SENSE

RELATIONS (2)
Lecture 8
Synonymy
◦ Two (or more) items are synonymous if the sentences which result from the substitution of one for the
other have the same meaning [Lyons, 1968]
◦ cognitive synonymy: "bilateral implication" or "equivalence"

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Synonyms
◦ Conceptual criterion: synonyms are words of the
same category of parts of speech conveying the same
concept but differing either in shades of meaning or in
stylistic characteristics;
◦ Semantic criterion: in terms of componential
analysis synonyms may be defined as words with the
same denotation, or the same denotative component,
but differing in connotations, or in connotative
components;
◦ The criterion of interchangeability: synonyms are
defined as words which are interchangeable at least in
some contexts without any considerable alteration in
denotational meaning.

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Synonyms
◦ Synonyms are words of the same meaning belonging to the same part of speech, possessing one or more identical meanings,
interchangeable at least in some contexts without any considerable alteration in denotation meaning, but differing in morphemic
composition, phonemic shape, shades of meaning, connotation, affective value, style, emotional colouring and valence peculiar to one of
the elements in a synonymic group [I.Arnold].
◦ Absolute (strict, complete) synonyms vs near-synonyms (relative)
◦ Absolute synonyms: 1)all their meanings are identical; 2) synonyms in all contexts (the same connotational range); 3) semantically equivalent on all
dimensions of meaning (including expressive, connotational nuances) [Lyons]

◦ Classification of synonyms by V. V. Vinogradov:

◦ ideographic: to shake, to tremble, to shiver, to shutter etc., горіти, палати, палахкотіти, жевріти, тліти;
◦ stylistic: father, parent, dad, papa etc., батько, тато, таточко;
◦ absolute: fatherhood, motherhood, homeland; word-formation, word-building; compounding, composition;

◦ Polysemantic words are not synonymous in all their meanings. The number of synonymic sets of polysemantic word tends to be equal to
the number of individual meanings the word possesses.
◦ Roget P.M. Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases. – London, 1962.
◦ WordNet
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Criteria for distinction between synonyms
◦ Frequency
◦ dominant synonym:
to surprise — to astonish — to amaze — to astound.
to shout — to yell — to bellow — to roar.
to shine — to flash — to blaze — to gleam — to glisten — to sparkle — to glitter — to shimmer — to glimmer.
◦ Distribution:
◦ dialectical:
◦ boot, lift, underground, pavement – British
◦ trunk, elevator, subway, sidewalk – American
◦ Anyway, child, money, sandwich – Standard English
◦ Anyroad, bairn, brass, butty – Northern British English
◦ functional
◦ Argument, cat, earthly, timely – neutral
◦ Disputation, feline, terrestrial, temporal – formal
◦ Prison, drunk, kill, money – standard English
◦ Can/ slammer, bombed/ tanked/ hammered, waste, dough/ cabbage – American slang

◦ Collocational range:
◦ Offence vs. insult : no offence, take offence at sth vs. take sth as an insult, be an insult to sb, add insult to…
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◦ Connotation
Types of connotation
◦ The connotation of degree or intensity: to surprise — to astonish — to amaze — to astound; to shout — to yell — to bellow — to
roar; to like — to admire — to love — to adore — to worship.
◦ The connotation of duration: to flash (brief) — to blaze (lasting); to shudder (brief) — to shiver. (lasting); to say (brief) — to
speak, to talk (lasting).
◦ The emotive connotations: alone — single — lonely — solitary.
◦ The evaluative connotation: well-known — famous — notorious — celebrated.
◦ A. His eyes sparkled with amusement, merriment, good humour, high spirits, happiness, etc. (positive emotions).
◦ B. His eyes glittered with anger, rage, hatred, malice, etc. (negative emotions).

◦ The causative connotation: to shiver with cold, from a chill, because of the frost; to shudder with fear, horror, etc.; to blush from
modesty, shame or embarrassment, to redden from anger or indignation.
◦ The connotation of manner: to stroll — to stride — to trot — to pace — to swagger — to stagger — to stumble
◦ The connotation of attendant circumstances: to peep - to peer .
◦ The connotation of attendant features: pretty, handsome, beautiful .

