Semantic Relation: Synonymy

ผู้เรียนภาษาหลายคนคงจะปฏิเสธไม่ได้ว่าการใช้พจนานุกรมนั้นสำคัญมาก เพราะการเรียนรู้ภาษาใดๆ เราจำเป็นที่จะรู้ความหมายของคำที่ปรากฏอยู่ในประโยค และสิ่งที่ช่วยให้เรารู้ความหมายของคำได้ คือ พจนานุกรมซึ่งช่วยให้เราเลือกใช้คำได้เหมาะสมกับสถานการณ์ต่าง โดยเฉพาะอย่างยิ่งในการเรียนภาษาต่างประเทศ

จากประสบการณ์ส่วนตัวในการเรียนภาษาอังกฤษ เมื่อจำเป็นต้องเลือกใช้คำๆ หนึ่ง ให้เหมาะสม วิธีการเปิดหาคำศัพท์หลักเพื่อที่จะดูการใช้และคำที่มีความหมายคล้ายๆกัน นับว่าเป็นทางเลือกที่ดี เพราะคำที่มีความหมายคล้ายกันจะกลายมาเป็นตัวเลือกอีกตัว ซึ่งในส่วนของคำที่มีความหมายคล้ายกันนี่เอง เป็นตัวเลือกที่ช่วยให้เราใช้คำได้เหมาะสมมากที่สุด

พจนานุกรมทั่วๆไปหรือแม้แต่พจนานุกรมอิเล็กทรอนิกหรือ Talking Dictionary จะปรากฏคำหลักและคำที่มีความหมายคล้ายๆกัน โดยเรียกคำที่มีความหมายคล้ายกันว่า Synonym นั่นเอง ถ้าคำ A เป็น Synonym ของคำ B เราจะเรียกสภาพของความเหมือนนี้ว่า Synonymy ซึ่งตามแนวคิดของ Murphy (134: 2003) Synonym เป็นลักษณะของความสัมพันธ์ทางความหมาย (Semantic Relation) แบบหนึ่ง ซึ่ง Murphy ได้ให้ความหมายของ synonymy ว่า กลุ่มของคำที่มีความหมายเหมือนกันแต่มีรูป (Form) แตกต่างกัน และคำที่เป็น Synonym กันต้องสามารถแทนที่ในประโยคเดียวกันได้ด้วย เช่น

I would like to buy this book

I would like to purchase this book

จากประโยคในภาษาอังกฤษนี้จะเห็นได้ว่า buy และ purchase มีรูป (form) ที่แตกต่างกัน แต่มีความหมายเดียวกันคือซื้อ และยังสามารถใช้แทนในประโยคที่มีใจความเดียวกันได้ ดังนั้นคำว่า buy และ purchase จึงเป็น synonym กัน หรือในภาษาไทยที่เราพบในชีวิตประจำวัน เช่น

เธอไปรับประทานข้าวกับครอบครัวของเธอ

เธอไปกินข้าวกับครอบครัวของเธอ

เห็นได้ชัดเจนว่าคำว่า กิน และ รับประทาน สามารถใช้แทนในประโยคเดียวกันได้ เพราะมีความหมายเดียวกัน แต่ต่างกันที่รูป หรือ form นั่นเอง ทั้งสองคำนี้จึงเป็น synonym ซึ่งกันและกัน

จากที่กล่าวมาทั้งหมดนี้เป็นเพียงตัวอย่างของคำที่มีความหมายเหมือนกันเท่านั้น แต่ลองคิดดูซิว่า...นอกจากเราจะสามารถพบเจอคำที่มีความหมายเหมือนแล้ว เราจะพบลักษณะของความสัมพันธ์ทางความหมายแบบอื่นๆ อีกหรือไม่?

ใจความบทบาท (Thematic Roles)

Thematic roles are grammatically relevant relations between predicates (often events) and arguments (often entities), we might look for them in the typical grammatical roleslikesubject, direct object, and indirect object.(Frawley 1992, 199)

Predication is the way that individuals instantiate--embody, carry out, take on, or are linked to--properties, actions, attributes, and states. (198)

2 kinds of things that linguistic expression 'can' denote:

Things that are independent and can stand alone: INDIVIDUALS.
The independent individuals are 'arguments'.

Things that are dependent and cannot stand alone:QUALITIES, RELATIONS, ACTS, PROPERTIES, and STATES.
The inherently dependent phenomena are predicates.

