Tema 6 – Syntagmatic lexical relations

Tema 6 – Syntagmatic lexical relations. Semantic fields/domains.

• Semantic Fields

Theories that treat the lexicon as thesaurus-like hold that lexical entries are cross-referenced with or linked to other lexical entries.

Some proponents of thesaurus models favour large networks of words that constrain one another’s senses. What we do with words is to name it so that if we already have a word for that entity there is no need for another lexical entity to name exactly the same thing. Idea of constraining one another.

Semantic Field Theory (Adrianne Lehrer)

Semantic space = semantic field

Box diagrams

Related concepts:

Move jog amble

Walk jump march

Crawl saunter sprint

Run stroll hop

• Move: to change in position from one point to another
• Walk: to move over a surface by taking steps with the feet at a place slower than a run
• Crawl: to move slowly on the hands and knees or by dragging the body along the ground
• Run: to move swiftly on foot so that both feet leave the ground during each stride
• Jog: to move with a jolting rhythm / to run or ride at a steady slow trot
• Jump: to move suddenly and in one motion / to spring off the ground or other base by a muscular effort of the legs and feet
• Saunter: to walk at a leisurely pace; stroll
• Stroll: to go for a leisurely walk
• Amble: to walk slowly or leisurely; stroll
• March: to walk steadily and rhythmically forward in step with others
• Sprint: to move rapidly or at top speed for a brief period, as in running or swimming
• Hop: to jump on one foot

All of them are defined as types of movement, we can conclude that all of them are hyponyms of the item move.

In the semantic field jog can take two different positions, as it has two different senses, as a type of movement (hyponym of move) and as a type of run. Jump also has a second sense.

They are almost absolute synonyms, very closely related in meaning. To march is a type of walking and walk is a type of movement, so march is a type of movement as well.

TAXONOMY, CLASSIFICATION OF SEMANTIC RELATIONS (box diagram)

Figure 6.5 gives a partial semantic field for English verbs of human locomotion, which shows all the relations that a box diagram can illustrate:

• The subscripted numerals on the two instances of jump indicate its polysemy. _Jump_1 has a general sense ‘to spring off the ground,’ while _jump_2 indicates springing and landing with both feet, as opposed to one foot, as for hop. Jump, then, is an autohyponym, a polysemous word that has a sense that is a hyponym of another of its senses.
• The horizontal axis represents contrast; if two lexemes on the same level are separated by a line, they contrast with each other and, tran- sitively, with other words on that line. So, crawl, walk, jog, run, and _jump_1 contrast as co-hyponyms of move. Note that some lexemes’ boxes inhabit more than one level. Jog, for instance, is a member of two co-hyponym sets: _crawl/walk/jog/run/jump_1 and jog/sprint (hyponyms of run). In other words, jog is sometimes used to contrast with run (as in I don’ t run, I just jog) and sometimes used to describe a kind of running (as in When running, alternate jogging and sprinting for an extra good workout).
• Viewing the vertical axis from the bottom up, we see hyponymy relations. So, march is a hyponym of walk and (transitively) of move. We’ve already seen that jog is a special case, as it has either run or move as its immediate hyperonym.
• Synonymy is indicated by two lexemes in the same box – as for stroll and amble. (They may not be perfect synonyms, but we can pretend that they are for the sake of this illustration.)
  Overlap in meaning (partial synonymy) is indicated where there is shading instead of a horizontal line between two terms, like saunter and stroll–amble. This means that some activities are definitely saun- tering or ambling (but not both), but others (in the shaded area) could be called by either name.
• Blank areas in box diagrams show lexical gaps, which are potential senses that have not been lexicalized in a language. In this diagram, there is a box above walk, jog, run, and jump that contrasts with crawl. We can describe what that box symbolizes – the category of upright, bipedal locomotion – but there is no particular English lexeme that covers this meaning.

Autohyponym; a hyponym of itself (example with jump).

Partial synonym, depends on the use of the word (saunter with stroll and amble)

Semantic fields are established on the basis of:

• Hyponymy
• Co-hyponyms
• Contrast
• Synonymy
• Partial synonymy

Lexical gaps are also found, since not all languages have words for every box in the semantic space.

Mind, too, that different languages may cut up the semantic space in different ways (i.e., setting different boxes). Thus, the difficulty of translating certain words from one language to another.

• Syntagmatic relations

Syntagmatic relations are relations between words that go together in syntactic phrases. Notice that syntagmatic and syntax are from the same Greek roots, meaning «touching together»

Syntagmatic relations are studied more and more these days as corpus research highlights the ways in which words tend to occur with certain words rather than others.

ASLEEP:

Fast asleep

Sound asleep

Completely asleep

? very asleep

Collocations

Halliday (1966) defines collocations as the tendency for words to occur together repeatedly. It is because of that frequency that we tend some combinations of lexical items as natural.

Strong -> powerful

Strong arguments -> powerful arguments

• Strong tea #powerful tea
• Powerful car #strong car

Collocations just sound “right” to native English speakers. On the other hand, other combinations may be unnatural or just sound “wrong”.

Natural English Unnatural English

• The fast train # the quick train
• Fast food # quick food
• A quick shower # a fast shower
• A quick meal # a fast meal

Further types of collocations:

• Adv + Adj

Completely satisfied (# downright satisfied)

• N + N

A surge of anger (# a rush of anger)

• N + V

Lions roar (# lions shout)

• V + PP

Burst into tears (# blow up in tears)

• V + Adv

Wave frantically (# wave feverishly)

Individual words may have collocationally restricted meanings.

Consider:

• White wine, white means yellower
• White coffee, white means brown (with milk)
• White man, white refers to the pinkish, lighter skin colour.