Linguist Sticks



|Lecture notes |

|Sense and sense relations |

|The sense (meaning) of a word is its statable meaning ‘out of context’ - i.e. a meaning that can apply across many contexts in |

|which the word is used. Senses are what we find when we look up words in the dictionary and, as we have seen, words often have |

|more than one sense - they are polysemous. |

|The senses of words are also a matter of their relations to other words. In this session, we will look at three major sense |

|relations: synonymy (similarity), antonymy (opposition), and hyponomy (inclusion). Before we begin, note that we are concerned |

|with relations among the senses of words more than relations among words themselves. For example, bottom means: |

|1. the lowest part of something |

|2. the part of the body we sit on |

|Top is an antonym of bottom, but only for sense 1. Buttocks is a synonym of bottom, but only for sense 2. |

|Synonyms |

|Synonyms are words with the same or similar senses. English tends to have more synonyms than many other languages because of the|

|large number of borrowed words. Here are some examples of synonyms derived from Old English and Norman French: |

|English-French synonym pairs:  |

|Old English |

|Norman French |

| |

|king |

|sovereign |

| |

|ox |

|beef |

| |

|sheep |

|mutton |

| |

|folk |

|people |

| |

|help |

|aid |

| |

|begin |

|commence |

| |

|end |

|terminate |

| |

|hinder |

|prevent |

| |

|feed |

|nourish |

| |

| Germanic-based phrasal verbs also often make synonym pairs with Latin-based verbs:  |

|Germanic |

|Latin |

| |

|catch up with |

|reach |

| |

|come back |

|return |

| |

|give up |

|surrender |

| |

|hold back |

|retain |

| |

|let down |

|disappoint |

| |

|make out |

|distinguish |

| |

|pick up |

|collect |

| |

|point out |

|indicate |

| |

|put up with |

|tolerate |

| |

|Synonyms and near-synonyms (or polysynonym) |

|In principle, it should be possible to substitute synonyms for each other in all or most contexts of use (the principle of |

|substitutability). Because this is rarely possible in practice, we tend to use the term synonym for words that cover a similar |

|range of meaning or application. For clarity, the term near-synonym (or polysynonym) can also be used. |

|·            synonyms sometimes cover different aspects of a thing or idea (e.g., ox and beef). |

|·            synonyms often overlap only partially (e.g. pick up is a synonym of collect when we are talking about going |

|somewhere to bring somebody or something back, but not when we are talking about picking up something from the ground or |

|collecting stamps). |

|·            verb synonyms often have different grammatical properties (e.g., feed is used intransitively and transitively - |

|babies feed and we also feed babies- while nourish is used only transitively). |

|·            synonyms may differ in levels of generality (e.g. make has a number of synonyms with more restricted senses: |

|produce, manufacture, create, put together, construct, craft, build, compose). |

|·            synonyms may have different levels of formality or be more frequent in particular contexts of use (e.g., kids, |

|children, offspring, progeny). |

|Tip. Do you know how to find synonyms for words using Microsoft Word? Type and select a word, then right-click and select |

|‘Synonyms’. |

|Antonyms |

|Antonyms are basically ‘opposites’. Linguists recognise several kinds of opposition. |

|Gradable vs. non-gradable (or ungradable) antonyms |

|This distinction applies mostly to adjectives and adverbs |

|Gradable antonyms represent points on a scale that are roughly equal in distance from the middle of the scale. |

|Non-gradable (or ungradable) antonyms represent opposed states that cannot be measured on a scale. |

|Gradable antonyms |

|Let's take the scale of temperature as an example. Hot is an antonym of cold. This means that hot and cold are roughly the same |

|distance from the middle of the scale (where it is neither hot nor cold). Warm and cool are also gradable antonyms because they |

|are roughly the same distance from the middle of the scale (but a shorter distance than hot and cold). |

