Sen relations
Words are arbitrary symbols and are independent identities so far as their outer facet-spelling and pronunciation, is concerned. But mantically, all words are related in one way or another. A word which is related to other words is related to them in n, hence n relations. We can even say that the ns of the word are prominent only when they are related in the system The subjects that have long held the interest and attention of manticists are polymy, homonymy, synonymy, antonymy and hyponymy and taxonomy. The will be discusd in this chapter. Moreover, the discussion will also cover mantic field, which is commonly felt to be an integral part of n relations.
The main n relations in English vocabulary are shown as follows:
polymy On Sunday they pray for you, but on Monday they prey on you.
Homonymy Give me a hand plea. He is a new hand.
抽烟的坏处河南习俗Synonymy he comes in panting. He sits on a chair, breathless.
Sen relation He said: I’m puffed. I’m puffed.
Antonymy my only love sprung from my only hate.
Hyponymy A family usually includes a father, mother and child.
Taxonomy X is a type of Y.
I. Polymy
1.1 definiton
polyny is a universal feature of all natural languages. It is a term ud in mantic analysis to refer to a lexical item which has a range of different meanings. The co-existence of veral meanings in a word is called polymy. Polymy can be ud to ac
hieve humor, irony, a dramatic effect. English like all other languages, is full of polymic words.
e.g. The word “flight” may mean “passing through the air”, “power of flying”, “air of journey”,
hand: that part of human body beyond the wrist.
But: give me a hand, plea. ( help)
He is a new hand. ( a performer)\
We need some extra hands. (Workerman)
He writes a good hand. (Handwriting)描写云的诗句
All hands on deck! ( sailor)
羊肉煲汤The clock has one hand only. (pointer)
1.2 Why would polymy appear in each language?
That is due to the great generality and the change in word meaning. When words are first coined, they are always monomic，but within the cour of development, the same word may has two or more different meanings.
1.3 Two approaches to polymy:
过期药品属于什么垃圾新闻知识1）diachronic approach（历时角度）:It refers to the study of the growth or change in the mantic structure of a word, or how the mantic structure of a word has developed from a primary meaning to the prent polymic state, i.e. with derived ( cond) meanings springing from the original (primary) meaning. From the diachronic point of view, polymy is assumed to be the result of growth and development of the mantic structure of one and same word. The primary meaning gave birth to new meaning.
The primary meaning become either absolute or disappeared altogether
2）synchronic approach（共时角度）:It refers to the comparative value of individual m
eaning and the interrelation between the central meaning and condary meanings. Synchronically, polymy is viewed as the coexistence of various meanings of the same word in a certain historical period of time, say, Modern English. The basic meaning of a word is the core of word meaning. The core of word meaning called the central meaning推镜头>鲜肉水饺 （condary meaning）.
The central meaning has gradually diminished in currency with the changes and one of the derived meanings has become dominant. E.g. gay
1.4 two process of the development
The development of word-meaning from monomy to polymy follows two cours, traditionally known as radiation and concatenation.
1.4.1 radiation（辐射型）:
Face:
Its central meaning is
(1) the front part of the head (draw a picture of radiation)
its condary meanings are:
(2) the face of the clock looks better.
(3) The north face of a mountain
(4) The face of the city
(5) He has a smiling face.
(6) He has tried his best to save his face.
(7) Which face shall we print the cover in?
radiation is the process in which the primary or central meaning stands at the center while condary meaning radiate from it in every direction like rays. Take the word power for example; it has thirteen ns listed in COD. The simple meaning “ability
to do act” stands at the center. And all the condary meanings might easily have developed from the central meaning without regard to any of the others.
The word neck affords another good example. The primary meaning is (1) that part of man or animal joining the head to the body; from this are derived (2) that part of the garment; (3) the neck of an animal ud as food, e.g. the neck of lamb; (4) a narrow part between the head and body or ba of any object, e.g. the neck of a violin; (5) the narrowest part of anything: bottle, land, strait or channel (WNWD). Though the referent of each of the five may not be the same, yet they are all related to the central meaning. Meaning (2) is an instance of transfer, (3) an instance of specialization, and (4) and (5) are instances of extension.
