Lexical structure
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Publicado: 29 de mayo de 2011
Lexical Structure
12 March 2008
Semantic or lexical fields
!
One way of imposing order on the thousands of lexemes which y p g make up the English vocabulary is to group them in to semantic fields. What are semantic fields? Semantic field is a useful notion in investigating lexical structure. They are also called lexical fields. Semantic field is a named area of meaning in which lexemesinterrelate and define each other in specific ways. For example, if we think of all the lexemes we know to do with fruit, or colours, or p question is, To what extent is vehicles, and so on. But one important q it possible to assign all the lexemes in English to a semantic field in an unambiguous way?
Semantic fields
Some lexemes seem to belong to fields which are very difficult to define, orwhich are vague. For example, to what semantic field should noise or difficult belong? ! Secondly, some lexemes seem to belong to more than one field – for example, example does orange belong to 'fruit' or 'colour'? fruit colour ? ! And finally, some lexemes seem to fall midway between two fields – does tomato belong to 'fruit' or 'vegetable'? ! There is also the question of how best to define asemantic field: shall we q say that tractor belongs to the field of 'agricultural vehicles', or just 'vehicles'?, or on the other hand, is flavour part of the semantic field of 'taste', or taste part of the semantic field of 'flavour', or are both members of some broader semantic field, such as a 'sensation'? sensation ?
!
Semantic fields
At the same time, the existence of these difficultiesmust not hide the fact that a very large number of lexemes can be grouped together into fields and subfields in a fairly clear-cut way. ! The findings of these semantic analyses also very useful in foreign language teaching and speech therapy, where i h proved helpful l hi d h h h it has dh l f l to present learners with sets of related lexemes, rather than with a series of randomly chosen items.! Psychology has also shown that young children learn much of their vocabulary by bringing lexemes together in this way.
!
Semantic fields
!
!
If we go back where we started, saying something about bac w e e sta te , say g so et g the ordering lexemes into semantic fields, we asked the question how exactly do the lexemes within a field relate to each other? It is obvious fromdictionary definitions and thesaurus groupings that some lexemes do 'belong together'. How can we define what this 'belonging together together' consists of? A well-established model of lexical structure makes us think of lexemes as being related along two intersecting dimensions. dimensions
Semantic fields
On the horizontal dimension, we sense the relationships between p lexemes in a sequence. Thereis a certain mutual expectancy between the main lexemes in the sentence He writhed on the ground in excruciating pain. The linguistic intuition of an English-language speaker tells that excruciating tends to occur with pain agony, and a pain, agony few other lexemes, and not with joy, ignorance., and most other nouns in the language. Likewise, writhe and agony commonly cog occur, as do writhe andground. ! 'Horizontal' expectancies of this kind are known as collocations. We can say that excruciating collocates with 'pain'.
!
Semantic fields
!
On the vertical dimension, we sense the way in which one lexeme y can substitute for another, and relate to it in meaning. In the sentence My aunt has bought a red automobile, we can focus on any of the lexemes, and replace it. We mightreplace bought by a lexeme of similar meaning (a synonym) such as purchased; or by one of synonym), contrasting meaning (an antonym), such as sold. We might replace automobile by a lexeme of more specific meaning (a hyponym), y general meaning (a hypernym), such g ( yp y ) such as Ford, or by one of more g as vehicle. Or, of course, we might replace automobile by a lexeme which has nothing to do...
12 March 2008
Semantic or lexical fields
!
One way of imposing order on the thousands of lexemes which y p g make up the English vocabulary is to group them in to semantic fields. What are semantic fields? Semantic field is a useful notion in investigating lexical structure. They are also called lexical fields. Semantic field is a named area of meaning in which lexemesinterrelate and define each other in specific ways. For example, if we think of all the lexemes we know to do with fruit, or colours, or p question is, To what extent is vehicles, and so on. But one important q it possible to assign all the lexemes in English to a semantic field in an unambiguous way?
Semantic fields
Some lexemes seem to belong to fields which are very difficult to define, orwhich are vague. For example, to what semantic field should noise or difficult belong? ! Secondly, some lexemes seem to belong to more than one field – for example, example does orange belong to 'fruit' or 'colour'? fruit colour ? ! And finally, some lexemes seem to fall midway between two fields – does tomato belong to 'fruit' or 'vegetable'? ! There is also the question of how best to define asemantic field: shall we q say that tractor belongs to the field of 'agricultural vehicles', or just 'vehicles'?, or on the other hand, is flavour part of the semantic field of 'taste', or taste part of the semantic field of 'flavour', or are both members of some broader semantic field, such as a 'sensation'? sensation ?
!
Semantic fields
At the same time, the existence of these difficultiesmust not hide the fact that a very large number of lexemes can be grouped together into fields and subfields in a fairly clear-cut way. ! The findings of these semantic analyses also very useful in foreign language teaching and speech therapy, where i h proved helpful l hi d h h h it has dh l f l to present learners with sets of related lexemes, rather than with a series of randomly chosen items.! Psychology has also shown that young children learn much of their vocabulary by bringing lexemes together in this way.
!
Semantic fields
!
!
If we go back where we started, saying something about bac w e e sta te , say g so et g the ordering lexemes into semantic fields, we asked the question how exactly do the lexemes within a field relate to each other? It is obvious fromdictionary definitions and thesaurus groupings that some lexemes do 'belong together'. How can we define what this 'belonging together together' consists of? A well-established model of lexical structure makes us think of lexemes as being related along two intersecting dimensions. dimensions
Semantic fields
On the horizontal dimension, we sense the relationships between p lexemes in a sequence. Thereis a certain mutual expectancy between the main lexemes in the sentence He writhed on the ground in excruciating pain. The linguistic intuition of an English-language speaker tells that excruciating tends to occur with pain agony, and a pain, agony few other lexemes, and not with joy, ignorance., and most other nouns in the language. Likewise, writhe and agony commonly cog occur, as do writhe andground. ! 'Horizontal' expectancies of this kind are known as collocations. We can say that excruciating collocates with 'pain'.
!
Semantic fields
!
On the vertical dimension, we sense the way in which one lexeme y can substitute for another, and relate to it in meaning. In the sentence My aunt has bought a red automobile, we can focus on any of the lexemes, and replace it. We mightreplace bought by a lexeme of similar meaning (a synonym) such as purchased; or by one of synonym), contrasting meaning (an antonym), such as sold. We might replace automobile by a lexeme of more specific meaning (a hyponym), y general meaning (a hypernym), such g ( yp y ) such as Ford, or by one of more g as vehicle. Or, of course, we might replace automobile by a lexeme which has nothing to do...
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