Lexical Relations: Homonymy

Lexical Relations: Homonymy

Author: Katharina Baron

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2005-06-19

Total Pages: 27

ISBN-13: 3638388557

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Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,3, http://www.uni-jena.de/ (Institut für Anglistik/Amerikanistik), course: Proseminar: Lexical Relations, language: English, abstract: Comunicating via language is a significant property of human beings. The Oxford English Dictionary contains about 400 000 lexemes and the vocabulary of an average English speaker covers 250 000 words. During normal conversations about 4,000 or 5,000 words are used per hour and while reading a person reaches an amount of 14,000 or 15,000 words in an hour.1 Usually one does not think about any relations between the words, the words we need in a particular situation come to our mind and we use them because they fulfill the function of communicating with others. When communicating via language we do not think about where the words historically come from or how they are related to each other. From the linguistic point of view the words are not single units for themselves they are linked to each other by semantic (paradigmatic and syntagmatic) and formal relations. Syntagmatic relations are explained on the basis of meaning of words and paradigmatic relations deal with semantic and grammatical features. Formal relations are based on the form of lexemes. The focus of this paper will be on homonymy, which is a formal relationship between lexemes. In the first part the phenomenon will be explained in regard to its types, development and problems which can arise from homonymy. In the second part examples of homonymous lexemes will be analysed. It will be explained which type of homonymy they belong to, why they are homonyms and which problems can arise in written and spoken language when those homonymous lexemes are used. 1 See: Aitchison, Jean, Linguistics (London: Hodder Headline Plc, 1999) 3.


Book Synopsis Lexical Relations: Homonymy by : Katharina Baron

Download or read book Lexical Relations: Homonymy written by Katharina Baron and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2005-06-19 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,3, http://www.uni-jena.de/ (Institut für Anglistik/Amerikanistik), course: Proseminar: Lexical Relations, language: English, abstract: Comunicating via language is a significant property of human beings. The Oxford English Dictionary contains about 400 000 lexemes and the vocabulary of an average English speaker covers 250 000 words. During normal conversations about 4,000 or 5,000 words are used per hour and while reading a person reaches an amount of 14,000 or 15,000 words in an hour.1 Usually one does not think about any relations between the words, the words we need in a particular situation come to our mind and we use them because they fulfill the function of communicating with others. When communicating via language we do not think about where the words historically come from or how they are related to each other. From the linguistic point of view the words are not single units for themselves they are linked to each other by semantic (paradigmatic and syntagmatic) and formal relations. Syntagmatic relations are explained on the basis of meaning of words and paradigmatic relations deal with semantic and grammatical features. Formal relations are based on the form of lexemes. The focus of this paper will be on homonymy, which is a formal relationship between lexemes. In the first part the phenomenon will be explained in regard to its types, development and problems which can arise from homonymy. In the second part examples of homonymous lexemes will be analysed. It will be explained which type of homonymy they belong to, why they are homonyms and which problems can arise in written and spoken language when those homonymous lexemes are used. 1 See: Aitchison, Jean, Linguistics (London: Hodder Headline Plc, 1999) 3.

Lexical Relations

Lexical Relations

Author: Herbert Reichl

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2003-04-08

Total Pages: 21

ISBN-13: 363818241X

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Seminar paper from the year 1999 in the subject American Studies - Linguistics, grade: Good, University of Salzburg (Anglistics/ American Studies), course: The Vocabulary of English: Lexical and Morphological Issues, language: English, abstract: There is no doubt, also - and especially - among experts, that our mental vocabulary is highly organised. There are a lot of relations between the single words of a language and the meanings of these words, respectively. Among linguists, these relations are called “semantic relations”, “sense relations” or “lexical relations”. These semantic relations can be analysed and described for the most part, and in the following, the most important ones of these relations are to be presented. In order to give a short, critical description of the state of the art, it must be said that there are lots of research projects on this topic. However, this paper can only include some of them. Literature which was used can be found under point six, “List Of Works Cited”. Project delimitations have only been made as far as detail is concerned. Since this paper is only a very short piece of research, the authors have confined themselves not to go into too much detail, but rather try to give a good survey of the topic. Lexical relations can be roughly divided into: · Types of ambiguity (polysemy, homonymy) · Types of congruence (synonymy, hyponymy, meronymy, relations of contrast) · Lexical fields


