Chapter Four Sense Relations and Semantic Field 英语词汇学 演示教学.pptVIP

Semantic Field 1 The massive word store of a language, like English can be conceived of as composed around a number of meaning areas. Some large, as philosophy, emotions, others smaller, as kinship or colors. Viewing the total meaning in this way is the basis of field theory. Vocabulary: “an integrated system of lexemes interrelated in sense” so “words of language can be classified into semantically related sets or fields. “ (Trier) Semantic Field 2 Apple pear peach apricot mango-----makes up the semantic field of fruits. Celery, lettuce cucumber potato---vegetables colour---red, yellow, blue, purple etc The whole vocabulary can be divided up into fields. Roget’s Thesaurus Semantic Field 3 Words in each field are semantically related and define one another. Meaning does not exist in the word itself, it spreads over the neighboring words, and neighboring words identify the semantic field and pin down the meaning. orange, captain, rose, etc The semantic field of the same concept may not have the same numbers in different languages: kinship. Example I Face the front of the head the expression of the countenance a surface of a thing the side or surface that is marked---clock, playing card, domino appearance , outside aspect, resemblance dignity, self-respect the topography ( of an area) Example II the functional and striking surface ( of a tool, golf club) (colloq) effrontery; audacity what is shown by the language of a document, without explanation and addition [mining] the end of a tunnel, drift, etc, where work is being done [topography] the type surface on which a letter is cut (1) is the primary meaning. All the others are derived meaning Example III Sometimes, with the development of language, the primary meaning became obsolete or disappeared. Harvest: [p] time of cutting [D] Reaping and gather the crops; A season’s yield of grain or fruit Pain: [p] penalty or punishment under pain of [D] suffering great discomfort of