Week 11 - Sense relations and cohesion Flashcards
What are the 5 sense relations?
- Synonymy
- Antonymy
- Hyponymy
- Meronymy
- Metonymy
Define denotation
The basic relationship between a linguistic expression and what it stands for on the real world
Eg. The word horse refers to the big physical animal
Define referents
- The real world object/entity that is expressed by a linguistic expression
Eg. Fish can refer to one type or different ones, the referent could be any fish in situation
Reference vs denotation
- Denotation is a stable relationship between expressions and things
- Denotation depends on class and categories
- Reference depends on speakers and context
Eg. Fish denotes a certain animal in the world, but can be used to refer to individual different fish in a pond
Define synonymy
- Must have a high degree of semantic overlap
- Must have low degree of contrastiveness
- It is scalar, it has to start somewhere
- Absolute and partial
Define absolute synonymy
- Where all contextual terms between the two words are identical
- Extremely rare, one counter example makes it partial
- Often linked to borrowings and other word formations
Define partial synonymy
- Where two words can be used interchangeably in certain semantic and contextual situations
- They are not interchangeable in every sense, some words don’t fit where the other does
- Varying degree, some words are more frequently interchangeable
Eg. Big and large are partial, cannot ay large sister but can say big sister
Distinguishing synonyms
- Some pairs are not always sense relations
- Dialect, connotation, formality and collocations are examples of this
Eg.
pavement vs sidewalk
heart vs ticker
hate vs loathe
Define antonymy
The relation of opposition
- Gradable
- Complementary
- Converses/relational
- Marked forms: one term of the pair is the default
Define gradable antonyms
- Opposites that are not complementary
- They can both apply to some extent
- They can be graded on opposite ends of a scale
- Often words in-between on the scale
eg. Boiling to freezing, hot, warm, cool, cold etc.
Define complementary antonyms
- If one term applies, then the other is excluded
- If one of the pair is denied, the other must hold
Eg. If John is dead, he cannot be alive.
If the door is not closed, then it is open
Define converses/relational antonyms
- They aren’t opposite but are pairs
Eg. Husband and Wife
Gave and received
Bought and sold
Define hyponymy
- A ‘kind of’ relation
- Hierachal
- Hypernym at top, hyponyms are the branches
- Hyponyms are co-hyponyms if they have the same parent word
eg. Dog is the hypernym
Poodle, labrador and pug are the hyponyms and they are co-hyponyms to each other
Define meronymy
- A ‘part of’ relationship
- Meronym refers to a part of the whole
Eg. a toe is part of a foot, a month is part of the year
Hyponymy in terms of basic level categories
- One level in each set of hyponyms has a special status,
- Called the basic or generative level of specificity
Eg. In fruit, apple and granny smith, APPLE is the basic level
Hyponymy in terms of entailment
- A can entail B, but B doesn’t automatically entail A
Eg. it’s a horse entails animal, but it’s an animal doesn’t necessarily entail it’s a horse
What is a text?
A passage, spoken or written, of any length that is unified as a whole
What are the categories of cohesion?
Name
Date
Halliday and Hasan 1976
- Reference
- Substitution
- Ellipsis
- Conjunction
- Lexical cohesion
Define reference
- When both elements of the tie refer to the same entity
- One element often takes meaning by referring to the other
Eg. THE DOG ate the bone, then IT went to sleep
Define substitution
- Normally within conversation
- Replacement of a more specific terms with a more general one, from a finite set of words
- Both elements refer to the same class of entity
Eg. I had A LEMON SWEET. I also had an apple ONE.
Define ellipsis
- When one of the elements in a tie is absent but remains implied
Eg. MEGAN went to the shops and …… bought a top. SHE has been ommited
Define conjunction
Using conjunctions (eg. and) to create clauses together in a logical relationship.
- Only one element, the conjunction, in this tie
Eg. Megan went to the shops AND bought a top.
Define lexical cohesion
6 types
- Incorporates semantic relations to create texture
- Repetition (absolute synonymy)
- Partial synonymy
- Hyponymy
- Meronymy
- Antonymy
- Other collocations eg. I hate DRINKING. I don’t like BEER.
Define cohesion
- When a text contains cohesive ties
- The grammatical and lexical linking within a text or sentence that holds it together and gives it meaning
Define coherence
- When a text as a whole fits together to create one unit
- When a text is logically and semantically consistent