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Discrimination of synonyms
◦ Difference in denotation (in the range and intensity of meaning)

◦ Difference in connotation (the stylistic and emotive colouring of words)

◦ policeman, constable, bobby, cop; bliss, happiness; dire, dreadful

◦ Difference in application
◦ allow, let (allow sb to do sth, let sb do sth)
◦ empty, vacant, blank

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Distributional semantics
◦ is a research area that develops and studies theories and methods for quantifying and categorizing semantic similarities
between linguistic items based on their distributional properties in large samples of language data.
◦ Distributional hypothesis: linguistic items with similar distributions have similar meanings. The more semantically similar two
words are, the more distributionally similar they will be in turn, and thus the more that they will tend to occur in similar
linguistic contexts.
◦ The distributional hypothesis in linguistics is derived from the semantic theory of language usage, i.e. words that are used and
occur in the same contexts tend to purport similar meanings [Harris, Z. (1954) "Distributional structure"], and the idea that "a
word is characterized by the company it keeps" [Firth, J.R. (1957), "A synopsis of linguistic theory 1930-1955"].
◦ The distributional hypothesis is the basis for statistical semantics.
◦ Distributional semantics uses linear algebra as computational tool and representational framework. Distributional information
is collected in high-dimensional vectors. Distributional/semantic similarity is defined in terms of vector similarity.

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http://icybcluster.org.ua:34145/word2vec/similar/

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 Oppositeness of meaning
[Lyons]
◦ Antonymy (gradable, contrary, more/less relations):
◦ long – short, good – bad, big –small, high – low, fast – slow
◦ a middle ground: huge/very big/big/quite big/medium-sized/ quite small/ small/ tiny
◦ Marked vs unmarked term: How long was the discussion? How short was the discussion?

◦ Complementarity (contradictory, mutually exclusive, either/or relations, one is the denial of the other):
◦ dead – alive, asleep – awake, male – female, win – lose, shut – open, true – false, on – off
◦ 'X is female' implies 'X is not male' and 'X is not female' implies 'X is male’

◦ Converseness (mirror relation, relational pairs):

◦ precede –follow, above – below, in front of – behind, buy – sell, give – receive, parent – child
◦ John borrowed 100 dollars from his friend ↔ John’s friend lent him 100 dollars
◦ She spoke and spoke, but nobody listened
◦ 'buy' (X,Y,Z) ≡ 'sell' (Z,Y,X).

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Contrast

◦ Lyons, 1977;Gecker, 1980

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Opposition

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Non-binary contrast

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 Antonymy
◦ Antonyms are words different in sound-form and characterised by different types of semantic contrast of denotational meaning
and interchangeability at least in some contexts.
◦ Structural classification:
◦ Root antonyms (of different roots; morphologically unrelated; semantic): rich-poor, up-down, long-short;, давати-брати, старий-новий)
◦ Affixal (of the same root; morphological; derivative): English prefixes: un-, in-/il/ir-/im-, dis-, mis (happy-unhappy, regular-irregular,
appear-disappear, etc.); suffix: -less (careful-careless). Ukrainian prefix не-, без-, роз-, а-, анти-, де-, дез- (правда-неправда, болісний-
безболісний, заплутати-розплутати, логічний-алогічний тощо).
◦ Semantic classification (R.S. Ginzburg):
◦ Contradictories : dead - alive, single - married, perfect - imperfect, etc.;
◦ Contraries/ gradable: cold — hot (cool and warm are intermediate members); high – law,
◦ Incompatibles: to say morning is to say not afternoon, not evening, not night.

◦ Contextual antonyms are words that are opposite in meaning only under some specific conditions/ in context
All I ever get from you is grief,
Why can’t you give me some relief?

◦ Polysemantic words have antonyms for each of their lexico-semantic variants: a dull knife- a sharp knife, a dull boy-a bright boy,
a dull novel-a thrilling novel, etc. 05/22/2021
Co-occurrence of antonyms
Antithesis Oxymoron

◦ Man proposes, God disposes. ◦ Deeply shallow

◦ It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was
◦ Insanely smart
the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was
the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it ◦ Farewell reception
was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we ◦ Random order
had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we
◦ "I can believe anything, provided that it is
were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct
the other way... (Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities) quite incredible." - Oscar Wilde
◦ He who desires peace, should prepare for war. (Vegetius, ◦ "A joke is an extremely serious issue." -
Epitoma Rei Militaris, book 3, introduction.) Winston Churchill

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Task
Antonymy is widely used in wise sayings, as in “A good beginning makes a good ending” and “All things are difficult before they are
easy”.
Now look at the following incomplete sayings.
a. Adversity leads to __________.
b. A good husband makes a good __________.
c. A young idler, an __________beggar.
d. Be swift to hear, __________ to speak.
e. Easy come, easy __________.
f. Every advantage has its __________.
g. Knowledge makes humble, ignorance makes ___________.
h. Pride goes before, and shame comes __________.
i. The wise man knows he knows nothing, the fool thinks he knows __________.
j. The world is a ladder for some to go up and others to go__________.
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