Page 415 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Unit 32: Synonymy, Antonymy, Polysemy, Homophony and Ambiguity

And more specified features (features low sown on the tree) imply more general features (features Notes
higher up on the tree). So the feature EQUINE implies also the features QUADRUPED,
VERTEBRATE, ANIMAL and ANIMATE.
But binary splits are not always possible. In some semantic fields, pairs are difficult to identify—
and may be non-existent. A notorious example is the field of colours. Another problem is that
features cannot always be organised hierarchically. In features such as MALE and ADULT, there
is no reason to suppose that the feature ADULT is more general than the feature MALE or that the
feature MALE is more general than the feature ADULT. Neither implies the other, so they cannot
be a hierarchy. Features such as these which cannot be hierarchically classified in relation to one
another, are known as classifying features.

32.11 Summary

• One sense with several names is synonymy, that is two items are synonymous when they
have the same sense. Lexical items can be regarded as synonymous if they can be interchanged
without altering the meaning of an utterance :
e.g. I saw a madman.
I saw a lunatic.
I saw a maddy.
I saw a bedlamite.
• Hyponymy is frequently referred to as ‘inclusion’ or ‘classification’. For example, the ‘meaning’
of scarlet is said to be ‘included’ in the ‘meaning’ of red; the ‘meaning’ of red is ‘included, in
the ‘meaning’ of blood; the ‘meaning’ of rose is said to be ‘included’ in the ‘meaning’ of
flower; and so on. This formulation of the relationship of ‘inclusion’ rests upon the notion of
reference.
• Oppositeness of meaning has been one of the most important semantic relations. In many
languages there are dictionaries of synonyms and antonyms, the study of opposites is quite
complex.
• Antonymy is the relation of oppositeness in pairs of lexical items where the assertion of one
implies the denial of the other. For example, big and small, little and much, few and many.
These are ‘opposites par excellence.
• Polysemy or poly semantic is generally defined as “having several, often quite different,
meanings, all derived from the basic idea or concept” (Dictionary of Linguistics, 1954). The
lexicographer lists homonyms as different words, whereas polysemy is a term used in
traditional semantics for the words having multiple meaning but given under one entry by
the lexicographer. For example, ‘human head’, ‘head of department’, ‘bridgehead’.

32.12 Key-Words

1. Homonymy : It occurs when two different lexical words share the same word-shape, e.g.
when they are represented by the same phonological word: bat, the animal,
and bat, the crickerter’s implement are an example of a homonymous pair.
2. Polysemy : It occurs when the meaning of a lexical word is extended in such a way that it
can be applied to another idea or object by some reinterpretation of the original
meaning. For example, we can apply the word mouth to a bag, a cave, a bottle,
a tunnel, etc., by extending it original meaning to ‘an opening’.

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