Sematics Diagram

Semantics

Synchronic semantics studies groups of words and its meaning in a certain moment, gathering them into semantic fields.

Diachronic Semantics studies the words meaning throughout time: meaning changes, creation of new words, disappearing of another ones, etc.

Word Meaning

Meaning Relation Among Words

A Seme is the smallest unit of meaning recognized in semantics, refers to a single characteristic of a sememe

A Sememe is the compound of semes and is expressed by the lexeme.

a Semantic Field is a lexical set of words grouped semantically (by meaning) that refers to a specific subject

Associative Field is the set of word-reactions to the same source word, a set of associative ideas, one way or another associated with the word, but issued verbally

Denotation is the strict dictionary meaning of a word and Connotation is the emotional and imaginative association surrounding a word

Meaning Changes Among Words

Monosemy is the fact of having only a single meaning; absence of ambiguity in a word

Polysemy is the fact of having more than one meaning

Homonymy is the relation between words with identical forms but different meanings

Paronymy is the relationship between two or more words partly identical in form and/or meaning, which may cause confusion in reception or production

Synonymy is the semantic qualities or sense relations that exist between words (lexemes) with closely related meanings

Antonymy is the semantic qualities or sense relations that exist between words (lexemes) with opposite meanings in certain contexts

Hyperonymy is the capacity of a word to contain the meaning of another word or words

Hyponymy is a word which meaning is found within a another word or words

Homophony is the linguistic phenomenon whereby words of different origins become identical in pronunciation

Homography is when a set of words are spelled identically, but have different meanings

Gradual Antonyms are all of those who admit intermediate grades

Complementary antonyms are word pairs whose meanings are opposite but whose meanings do not lie on a continuous spectrum

Relational antonyms are word pairs where opposite makes sense only in the context of the relationship between the two meanings

Meaning Transformation

Causes for the Meaning Transformation

a) Total Change of Meaning

b) Meaning Development

c) Restriction of Meaning

d) Figurative Meaning:

- Metaphor

- Metonymy

e) Improvement or Empower of the Meaning

a) Linguistic Causes

b) Historical Causes

c) Psychological Causes

d) Social Causes:

- Taboo

- Euphemism

- Dysphemism