SEMANTICS :

MAKING
MEANING
WITH WORDS
BIK10103
 Objectives
At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
1. Define the meaning of semantics.
2. Describe types of meaning
3. Elaborate the semantic field
4. Analyze semantic features
5. Identify the nyms
6. Explain figurative language
7. Discuss Semantics Shift
 Semantics is the system of rules underlying our knowledge of word and
sentence meaning
Is the study of how we construct and understand the meaning of words and
groups of words ( clauses, sentences and etc ).
(Denham, 2013)

Semantics is the study of the meanings of words, phrases and

sentences.
(Yule, 2020)

• In making meaning, we tend to incorporate the knowledge of

phonology, morphology and syntax.
• Meaning can be meaningless and that meanings can deviate
from expected meaning but still meaningful.
CONCEPTUAL/REFERENTIAL ASSOCIATIVE/EMOTIVE

Covers those basic, essential meaning The associative meaning of an

that is actually the literal meaning of expression has to do with individual
the words from the dictionary. mental understandings of the speaker

e.g: needle in the English means thin, e.g: needle for different people might
sharp and steel instrument. be associate with drugs, illness, or
knitting.
Part of studying semantics
involves analysing and describing
semantics classifications
Semantic features of nouns :

a. Concrete nouns - things in the

physical world ( things we can point at).
SEMANTIC
b. abstract nouns - not physical objects.
FEATURES
c. Count and noncount nouns
d. Common and proper nouns
Count nouns are those that we can
count.
Count nouns can be pluralized, preceded
by numerals and certain quantifiers such
as each, both, every, few(er), and
several.
Count nouns: dog, car, puppy, country

Count &
Noncount nouns cannot be pluralized,
nor can they occur with numerals or Noncount
the quantifiers just listed. nouns
They can, however, occur with
quantifiers much, most, all, and less.
Noncount nouns: rice, jewelry, furniture, fruit, love,
terrorism, mud, indignation
Some noncount nouns in U.S. English are
morphologically plural, a relationship that is
reflected by the verb through subject–verb
agreement.
mathematics/ethics/linguistics is/*are fun to
study.
Notice that many nouns can be both count and
noncount.
For example paper can be count or noncount. Count &
Eton bought six papers. Eton bought paper.
Noncount
noncount: Love is patient. nouns
count: She had two loves: philosophy and poetry.
noncount: Rice is good for you.
count: There are many rices to choose from:
arborio, jasmine, basmati—to name a few.
A noun that appears only in Pluralia
the plural and doesn't
ordinarily have a singular
Tantum
form
(for example, jeans, pajamas,
tweezers, shears, and scissors).
Nouns without singular form
• What are other examples of
pluralia tantum?
Common nouns are nouns that Common and
have more than one referent, or
entity to which the noun refers. Proper Noun
Common: tulip, baseball, brother,
horseradish, language, school, anger

Proper nouns, on the other hand,

have only one referent; they are
the names of unique entities.
Proper: Etienne, Harry Potter, the
Kentucky Derby, ­Halloween, Lake
Victoria, the Kremlin
 ANOMALOUS
Colourless green ideas sleep furiously are anomalous
The hamburger ate the boy
The rock combed its hair

Anomalous means that they deviate from expected meaning.

Although the sentence seems like stupid , weird and meaningless but it
still doesn’t break syntactic and morphological structure.rules.
 LEXICAL SEMANTICS
The formal study of the conventions of words meaning.
(Denham, 2013)

• Lexical semantics is concerned with the identification and

representation of the semantics of lexical items.
• It is the formal study of the convention of word meaning.
 ONOMATOPOEIC WORDS
(ECHOIC WORD)

o Words that sound like their meanings.

o Pronunciation that can provide clues to their meanings
o Eg: oink oink, boom, buzz
Etymological clues

o Guess intelligently the meaning of a word based on morphology and syntax

o Eg : about to be caught in the act, the burglars defenestrated the jewellery

1. It is a verb
2. It is past tense ; ‘-ed’
3. Not to fenestrate ; -ve suffix ‘-de’
MEANING
CLASSIFICATION
SEMANTIC FEATURES
Semantic features is the
classification of meaning
that can be expressed
in terms of binary features [+/-]

Eg: [+/- Human] , [+/- Animate] , [+/- Young] , [+/- Married]

 What is wrong with these sentences?