Book Synopsis Lexical Relations by : Herbert Reichl

Download or read book Lexical Relations written by Herbert Reichl and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2003-04-08 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 1999 in the subject American Studies - Linguistics, grade: Good, University of Salzburg (Anglistics/ American Studies), course: The Vocabulary of English: Lexical and Morphological Issues, language: English, abstract: There is no doubt, also - and especially - among experts, that our mental vocabulary is highly organised. There are a lot of relations between the single words of a language and the meanings of these words, respectively. Among linguists, these relations are called “semantic relations”, “sense relations” or “lexical relations”. These semantic relations can be analysed and described for the most part, and in the following, the most important ones of these relations are to be presented. In order to give a short, critical description of the state of the art, it must be said that there are lots of research projects on this topic. However, this paper can only include some of them. Literature which was used can be found under point six, “List Of Works Cited”. Project delimitations have only been made as far as detail is concerned. Since this paper is only a very short piece of research, the authors have confined themselves not to go into too much detail, but rather try to give a good survey of the topic. Lexical relations can be roughly divided into: · Types of ambiguity (polysemy, homonymy) · Types of congruence (synonymy, hyponymy, meronymy, relations of contrast) · Lexical fields

Lexical Relations - Lexical Ambiguity

Lexical Relations - Lexical Ambiguity

Author: Irina Giertz

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2014-12-01

Total Pages: 14

ISBN-13: 3656851166

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Essay from the year 2005 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Grammar, Style, Working Technique, grade: 1,1, University of Cologne (Institut für Englische Philologie), course: Semantics, language: English, abstract: Lexical ambiguity appears at the interface between form and meaning of lexical items. Ambiguity is triggered by the assumption that the similarity of form is also reflected in the similarity of meaning. Whereas ambiguities violate the maxim of manner in the co-operative principles postulated by Grice, they are highly acclaimed in poetic language where they originate not in lack of specification or the complexity of the discourse, but in the complexity of the reader’s presuppositions. In this sense, it depends on the reader’s expertise, reading experience and profundity in determining the number of noted ambiguities. Linguistic ambiguity is a rich source of various word plays mostly known as punning. It reveals and emphasises linguistic peculiarities like homonymy and polysemy in a self-referential play of language with itself in a kind of mirroring.


Book Synopsis Lexical Relations - Lexical Ambiguity by : Irina Giertz

Download or read book Lexical Relations - Lexical Ambiguity written by Irina Giertz and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2014-12-01 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essay from the year 2005 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Grammar, Style, Working Technique, grade: 1,1, University of Cologne (Institut für Englische Philologie), course: Semantics, language: English, abstract: Lexical ambiguity appears at the interface between form and meaning of lexical items. Ambiguity is triggered by the assumption that the similarity of form is also reflected in the similarity of meaning. Whereas ambiguities violate the maxim of manner in the co-operative principles postulated by Grice, they are highly acclaimed in poetic language where they originate not in lack of specification or the complexity of the discourse, but in the complexity of the reader’s presuppositions. In this sense, it depends on the reader’s expertise, reading experience and profundity in determining the number of noted ambiguities. Linguistic ambiguity is a rich source of various word plays mostly known as punning. It reveals and emphasises linguistic peculiarities like homonymy and polysemy in a self-referential play of language with itself in a kind of mirroring.

Lexical Semantics

Lexical Semantics

Author: D. A. Cruse

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1986-09-18

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 9780521276436

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Lexical Semantics is about the meaning of words. Although obviously a central concern of linguistics, the semantic behaviour of words has been unduly neglected in the current literature, which has tended to emphasize sentential semantics and its relation to formal systems of logic. In this textbook D. A. Cruse establishes in a principled and disciplined way the descriptive and generalizable facts about lexical relations that any formal theory of semantics will have to encompass. Among the topics covered in depth are idiomaticity, lexical ambiguity, synonymy, hierarchical relations such as hyponymy and meronymy, and various types of oppositeness. Syntagmatic relations are also treated in some detail. The discussions are richly illustrated by examples drawn almost entirely from English. Although a familiarity with traditional grammar is assumed, readers with no technical linguistic background will find the exposition always accessible. All readers with an interest in semantics will find in this original text not only essential background but a stimulating new perspective on the field.


