Lecture 4

• Sense relations
• Semantic fields
• Paraphrases and contradiction
• Entailment and the truth of sentences

1
 Sense relations
• Definition
• Types of sense relations
1. Major types
a. Substitutional (paradigmatic)
b. Combinatorial (syntagmatic)

2. Other types
a. Hyponymy
b. Meronymy
2
 Definition

The lexical structure of a language can be

seen as a network of sense relations,
effected by the members of the lexicon

3
Lexical Structure

Word/expression

Sense relation
4
 Example

stare
glance
look
glimpse
gaze

5
 Groups Of Sense Relations

• Synonymic groups
• Antonymic groups

6
 Types Of Sense Relations

• Major types
- Substitutional (paradigmatic)
- Combinatorial (syntagmatic)
• Other types
- Hyponymy
- Meronymy

7
 Major Types Of Sense Relations
Substitutional Combinatorial
relations relations
• Are those existing • Are those existing
between members of between items of
the same grammatical different grammatical
categories categories

8
The girl is pretty/ugly/polite/rude
SUBSTITUTIONAL COMBINATORIAL
RELATIONS RELATIONS

“pretty” &”ugly” & “the pretty girl” is a

“polite” & “rude” are combination
interchangeable and between a noun and
belong to the same an adjective
category of adjective

9
 Note
A number of words tend to co-occur with
others which are described as collocational

False/forged passport
To proceed along
To make friends
To commit a crime
A deep river / ocean
10
 Other Types Of Sense Relations

Hyponymy Meronymy
• Defined in terms of • Defined as part-whole
inclusion relation

• Ex: • Ex:
“Washing powder” “Face”
=
TIDE OMO … Eyes + nose + lips
11
 Hyponymy - Definition
• Hyponymy is the relationship between two words
in which the meaning of one of the words
includes the meaning of the other.
• This relationship is ASYMMETRICAL
(hierarchical) relationship.
• E.g. Dog - animal
Oak - plant
Rose - flower
Car - vehicle
12
 Some Features Of Hyponymy

1) Hyponym is decided based on the viewpoint of intension

and extension
E.g.: “Flower” and “rose”

superordinate hyponym

• Rose, daffodil and tulip…are co-hyponyms of “rose”

13
• The hyponym is the member whose intensional
meaning is specific enough to cover the meaning
of the superordinate whereas the superordinate
member is the one whose extensional meaning is
broad enough to cover the hyponym.
• E.g. a “rose” is a flower, but not every flower is a
rose. The meaning of “flower” is included in the
meaning of “rose”
• A hyponym is the opposite of a hypernym, which
is another term for superordinate .

14
Some Features Of Hyponymy
2) Makes substitution possible

- Did she smile with you?

- Yes, she grinned with me

- Have you bought some flowers?

- Yes, I’ve bought some roses.

15
 Some Features Of Hyponymy
3) Hyponymy is a transitive relation:

x is H of y
y is H of z => x is H of z

E.g.: Cow - mammal - animal

Honda - car - vehicle
wine - drink - liquid

16
 Some Features Of Hyponymy
4) Hyponymy is related to synonym. Synonymy is
special case of hyponymy: SYMETRICAL
hyponymy.

x is H of y x and y are
y is H of x synonyms

E.g. :“Mercury” & “quicksilver”

17
 Features Of Meronymy
• Part-whole relation between discrete referents is
transitive

x is part of y
=> x is part of z
y is part of z

E.g.: Drive - CPU - computer

Picture - page - book
face - head - body
• Meronymy is the opposite of holonymy
18
 Semantic field (Lexical field)

• Definition

• Ways of grouping words

• Characteristics

19
 Semantic field (Lexical field)
• A lexical/semantic field is the organization of related
words and expressions into a system which shows
their relationships to one another.
• The value of a word is determined by defining it in
relation to the value of neighbouring or contrasting
words. Thus, the vocabulary of a language is viewed
as an integrated system of lexemes interrelated in
sense. A semantic field is a set of interrelated
senses based on a conceptual field or spectrum.

20
 Examples
• In terms of colour: 4 primary color terms: blue,
green, yellow, red.
• Environment: overfish, overexploit, pollute,
contaminate, ozone depletion, rain forests
• Beach: towel, umbrella, lotion, bikini, sand
• Carpenter: lumber, nails, drills, saw, chisel
• Dentist: filling, cavity, extract, pull
• Degrees of redness: Red, scarlet, orange,
crimson, rose
21
 Ways of grouping words
• Thematically
Words of the same part of speech that cover the same
conceptual field
e.g., COOKING: boil, bake, fry, broil, steam, etc

• Ideographically
Words of different parts of speech but thematically
related
e.g., HOLIDAY: to book (a fight), a package tour, hotel,
luxurious, etc
22
 Paraphrase
• A sentence which expresses the same proposition as
another sentence is a paraphrase of that sentence
(assuming the same referents for any referring expressions
involved).
E.g. John sold his car to Peter
Peter bought John’s car
I don’t like math
I am not fond of math
Bachelors prefer red-haired girls
Girls with red hair are preferred by unmarried men
• Paraphrase is a relationship where two propositions have the
same truth conditions. 23
 Contradiction
• Contradiction is a relationship where a
proposition must be false because of the
meanings of the words involved.
E.g. He is both married and single
That cat is a dog
This animal is a vegetable
That girl is her own mother’s
mother
John killed Bill, who remained
alive many years later 24
 What is a proposition?
• A proposition is that part of the meaning of an
utterance of a declarative sentence which
describes some state of affairs
• The state of affairs typically involves persons or
things referred to by expressions in the
sentence. In uttering a declarative sentence, a
speaker typically asserts a proposition.
• A proposition usually consists of (a) something
which is named or talked about known as
argument or entity, (b) an assertion or
predication made about the arguments.
25
 Notes
• A proposition can be True or False depending on
the truth conditions.

• True proposition correspond to facts in the

ordinary sense of the word fact. False
propositions do not correspond to fact.
E.g. There are lions in Africa (T)
The state of California is
uninhabited by human beings (F)
26
 Lexical gap
• “Lexical gap” refers to the absence of a word in
a particular place in a lexical field of a language,
denoting an object which does exist in the
culture in which the language is used. Two
questions:
Q.1: Can we have co-hyponyms without
an existing superordinate lexeme?
A.1: Yes. There is no superordinate term for
- cow + bull = ???
- stallion + mare = horse
27
• Q.2: Can we say that there is a lexical gap
at a place in the hierarchical structure
where we could expect a hyponym of
an existing superordinate to be?
• A.2: Yes.
a. corpse: body of a dead human
b. carcass: body of dead animal
c. “?????” : body of a dead tree

28