SEMANTICS

GROUP 5:
Trần Minh Hưng
Trương Lý Hà
Cao Thị Phương Dung
Trần Thị Hoài An
Đoàn Nguyễn Minh Uyên
Nguyễn Thị Mỹ Duyên
Nguyễn Đông Đức
 A. SYNONYMY

delightful scare
nice
afraid terrified
charming
beautiful fear
frighten
pretty

Synomym: a word that have the same meaning or similar meaning with the other word.
 A. SYNONYMY

EXAMPLES:

a) I’m going to PURCHASE-BUY a new book.

b) It is a very WIDE-BOARD street.
c) The WOMAN/LADY in white shirt is her mother.

SYNONYMY: the relationship between two predicates that have the same sense
 A. SYNONYMY

synonym synonymy
A specific predicate The relationship between predicate

Ex: purchase - buy

Purchase is a synonym of buy, and The relationship between purchase

buy is a synonym of purchase and buy is synonymy
 A. SYNONYMY

NOTICE:

1) In considering the sense of a word, we concentrate on cognitive or

conceptual meaning of a word

Ex: How many KIDS/ CHILDREN have you got?

=> Kids and Children have the same sense, although they
differ in style, or fomality.
 A. SYNONYMY
NOTICE:
2) A word may have many different senses. Each distinct sense of a word is a predicate.
Synonymy is a relation between predicates, not between words.
Ex: hide has 4 predicates:
- Hide (1): intransitive verb => Let’s hide from Mummy
These senses are
- Hide (2): transitive verb => Hide your sweeties under the pillow
related in meaning
- Hide (3): noun => We watch the bird from a hide

- Hide (4): noun =>The hide of an ox weighs 200 lbs => Unrelated

Sentence: The thief tried to hide/conceal the evidence.

=>hide here is hide(2), which is a synonym of conceal
 B. HYPONYMY

HYPONYMY: is the relation between two predicates (or sometime longer phrases) such
that the meaning of one predicate (or phrase) is included in the meaning of the other.

EXAMPLES:
The meaning of the bird is included the sense of the chick, the Penguin, and the Pigeon.
 B. HYPONYMY
HYPERNYM/ SUPERORDINATE
TERM
BIRDS (the name of the group)
HYPONYMY
(the sense relationship between
HYPERNYM and HYPONYM)

HYPONYM
(the members of group)

HYPERNYM /
SUPERORDINATE TERM
A predicate with a general
meaning that includes the
meaning of other particular
predicates.
Ex: Birds is the
superordinate/hypernym of
pigeon.
B. HYPONYMY
HYPONYM HYPONYMY
A predicate with a The relationship between
particular meaning that is each of the more specific
included in the meaning of words (such as pigeon,
a more general predicate. penguin…) and the
broader term (birds) is
called hyponymy
Ex:
Pigeon is a hyponym of
birds.
 B. HYPONYMY

NOTICE:

Synonymy can be seen as a special case of hyponymy which called SYMMETRICAL

HYPONYMY.
Ex: The relation of Kid and Child is SYNONYMY, also called SYMMETRICAL HYPONYMY.

Rule: X is a hyponym of Y
X and Y are synonymous
Y is a hyponym of X

Ex: Kid is a hyponym of child and child is a hyponym of kid, so kid and child are synonymous.
 C. ANTONYMY

Antonym is a predicate that means the opposite of the other predicate.

Ex: right – wrong

good - bad

Four types:
 Binary antonymy
 Gradable antonymy
 Converses
 Multiple incompatibility
 C. ANTONYMY

1. BINARY ANTONYMY

 Also called complementary

 BINARY ANTONYMS are predicates which come in pair and between them exhaust all
the relevant possibilities. If the one predicate is applicable, then the other cannot be, and
vice versa.

EX: true/false are binary antonym

If a sentence is true, it cannot be false.
 C. ANTONYMY

2. CONVERSES

If a predicate describes a relationship between two things (or people) and some
other predicate describes the same relationship when the two things (or
people)are mentioned in the opposite order

Ex: 1. below –above

A below B => B above A

2. Grandparent – grandchild
A is grandparent’s B => B is grandchild’s A
 C. ANTONYMY

3. MULTIPLE INCOMPATIBILITY

a) All the terms in a given system are mutually incompatible.

b) Together, the members of a system cover all the relevant area.

Ex:
1. Color: red, grey, pink, black, blue…
2. Furniture: table, chair, desk….
 C. ANTONYMY

4.GRADABLE ANTONYMY

Two predicates are GRADABLE antonyms if they are at opposite

ends of a continuous scale of values (a scale which typically varies
according to the context of use)

HOT WARM COOL TEPID COLD

Hot and cold are gradable antonyms

 PRACTICE

1. Parent /offspring => converses

2. Cheap/ expensive => binary antonymy
3. Legal/ illegal => binary antonymy
4. High/low => gradable antonymy
5. Table/chair => multiple incompatibility
6. Crazy/mad => synonymy
7. Mammal/lion => hyponymy
THANK YOU