Book Synopsis Lexical Semantics by : D. A. Cruse

Download or read book Lexical Semantics written by D. A. Cruse and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1986-09-18 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lexical Semantics is about the meaning of words. Although obviously a central concern of linguistics, the semantic behaviour of words has been unduly neglected in the current literature, which has tended to emphasize sentential semantics and its relation to formal systems of logic. In this textbook D. A. Cruse establishes in a principled and disciplined way the descriptive and generalizable facts about lexical relations that any formal theory of semantics will have to encompass. Among the topics covered in depth are idiomaticity, lexical ambiguity, synonymy, hierarchical relations such as hyponymy and meronymy, and various types of oppositeness. Syntagmatic relations are also treated in some detail. The discussions are richly illustrated by examples drawn almost entirely from English. Although a familiarity with traditional grammar is assumed, readers with no technical linguistic background will find the exposition always accessible. All readers with an interest in semantics will find in this original text not only essential background but a stimulating new perspective on the field.

Semantic Relations and the Lexicon

Semantic Relations and the Lexicon

Author: M. Lynne Murphy

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2003-10-02

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1139437453

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Semantic Relations and the Lexicon explores the many paradigmatic semantic relations between words, such as synonymy, antonymy and hyponymy, and their relevance to the mental organization of our vocabularies. Drawing on a century's research in linguistics, psychology, philosophy, anthropology and computer science, M. Lynne Murphy proposes a pragmatic approach to these relations. Whereas traditional approaches have claimed that paradigmatic relations are part of our lexical knowledge, Dr Murphy argues that they constitute metalinguistic knowledge, which can be derived through a single relational principle, and may also be stored as part of our extra-lexical, conceptual representations of a word. Part I shows how this approach can account for the properties of lexical relations in ways that traditional approaches cannot, and Part II examines particular relations in detail. This book will serve as an informative handbook for all linguists and cognitive scientists interested in the mental representation of vocabulary.


Book Synopsis Semantic Relations and the Lexicon by : M. Lynne Murphy

Download or read book Semantic Relations and the Lexicon written by M. Lynne Murphy and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-10-02 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Semantic Relations and the Lexicon explores the many paradigmatic semantic relations between words, such as synonymy, antonymy and hyponymy, and their relevance to the mental organization of our vocabularies. Drawing on a century's research in linguistics, psychology, philosophy, anthropology and computer science, M. Lynne Murphy proposes a pragmatic approach to these relations. Whereas traditional approaches have claimed that paradigmatic relations are part of our lexical knowledge, Dr Murphy argues that they constitute metalinguistic knowledge, which can be derived through a single relational principle, and may also be stored as part of our extra-lexical, conceptual representations of a word. Part I shows how this approach can account for the properties of lexical relations in ways that traditional approaches cannot, and Part II examines particular relations in detail. This book will serve as an informative handbook for all linguists and cognitive scientists interested in the mental representation of vocabulary.

Lexical Meaning

Lexical Meaning

Author: M. Lynne Murphy

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2010-10-28

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 113949337X

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The ideal introduction for students of semantics, Lexical Meaning fills the gap left by more general semantics textbooks, providing the teacher and the student with insights into word meaning beyond the traditional overviews of lexical relations. The book explores the relationship between word meanings and syntax and semantics more generally. It provides a balanced overview of the main theoretical approaches, along with a lucid explanation of their relative strengths and weaknesses. After covering the main topics in lexical meaning, such as polysemy and sense relations, the textbook surveys the types of meanings represented by different word classes. It explains abstract concepts in clear language, using a wide range of examples, and includes linguistic puzzles in each chapter to encourage the student to practise using the concepts. 'Adopt-a-Word' exercises give students the chance to research a particular word, building a portfolio of specialist work on a single word.


Book Synopsis Lexical Meaning by : M. Lynne Murphy

Download or read book Lexical Meaning written by M. Lynne Murphy and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-10-28 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ideal introduction for students of semantics, Lexical Meaning fills the gap left by more general semantics textbooks, providing the teacher and the student with insights into word meaning beyond the traditional overviews of lexical relations. The book explores the relationship between word meanings and syntax and semantics more generally. It provides a balanced overview of the main theoretical approaches, along with a lucid explanation of their relative strengths and weaknesses. After covering the main topics in lexical meaning, such as polysemy and sense relations, the textbook surveys the types of meanings represented by different word classes. It explains abstract concepts in clear language, using a wide range of examples, and includes linguistic puzzles in each chapter to encourage the student to practise using the concepts. 'Adopt-a-Word' exercises give students the chance to research a particular word, building a portfolio of specialist work on a single word.