|Gradable antonyms have a few interesting properties: |

|·            Exactly how ‘hot’ is hot? This depends on what you are talking about: a hot day, a hot cup of tea, hot noodles, a |

|hot shower, hot oil, hot air, etc. A hot cup of tea is likely to be much hotter than a hot day, for example. |

|·            Gradable antonyms are often modified by adverbs to express higher and lower points on the scale: e.g. extremely |

|hot, very hot, too hot, so hot, quite hot. |

|·            There are often other adjectives expressing extreme and intermediate points on the scale: e.g. warm, tepid, |

|lukewarm, cool, chilly, freezing. |

|Non-gradable (or ungradable) antonyms |

|Dead and alive are good examples of non-gradable antonyms: |

|·            They are not points on a scale. They are opposed states. This means that if you are dead, you are not alive. If you|

|are alive, you are not dead. |

|·            Non-gradable antonyms are not usually modified by adverbs. In colloquial English, we do say almost dead (=about to |

|die), half-dead (=very tired), so alive (=feeling very well), stone dead and dead as a doornail (emphatic/hyperbolic), but these|

|expressions do not represent points on a scale. |

|·            There are usually no adjectives representing intermediate states between non-gradable antonyms.  |

|Tips for learning and teaching |

|It is often a good idea to learn and teach antonyms at the same time. For example, if you are learning hot, you may as well |

|learn cold at the same time. Similarly with non-gradable pairs like alive and dead. |

|Gradable antonyms need special attention. Students need to notice how they are modified and the use of other adjectives to |

|express intermediate and extreme points on the scale. But they cannot learn this all at once. By gradually building up a set of |

|adjectives and expressions to express, for example, different degrees of temperature, students can also enrich their writing. |

|Here are some more examples of gradable and non-gradable antonym pairs:  |

|Gradable antonyms |

|Non-gradable antonyms |

| |

|wet – dry |

|male - female |

| |

|young – old |

|true - false |

| |

|easy – difficult |

|north - south |

| |

|happy – sad |

|single - married |

| |

|big – small |

|full - empty |

| |

|long – short |

|before - after |

| |

|  |

|Reciprocal (conversive) vs. reversive antonyms |

|This distinction applies mainly to nouns, verbs and adverbs |

|·            Reciprocal (or conversive) antonyms are pairs in which each member depends upon the other. We can say that ‘you |

|can’t have one without the other’. |

|·            Reversive antonyms are pairs in which each member expresses the reverse of the other. In this case, you can have |

|one without the other. |

|Reciprocal (or conversiv) antonyms |

|Nouns: An example is husband and wife. If I am your husband, you must be my wife. |

|Verbs: An example is buy and sell. If I buy something from you, you must sell it to me. |

|Reversive antonyms |

|Verbs: An example is rise and fall. Note the difference here with buy and sell. If the temperature rises, this does not mean |

|that something else falls! |

|Adverbs: An example is backwards and forwards. Again, if I am going backwards, this doesn’t mean that you or anyone else is |

|going forwards! |

|Here are some more examples of reciprocal and reversive antonym pairs:  |

|Reciprocal antonyms |

|Reversive antonyms |

| |

|teacher - student |

|enter - exit |

| |

|boyfriend - girlfriend |

|bring - take |

| |

|give - take |

|arrive - depart |

| |

|borrow - lend |

|come - go |

| |

|inside - outside |

|towards - away from |

| |

|above - below |

|up - down |

| |

| |

|Tips for teaching and learning |

|Again, it is often a good idea to learn and teach reciprocal (or conversive) and reversive antonyms together. The distinction |

|between these two kinds of adjectives can also be helpful with some difficult pairs. For example, borrow and lend are reciprocal|

|antonyms - if I borrow something from you, you lend it to me. Bring and take are reversive antonyms - you bring something |

|towards you and take something away from you. |

|Hyponyms |

|Hyponyms are senses that are related to each other through inclusion. These relationships of inclusion are often represented by |