The bachelor is married.

The rock combed its hair.

The door kicked the man.

The baby drove to town in a Ford pickup.

Those sentences are syntactically good but semantically odd.

Bachelor is [- Married]

Rock [- Human]

Table [- Animate]

Baby [+ Young]
 • Door and rock lack the crucial features that are required to kick and comb.

• They cannot be the subject of the verb

• Only living entities can perform these action

• So the entity should have attribute [+] of being alive or [+animate]

Features such as [+ human], [- human], [+ animate], [- animate], [+ young],

[- young] can be treated as the basic elements involved in differentiating the

meaning of each word in a language other word

 Semantic features analysis
table horse boy man girl woman

animate - + + + + +

human - - + + + +

female - - - - + +

adult - + - + - +

And this: Slippers, high heels, tracksuit

Try this: King, Duke, Princess [+/- footwear][+/- formal wear]
[+/- ruler] [+/- royal] [+/- female] [+/comfortable][+/- running]
 Uses of semantic features

• Shows in what ways the words are similar or different

• Clarify concept and show unique features of the words

• Semantic features analysis allows us to decompose words
into bundle of features
 SEMANTIC FIELDS
Basic classifications of meaning under
which words are stored in our mental
lexicons.
Semantic fields are classifications of
words associated by their meanings.
They belong in specific field, subject or
concept.
SEMANTIC FIELDS
Semantic fields could be:
CLOTHING
PARTS OF THE BODY
EMOTIONS
FOOD
ANIMAL

The list does not stop there as there are many more semantic fields.
EXAMPLE

CHICKEN –(Animal, Pet, Food)

SWEET –(Candy, Romantic, Taste)
HOT –(Climate, Person, Spicy)

Those are some examples of words that can be classified on many semantic
fields.

Everyone has their own interpretation of one word and it usually differs with
one another. (experience, observation etc)
MEANING RELATIONSIPS: THE NYMS

Definition of Nyms

Meaning relationship among words

 1) OPPOSITE MEANINGS :
ANTONYMY
• A word opposite in meaning to another or two forms with opposite
meanings such as :

• Hot and cold

• Black and white

• In and out
• Words pairs of antonym can be divided into several types : -

Antonym

Complementary
pairs or Relational pairs
Gradable pairs
(non- gradable ( Reversive )
antonyms)
 Gradable Antonyms

• Opposites along a scale in that when someone says “I am not tall” does

not necessarily mean “I am short”

• Negative of one member of gradable pair does not necessarily imply

the other. For example, the sentence “My car isn’t old”, doesn’t mean

“My car is new”

• Gradable antonyms - such as the pair big/ small can be used in

comparative constructions like bigger than = smaller than

 COMPLEMENTARY PAIRS OR
(NON- GRADABLE ANTONYMS)

• Direct opposites and does not present such flexibility

• Shows clearer contrast

• For example, when we say “I am married” the only antonym available

in this sentence “I am single”

• If “you are dead, you cannot be alive”

• If “you are asleep, you are not awake”

• The negative of one member of a non-gradable pair does imply the other
member

• That is, “My grandparents aren’t alive” does indeed mean “My grandparents are
dead”.

• ‘negative test’ to identify non-gradable antonyms in a language, we usually avoid

describing one member of an antonymous pair as the negative of the other.

• For example, while undress can be treated as the opposite of dress, it does not
mean ‘not dress’. It actually means ‘do the reverse of dress’. Antonyms of this type
are called reversives
 RELATIONAL
ANTONYMS
• Pairs in which each member describes a relationship to other.