The Oxford Handbook of the Word

The Oxford Handbook of the Word

Author: John R. Taylor

Publisher: Oxford Handbooks

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 897

ISBN-13: 0199641609

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The word is central to both naive and expert theories of language. Yet the definition of 'word' remains problematic. The 42 chapters of this Handbook offer a variety of perspectives on this most basic and elusive of linguistic units.


Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of the Word by : John R. Taylor

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Word written by John R. Taylor and published by Oxford Handbooks. This book was released on 2015 with total page 897 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The word is central to both naive and expert theories of language. Yet the definition of 'word' remains problematic. The 42 chapters of this Handbook offer a variety of perspectives on this most basic and elusive of linguistic units.

The identification of word classes in connection with the differentiation between homonymy and polysemy

The identification of word classes in connection with the differentiation between homonymy and polysemy

Author: Hendrikje Schulze

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2004-02-05

Total Pages: 19

ISBN-13: 3638251128

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Seminar paper from the year 2001 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,3, http://www.uni-jena.de/ (Anglistische Sprachwissenschaft), language: English, abstract: This paper is concerned with the linguistic phenomena of homonymy and polysemy. The term homonymy goes back to the Greek words "homós", meaning "the same", and "ónoma", meaning name. A simplified translation of homonymy would be "having the same name". The term polysemy goes back to the Greek language, too. It is composed of the words "polys", meaning "a lot of", and "sema", which can be translated with "meaning". Simply said polysemy is the phenomenon of one word carrying different meanings. Homonymy as well as polysemy are rather complex linguistic phenomena. Both have been discussed in connection with each other for a long time. The central point of discussion is the question whether one is confronted with different lexical items which are formally identical, i.e. homonymy, or whether there is just one single lexical item with different meanings, i.e. polysemy. This is especially important with regard to lexicography. It plays also a role in connection with the classification of word classes. Different criteria have been introduced to distinguish clearly between homonymy and polysemy. Nevertheless, the question remains whether an unambiguous distinction can really be made. This question will be discussed in the following paper.


Book Synopsis The identification of word classes in connection with the differentiation between homonymy and polysemy by : Hendrikje Schulze

Download or read book The identification of word classes in connection with the differentiation between homonymy and polysemy written by Hendrikje Schulze and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2004-02-05 with total page 19 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2001 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,3, http://www.uni-jena.de/ (Anglistische Sprachwissenschaft), language: English, abstract: This paper is concerned with the linguistic phenomena of homonymy and polysemy. The term homonymy goes back to the Greek words "homós", meaning "the same", and "ónoma", meaning name. A simplified translation of homonymy would be "having the same name". The term polysemy goes back to the Greek language, too. It is composed of the words "polys", meaning "a lot of", and "sema", which can be translated with "meaning". Simply said polysemy is the phenomenon of one word carrying different meanings. Homonymy as well as polysemy are rather complex linguistic phenomena. Both have been discussed in connection with each other for a long time. The central point of discussion is the question whether one is confronted with different lexical items which are formally identical, i.e. homonymy, or whether there is just one single lexical item with different meanings, i.e. polysemy. This is especially important with regard to lexicography. It plays also a role in connection with the classification of word classes. Different criteria have been introduced to distinguish clearly between homonymy and polysemy. Nevertheless, the question remains whether an unambiguous distinction can really be made. This question will be discussed in the following paper.

Computational Lexical Semantics

Computational Lexical Semantics

Author: Patrick Saint-Dizier

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1995-02-24

Total Pages: 461

ISBN-13: 0521444101

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Lexical semantics has become a major research area within computational linguistics, drawing from psycholinguistics, knowledge representation, and computer algorithms and architecture. Research programs whose goal is the definition of large lexicons are asking what the appropriate representation structure is for different facets of lexical information. Among these facets, semantic information is probably the most complex and the least explored. Computational Lexical Semantics is one of the first volumes to provide models for the creation of various kinds of computerized lexicons for the automatic treatment of natural language, with applications to machine translation, automatic indexing, and database front-ends, knowledge extraction, among other things. It focuses on semantic issues, as seen by linguists, psychologists, and computer scientists. Besides describing academic research, it also covers ongoing industrial projects.