|tree diagrams: |

|[pic] |

| |

|The items making up trees of this kind are sometimes called lexical fields or semantic fields. In the example above: |

|·            animal is the superordinate (or a hypernym of pet and wild animal) item (or the item that determines the field) |

|·            the other items are all hyponyms of animal and any other items higher up in the hierarchy (hypo- means ‘under’) |

|·            items under one branch and on the same level (e.g. dog, cat, hamster) are called co-hyponyms. |

| Tips for teaching and learning |

|The use of a set of words within a lexical field often identifies the topic of a piece of writing. For example, a piece on the |

|topic of ‘dogs’ is likely to include words on the left side of the tree diagram above. Huskies, schnauzers and chihuahuas may be|

|mentioned as examples of dogs, comparisons between dogs, cats and hamsters may be made, and pet and animal may be used as |

|synonyms of dog. It can be a good idea to draw students’ attention to these kinds of patterns, for example, by identifying the |

|topic of a text and asking the students to search for as many words connected to the topic as they can find. Students can also |

|begin a piece of writing by constructing a lexical field tree diagram for their own topic. |

|Reading |

|　 |

|Yule, G. (1996).  The study of language (2nd ed.).  UK: Cambridge University Press. (Chapter 11) |

|Thornbury, S. (2002). How to teach vocabulary. London: Longman. |

|　 |

|Activities |

|Language note |

|When you are talking about the activities, please keep the following in mind. |

|Words containing the root -onym- tend to follow a similar derivational pattern |

|Synonomy  is a noun referring to the concept of ‘having the same sense’. (But note that having no name is anonymity). |

|Synonym is a noun referring to a word that has the same sense as another. A word can be a synonym of another word or two words |

|can be synonyms. |

|Synonomous is an adjective. A word can be synonymous with another word or two words can be synonymous. |

|The same is true of antonym and hyponym. |

|Task 1 - Synonymy |

|1. In which sentences can you use both words and in which can you use only one? Explain your choices: |

|begin / start |

|As soon as they went to bed the baby __________ to cry. |

|I was late for work because I couldn't ___________ my car. |

|There could be no life before the world ____________ . |

|leave / depart |

|We had to ________ the party early because the last MTR _________ at 12.20. |

|3. Can you suggest synonyms for fair and light in the following phrases. Do these synonyms match the principle of |

|substitutability? |

|fair hair |

|a light bag |

| |

|a fair decision |

|light blue |

| |

|a fair performance |

|a light wind |

| |

| Task 2 - Antonymy |

|What kinds of antonyms are the following? |

|male and female |

|buy and sell |

|agree and disagree |

|grateful and ungrateful |

|old and new |

|right and wrong |

|above and below |

|toxic and non-toxic |

|wet and dry |

|backwards and forwards |

|Can you suggest antonyms for fair and light in the following phrases. Are they also antonyms of the words you came up with as |

|synonyms? |

|fair hair |

|a light bag |

| |

|a fair decision |

|light blue |

| |

|a fair performance |

|a light wind |

| |

|Task 3 - Hyponomy |

|What is the topic of the passage below?  |

|Combining an old concept, existing equipment and new ideas, NASA gave shape on Monday to President Bush’s promise to send humans|

|back to the Moon by the end of the next decade. Michael D. Griffin, the agency’s new administrator, detailed a $104 billion plan|

|that he said would get astronauts to the Moon by 2018, serve as a steppingstone to Mars and beyond, and stay within NASA’s |

|existing budget. The plan would use a new spacecraft similar to the Apollo command capsule of the original Moon program, and new|

|rockets made up largely of components from the space shuttle program. “It is very Apollo-like,” Dr. Griffin said, “but bigger. |

|Think of it as Apollo on steroids.”  |

|Now make a list of words from the passage related to this topic and arrange them into a tree diagram. Add words that you think |

|might come up as the passage continues. |

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