Unit 6 Semantic Networks of English Words
Check Your Understanding
State whether each of the following statements is TRUE or FALSE.
a. Words from different classes can form a semantic field.
b. Most lexical items form semantic field with other lexemes with certain semantic relation.
c. The meaning of a hyponym is included in the meaning of its superordinate.
d. There is always a superordinate term for its hyponyms.
e. Lexical gaps across English and Chinese exist in all semantic fields.
Key: F T F F T
In-Class Activities
1. Some semantic fields are quite small. For example, each pair of antonyms, such as long and
short forms a lexical field of two members. The meanings of the two antonyms have in
common that both relate to an end section of the same scale, and the group is complete since
there are no other adjectives that share this part of the meaning.
ASK:
(1) Can you find more semantic fields of this small type?
(2) Do polysemous word old and its antonyms new and young belong to the same semantic field?
Key:(1) alive and dead, male and female, big and small
(2) No. old & new and old & young belong to different semantic fields.
2. In public notices, we often find the use of general words for persons, objects, places, etc. Look
at the following three pictures.
ASK:
(1) What are the general words used in these pictures? Can you provide some hyponyms for each
of them? Does any of the general words have a certain hyponym that finds no equivalent in
Chinese?
(2) Do you think it is reasonable to use superordinate terms on these occasions?
Key: (1) vehicle, pets, food, drinks, shirt, shoes, customer
(2) Omit
3. Hyponymy is a transitive relation, i.e, if x→y and y→z then x→z. For example, since “dog” is a
hyponym of “mammal” and “mammal” is a hyponym of “animal”, “dog is a hyponym of
animal”.
ASK:
(1) Can you find other examples to prove the relation of transitivity?
(2) Is meronymy a transitive relation like hyponymy? Use examples for illustration.
Key:(1) Tulip is a hyponym of flower which is a hyponym of plant.
Scarlet, vermilion, carmine and crimson are hyponyms of red which is a hyponym of
color.
(2) Meronymy is not exactly the transitive relation like hyponymy. For example, “pupil”
is a part of “eye”, and “eye” is a part of “face”, while “pupil” is not a part of “face”.
4. Often a concept lexicalized in one language may not have a corresponding lexical item in
another language and thus presents a translation difficulty.
ASK:
(1) What methods can you employ to translate the missing word, if the concept is important or
must be cited often?
(2) Is it an easy job to translate the Chinese sentence “他铅笔盒里有五支笔” into English? Why
or why not? Name some of the hyponyms of “笔” in both Chinese and English.
Key: 1) a compound word, a descriptive phrase, borrowing from one language, etc.
2) No. Because there is no English equivalence for Chinese word 笔.
铅笔 pencil 钢笔 pen / fountain pan 圆珠笔 ball-point pen 毛笔 writing brush 画笔
painting brush 鸭嘴笔 drawing pen / ruling pen 蜡笔 (wax) crayon 粉笔 chalk
5. A term which is a hyponym of itself is an autohyponym in that the same lexical item can
operate at both superordinate and subordinate levels; for example, “man” contrasts with
“animal” at one level, but at a lower level it contrasts with “woman” (in effect, “a man is a kind
of man”).
ASK:
(1) Can you find other autohyponyms?
(2) Can you account for the existence of autohyponyms in any possible way?
Key: Omit
6. Hyponymy and meronymy are often found in language use. It is quite common for a general
term and a specific term, or a part word and a whole word to substitute for each other in both
speaking and writing. The former rhetorical device is called metonymy and the latter one
synecdoche. For example, in the sentence “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”, the specific
term “apple” refers to the general term “fruit”; in the sentence “How many mouths does he have
to feed”, the part word “mouth” is used to replace the whole word “person”. Read the following
sentences.
a. He could hardly earn his everyday bread.
b. I’ve got wheels.
c. Last year nearly 6 million vehicles rolled off the assembly lines.
d. Put down the steel.
ASK:
(1) Can you point out the words substituted by the bold-faced words?
(2) Can you supply more examples of your own?
Key: (1) 1. food 2. car 3. automobiles 4. knife
(2) Omit
Post-Class Task
1. How is meronymy different from hyponymy? Use examples to illustrate their differences.
Key: Meronymy is different from hyponymy in that the former is a “part of” or “member of”
relation while the latter a “kind of” relation. For example, a leaf is a part of a tree; an oak is a
kind of tree.