Book Synopsis Computational Lexical Semantics by : Patrick Saint-Dizier

Download or read book Computational Lexical Semantics written by Patrick Saint-Dizier and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1995-02-24 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lexical semantics has become a major research area within computational linguistics, drawing from psycholinguistics, knowledge representation, and computer algorithms and architecture. Research programs whose goal is the definition of large lexicons are asking what the appropriate representation structure is for different facets of lexical information. Among these facets, semantic information is probably the most complex and the least explored. Computational Lexical Semantics is one of the first volumes to provide models for the creation of various kinds of computerized lexicons for the automatic treatment of natural language, with applications to machine translation, automatic indexing, and database front-ends, knowledge extraction, among other things. It focuses on semantic issues, as seen by linguists, psychologists, and computer scientists. Besides describing academic research, it also covers ongoing industrial projects.

The Generative Lexicon

The Generative Lexicon

Author: James Pustejovsky

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1998-01-23

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 9780262661409

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The first formally elaborated theory of a generative approach to word meaning, The Generative Lexicon lays the foundation for an implemented computational treatment of word meaning that connects explicitly to a compositional semantics. The Generative Lexicon presents a novel and exciting theory of lexical semantics that addresses the problem of the "multiplicity of word meaning"; that is, how we are able to give an infinite number of senses to words with finite means. The first formally elaborated theory of a generative approach to word meaning, it lays the foundation for an implemented computational treatment of word meaning that connects explicitly to a compositional semantics. In contrast to the static view of word meaning (where each word is characterized by a predetermined number of word senses) that imposes a tremendous bottleneck on the performance capability of any natural language processing system, Pustejovsky proposes that the lexicon becomes an active—and central—component in the linguistic description. The essence of his theory is that the lexicon functions generatively, first by providing a rich and expressive vocabulary for characterizing lexical information; then, by developing a framework for manipulating fine-grained distinctions in word descriptions; and finally, by formalizing a set of mechanisms for specialized composition of aspects of such descriptions of words, as they occur in context, extended and novel senses are generated. The subjects covered include semantics of nominals (figure/ground nominals, relational nominals, and other event nominals); the semantics of causation (in particular, how causation is lexicalized in language, including causative/unaccusatives, aspectual predicates, experiencer predicates, and modal causatives); how semantic types constrain syntactic expression (such as the behavior of type shifting and type coercion operations); a formal treatment of event semantics with subevents); and a general treatment of the problem of polysemy. Language, Speech, and Communication series


Book Synopsis The Generative Lexicon by : James Pustejovsky

Download or read book The Generative Lexicon written by James Pustejovsky and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1998-01-23 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first formally elaborated theory of a generative approach to word meaning, The Generative Lexicon lays the foundation for an implemented computational treatment of word meaning that connects explicitly to a compositional semantics. The Generative Lexicon presents a novel and exciting theory of lexical semantics that addresses the problem of the "multiplicity of word meaning"; that is, how we are able to give an infinite number of senses to words with finite means. The first formally elaborated theory of a generative approach to word meaning, it lays the foundation for an implemented computational treatment of word meaning that connects explicitly to a compositional semantics. In contrast to the static view of word meaning (where each word is characterized by a predetermined number of word senses) that imposes a tremendous bottleneck on the performance capability of any natural language processing system, Pustejovsky proposes that the lexicon becomes an active—and central—component in the linguistic description. The essence of his theory is that the lexicon functions generatively, first by providing a rich and expressive vocabulary for characterizing lexical information; then, by developing a framework for manipulating fine-grained distinctions in word descriptions; and finally, by formalizing a set of mechanisms for specialized composition of aspects of such descriptions of words, as they occur in context, extended and novel senses are generated. The subjects covered include semantics of nominals (figure/ground nominals, relational nominals, and other event nominals); the semantics of causation (in particular, how causation is lexicalized in language, including causative/unaccusatives, aspectual predicates, experiencer predicates, and modal causatives); how semantic types constrain syntactic expression (such as the behavior of type shifting and type coercion operations); a formal treatment of event semantics with subevents); and a general treatment of the problem of polysemy. Language, Speech, and Communication series