a Olga wrote a marvelous essay.

24b A marvelous essay was written (by Olga).

25a Simon climbed the wall.

25b The wall was climbed (by Simon).

26a This package weighs two kilos.

26b *Two kilos is/are weighed by this package.

If a predicate consists of a verb and its object and the object has the role of Affected (23), Effect (24), or Theme (25), there is a converse sentence in which the original object becomes subject, the verb is passive, and the agent may be deleted. Of course there is no such passive converse when the object of the verb, or apparent object, has the role of Associate (26a). Some conjunctions, or clause connectors, like before and after form converse pairs. 27a Herbert left the party before Jean (left the party). 27b Jean left the party after Herbert (left the party). We see that in all these examples of sentences with converse pairs, [a] and [b] are paraphrases. Since above and below are converse antonyms sentences [a] and [b] have the same truth value.Thus,

 a Û b ~a Û ~b

Consider these paraphrastic sentences:

28a The dictionary is heavier than the novel.

28b The novel is lighter than the dictionary.

Although heavy and light are non-binary antonyms, the comparative forms are converse: more heavy=less light; more light=less heavy.

29a The dictionary is more expensive than the novel.

29b The novel is less expensive than the dictionary.

I.       Symmetry and reciprocity

A special kind of converseness is the use of a single term in a symmetrical relationship, seen in these examples:

30a Line AB is parallel to Line CD.

30b Line CD is parallel to Line AB.

This relationship can also be expressed as:

30c Line AB and Line CD are parallel to each other.

or simply as:

30d Line AB and Line CD are paral

To generalize, if X is a symmetrical predicate, the relationship a X b can also be expressed as b X a and as a and b X (each other). Here ‘a’ and ‘b’ interchange the roles of Theme and Associate. The features [sibling] and [spouse] are each symmetrical (C sibling-of D ® D sibling-of C; E spouse-of F ® F spouse-of E).

Other examples of symmetrical predicates appear in these sentences:

31 The truck is similar to the bus.

32 Line AB intersects Line CD.

33 Hampton Road converges with Broad Street.

34 Oil doesn’t mix with water.

The following sentences have predicates that appear to be symmetrical

but are not.

35a The truck collided with the bus.

36a Tom agreed with Ann.

37a Prescott corresponds with Dudley.

38a The market research department communicates with the sales department.

If the truck collided with the bus, it is not necessarily true that the bus collided with the truck (35a), and analogous observations can be made about 36a–38 On the other hand, in

35b The truck and the bus collided.

36b Tom and Ann agreed.

37b Prescott and Dudley correspond.

38b The market research department and the sales department communicate.

we are informed that the truck collides with the bus and the bus with the truck, and the action is likewise symmetrical in 35b–37b. (34b–37b are ambiguous as they stand, of course, since these sentences may be the result of ellipsis: The truck and the bus collided with a taxi, Tom and Ann agreed with me, and so on.) The verbs in these sentences are reciprocal predicates, not symmetrical predicators. If X is a reciprocal predicate, the relationship a X b does not entail bX a but a and b X does entail a X b and b X a (leaving aside the possible ambiguity).

Reciprocal predicates are mostly verbs like those in sentences 35–8 and the following:

argue-with concur-with conflict-with co-operate-with correlate-with intersect-with merge-with overlap-with embrace fight (with) hug

Symmetrical predicates are adjectives combined with a preposition with, from, or to:

1             A and B are congruent (with each other)

=A is congruent with B and B is congruent with A (where ‘=’

is the sign for semantic identity)

commensurate concentric congruent contemporary identical

intimate simultaneous synonymous

2             A and B are different (from each other)

=A is different from B and B is different from A

different

3             A and B are equivalent (to each other)

=A is equivalent to B and B is equivalent to A

equal equivalent related

Symmetrical predicates may also be participles formed from causative

verbs: If I connect X and Y, X and Y are connected with each other.

Other such causative verbs are:

1             A combines X and Y=A combines X with Y and Y with X

compare confuse group mix reconcile

2             A disconnects X and Y=A disconnects X from Y and Y

from X

disconnect distinguish separate

3                                 A connects X and Y=A connects X to Y and Y to X

connect join relate tie

J.      Expression of quantity

The difference between binary and non-binary antonyms can be shown this way:

 

                            Dead                                 old

                             

                               alive                             young

                                                                                           

adjectives that are non-binary antonyms can easily be modified: very old, rather young, quite wide, extremely narrow, and the like. Logically it would seen that binary antonyms do not accepts modifies an organism is either dead or alive, a door is either open or shut, a floor is either clean or dirty, one is either a sleep or awake. But language is not logic. Quite dead, very much alive, wide open, slightly dirty are meaningful expressions.

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