Topic

Lexical theory of semantics

Assigned by

Ma’am Ghazala Samar

Submitted by

Namra Ijaz khan

Lexical semantics (also known as lexicosemantics), is a subfield of linguistic semantics. The units of analysis in lexical
semantics are lexical units which include not only words but also sub-words or sub-units such as affixes and even compound
words and phrases. Semantic field theory asserts that lexical meaning cannot be fully understood by looking at a word in
isolation, but by looking at a group of semantically related words.

How lexical items map onto concepts

First proposed by Trier in the 1930s, semantic field theory proposes that a group of words with interrelated meanings can be
categorized under a larger conceptual domain. This entire entity is thereby known as a semantic field. The
words boil, bake, fry, and roast, for example, would fall under the larger semantic category of cooking. Semantic field theory
asserts that lexical meaning cannot be fully understood by looking at a word in isolation, but by looking at a group of
semantically related words. Semantic relations can refer to any relationship in meaning between  lexemes, including
synonymy (big and large), antonym (big and small), hyponymy and
hyponymy (rose and flower), conversances (buy and sell), and incompatibility. Semantic field theory does not have concrete
guidelines that determine the extent of semantic relations between lexemes. The abstract validity of the theory is a subject of
debate
Knowing the meaning of a lexical item therefore means knowing the semantic entailments the word brings with it. However,
it is also possible to understand only one word of a semantic field without understanding other related words. Take, for
example, taxonomy of plants and animals: it is possible to understand the words rose and rabbit without knowing what
a marigold or a muskrat is. This is applicable to colors as well, such as understanding the word  red without knowing the
meaning of scarlet, but understanding scarlet without knowing the meaning of red may be less likely. A semantic field can
thus be very large or very small, depending on the level of contrast being made between lexical items. While cat and dog
both fall under the larger semantic field of animal, including the breed of dog, like German shepherd, would require
contrasts between other breeds of dog (e.g. corgi, or poodle), thus expanding the semantic field further
How lexical items map onto events
Event structure is defined as the semantic relation of a verb and its syntactic properties.  Event structure has three primary
components:

 primitive event type of the lexical item

 event composition rules
 mapping rules to lexical structure
Verbs can belong to one of three types: states, processes, or transitions.

What is a lexical concept?

Lexical representations, or rather more technically, lexical concepts, represent the semantic pole of linguistic units, and are
the mentally- instantiated abstractions which language users derive from conceptions and the specific semantic contribution
perceived to be associated with particular forms
Lexical field theory
Although the theoretical basis of the lexical field approach was established by Westerberg.
What does lexical field mean?
Lexical field or semantic field is the way of organizing related words and expressions into a system which shows their
relationship to one another. For example, father, mother, uncle, and aunt belong to one lexical field.
Lexical fields
In the 1930s, the structuralist notion of paradigmatic sense relations was applied to an approach called lexical field theory.
Based on research in historical semantics, Jost Trier (1931) introduced the term lexical field (or semantic field) that he
defined as a set of semantically related words whose meanings delimit each other. Thus, the meaning of a word can only be
fully determined in terms of contrasts in which it stands with other words in the field. From a diachronic perspective, this
means that any change in the meaning of one word affects the meaning of other words to which it is related. According to
Trier, the members of a field cover a whole conceptual or objective domain without any gaps or overlaps, i.e. the boundaries
of a lexical field can be clearly delimited. Criticism of this conception of lexical fields brought about t differentiations and
modifications of lexica field theory and led in the development of componential analysis.
Why are lexical fields used?

Semantic (or sometimes called lexical) fields are a technique often used by writers to keep a certain image persistent in their
readers' mind. They are a collection of words which are related to one another be it through their similar meanings, or
through a more abstract relation.

Lexical fields and syntagmatic relations

Lexical items so related stand in opposition or contrast to each other and help to define the meaning of each
other. Syntagmatic (horizontal) relations between words are “the relations that hold among elements that can occur in
combination with one another, in well-formed syntagms’’

What is Syntagmatic relation?

A syntagmatic relation is a relation between expressions that occur next to one another. Syntagmatic relations contrast with
paradigmatic relations

What is Syntagmatic linguistics?

In linguistics, a syntagma is an elementary constituent segment within a text. Such a segment can be a phoneme, a word, a
grammatical phrase, a sentence, or an event within a larger narrative structure, depending on the level of analysis.
Syntagmatic structure is often contrasted with paradigmatic structure.
Reference;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexical_semantics

https://www.grin.com/document/69807

http://www.ello.uos.de/field.php/Semantics/SemanticsLexicalfields