Tema 11 – La palabra como signo lingüístico. Homonimia. Sinonimia. Antonimia. “False Freinds”. Creatividad Léxica.

Tema 11 – La palabra como signo lingüístico. Homonimia. Sinonimia.

Antonimia. “False Friends”. Creatividad Léxica.

OUTLINE
INTRODUCTION
1 THE WORD AS A LINGUISTIC SIGN
2. HOMONYMY
3.SYNONYMY
4.ANTONYMY
5. FALSE FRIENDS
6. LEXICAL CREATIVITY
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION
This topic deals with semantics, with the relationship between the form and
the meaning of the words. So, from this point of view, we will review the most
important semantic relations: homonymy, synonymy and antonymy.
We will describe what a word is, and we will go on talking about false friends
and lexical creativity.

1. THE WORD AS A LINGUISTIC SIGN

If we regard language as a communication system, it will associate message
(the meaning) with a set of symbols (the sounds of the language and their
written counterparts). Language symbols were seen as a duality made up of
an external facet, the SIGNIFIER and a semantic facet, the SIGNIFIED, which
have been loosely called “form” and meaning” or “expression” and “content”.
Saussure, who was the father of Structuralism, was the first one in describing
words as linguistic signs. For him, a word or linguistic sign consists of two
elements: signifier and signified. However the Saussurean view of language
has suffered serious criticism. The basic problem with the notions of signifier
and signified is to establish their nature and relationship; they are seen
respectively as a sound image and a concept, linked by a psychological
“associative” bond.

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According to Odgen & Richards a linguistic sign is formed by three elements:

the concept, which refers to the signified in Saussure’s terminology; the
symbol, which corresponds to the signifier; and the referent, which is the
element being referred to. The main problem posed by this theory is that
abstract words have not a physical referent.

2. HOMONYMY
One of the semantic relations between words that are analysed by lexical
semantics is that of HOMONYMY. A straightforward definition of a homonym
could be “a single word form that has different meanings not closely related”.
For example:
file: - a box / case…, for keeping papers in order;
- a tool for smoothing surfaces.
- a line of persons or things one behind the other.

The term HOMONYMY has to be dealt with in contrast with POLYSEMY, “a

word with several different but closely related meanings”, as in: “branch” of a
tree / family / railway line / bank…
Homonym words are divided into homographs and homophones:
 HOMOGRAPHS are words that have the same spelling. Sometimes the
pronunciation can be different as in: row (line) and row (uproar, argument);
lead (as a verb) and lead (a metal); wind (air) and wind (roll). However, the
pronunciation can also be the same as in: saw (as a tool for cutting wood) and
saw (past tense of see).
 HOMOPHONES are words that are identically pronounced, although their
written form may be different. For example: meet (verb) meat (noun); no
(negative adverb) and know (verb).
If both written and spoken forms are the same, we call them HOMOMORPHS,
such as fast (adjective) and fast (noun); or note (noun) and note (verb).

Polysemic words, on the other hand, have two or more related meanings. One
is a primary meaning and the other are secondary meanings related or
derived from the primary one.

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Sometimes it can be difficult to decide whether a term must be treated in

terms of polysemy (treated as a single entry in the dictionary) or homonymy
(treated as a separate entry for each homonym).

3. SYNONYMY
The term SYNONYMY is used to refer to the relationship that holds between
words that share a general sense and so may be interchangeable in a limited
number of contexts. It is a relation between form and meaning; one meaning
expressed through several forms.
It has been argued that there are no real, absolute synonyms, two words with
exactly the same meaning and contextual relations. According to the degree of
mutual equivalence in different contexts, we can find plesionyms as opposed
to cognitive synonyms.
 COGNITIVE synonyms need to be syntactically identical and they must be
able to replace one another without altering the sentence content, like fiddle
and violin in: Tom plays the fiddle / violin very well.
 PLESIONYMS, on the other hand, yield sentences with different truth-
conditions when they replace one another. An example could be: It wasn’t
foggy last Monday – just misty.
Plesionymy shades gradually into non-synonymy; fog and mist, and mist and
haze are plesionyms, but fog and haze would probably not be considered as
such.

