Relation

𝐋𝐄𝐗𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒/𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒/𝐒𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐂 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒
The branch of semantics that deals with the word meaning is called lexical semantics. It is the
study of systematic, meaning related structures of words. Lexical field or semantic field is the
organization of related words and expressions in to a system, which shows their relationship
with one another, e.g. set (angry, sad, happy, depressed, and afraid etc.). This set of words is a
lexical field. All its words refer to emotional states. The relation of a word with another word is
a lexical relation or sense relation or semantic relation. The principal relationships are
Synonymy, Antonymy, Hyponymy, Meronymy, Polysemy, Homonymy etc.
𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐲𝐦𝐲:
Synonyms are different words with almost identical or similar meanings. Words that are
synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The
word comes from Ancient Greek ‘syn’ (with) and ‘onoma’ (name). The words car and
automobile are synonyms. Similarly, if we talk about ‘a long time’ or ‘an extended time’, long
and extended become synonyms. Note that synonyms are defined with respect to certain
senses of words; for instance, ‘he expired’ means the same as ‘he died’, yet ‘my passport has
expired’ cannot be replaced by ‘my passport has died’. Other synonym terms distinguish types
of semantic overlap between words: identity of sense (perfect, or exact, synonymy:
myopia~near-sightedness) versus overlap (near-synonymy: advice~suggestion); similar but non-
identical referents (plesionymy: fog~mist); and differences in level of specificity (hyponymy:
shoe~footwear). Finally, synonyms may be categorized by their non-referential meaning
differences, such as register (tired~knackered), dialect (highway~motorway), or language
(dog~chien).
European structuralist linguistics of the 20th century treated individual word meanings as
emerging from the relations between words. Meanwhile, more formal-semantic approaches
saw synonymy as a descriptive and diagnostic tool for determining the representation of
meaning. Attention to synonymy has returned in the present century within usage-based
theories of meaning. Today’s synonym investigations are supported by computational methods
for modelling synonymy and corpus methods for investigating it. Synonymy, perhaps the most
familiar sense relation, involves words that share similar meanings. These words are
interchangeable in certain contexts without altering the overall meaning of a sentence. For
example, "happy" and "joyful" are synonyms, both conveying a sense of positive emotion.
𝐀𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐲𝐦𝐲:
Taken from the Greek ‘anti’ (opposite) and ‘onoma’ (name). Antonym is a word having a
meaning opposite to that of another word. Antonymy is the sense relation that exists between
words which are opposite in meaning; for example, male : female, long : short, up : down,
precede : follow etc. This sense relation provides a stark contrast, highlighting the polarities
inherent in language and enabling precise expression by emphasizing the negation of a
particular quality. Nouns can be antonyms (for example, courage and cowardice), as can verbs
(arrive and depart), adverbs (carefully and carelessly), and even prepositions (above and
below).
Three Types of Antonyms
"Linguists identify three types of antonymy:
Gradable antonyms, which operate on a continuum: (very) big, (very) small. Such pairs often
occur in binomial phrases with and: (blow) hot and cold, (search) high and low.
Complementary antonyms, which express an either/or relationship: dead or alive, male or
female.
Converse or relational antonyms, expressing reciprocity: borrow or lend, buy or sell, wife or
husband.
Hyponymy and Hypernymy:

Hyponymy and hypernymy introduce a hierarchical structure to semantic relationships. In this
arrangement, a hyponym is a specific term within a category, while a hypernym encompasses a
broader category. For instance, in the relationship between "rose" and "flower," "rose" is a
hyponym, a specific type of flower, while "flower" serves as the hypernym, encompassing
various types, including roses. In linguistics, a hyponym is a word that can be changed with a
different and less precise word without changing the overall meaning of the phrase. The
different word is its hyperonym, hypernym or superordinate term. Hyponymy is a relation to a
more generic word. A hyponym can be part of a group of words on a similar level that can all be
replaced by the same hypernym. For example, pigeon, crow, eagle and seagull are all hyponyms
(co-hyponyms) of bird (their hypernym). In turn, bird is a hyponym of animal. In a sentence
such as 'The pigeon is flying over the church.', it is possible to change the word pigeon to bird or
animal without changing the overall meaning of the sentence. This is because pigeon is a
hyponym of both bird and animal. Example of the relationship between hyponyms and
hypernym:
A hypernym is sometimes also called an umbrella term or a blanket term.
The word Hyponym comes from the Greek hupó, "under" and ónoma, "name". Hypernym
comes from the Greek hupér, "over" and ónoma, "name". A hyponym can also sometimes be a
phrase. A word can be both a hypernym and a hyponym.
Meronymy and Holonymy:

