1.
Synonymy
Autumn and Fall
The sameness of meaning
Different dialect
of
the language
Rancid –
butter Freedom and
Addled - eggs liberty
Causes of Emotive or Evaluative
Similar situation Synonymy Meaning
but used in
different style
Direct, control
determine and
require
Overlapping
2. Three scopes of Synonymy
a. Words with similarity on their extra linguistic reference
b. Words which have similar meaning
c. Words which can be substituted in similar context
3. Three Ways of Determining Synonymy
a. Substitution
Substituting one word for another
deep or profound may be used with sympathy
a. Contradictory
Contradicting two words in identical environment
deep and profound is contrasted with superficial
a. Connotation
Usually, it refers to emotive and evaluative meaning which is not
usefully distinguished from cognitive meaning.
female and woman which have similar meaning but different in
emotive meaning
Absolute Synonymy?
• All their meaning are identical
• They are synonymous in all contexts
• They are semantically equivalent i.e. their
meaning on all dimensions of meaning,
descriptive and non descriptive
2. Antonymy
The oppositeness of meaning
Four basic types of Antonymy
a. Binary
are predicates which come in pairs and between them exhaust all the
relevant possibilities. (true and false)
b. Converse
a predicate describing a relationship between two things or people
and some other predicate describe the same relation, when the two
things (people) are mentioned in the opposite order.
(below and above)
c. Gradable
predicates being at opposite ends of a continuous scale of values
(a scale which typically varies according to the context of use).
(hot and cool)
d. Contradictory
a sentence expressing one proposition in which it is impossible for
the sentence to be true at the same time and of the same
circumstances with other sentence.
(This beetle is dead and This beetle is alive )
3. Hyponymy
A relation of meaning of words in which its meaning belong to others
showing super ordinate and sub ordinate relation between the
two
Co-hyponym
Relation between the members of group or class as being part of the
hyponym
Multi incompatibility
Relations among members of same group showing contradiction.
Dog
dog bitch puppy
4. Polysemy and Homonymy
Po lysemy
It is a case that same words have a set of different meaning
and the meanings of this word have two or more related
meaning.
(head – head of department – head of the body)
Homonymy
It is the case that one word has more than one meaning
and each of them not showing as a part of other meaning.
(can – showing ability – thing made of can)
5. Meronymy
Meronymy is inclusive relation between one word and
another showing part-whole relation
(window – house)
Semantic Shift and Change
Edward Sapir
Language moves down time in a current of its own
meaning
Definition
Semantic change deals with the change in meaning or
the change in the concepts associated with a word
which is still in the same semantic field.
The change happens in term of broadened or
narrowed reference.
Semantic Shift refers to the change of given reference
with new reference.
1. Type of Semantic Change
a. Generalisation / broadening meaning
The meaning of a word is broaden to include new
concepts (take – to carry and act of photograping a
scene)
b. Specialization / narrowing meaning
The meaning of a word is narrowed ; the range of
word’s meaning is decreased so a word can be used
only in fewer context. (film – referring to moving
pictures and film as a thin sheet of developed
photographic negative or trans.)
c. Pejorative (Perception Change)
A process in which a word meaning worsens and
degenerates, coming to represent something less
favorable than it originally did. (blue as collor and blue
as one type of film)
d. Ameliorative (Perception Change)
A process in which the meaning of word improves or
becomes elevated, coming to represent something more
favorable tah it originally refers to.
(shoot referring to terrifying sense and shoot referring to
making a film or photograaphing)
Factors Facilitating Semantic Change
(Palmer)
a. Happening by Chance
The meaning of a word happens by chance and there
is almost no meaning relation between the new and
old word. (Money- what we earn by working and
Moneo refers to warning (Latin))
b. Need of New Meaning
The meaning of a word is changing as it needs new
meaning. Discoveries have caused human tobe
creative in giving to new object. (mouse referring to a
kind of animal and computer tool)
c. Scientific Words
The meaning of a word is changing when it is used as a
scientific words. Scientific words are indeed taken from
everyday vocabularies but they are used to explain
something a bit different from the common idea. (lens
referring to a curve piece of glace and a part of camera
where light pass through )
d. Taboo
The meaning of a word is changing when it is used as
taboo word. Some tabooed words can lead their
replacing words to receive additional meaning. (Rest
Room – as euphemism of Water Closet to defecate)
1. Taboo of Fear
It relates with supernatural subject and object causing a
tendency not mentioning the name directly (God –Lord)
2. Taboo of Delicacy
It relates with a tendency to avoid unpleasant word with
another . Euphimism is comonly used to soften this the word.
Restroom for toilet or W.C
3. Taboo of Propriety
Taboo for mentioning sex
Taboo for mentioning the function of body organ
Taboo for cursing
Factors Facilitating Semantic Change and
Shift (Ullmann)
1. Linguistic Factor
The meaning of a word is transferd into another since
they often appear in various context through the process
of contagion.
2. Historical Factor
a. The new invention
-creating new word
-reuse the dead word
-joing the given word with new meaning
-translating
-borrowing
b. Institution naming
c. New Idea
d. Scienctfic Concept
3. Social Factor
Speech community influences semantic change and
shift. Their experience and perception on using words give
contribution on widening or narrowing the meaning of word
4. Psychological Factor
a. Emotive (personal interest)
b. Taboo
5. The Influence of non-Native Words
The translation of culture, concept and thought
from foreign language gives new perception on
the existing word of target language (translation
of skycraper into pencakar langit in bahasa
Indonesia gives or adds new mening to the word)
6. The Need of New Word
The Progress in culture, science, and technology needs
new words as media of communication.