Thematic role & its grammatical encoding
ex:
Thematic role: AGENT
Grammatical role: SUBJECT
Morphological case: NOMINATIVE


Typology of thematic roles


LOGICAL ACTORS
The 'Agent' is the deliberatede, potent, active instigator of the predicate: the primary, involved doer.

The 'Author' is the sufficient, but not the necessary, cause of the predication; hence it is often understood as the inactive cause. Animacy, intentionality, and responsibility are not required of the author.

The 'Instrument' is the means by which a predicate is carried out. Unlike agents and authors, instruments must be acted upon by something else in order to participate in the situation; their energy source is external to them.

LOGICAL RECEIPIENTS
The 'Patient' is changed by, or is directly affected by a predicate. A patient suffers a situation, or comes out changed as a result of the action of the predicate.

The internal state or constitution of the 'Expeiencer' is affected by the predicate. Because internally affected entities have to have an internal state to register the effect, experiencers frequently turn out to be human, or at least animate.

The 'Benefactive' derive actions or entities from the actions of another. Benefactives may be viewed, alternatively, as arguments inherently dependent on surrogates.

SPATIAL ROLES
In the prototypical situation of motion,some entity is displaced as the result of an initiator's influence and moves from some resting point along the trajectory, often to another resting point. The displaced entity is the 'Theme' of the predication of displacement.

The 'Source' is the reference to the point of origin of displacement in motion predicate.

The 'Goal' is the reference to the point of destination of displacement in motion predicate.

CIRCUMSTANTIAL ROLES
The 'Locative' is the spatial position of the predicate; it is the site of the predication, or its static position.

The 'Reason' is the prior condition of a predication. Reasons may also be said to link other events to predication by means of motivation of an agent.

The 'Purpose' is the result or consequence of a predicate. Purposes focus on the contextual endpoints of predications.


UNIFIED TREATMENTS OF THEMATIC ROLES


Localist reduction



Macroroles


Linking theory
- Fillmore's subject hierarchy
- Givón's topic accessibility hierarchy
- Jackendoff's thematic hierarchy conditioncondition

การจำแนก "แบบ" ของเหตุการณ์

Four-Part Typology of Events
1. States: static event (statives)
2. Acts: events that are executed (actives)
3. Inchoatives: events that unfold (roughly Vendlerʼs achievements
and Ryleʼs achievements without an associated task)
4. Resultatives: events that come to an end (roughly Vendlerʼs
accomplishments. Kenneyʼs performative, and Ryleʼs achievements).
(Frawley 1992: 183-184)

Significance of “dragon” in Chinese and English

Difference of the traditional culture thought also reflects the national characteristics inevitably. Chinese traditional philosophy mainly takes the Confucianism as the basic skeleton and mixed with Taoism before 1840. Britain is among the few western countries which have glorious history. The Christianity culture and the western philosophy are the main body of the English culture. For example, the definition of “龙 /loŋ214/ (dragon)” in Chinese dictionary is:

“我国传说中的神异动物，有鳞，有爪，有脚，能走能飞，能游泳，能兴云降雨 (Dragon is a mystical animal in the Chinese legend, with scaly skin, claws and legs. It can fly and swim and can creat clouds and rain.)”.

For thousands of years in the Chinese culture ‘dragon’ is quite familiar with the Chinese nationality and has the favorable impression. ‘Dragon’ in Chinese is a commendatory word, it has rich national characteristics. In the Chinese culture dragon is not only a symbol of nobleness and mystery, but also a metaphor referring to the emperor with supreme power. Therefore, in ancient China, when the emperor is angry there is an old Chinese saying “龙颜大怒 /loŋ214jan35ta51lu51/”, here “龙颜/loŋ214jan35/” refers to the face of the emperor. And the descendants of the emperor are called “龙子龙孙 /loŋ214ʦi214loŋ214sun55/ (the offsprings of the dragon)”. In Beijing, the building style of the Imperial Palace is around the theme of dragon. Dragon is also symbolizing the outstanding people, contains the commendatory meaning as authority, strength, talent and propitiousness and so on. So nowadays in China all the parents cherish the dream of “望子成龙/waŋ51ʦi214ʦʰeŋ35loŋ214/ (expecting their children to be the dragons)”, the Chinese connotation is that the parents expect their children to be somebody.