• Pairs which go together

• For example :-

Teacher/student

Father/mother

Lawyer/client
 2) Similar Meanings:
Synonymy
• Words that are different in form but similar in
meaning.
Word Synonym
• For example :-
Almost Nearly
Big Large
Broad Wide
Buy Purchase
Cab Taxi
Car Automobile
Couch Sofa
• We should keep in mind that the idea of “sameness” of meaning used in
discussing synonymy is not necessarily ” total sameness”

• For example : answer and reply

 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 versus informal uses.
• For example :

“My father purchased a large automobile”

( formal )

has virtually the same meaning as

“My dad bought a big car”

( casual or informal version )
 MEANING CATEGORIES :
HYPONYMY
• Word whose meaning is included or entailed in the
meaning of a more general word (Denham, 2013)
• The meaning of one form is included in the meaning of another

( Yule 3rd edition, 2020)

• Examples are the pairs :
animal/dog, dog/poodle, vegetable/carrot, flower/rose,
tree/banyan

• The concept of “ inclusion”

• For example : if an object is a rose, then it is necessarily a flower or,
rose is a hyponym of flower.

So the meaning of flower is

included in the meaning of rose
• The hyponymous connections, it is often describe using hierarchical
diagram, called taxonomy
 DIFFERENT
MEANINGS:HOMONYMY
*Words that sound the same but have different (unrelated) meanings are
called homonyms (Greek homeos ‘same’, onoma ‘name’).
For example:
1. The pain was almost than he could bear ( accept)
2. Even the most crooked apple tree can eventually bear a good fruit.
(produce)

*Homophones do not share the same spelling, but they do sound the
same
For example:
1.She was the  sole guest remaining in the building as the sisters were
off for a Sunday tour of the town. (only)
2. Those blue eyes were boring into her soul, searching for heaven only
knew what. (spirit)
*Homographs have different meanings , the same spelling but
different spelling pronunciations

• For example:
• "Advocate" can be pronounced with a long "a" sound and mean
“to speak or write in support of”
"Advocate" can also be pronounced with a short "a" sound and
refer to a person who supports or pleads the cause of another.
 HOMONYMY
The verb bear can mean ‘to have children’ or ‘to
Mean tolerate’.

Date (a thing we can eat, a point in time, an

Date appointment)

Bat Bat (flying creature, bat used in sports)

HOMONYMY
 EUPHEMISMS

• A polite expression used in place of words or phrases that otherwise

might be considered harsh or unpleasant to hear.

• called doublespeak
Secretary - executive assistant,
personal assistant
School - academy, conservatory
Boss - manager, supervisor, director
Garbage collector- sanitation worker,
waste disposal worker
Janitor - caretaker, custodian, warden
Bathroom - be excused, restroom,
public conveniences
Fat - chubby, full-figured, plump,
voluptuous, overweight, big boned
Remedial - special needs,
developmental
Poor - underprivileged, unable to
make ends meet, modest, financially
embarrassed
Handicapped - physically challenged,
disables, crippled
Vomit - blow chunks, lose your lunch
Homeless - displaced, dispossessed,
adrift
 RELATED MEANINGS:
POLYSEMY
A word is polysemy when it has two or more related meanings. (Greek poly ‘many’, semy ‘meanings’).

In this case the word takes one form but can be used to mean two different things. 

In the case of polysemy, these two meanings must be related in some way, and not be two completely
unrelated meanings of the word.

For example : The sun is dazzlingly bright today ( shining)

Sally is bright student in her class ( intelligent)

RELATED
MEANINGS:
POLYSEMY
For example, lip is polysemous
because we can use it not only
to refer to a part of one’s mouth
but also in phrases such as lip of
the cliff or the lip of a cup, and
we also have the expression
don’t give me any lip.