Meronymy

Write short notes on Meronymy

Definition
-similar to hyponym
- describes a part-whole relationship where the part is a meronym of the whole.
- meronym is part of a holonym
- retains meaning of part relative to the whole

Eg : Branch is a meronym of tree
Tree is a holonym of branch
Eg: Finger is a meronym of hand
Hand is a holonym of finger

Different from synecdoche
-while meronym retains the meaning of the part relative to the whole, synecdoche takes over the meaning of the whole

Hyponymy

Write short notes on hyponymy

1) relationship where the word X is a hyponym of the word Y where the meaning of X is included in the meaning of Y.

Eg: X Apple is a hyponym of fruit Y
Y Fruit is a hypernym or a superordinate of Apple X

2) Type of / Hierachy relationship where the meaning of the words lower are included in the meaning of the words higher up

3) A hyponym can also be a superordinate to other words

Eg: A gun is a hyponym of weapon but is a superordinate of rifles and pistols which is turn, pistol is a superordinate of revolver and other handguns

4) Hyponym entails superordinate but the reverse is not true

Eg: all guns are weapons but not all weapons are guns.

Antonyms

Antonyms

Definition
-describe words that have opposite meanings
-divided into 3 main categories

Binary Antonyms
- two possible outcomes and are not gradable, only 2 alternatives
Eg: when we say a person is not dead, it means he is alive. We cannot say that he is half dead.
When we say a person is not a male, it means he is a female. We cannot say that he is unisex
- words that imply the negative of each other (2 word set)

Relational Antonyms
-words that are symmetry in meaning : one cannot be used without the other
-same situation with 2 opposites and both opposites must exist
Eg:
+Jane is John's wife and John is Jane's husband
+the ball is above the chair, the chair is below the ball.
+the shopkeeper sold the thing to the boy and the boy bought the thing from the shopkeeper
-not applicable to only nouns but also verbs
Eg:
+buy---sell
+teacher-----student

Gradable Antonyms
-the negative of one does not imply the other
Eg:
+not hot does not mean cold
+not smart does not mean stupid
-modified in terms of degree
-the norms are dependent on the phenomena itself
Eg: whether someone is old or young would depend on the norm of young and old
-a young planet is older than a grandfather
-but a young man is older than an old worker bee with only a lifespan of 1 year
-placed on a continuum where the 2 extremes are separated by many possibilities
Eg:
not good does not necessarily mean that it is bad. it can be fair, satisfactory

Synonym

What do you understand from the term Synonymy

Synonym
Def : relationship between words with very similar meanings
-true synonyms are unlikely to survive in any language as one of the synonym will be redundant and will then be replaced by the other.
-Although synonyms are very similar in meanings, they are still different in terms of degree, region, formality and attitudes

differ in meaning in terms of
1) Difference in degree
-words that differ in terms of degree appear to be freely interchangably but actually differ in terms of degree
-however, one of the antonym is stronger than the other.
yell----shout
terror-------fear
astonishment----- surprise
the former word is stronger in terms of degree

2) differences in formality and attitudes
-words that are similar in meanings may be chosen over the other in situations of formality and attitudes.
-some words are more apt than the other depending on context.
For eg :
policeman ---- cop
-Both are referring to the same thing
-however the latter is used in informal situations.
-the earlier is more apt for formal situations
pass away -------- die
- both words have the same referent but out of politeness, pass away would be more appropriate.

3)regional variation

words from different varieties of english but are used to refer to the same thing.
-indexical aspect of language where words that are consistently used in a particular way are regarded as indexical.

for eg :
doughnut ----donut
tube ------ subway
tap ----- faucet

the former words in the above examples are words from British English while the latter, American english.
Used in different parts of the world but are referring to the same thing.

Arbitrainess and the sign

what do you understand from the concept of Arbitrariness and Sign?
What are the different signs

Arbitrary
- no natural relationship between sound, the written form of the word and what it stands for.

Sign
- anything that draws our attention to something

Types of Sign
1)Symbol
- arbitrary relationship between sign and what it represents for
eg: = equal

2)Icon
- non arbitrary rs between icon and what it stands for.
-resemblance icon and referent will not be exactly the same else the icon would be the referent
-sign that resembles what it stands for
For eg :
the picture of a letter is iconic because we can make educated guess about what is being represented just by looking it.
This probably can be found in a post office
The location of where the sign is placed is also important; if this sign is found in the office, it most likely represents the room where mails are being processed.

-words that mimic the sounds of animals : onomatopoeic
+these words are iconic as they sound like the sound made by the respective animal sound in some extent.

