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E. Meaning Relation
Lyon and Geckeler are of the opinion that there is a close relationship among semantic field, componential analysis, and meaning relation.
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We should know that componential analysis is the broadening of semantic field
theory. The subset from all lexemes may create and blend the meaning relation of one element to the other.
Meaning relation is thus the most significant factor in semantic field and the componential analysis is a device to identify the meaning relation.
When a word bears various relation of the meaning to one another, they may be related semantically. Words are connected by virtue of meaning
from subgroups within the lexicon of the language. Words have a multiple sense, namely the primary and secondary meaning. The meaning relation is
possibly derived by a variety of processes of semantic change. Semantic relations comprise synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy or incompatible and
meronymy defined by semantic field. Semantic field serves to link certain words with other words, indicating that the overall lexicon of a language has a
complex internal structure consisting of subgroups sharing significant properties.
Leech
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looked upon meaning relation under: 1. Synonym is a relation in which words have same meaning. Hatch and
Brown 1995:19 revealed that synonym refers to the similar entity so that
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John Lyons 1977, op cit. p.45
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Geoffrey Leech 1997, op cit. P.99-102.
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the words might be interchangeable if all features are the same. Then Akmajian 1988:248 added that synonym is a relation that structures the
lexicon of a language into sets of words sharing a meaning. For instance: automobile is synonymous with car
Nevertheless synonyms do not always share their entire feature. It is called looser synonym when X is synonym for Y but not vise versa. A
typical example is murder is synonym for kill but kill is not a synonym for murder .
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2. Antonym is a relation where words have opposite meaning. Akmajian added that words can share an aspect of meaning but be opposite in some
other aspect of meaning called antonym.
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Whereas Parera 2004 added that there are 2 kinds of antonym:
a. Contradiction or true antonym: The opposite meanings of 2 items or lexemes are absolute. It consists of only 2 terms; the one is the
opposite to the other. For example: Alive X dead that were visualized by Leech 1978:106
in diagram below:
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Evelyn Hatch and Cheryl Brown, Vocabulary, Semantics and language Education. London: Cambridge University Press,1995 P.19.
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Akmajian,.at al. An Introduction to Language and Communication. London: The MIT Press,1988 p.249.
‘alive +live
‘dead’ -live
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b. Gradable antonym kontrer: the meaning relation of items words may consist on a number of dimension at once
For instance: hot and cold share the notion of a temperature dimension. Here they are defined as follows:
II cold cool lukewarm warm hot
Whereas, Leech proposed incompatible instead of antonym. It is because antonym contrasts only on a single dimension. In fact, the word
may contrast on a number of dimensions at once. It is supported by Leechs theory
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that two componential formulae may be incompatible if the one has at least one feature contrasting with a feature in the other.
3. Hyponym is a relation which is termed meaning inclusion of one meaning in another. Cruse reported that the lexical relation corresponding to the
inclusion of one class in another is hyponym.
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For instance: in the sense of tulip, orchid and rose are included in flower. These typical terms
mentioned that super ordinates as the upper term and hyponym as the lower term. Again a diagram will help:
Flower
Tulip orchid rose
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Geoffrey Leech, Semantics New Zealand:Penguin Press Ltd, 1997.P.100.
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D. A. Cruse. Lexical Semantics New York: Blackwell Publishers, 2001 p.88
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4. Meronymy is a relation which has hierarchical branching concept. Saeed pointed out meronymy is a concept used to explain a part - whole
relationship between lexical items. To differentiate it from another hierarchical concept, meronymy can be identified by using part of
relationship. For instance: B is part of A, and A has B.
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This concept might be as follows:
Human
Head hand foot chest
F. Semantic Change
Kategori