Lexical Relations:

Synonymy
There are a lot of relations between the single words of a language and the meanings of
theses words, respectively.
● Homonymy
● Polysemy
● Synonymy
● Antonymy
● Hyponymy
● Meronymy
Among linguists, these relations are called “Semantic relations”, “Sense relations” or
“Lexical relations”.
Lexical relations has to do with the meanings of words in relationship to one another.
Lexical relations can be divided into:
*Types of ambiguity: Polysemy, homonymy
*Types of congruence: Synonymy, hyponymy, meronymy, relations of contrast
*Lexical fields.
Ambiguity

The feature of language that allows single words to have multiple meanings depending of
the context.
E.g. “Sick”
LEXICAL FIELDS.

A group of lexemes to a particular area.

-Items in cooking.
- the vocabulary used by doctors.
Examples:
● blanket. Verb. to cover as with a blanket.
● blanket. Verb. Saling. to block another vessel’s wind by sailing close to it on the
windward.
SYNONYMY

When two or more words with very closely related meanings are called Synonyms.
Examples:

● couch/sofa
● two or more words with very closely related meaning/lad

● lawyer/attorney
They can often, not always, be substituted for each other in sentences. Ej.:
*We can say:
What was his answer? / What was his reply? and they have much the same meaning.
“Sameness” used in discussing synonymy is not necessarily “total sameness”. There are
many occasions when one word is appropriate in a sentence, but its synonym would be
odd.
Ex.: “Reply” would be odd in this instance:
Sandy had only one answer correct on the test.
Sandy had only one reply correct on the test.
Synonymous forms may also differ in terms of formal vs informal uses.
Ex.:
● My father purchased a large automobile
● My dad bought a bug car
*The second version, with 4 synonymous replacements, sounds much more casual or
informal than the first.
Also the most common examples of synonyms do not have completely the same meaning.
E.g. “adult” and “grown-up”
They differ at least in style or in their connotative meaning, “adult” being the more
elevated lexical item, but even though they are interchangeable in most contexts.
“Close” and “shut”

-Shut your eyes!

-Shut up! -Close your eyes!
-Close up!