Hyponymy Converseness Semantic Field
systematic and easy way of describing similarity and difference in meaning. It consists of breaking down the meaning of a word into what are known as semantic
components or features. A lexeme can be analyzed by the componential analysis based on notation
that has it . For example, the word “father” has a component of meaning +human,
+ adult , + male , + married , and + have a child; and the word “mother” has a component of meaning + human , + adult , - male , + married , and +
have a child . When is compared between the component of father and mother is visible as the following table.
Table 1: The componential analysis of the meaning words: father and mother
Description: The sign + means have components, and the sign - means it has no component.
From the table shows that the different meaning of the father and mother
only on the components of meaning male; father has a component of meaning male, whereas them other does not have it. To
No. Components of
meaning Father
Mother
1. Human
+ +
2. Adult
+ +
3. Males
+ -
4. Married
+ +
5. Have a child
+ +
more clearly, consider the analysis component of meaning the words: man, woman, boy, girl, and bull.
Table 2: The componential analysis of the meaning words: Man, woman, boy, girl and bull
No. Components
of meaning Boy
Girl Man
Woman Bull
1. Human
+ +
+ +
- 2.
Adult -
- +
+ -
3. Male
+ -
+ -
+-
The table shows that man, woman, boy, girl have a component of meaning + human , while the bull has not a component of meaning
+ adult , while the boy and the bull has not a component of meaning - adult . Furthermore, it appears that man and the boy have a
component of meaning + male , while the woman and girl have not component of meaning - male . And the bull may has or has no
because the bull including male and female.
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Componential analysis can provide some benefits for semantic analysis.
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A. Lehrer, Semantic Field and Lexical Structure, pp.318-319.