ANTONYM, SYNONYM & HYPONYM ????

Semantics is study about meaning that is used to understand human expression through language.

Under the subjects of semantics, we shall deal with the concepts of :
 • Antonym
 • Synonym
 • Hyponym

Which are lexical components that can be compared based on the semantic relation.

1.      1. Antonym

     Is the state or phrnomenon in which the words has the sense relation which involve the opposite of meaning.

     Antonym can be divided into 3 types :

§  Graded antonym

Refers to  the words related o the object they modify. The words themselves do not provide an absolute scale.

Examples : Big >< Small

                   Good >< Bad

                   Fast >< Slow

                   Young >< Old

Ex : 1. A fly is bigger than another (big is understood in the context flies)

        2. A small elephant is bigger than a big mouse

§  Complementarity

Refers to the existence of pairs that te denial of one, implies the assertion of the other.

Examples : Male >< Female

                  Alive >< Dead

                  Present >< Absent

                  Awake >< Asleep

§  Converseness

Refers to the pair of words that display symmetry in their meaning. It relates to two-term sets of words.

If  X gives Y to Z, then Z receives Y from X

Examples : Buy >< Sell

                   Command >< Serve

                  Give >< Take

In the context of sentence, occasionally the same verb can be supposed as a relational pair.

Ex : John married Mary = Mary married John

     In English, morphologically, there is a number of ways to form antonyms (add the prefix)

§  Prefix un-

Examples : Likely >< Unlikely

                  Able >< Unable

§  Prefix non-

Examples : Entity >< Nonentity

                   Descript >< Nondescript

§  Prefix in-

Examples : Tolerant >< Intolerant

                   Visible >< Invisivle

§  Prefix mis-

Example : Understanding >< Misunderstanding

                 Comunicate >< Miscomunicate

§  Prefix dis-

Examples : Like >< Dislike

                   Agree >< Disagree

                 

1.       2.   Synonym

      Is the state or phenomenon in which the words that sound different ( different in pronounciation) but has the same or identical meaning as another word or phrase.

   Examples :               

Ø  small = little

Ø  big = large

Ø  politican = statesman

2.       3.   Hyponym

      Is the state or phenomenon that shows the relationship between more general term (lexical representation) and the spesific instances (hyponym) of it.

     Examples : 

Lexical representation	Hyponym
Color	Red
Musical instruments	Guitar
Coffee	Black coffee

      The relationship between the general term and spesific instances is often described using a hierarchical diagram (taxonomy)

      Examples :

Sources : https://www.slideshare.net/Andriyanieka12/13-semantics-synonym-antonym-homonym-hyponym-polyseme-idioms-18509523
https://www.academia.edu/21742207/A_comparison_of_hyponym_and_synonym_decisions

Review "The Semantics of Good"

Well, I am going to review an article that I got from ACADEMIA related to our course “Semantics”. This article is published by Dean Pettit . Its title is ”The Semantics of Good” which is talking about the word “GOOD”. I am interested to review this article because the title. I think it is enough interesting to read and know more about semantics ( the study of meaning) especially lexeme “good”. Actually so many explaination about this subject but I just took some points of it that enough important.

The word “GOOD” has many meaning that is depended to the context. How the sentence that is contained by word good. It can be said that good is still mysterious word that we do not know the real meaning without know all words (the sentence) or even situation that we get. Based on the article, the semantics of “good” involves an operation over possible worlds. Word good can be said as a distinctive kind of modal adjective, the semantics of which compares near possible worlds, rather than merely quantifying over worlds.

The semantics of “good” is related to the syntax of the constructions in which it occurs. The guiding idea is that the syntax is in service of the semantics. Syntactically “good” occurs with specific kinds of syntactic constituents that supply it with specific semantic inputs. To give an account of the semantics of 'good' is to give a systematic account of the kinds of semantic inputs it requires and how they enter into its interpretation. The idea is not that the semantics is straightforwardly reflected in the surface structure of a particular construction by some isomorphism between the structure of the sentence and the structure of the thought it expresses. Rather, the semantics of 'good' is revealed by a study of the range of syntactic constituents “good” can occur with, their semantic values, and how those semantic values systematically enter into the semantics of “good”.

The important initial syntactic observation is that, while “good‟ is an adjective, it belongs to a distinctive class of adjectives that can occur in constructions characteristic of modal adjectives:

(1) It is good/necessary/possible (for Alice) to practice.

(2) It is good/necessary/possible that Alice practices.

For examples above, (1) and  (2), the syntactic paraller the word “good” has the same kind of semantic input as “necessary” and “possible”, namely a set of worlds. It said thay semantic “good” might be modal -> modal adjective. It   appears to operate over sets of worlds in a very different way. Whereas modal expressions are standardly understood to quantify over possible worlds. It can be said that the semantics of  “good” involves a comparison of worlds according to what is at stake between them. The suggestion will be that “good” systematically takes on different interpretations according to exactly what is at stake and why it matters. Like I said previously, just word good has variation of interpretation, level of that meaning. Within an expletive construction, then, there appear to be at least three sorts of things that “good” can take as argument: acts, events, and states of affairs. When you are talking with someone, and you are using word “good”, it is better if you consider what you want to speak using good. You should use that word naturally and will be understood to people you are talking to.

Note* If  uou want to know more about this insteresting topic, you can read this pdf or download it.

Source :

https://www.academia.edu/1045862/The_Semantics_of_Good