LEXICAL RELATION and

DERIVATIONAL RELATION
Homonymy
Polysemy
Synonymy
Antonymy
Hyponymy
Meronymy
Causative Verb
Agentive Noun

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Lexical Relation

A particular lexeme may be simultaneously in a

number of relations so that it may be more
accurate to think the lexicon as a network
Lexical field is a group of lexemes which belong to
a particular activity or area of specialist
knowledge. e.g. terms in cooking, computers,
medicine, etc.
One effect of lexical fields are lexical relations are
more common between lexemes in the same field
e.g. peak (part of a mountain) summit
peak (part of a head) visor

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Homonymy

1.

2.
3.
4.
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Homonyms are unrelated senses of the same

phonological word
We can distinguish different types depending on
syntactic behavior, and spelling
Lexemes of the same syntactic category, and with
the same spelling. e.g. lap circuit of a course with
lap part of body when sitting down
Of the same category, but with different spelling.
e.g. ring v and wring
Of different category, but with the same spelling
e.g. keep v/n
Of different category, and with different spelling
e.g. not, knot
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Polysemy

Homonymy and polysemy deal with multiple senses

of the same phonological word, but polysemy is
invoked if the senses are judged to be related
Lexicographers tend to use criteria relatedness to
identify polysemy. These criteria include speakers
intuition and what is known about historical
development of the items. e.g. hook
Such decision is not always clear cut. Speakers may
differ in the intuition and historical fact may
contradict speakers intuition. e.g. sole

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Synonymy

Synonyms are different phonological words which

have the same or very similar meanings
Clearly, the notion of synonymy and sense are
interdependent. You cant understand one without
understanding the others
Synonyms often have different distributions along a
number of parameters, such as dialect the guardspolice officer, formality cop-police officer, etc.
The synonyms may be collocationally restricted
context-dependant
e.g. a big house : a large house

my big sister : my large sister

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Antonymy
In traditional terminology, Antonyms are words which
are opposite in meaning
There are a number of relation which seems to
involve words which are at the same time related in
meaning yet incompatible or contrasting. Those are

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
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Simple Antonyms
Gradable antonyms
Reverses
Converses
Taxonomic Sisters
Member Collection
Portion mass
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Simple Antonyms
It

is a relation between words such that

positive of one implies the negative of the
other
The pairs are also sometimes called
complementary pairs or binary pairs
The examples are dead/alive, pass/fail,
hit/miss

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Gradable antonyms

This is a relationship between opposites where the positive

of one term does not necessarily imply the negative of the
other
The examples are rich/poor, fast/slow, young/old
The relation is typically associated with adjectives and has
three major identifying characteristics
1 there are usually intermediate term
e.g.hot warm, tepid, cool cold ,
2 the terms are usually relative
e.g. a thick book is thinner than a thin girl, and
3 in some pairs, one term is more basic and common,
e.g. its more common to ask how long is it? than how short
is it?

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Reverses
The

characteristics reverse relation is

between terms describing movement, where
one term describes movement in one
direction , and the other the same
movement in the opposite direction
The examples are come/go, up/down,
left/right, fill/empty, knit/unravel, etc

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Converses
These

are terms which describe a relation

between two entities from alternative point
of view
The examples are own/belong to, above/
below, employer/employee

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Taxonomic Sisters
The

term antonymy is sometimes used to

describe words which are at the same level in a
taxonomy
Taxonomies are classification systems, e.g.
red

blue

yellow

green

red and blue are sister member of the same

taxonomy and therefore incompatible with each
other
Some taxonomies are closed, e.g. days of the
week
Others are open, e.g. flavors of ice cream
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Hyponymy

Hyponymy is a relation of inclusion.

A Hyponym includes the meaning of a more general
word, e.g. dog and cat are hyponym of animal.
animal
dog
cat
etc
The more general term is called superordinate or
hypernym
Different from taxonomic sisters which describes
horizontal relationship, Hyponym describes vertical
relationship

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Meronymy

Meronymy is a term used to describe a part-whole relationship

between lexical items.
It reflects hierarchical classifications in the lexicon somewhat
like taxonomies
car
wheel

engine

door

piston

valve

etc

window

etc

Meronymic hierarchies are less clear cut and reguler than

taxonomies. Meronyms vary for example in how necessary the
part is to the whole
Meronymy also differs from hyponymy in transitivity

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How to identify meronymy?

X

is a meronym of Y if X is a part of Y, or Y
has X

Meronymy

reflects hierarchical classifications

in the lexicon

the

lexicon of a language is its vocabulary,

including its words and expressions. In other
words, it is a language's inventory of
lexemes.

Examples:
Cover

and page are parts of book, thus they are

meronyms of book
A finger is a part of a hand, thus finger is a
meronym of hand
Nose is a meronym of face (necessary)
Collar is a meronym of shirt (usual but not
obligatory)

Meronymy VS hyponymy
Hyponymy is always transitive, meaning that if an item is
a part of a part, then that first item is part of the larger
whole. Examples: hawk is a hyponym of bird, and bird is
a hyponym of animal, so hawk is a hyponym of animal
Meronymy may or may not be transitive.
transitive example: nail is a meronym of finger, and finger of
hand, we can say that nail is a meronym of hand, for we
can say hand has nails.
Intransitive example: hole is a meronym of button, and
button of shirt, but we cant say that hole is a meronym of
shirt, for we can not say shirt has holes.
Formula to distinguish meronymy and hyponymy:
Meronymy: oxygen is a part of air
Hyponymy: Cheetah is a kind/a type of cat

Member Collection and

Portion Mass

Member Collection is a relationship between the

word for a unit and the usual word for a collection
of the unit.
e.g. book
library
bird
flock
Portion mass is relation between a mass noun and
the usual unit of measurement or division
e.g. drop of liquid
grain of salt/sand/wheat
sheet of paper

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Derivational Relations 1

Lexical relation can also be seen from derivational relations, such as

causative verbs and agentive nouns
In causative verb, there are relationship among
1.
2.
3.

adjective describing a state adjective e.g. The road is wide

a verb describing a beginning or change of a state, incohative
intransitive e.g. the road widened
a verb describing the cause of the change of state causative transitive
e.g. The city council widened the road

In other cases, incohative and causative verbs are morphologically

derived from the adjective, e.g. ripe ripening
Often, there are gaps in the relation because the word cant be used
in all form
Another element in this relation can be an adjective describing the
state which is the result of the process resultative e.g. hot state
adjheat incohativeheat causativeheated resultative
However, not all verbs are inherently
causative, e.g. dead-die-kill18
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Derivational Relations 2

There are several different types of agentive nouns.

One well-known type is derived from verb and ends in
the written form er or or, e.g. actor, walker, etc
The process of forming nouns in er is more productive
than in or
Some nouns do not go through the same process,
e.g. footballer
Some nouns may have several senses which are quite far
from the associated verb, e.g. undertaker mortician,
muffler US car silencer, renter slang a male
prostitute

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