11. Lexical and Terminological Sets, Lexico-Semantic Groups and Semantic fields.

Words denoting different things correlated on extralinguistic grounds form lexical sets. (тематические или предметные группы)

Ex: “lion, tiger, leopard, puma, cat” refer to the lexical set of “the animals of the cat family”.

Depending on the type of the notional area lexical sets may acquire a more specialized character - terminological sets (терминологические группы).

Ex: “parts of the car mechanism”: “radiator, motor, handbrake, wheels”.

Words describing different sides of one and the same general notion are united in a lexico-semantic group if:

1) the underlying notion is not too generalized and all-embracing like the notions of “time”, “life’, “process”, etc.;

2) the reference to the underlying notion is not just an implication in the meaning of the lexical unit but forms an essential part in its semantics.

Ex: the lexico-semantic group of names of “colours”: pink, black, red, green, white;

the lexico-semantic group of verbs denoting “physical movement” – to go, to turn, to run; or “destruction” – to ruin, to destroy, to explode, to kill.

If the underlying notion is broad enough to include almost all-embracing sections of vocabulary we deal with semantic fields (or conceptual fields).

Ex: cosmonaut (n.), spacious (adj.), to orbit (v.) – belong to the semantic field of “space”.

The members of the semantic fields are joined together by some common semantic component (the component common to all the members of the semantic field), which is sometimes described as the common denominator of meaning.

a semantic field

a lexical/terminological

a lexico- semantic group

12. Antonymy. Classification of antonyms.

Antonyms – a class of words grouped together on the basis of the semantic relations of opposition.

Antonyms are words belonging to one part of speech sharing certain common semantic characteristics and in this respect they are similar to such semantic classes as synonyms, lexical sets, lexico-semantic groups.

Classification:

I. Structurally:

1) antonyms of the same root;

Ex: to do – to undo; cheerful – cheerless

2) antonyms of different roots

Ex: day – night; rich – poor.

II. Semantically:

1) Contradictories – mutually opposed, they deny one another.

Ex: dead – alive; single – married.

They are members of two-term sets. To use one of the words is to contradict the other and to use “not” before one of them is to make it semantically equivalent to the other.

Ex: not dead = alive; not single = married.

2) Contraries are antonyms that can be arranged into a series according to the increasing difference in one of their qualities. The most distant elements of this series will be classified as contrary notions. Contraries are gradable antonyms, they are polar members of a gradual opposition which may have intermediate elements.

Ex: cold – hot and cool – warm – intermediate members.

Contrary antonyms may also be considered in terms of degrees of the quality involved.

Ex: water may be “cold” or “very cold”, and water in one glass may be “colder” than in another glass.

3) Incompatibles are antonyms which are characterized by the relations of exclusion. Semantic relations of incompatibility exist among antonyms with a common component of meaning and may be described as the reverse of hyponymy.

Ex: to say “morning” is to say “not afternoon, not evening, not night”.

Incompatibles differ from contradictories as incompatibles are members of the multiple-term sets while contradictories are members of two-term sets.