In linguistics, meronymy (from Ancient Greek μέρος (méros) 'part', and ὄνυμα (ónuma) 'name')
is a semantic relation between a meronym denoting a part and a holonym denoting a whole. In
simpler terms, a meronym is in a part-of relationship with its holonym. For example, finger is a
meronym of hand, which is its holonym. Similarly, engine is a meronym of car, which is its
holonym. Fellow meronyms (naming the various fellow parts of any particular whole) are called
comeronyms (for example, leaves, branches, trunk, and roots are comeronyms under the
holonym of tree).
Holonymy (from Ancient Greek ὅλος (hólos) 'whole', and ὄνυμα (ónuma) 'name') is the
converse of meronymy.
A closely related concept is that of mereology, which specifically deals with part–whole
relations and is used in logic. It is formally expressed in terms of first-order logic. A meronymy
can also be considered a partial order.
Meronym and holonym refer to part and whole respectively, which is not to be confused with
hypernym which refers to type. For example, a holonym of leaf might be tree (a leaf is a part of
a tree), whereas a hypernym of oak tree might be tree (an oak tree is a type of tree). Meronymy
and holonymy focus on the relationship between parts and wholes. In this context, a meronym
is a term that denotes a part of something, while a holonym represents the whole. For example,
in the relationship between "finger" and "hand," "finger" is a meronym, and "hand" is the
holonym.
𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐲𝐬𝐞𝐦𝐲:
It is the association of one word with two or more distinct meanings. A polysemy is a word or
phrase with multiple meanings. Some examples Wood (a piece of a tree + a geographical area
with many trees) Crane (a bird + a type of construction equipment), present (right now + the
current moment + a gift + to show or display + to be physically somewhere). The opposite of
polysemy is monosemy.
Polysemy proliferates in natural language: Virtually every word is polysemous to some extent.
Still, the phenomenon has been largely ignored in the mainstream linguistics literature and in
related disciplines such as philosophy of language. However, polysemy is a topic of relevance to
linguistic and philosophical debates regarding lexical meaning representation, compositional
semantics, and the semantics–pragmatics divide.
𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐲𝐦𝐲:
It is the state or quality of a given word’s having the same spelling and the same sound or
pronunciation as another word, but with a different meaning, as ‘race’ (tribe) and ‘race’
(running contest).
In other words in linguistics, a homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that
share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings. Examples of
homonyms are the pair ‘stalk’ (part of a plant) and ‘stalk’ (follow/harass a person) and the pair
‘left’ (past tense of leave) and ‘left’ (opposite of right), the verb ‘bear’ (to carry or endure) and
the noun ‘bear’ (the name of an animal). "bat" could refer to a flying mammal or a piece of
sports equipment used in baseball. The word Homonymy (from the Greek—homos: same,
onoma: name) is the relation between words with identical forms but different meanings—that
is, the condition of being homonyms. A stock example is the word bank as it appears in "river
bank" and "savings bank."
Homonymy may be classified as homography: a phenomenon of two or more words having the
same spelling but different meanings or pronunciation e.g. ‘lead’ / l e d / means metal; and
‘lead’ / l i: d / means to guide.
Homophony: a phenomenon of two or more words having the same pronunciation but
different meaning or spelling. E.g. sea : see, knew : new, some : sum, sun : son etc.
𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐲𝐦𝐲:
Metonymy means calling something, not by its true name, but by Something associated with it.
The use of word crown for the king is an example of metonymy. Grey hair should be respected.
(Old Man) These days i am reading Ghalib. (The Poetry of Ghalib)
𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧:
Collocation refers to the tendency for certain words to occur together. A word like ‘clear’, for
example, can be found with a number of nouns, clear sky, clear conscience, clear idea, clear
road. In each term clear has a slightly different meaning because of the word it is qualifying. It is
an arrangement or juxtaposition of words or other elements, especially those that commonly
co-occur, as dead serious, iron will, green with jealously etc.

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𝐋𝐄𝐗𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒/𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒/𝐒𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐂 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒

Hyponymy and Hypernymy:

Meronymy and Holonymy:

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