Name : Gustiagus Umbu Aldi Putra

NIM/Class : 1812021141 / 5A

Lexical Relation

Lexical relation belongs to the word meaning. According to Bolinger (1968), lexical
relations are the connection or relationship among word to words. There are several types of
lexical relations. As mentioned by Saeed (2009), there are several relations, which are
homonymy, polysemy, synonymy, antonymy (opposites), hyponymy, meronymy, member-
collection, and portion-mass. We will discuss each of item below:

1. Homonymy
Saeed (2009) states that homonymy belongs to the same phonological word but it has
no relation in senses. In addition, like what had Saeed said, they have the same phonological
word, means that they have the similar pronunciation and spelling. Here Saeed said that this
term could be distinguished as homographs, senses of the same written word and
homophones, senses of the same spelling word. Several examples below:
a. Bat (animal)
Bat (equipment in playing baseball or softball)
b. Book (something to read)
Book (making a reservation)
c. Two (numbers)
Too (very or emphasizing something)
We have various examples above. In word (a), bat, in both bats, are categorized as
homonymy that both words are the same in written and spelling. The word in (a) has the
same class in syntactic category, which is a noun. The word in (b) is categorized that both
the words have the same written form and spelling, but they are different in the class, as the
first book is a noun and the second book is a verb. The word in (c) is categorized as word
that have different written form but the same spelling, /tuː/. Both words in (c) are in the
different word class. From the three examples above, (a) and (b) are classified as
homographs and (c) is classified as homophone. But Saeed (2009) argues that people might
pronounce words differently so that they will have different homonymy.
2. Polysemy
According to Muslimatin (2015), polysemy is a term that is about multiple senses from
the same phonological word and it will refer to various meaning. Briefly, polysemy is
formed from a base word that has the same phonological aspects, and get addition with other
words that could form different meaning. As example below by Zakiyah (2018):
a. Back
- Human back
- The back of a knife
- The back of a hand
b. Run
- An engine runs (work)
- An application runs (processing)
3. Synonymy
According to Saeed (2009), synonymy is a term that is about different phonological
words that have the similar or same meaning. Common examples below
- Sofa = Couch
- Large = Big

The examples above are just common examples. This synonymy terms tends to be
how we choose the most appropriate diction when we talk about culture. One of the
condition examples, when you meet a daughter from a kingdom, you might say;

- Good evening, lady

instead of,
- Good evening, girl
When we face the condition above, we have to choose the right word synonym, so
there would be no rude of taboo behavior. Sometimes, synonymy would not work in
conditions, as example:
- He is my big brother
Synonymy would not work if we say the similar phonological word “large”, or it could
be like this:
- He is my large brother
4. Antonymy
Saeed (209) declares that antonymy are words that have opposite meaning to each
other. According to his opinion, there are several types of antonymy below:
1) Simple antonyms
Simple antonyms are the basic science for this antonym term. The negative word implies
its positive opponent, as example;
- fail/pass
- dead/alive
As example when we bring it to conversation:
- Umbu nearly fail his exam but he still passes it.
2) Gradable antonyms
Gradable antonyms have similar characteristic to basic idea of antonyms, but one word
does not imply its opponent strongly. There is a moderate term between those two words.
These antonyms are mostly found for adjectives, as example:
a. long/short
b. near/far

Both words in (a) and (b) are adjectives. There would be a thing that is in their moderate
state that it is neither long nor short, near nor far because they are relative that comes
from perspectives.

3) Reverses
This antonymy type is a relation that describes movement that one facing opposite
movement to other. This kind of antonym could also describe processes. As example of
this antonym below:
a. up/down
b. fill/empty
4) Converses
Converses is a kind of antonymy relation that describes relation from two entities from
alternative perspectives, as example below:
a. Geovenda owns this book.
The book belongs to Geovenda.
b. Nitisastra room is above this level.
We are below the Nitisastra room.
5) Taxonomic sisters
This kind of antonym describes words that are on the same level in a taxonomy. Common
example of this antonym is about colors, as example of dress and gown as taxonomic
sister below:
 a. This is not a dress; this is a gown!
5. Hyponymy
Hyponymy is a relation of inclusion (Saeed, 2009). This term talks about meaning of
a more general word. As example below:
- Pitbull is hyponym of dog.
From the example above, we can make a graph like below:

The graph above tells that pitbull, poodle, and husky are hyponyms of dog and dog is
hyponym of animal.
6. Meronymy
According to Saeed (2009), meronymy is a relation that describe about relationship
between part to the whole items. As example below:
- Window is a meronymy of a room
The example above could be described in graph below:

The graph above mentions window, door, and wall as meronymy of a room.
7. Member-collection
Saeed (2009) states that this relation describes between a word as a singular unit and
the words as a collection of units, as example below
a. Ship Fleet
b. Tree Forest

From the example (a) and (b) above, it describes the relationship of a single unit to its
collections. Fleet is a place where we can find ships and forest is a place where we can find
trees.
8. Portion-mass
Portion mass is a relation that tells about relationship of nouns that could be measured
using units or a portion (Saeed, 2009). As example in sentences below:
a. I need a glass of water.
b. She wants a bouquet of flowers.

References

Bolinger, D. (1968). Aspect of Language. New York: Harcourt Brace Javanovich Inc.

Muslimatin. (2015). An Analysis of Lexical Relations in English Translation of Surah Yaasin

Verse 1 Up To 21 (Bachelor’s thesis). State Institute for Islamic Studies (STAIN).
Salatiga.

Saeed, J. I. (2009). Semantics (3rd ed.). Singapore: Utopia Press Pte Ltd.

Zakiyah, Wardatuz. (2018). Lexical Relations and Meaning Properties in Lingua Journal
(Bachelor’s thesis). Maulana Malik Ibrahim State Islamic University. Malang.