We can also distinguish between the following types of synonymy: concept,

referent and connotation synonymy.
 CONCEPT SYNONYMY: The two elements refer to the same concept or
entity in the real world. For example: lift and elevator.
 REFERENT SYNONYMY. The words don’t really have the same meaning, but
they have the same referent: the winner in Austerlitz / the looser in Waterloo
(referring to Napoleon).
 CONNOTATION SYNONYMY. The terms have the same connotation,
although their denotative meaning may be different. For instance: He’s
stupid / he’s thick

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Although synonymy might seem unnecessary, there are several reasons

for synonyms to exist:
1) Different dialects: We find some words that are different in British and
American English, such as: pavement / sidewalk; sweet / candy; biscuit /
cookie. We can also find differences between Standard English and regional
variations: little / wee (used in Scotland).
2) Formality: In English we can find words from different origins: Old
English, Latin and French. As a result, we have series of three synonyms,
differentiated by the degree of formality, such as: kingly / royal / legal; ask /
question / interrogate.
We can also find pairs such as go in / enter, in which the word coming form
Old English is less formal.
When French words were introduced, many nouns designing animals were
introduced, and lived side by side with Old English words. They were
synonyms, but later they got differentiated. The Old English word remained to
be used for the living animal, and the French word started to design the meat
provided by that animal pig / pork; sheep / mouton.
3) Technicality: By the side of a standard word coming from Old English, we
have a technical one coming from Latin or Greek, used by specialists. This
pairs are frequently used in medicine. For example: cardiac / heart;
pulmonary / lung; incision / cut.
4) Connotation: In all languages there are taboo words, and euphemisms are
used to avoid them. Euphemisms are words which have the same denotative
meaning, but lack the improper connotations. For example: prostitute instead
of whore or hooker; or pass away instead of die.
In other cases we also find dysphemism; they are words even with more
pejorative connotations, which are used in very informal language or slang.
For example: die / kick the bucket; drunk / pissed off.

4. ANTONYMY
“Oppositeness of meaning” is referred to by means of the term ANTONYMY.
Opposites are a natural feature of language, but there are different relations
of semantic opposition, and it is often difficult to make generalizations about
pairs that seem quite predictable.

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We can distinguish between gradable, complementary, multiple incompatible

and converse or relational antonyms.
 GRADABLE antonyms do not refer to absolute qualities, but are placed on
the limit of a scale, and other elements can be placed between them. For
example: young / old (you can be middle-aged); hot / cold (warm and cool
would be intermediate terms). When we ask about these antonyms, we use
only one of the elements: How old are you? We do not ask: How young are
you?
 COMPLEMENTARY antonyms present genuine oppositeness of meaning.
They share the property of incompatibility. There is no possibility of a third
term lying between them: true / false; dead / alive; open / close. If we deny
one term, we are implying the other: John is not dead entails John is alive.
 MULTIPLE INCOMPATIBLE antonyms involve more than two terms. They
are sets of miniature semantic systems; some of them closed systems with a
strictly limited number. For example: days, seasons, months, colours.
 CONVERSE or relational antonyms have a reciprocal relationship, in which
one element implies the other. For example: father / son; guest / host; sell /
buy.

Before moving on to the next point, we should analyze the notion of inclusion
of one class in another, which is effected by HYPONYMY.
This is a dog implies: This is an animal BUT
This is an animal does not entail: This is a dog.
The “upper” term (animal) is the SUPERORDINATE and the “lower” term is
the HYPONYM.

5. FALSE FRIENDS
‘False friends’ are elements in the lexicon of a language that bear great
resemblance to the lexeme of another language, but with a variation of
meaning.
This is a typical problem of learners of a foreign language, who usually
understand in a wrong way a foreign word.

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Examples of this kind of words are frequent in the English lexicon, and they
are responsible for many cases of misunderstanding. We can find a lot of
words that resemble a Spanish equivalent, but they differ in some way:
a) They may not be related semantically at all.
b) They may represent some related meanings, but not all.
c) Even in those cases where the semantic scope may be said to be equivalent,
they are likely to differ in:
 Their collocational restrictions with other words. E.g., depend on.
 Their syntactic function: camping (activity) and Spanish (campsite).
 Their implications regarding register or style.
 Their positive or negative connotations. E.g., impressive (positive
connotation in English).

