SYNONYM, ANTONYM, AND HYPONYM

Background :

Semantic is one of branches of linguistics that study of meaning. It is a wide subject within the general study of language. The study of semantics includes the study of how meaning is constructed, interpreted, clarified, obscured, illustrated, simplified negotiated, contradicted and paraphrased.

In other word, semantic is a central area in linguistics. Actually, there are so many important topic in semantic, among others : Symbol and Referent ; Euphemism; Denotation, Connotation and Implication; Ambiguity; Metaphor; Simile; Synonym, Antonym, and Hyponym; Collocation; Metonymy and Synecdoche; Hyperbole; Polysemy; Homonymy, Homophones and Homographs; Proverb; Idiom; etc..

But now, the writer going to explain about Semantic relations or meaning relations are words that are semantically related to other words. Semantic relations are considered in terms of the following relations of Synonym, Antonym, and Hyponym.

Contents         :

1.      SYNONYM

Synonyms are words with similar meanings.  They are listed in a special type of dictionary called a thesaurus.

According to Akwanya (1996) in Umera-Okeke (2008 p. 47) defined synonyms as “different phonological words having similar meanings”. Beside  Palmer (1996) also in Umera-Okeke opined that “synonymy is used to mean sameness of meaning”.

The Examples :

·         verb

1.      buy / purchase      : Membeli

2.      Sell / Market         : Menjual / Memasarkan

·         adjective

1.      Big/ large              : besar

2.      Beautiful/attractive/pretty/lovely/stunning : Indah / menarik / cantik / indah / menakjubkan

·         adverb

1.      quickly / speedily : dengan cepat

2.      gently / slowly      : dengan lembut/ dengan pelan

·         preposition

1.      on / upon                          : di atas

2.      below/ down                    : di bawah

3.      in front /ahead/afore        : di depan

2. ANTONYM

Antonyms are words that have the opposite meaning.  Oppositeness is a logical category.  There are three types: 

·         Graded antonyms deal with levels of the meaning of the words, like if something is not “good”, it may still not be “bad.”

Examples are :

1)      Fat and skinny

2)      Young and old

3)      Happy and sad

4)      Hard and soft

·         Complementary antonyms have a relationship where there is no middle ground. There are only two possibilities, either one or the other.

Examples are :

1)      Man and woman

2)      Push and pull

3)      Dead and alive

4)      Day and night

·         Relational antonyms are sometimes considered a subcategory of complementary antonyms. With these pairs, for there to be a relationship, both must exist.

Examples are:

1)      Husband and wife

2)      Doctor and patient

3)      Buy and sell

4)      Servant and master

3.      HYPONYM

Hyponym is a word or phrase whose semantic field is included within that of another word, its hyperonym or hypernym. Hyponymy is the more specific concept and the more general concept is known as the hypernym. In other word,  A hyponym is a word or phrase whose semantic field is more specific than its hypernym.

In simpler terms, a hyponym shares a type-of relationship with its hypernym. For example : pigeon, crow, eagle and seagull are all hyponyms of  bird (their hyperonym); which, in turn, is a hyponym of animal.

Other Examples are :

·         Manggo- fruit ; Car- vehicles ; table- furniture ; Hen - animal.

·         The verb ‘colour’ has many hyponyms

 Word: colour (hypernym)

 Hyponyms: blue, red, yellow, green, white, black, purple and pink.

·         The verb ‘cook’ has many hyponyms.

Word: Cook (hypernym)

Hyponyms: Roast (Memanggang), boil (merebus), fry (menggoreng), grill (memanggang), bake (membakar).

Look at this picture !

REFERENCE

http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test3materials/semanticsHANDOUT.htm

http://www.academia.edu/12865362/Semantic_Field_Semantic_Relation_and_Semantic_Component  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyponymy_and_hypernymy