Hyponymy is a transitive relation, i.e, if x→y and y→z then x→z. For example, since “dog” is
a hyponym of “mammal” and “mammal” is a hyponym of “animal”, “dog is a hyponym of
animal”. Meronymy is not necessarily a transitive relation. For example, although
.
2. Read the following tree diagram on the relationship of hyponymy among lexical items in the
semantic field of fruit and illustrate the lexical gap existing in the field.
fruit
??
apple
etc.
berry
pear
blackberry
raspberry
etc.
Key: The term berry acts as the general term for more specific fruits blackberry and raspberry,
but there seems to be no term for the category including such fruit as apple and pear.
3. Meronymy is classified into the following seven types. Find more examples for each type.
1. component — object (branch — tree,)
2. member — collection (fish — shoal)
3. portion — mass
(strand — hair)
4. stuff — object
(gold — ring)
5. feature — activity
(paying — shopping )
6. place — area
(Cambridge — Massachusetts)
7. phase — process
(adolescence — growing up)
Key: Omit
4. Identify the meaning relationship between the following pairs.
a. window
house
b. football
game
c. Chinese
Language
d. New York USA
e. CPU
computer
f. scarlet
red
Key: 1)meronymy 2) hyponymy 3) hyponymy 4) meronymy 5)mernymy 6) hyponymy
5. The Chinese word “吃” can be used flexibly to form various expressions. Translate the
following Chinese slangs into English.
吃闲饭
吃香
吃不消
吃力
吃苦
吃不开
Key:吃闲饭”（lead an idle life）
， “吃香”（be very popular）
， “吃不消”（more than one can
stand, too much）吃力(word hard, be tired)，吃苦（have a tough time）吃不开（be
unpopular）
6. The following passage is an introduction to “pop”. Please draw a lexical network of “pop”
constructed by words with semantic relations of hyponymy, meronymy, etc.
Pop
Even if the word “pop” disappears from the English vocabulary, the influence of pop will
remain. Pop has become part of British- and American-history.
There has always been a close cultural link, or tie, between Britain and English-speaking
America, not only in literature but also in the popular arts, especially music. Before the
Second World War the Americans exported jazz and the blues. During the 1950s they exported
rock ’n’ roll.
Then in the early 1960s a new sound was heard, very different from anything, which has
so far come from the American side of the Atlantic. This was the Liverpool, or Merseyside,
“beat”. Situated on the River Mersey in the northeastern corner of the industrial Black
Country, Liverpool was not a place which anyone visited for fun. Until the 1960s it was
known only as one of the Britain’s largest ports. Then, almost overnight, it became world
famous as the birthplace of the new pop culture which, in a few years, swept across Britain
and America, and across most of the countries of the western world.
The people responsible for the pop revolution were four Liverpool boys who joined
together in a group and called themselves The Beatles. They played in small clubs in the back
streets of the city. Unlike the famous solo stars who had their songs written for them, the
Beatles wrote their own words and music. The Beatles won the affection and admiration of
people of all ages and social backgrounds. As they developed, their songs became more
serious. They wrote not only of love, but of death and old age and poverty and daily life. They
were respected by many intellectuals and by some serious musicians. Largely thanks to the
Beatles, pop music has grown into an immense and profitable industry.
The influence of British pop in America was immense. American pop groups soon
became as famous as British groups. Both British and Americans are experimenting with new
ideas, and pop is developing and changing, and merging with modern folk music.
Key:
jazz
is from
is a kind of
is from
is a kind of
The blues
music
is from
is a kind of
is a kind of
Rock
n’roll
pop
is from
creates
originated from
The Beatles
is a city of
Liverpool
Britain
U.S.
Unit 7 The Semantic Relations among English Words
Check Your Understanding
State whether each of the following statements is TRUE or FALSE.
a. The word classes of gradable antonyms are adjective, noun and verb.
b. Chat and gossip form a pair of synonyms in terms of connotation.
c. Homonymous words always come from different etymological roots.
d. Pairs of words that exhibit the reversal of a relationship between two items are said to be
relational opposites.
e. The cohesive effect of a text is always achieved by the co-occurrence of words with meaning
relations of synonymy and antonymy.