Some examples of this kind in English and Spanish are the following:

- Eventually, which is not "eventualmente", but "finalmente"

- Library, which is not "librería" but "biblioteca”

- Sympathetic, which is not "simpatico" but "compasivo"

- Actually, which is not "actualmente", but "de hecho" -'

- Sensible, which is not "sensible" but "sensato"

- Constipated, which is not "constipado", but "estreñido"

- Consistent, which is not "consistente" but " lógico"

- Disgraced, which is not "desgraciado", but "deshonrado"

6. LEXICAL CREATIVITY
Language is not a static, closed entity; like any other system relating to
human society, the semantic system is continually being extended and revised.
New concepts are introduced everyday and these are eventually assimilated
into the language. We can distinguish three mechanisms by which new
concepts are introduced, and all belong to the field of LEXICAL INNOVATION.
They are word-formation, conversion and semantic transfer.
 WORD-FORMATION or neologism refers to the invention of new lexical
items. Very often, a neologism condenses into a single word the same meaning

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that could be expressed otherwise by a whole phrase. For example copywriter

would be the person who writes advertising or also publicity material.
The institutionalising effect can be observed in other, more abstract words:
Nazism, Thatcherism… A philosophy or way of life has come to be associated
with these concepts. Advertising is fond of coining new compounds in order to
express a special newly created idea that we will associate with the product:
sun-kissed, read-to-eat… But the fields where this type of linguistic creativity
is more common are technology and science.
 CONVERSION: This second type of lexical rule brings about a change in the
syntactic function and the meaning of an item. For example:
netted in He netted the ball (he put the ball into the net)
basketed in She basketed the shopping (she put the shopping into the basket)
carred in They carred their suitcases (they put their suitcases into the car)
 SEMANTIC TRANSFER: In this technique for lexical creativity, the
morphological and syntactic specifications of the item remain the same, and
only the semantic specification changes. One of the most common forms of
semantic transfer is METAPHOR: the meaning of a lexical item (a piece of
mud) is replaced by other similar to it (a doughnut of mud); the ground for the
comparison has to be interpreted by the hearer.
METONYMY, on the other hand, is the designation that refers to other types of
semantic transfer in which a whole expression is replaced by part of it; its
interpretation often relies on context and cultural knowledge. For example:
The whole town turned to welcome them referring to all the people living in
the town.
There is also a kind of semantic transfer which applies to certain adjectives.
They are used in the transferred sense of expressing or causing the emotional
state: a friendly greeting, a melancholy landscape.
NONCE-FORMATION refers to words that are invented in a particular
situation. It comes from the expression “for the nonce” instead of “for the
once”, according to D. Crystal. For example workaholic, someone addict to
work, blurb, referring to the summary in the lat cover of a novel. Another
example would be "They left me typewriterless" instead of saying "They
borrowed my typewriter".

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All types of lexical innovation techniques show common characteristics, apart

from their partial productivity, that account for their powerful ability to
generate new lexical entries.

CONCLUSION
Regarding words as meaningful units we have dealt with the notion of sense
and sense relations such as synonymy, antonymy and homonymy and
polysemy, relations on which teachers work when we face vocabulary issues.
False friends are also studied because of the great resemblance that some
English words have to a word in our mother tongue. Teachers have to make
students aware of these words in order to avoid misunderstanding.
We also have to point out the fact that language is always extending and new
concepts and words are being introduced to any language from the scientific,
technological and literary world and from other languages. Words such as
hyper-dating, practice of dating lots of different people in a short period of
time; potica, a kind of cake; togethering, vacationing with an extended family;
and furkid, a pet treated as a child have been recently introduced to English
language.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cruse, D. Lexical Semantics. Cambridge: C.U.P., 1986
Gairns & Redman. Working with Words. Cambridge: C.U.P., 1986
Quirk & Greenbaum, A University Grammar of English. Longman 1998.
www.macmillandictionary.com