3)Index
- causal and sequential relationship between sign and event

-indexical aspect of language is most apparent in the accent of the language speaker/pronunciation.
For eg: we are able to tell alot of where people are from by just listening to them.

-spelling and form of certain British English and American English are also indexical

Eg : colour (BE) color (AE) / tap (BE) faucet (AE) / tube (BE) subway (AE)
these words are used in 2 different varieties of English but are used to refer to the same item. We call these words consistently used and spelt in a particular way as indexical.
Eg :
relationship between smoke an fire
when there is smoke, one can expect to see a fire.
the presence of smoke indicates a fire.
-thus smoke is an index indicating the presence of fire, regardless whether it can be seen or not

Eg: symptoms of an illness
-doctors base their diagonses of illness on symptoms
-the symptoms are indices that suggest the presence of an underlying medical problem.
for instance a temperature over 37.3 degree celcius would indicate a fever

Sense, Reference

What do you understand from the term sense and reference?

Sense
- sense is the conceptual meaning of the word (something like dictionary meaning)

Reference
- relationship that exists between the word and the outside reality ( referent)

Denotation
- relationship that exists between the word and the general class of object that it picks out.

Words with sense and reference
- words that can be tied down to some external entity in the real word
for eg: cat
sense - a feline creature with 4 legs and go miao miao
reference - somebody's pet or something which you can see at SPCA or on the streets

Words with no sense but with reference
- words that do not have conceptual meaning but points to something from the real world.
-proper nouns like Alvin, Paula

Words with no reference but with sense
- words that do have conceptual meaning but does not point to anything from the real world.
-mostly mysthical creatures, like dragons, fairies and function words.

Word Creation

Write short notes on Word Creation

Acronym formation
-word that is formed from the initial letters of the phrase
- is denoted with capital letters to show that it actually represents something more.
-over time and when used regularly, the acronyms start to take the characteristics and spelling structure of a normal word

Eg : SARS severe acute respiratory syndrome

Borrowing
-occurs when one language takes words from another language and adopts the pronunication of structural pattern of the borrowing language.
English is a very heavy borrower of words from many languages, latin, greek, french.
For eg the word vocabulary is borrowed from the latin word vocabulum.

-Happens when 2 or more languages come in contact with each other
- in the same way, many foreign words enter the El language due to colonisation, war , labor migration and trade.
For eg:
Singapore English borrows words from both Hokkien and Malay due to close contact with the various languages
-kiasu (taken from Hokkien to mean someone is overly anxious)
-makan (taken from Malay )

Backformation
- special case of clipping
- happens when the original word is shortened to form another word by removing what seems like the derivational suffix.
-results in a change in word class
- mostly from nouns to verbs
Eg: Television -> televise
Editor -> edit
Donation -> donate

*special case : Backformation with no change in word class
The word peas is orginated from the word PEASE which in the middle english known as little green plants.
-however,-se is not a suffix.
-thus, this results to a backformation of Pease to Pea by removing the suffix -se.
-people thought that pea is the singular form of pease but this is not true.
-thus , it seems like it's the removal of the inflectional suffix instead.
It is what we now know as Peas.

Blending
-very similar to compounding but at least one of the words that form the blend is reduced.
most recent blends would be dweeb - blend of drawrf and creep
brunch - blend of breakfast and lunch
-think is not a recent phenomena as it has been started since the 16th century with blends
Eg : twirl - twist and swirl
flurry - flutter and hurry

Conversion
- when there is a change in the word class without a change in the form of the word.
- known as class changing process
- words are converted from one class to another without a change in form
- not restricted to only 1 type of word class
Eg: Bottle ---- bottled
Up ------ upped
butter -------buttered
why --------whys

Coinage
- formation of totally new words.
- usually trade names but overtime, these words will be known as common nouns.
Eg : Kodak, Xerox
-again, not a recent phenomena
- nylon(1930)

Compounding
- single new word is formed from 2 separate words.
- the meaning of compounded word is similar to the component words.
Eg: Blackboard, lifeguard

*special case : capsize
- is not a compounded word from the words cap + size.
-the meanings of the above words are not related to the word capsize.
-same refers to carpet

Clipping
- done mostly for convenience as it is easier to remember
- original single word is shortened
-again, not a recent phenomena - previous (pram -----perambulator)
- more recent clipped words - (net ------ internet , lab----------laboratory)

Derivational
- most productive word/utterance creation
-can be done to almost any word just by adding prefix or suffix
-results in a change in lexical meaning and word form
Eg : googol
- the word googol acts as the stem, can be changed into a whole new set of words just by adding derivational suffixes
-can be changed into a noun ---googolisation
-can be changed into a verb ------googolised
-can be changed into an adverb ---- googolly