Key: T T F T F
In-Class Activities
1. Antonyms are commonly found to co-occur in natural languages, among which are (both) X and
Y, X as well as Y, X and Y alike, (either) X or Y, neither X nor Y, from X to Y, and now X, now Y.
Read the following sentences.
a. They were free with the fellows, young and old, about the place, and exchanged banter in
rude phrases, which at first shocked her. (Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie)
b. That was one reason she did not look forward to Cathy's visit, short or long.
c. The Danderlea’s energies were claimed by buying and selling liquor, while Mrs Fortescue
went out a lot. (Doris Lessing: Mrs Fortescue)
ASK:
(1) What does each italicized part in the above sentences mean respectively?
(2) Can you find some idioms formed by the co-occurrence of antonyms?
Key: (1) In the first sentence, young and old is used actually to mean, and semantically could well
be replaced by, “(fellows) regardless of age” or “(fellows) of all ages”, rather than just
“those who are young and those who are old”; short or long in the second sentence has
the emphasis of “any visit” or “visit of any length in time”; buying and selling in the
third simply means the action of “trading”.
(2) Omit
2. 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__________.
ASK:
(1) Can you complete each of the above sayings with a word which has an antonymous
relationship with the bold-faced word?
(2) Do you know the meaning of each saying? Try to translate them into Chinese.
key:
a. Adversity leads to prosperity.
穷则思变。
b.A good husband makes a good wife.
夫善则妻贤。
c.A young idler, an old beggar.
少壮不努力，老大徒伤悲。
d.Be swift to hear, slow to speak.
听宜敏捷，言宜缓行。
e.Easy come, easy go.
来也匆匆，去也匆匆。
f.Every advantage has its disadvantage.
有利必有弊。
g.Knowledge makes humble, ignorance makes proud.
博学使人谦逊，无知使人骄傲。
h.Pride goes before, and shame comes after.
骄傲使人落后。
i.The wise man knows he knows nothing, the fool thinks he knows all.
清者自清，浊者自浊。
j.The world is a ladder for some to go up and others to go down.
世界如阶梯，有人上有人下。
3. Lexical cohesion is achieved by the selection of appropriate words. The co-occurrence of the
lexical items with certain meaning relations serves as an effective device to achieve cohesion in
the text. Read the following pictures.
ASK:
(1) What meaning relation is employed in the pictures?
(2) In what way is the employment of the semantic relation effective?
Key:
(1) Antonymy (shut down & restart, low&high)
(2) Contrast arouses attention.
4. Polysemy and homonymy are commonly applied by wise people as a pun to achieve rhetorical
effect in daily communication as well as in literature. For example, in the sentence we must all
hang together or we shall all hang separately, hang1 (to unite) and hang2 (to execute by
suspending by the neck) are homonyms. The co-existence of the two words produces an
amazing effect and makes the argument extremely impressive and persuasive. Read the
following sentences and answer the questions that follow.
a. To English will I steal and there I’ll steal. (Shakespeare: Henry V)
b. If the man be a bachelor, sir, I can; but if he be a married man, he’s wife’s head, and I can
never cut off a woman’s head.
c. He went there by train to take a training class.
d. I can’t bear that man who is like a bear with a sore head.
ASK:
(1) Which semantic relation does the pair of bold words in each sentence belong to, polysemy or
homonymy? Why?
(2) What does each bold word mean respectively?
Key:
(1) a.polysemy b. polysemy c. homonymy d. homonymy
(2) a. steal1: to move quietly without been noticed
steal2: to take sth that belongs to someone else
b. head1: the leader or a person in charge of
head2: the top part of the body
c. train 1: vehicle that moves on tracks
train 2: to teach a particular skill
d. bear 1: to dislike something or someone so much that they make you very annoyed
bear 2: a large strong animal with thick fur
5. Study the museum policies in the following picture.
ASK:
(1) The word “permitted” occurs five times. Do you think this should be discouraged?
(2) Can the first policy “Please do not touch the artwork” be rewritten using the word “permit”?
Key: (1) No. Permit, a directive word, is generally used in public policies or regulations. The
frequent use of this word stresses the enforcement of the museum policies.
(2) Please do not is softer than permit. The first policy serves as a kind warning which will
be easily accepted by the visitors and is not likely to ruin the visitors’ mood.
6. Ads are pervasive in our lives. Have you ever analyzed ads from the perspective of semantic
relations? Let’s enjoy the following ads.
a. No business too small, no problem too big.（IBM）
b. Tide's in, dirt's out. (Tide Soup Powder)
c. Woman: I like the exceptions to the royalty.
Man: I like crossroads, the choices, changing the plan. I like Hugo.
Woman: And Hugo Woman, the fragrances from Hugo Boss.
Man: Don't like it? Don't get it.
Woman: Hugo. Don't imitate. Innovate. (Hugo Woman Perfume）
d. It took a lot of intelligence for Richon to come up with a digital copier that could copy, fax and
print. If Leonardo da Vinci were around today, would he not be working for us? That's why
Richon is number one in digital copiers in Europe and in the U.S. When choosing a network
print-copier, choose Richon Aficio. We lead. Others copy.（Richon Aficio Copier）
e. Start ahead. (Rejoice)
ASK:
(1) What semantic relations are applied in the above ads? Which one is the most commonly used?
(2) What rhetorical effects may result from the application of the semantic relations?
Key (1) antonymy(small-big, in-out,imitate-innovate), polysemy(copy), homophone (ahead-a
head)
(2) easy to remember, rich in meaning, interesting, attractive, persuasive
Post-Class Tasks
1. Find at least one synonym for each of the following bold-faced words in accordance with the
specified semantic relations between them.
a. Tom’s father is a lorry-driver. (British English vs. American English)
b. We have abandoned our efforts in searching for the lost dog. (individual verb vs. phrasal verb)
c. The book is about the flora and fauna of Australia. (technical term vs. colloquial term)
d. You cannot walk down the street, ride on a bus, watch television or read emails without seeing
advertisements. (original word vs. shortened word)
Key: a.truck-driver, b.give up, c.plants, d.animals, e.ads
2. Decide whether the antonymous relationship within each of the following pairs is gradable,
complementary or relational.
a. toward/away
b. empty/full
c. off/on
d. abundant/scarce
e. instructor/pupil
f. accidental/intentional.
Key: a.toward/away(R), b.empty/full(C), c.off/on(C), d.abundant/scarce(G), e.instructor/pupil(R),
f.accidental/intentional(G).
3. Auto-antonyms are a group of interesting words which can mean the opposite of themselves.
For example, enjoin can mean to prohibit and to order, which are opposite in meaning. Look up
a dictionary for the opposite meanings of the following auto-antonyms.
a. Rumors travel faster than facts.
My leg was stuck fast in the mud.
b. The wooden door had been cleft in two.
John still cleaves to his romantic ideals.
c. Economic sanctions are domestic penalties applied by one country (or group of countries) on
another for a variety of reasons.
Copying is not allowed without the sanction of the author.
Key:
a. fast (moving quickly; fixed firmly in place)
b. cleave (to split; to adhere)
c. sanction (punishment, prohibition ; permission)
4. Read the following excerpt from Barack Obama’s victory speech delivered at Chicago. Does he
use any synonyms in it? If so, what are they? Are they totally substitutable for each other?
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things
are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still
questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
Key：Yes. doubt, wonder, question. No. They are not totally substitutable for each other in terms of
sentence structure.
5. Find homophones for the bold words in the following sentences.
a. There has been much talk about the “new information age”.
b. The internet provides an amazing forum for the free exchange of ideas.
c. Which color do you prefer, red or green?
d. David came across his former boss on the way home.
e. I’ll come to see you when I’m free.
Key: a. there– their; been – bean, b. for-four, c. or – oar – ore – awe ,
e. I’ll – isle – aisle
d..way – weigh,
6. Homographs are different words which happen to share the same form. Guess which
homograph is being described in the following sentences.
Example: something used with a hammer OR part of your finger or toe. Answer: nail.
a. Something you light to start a fire OR two things that go together
b. One who throws a baseball OR a container for pouring beverages
c. A loud noise OR another name for soda
d. Part of a branch that has fallen OR to cling to something
e. A place for stray animals OR 16 ounces
Key: a.match, b.pitch, c.pop, d.stick, e.pound