However, in the English dictionary, dragon is defined as “a mythical monster, usually represented as a large reptile with wings and claws, breathing out fire and smoke”. Because of the influence of the Bible, in the western culture, “dragon” is a symbol of monster without any good connotation. So in western countries, the people become discolored when hearing the word “dragon” since it is often used to refer to the person who is cruel. As a result of the influence of the Christianity culture, in English “dragon” also has the meaning of “the sea monster (refers to whale, shark, alligator and sea python and so on)”. English phrase “the old dragon” means “king of the monster”.

Generally speaking, in English the word dragon has a derogatory sense when it is used to refer to somebody. English Language Dictionary explain: If you call a woman as a dragon, you mean that she is fierce and unpleasant. So “亚洲四小龙/ja51 ʦou55 si51 ɕiao214 loŋ214/ ”is often translated as “the four tigers of Asia”, not “the four dragons of Asi”.

Semantics and some interesting Chinese Characters

In Chinese , characters often have a remarkable and profound meaning .we can see this with the examples as follow:

“道/tao51/”,the character that means ‘road, way, path, principle, line’ consists of head (首)and road(辶). The original mean is someone has to decide where to go when in a crossing of road.

“休ɕiu55”, the character that means ‘rest, stop, leisure’ consists of one person(亻) and a tree(木), The original mean is someone take a rest under the tree, it is very happy and relax.

“男/nan214/”，the character that means ‘man, son, boy’ consists of farmland(田) and power(力), the original mean is man always work in the farmland.

“慧/hui51/”,the character that means ‘intelligent’ consists of grass(彗) and heart(心). The original mean is someone think about how to turn grass into useful broom.

“菜/cai51/”，the character that means ‘vegetable, food, dish’ consists of grass(艹) and collect(采), the original mean is collect grass for food.

“媚/mei35/”,the character that means ‘charming ,flatter’ consists of one girl(女) and eyebrow(眉), the original mean is lady’s eyebrow is very beautiful and fascinating.

“娇/ʨiao55/”,the character that means ‘tender, lovely, charming, delicate, spoil’ consists of ‘a girl(女) and a bridge(乔)’ , the original mean is describe one girl has a good figure like bridge.

“谐/ɕiɛ214”，the character that means ‘in harmony’ consists of word(讠), two knives(匕) and white(白).The original mean is a group of soldiers eat and live together.

“艳/jan51/”,the character that means ‘colorful, amorous’ consists of ‘plentiful(丰) and color(色)’ ,the original mean is many color are mixed.

“贫/pʰin35/”,the character that means ‘poor, shortage’, consists of ‘separate(分) and money(贝)’ , the original mean is the money is divided into many parts.

“保/pao214/”，the character that means ‘protect, maintain, guarantee ‘ consists of ‘a person(亻), mouth(口), tree(木)’. the original mean is put child on back in order to protect.

“明/miŋ214/”，the character that means ‘bright, clear, honest, understand’ consists of the sun(日) and the moon(月).

“昭/ʦao51/”,the character that means ‘clear, show’ consists of ‘the sun(日), a knife(刀) and one mouth(口)’, the original mean is have lunch under the sun.

“旱han51”, the character that means ‘drought, on land’ consists of ‘the sun(日) and dry(干)’.

“波/po55/”,the character that means ‘wave’ consists of ‘water(氵) and skin(皮)’ .

“晶/ʨiŋ55/”，the character that means ‘bright’ consists of three sun(日).

“聊/liao214/”,the character that means ‘chat’ consists of ‘ear, girl, boy’ ,the original mean is a girl or a boy should talk and listen first, then fall in love with each other.


From the analysis above we can see the Chinese character is so fantastic.

Dead metaphor

A dead metaphor is a metaphor which has lost its original figurative meaning through extensive popular usage. Because dead metaphors have a conventional meaning that differs from the original, they can be understood without knowing their earlier connotation. Dead metaphors are the result of a semantic shift in the evolution of a language. A distinction is often made between those dead metaphors whose origins are entirely unknown to the majority of people using them (such as the expression "to kick the bucket") and those whose source is widely known or symbolism easily understood but not often thought about (the idea of "falling in love").

There is debate among literary scholars whether so-called "dead metaphors" are dead or are metaphors. Literary scholar R.W. Gibbs noted that for a metaphor to be dead, it would necessarily lose the metaphorical qualities that comprise it. These qualities, however, still remain. A person can understand the expression "falling head-over-heels in love" even if they have never encountered that variant of the phrase "falling in love." Analytic philosopher Max Black argued that the dead metaphor should not be considered a metaphor at all, but rather classified as a separate vocabulary item. If the verb "to plough" retained the simple meaning of "to turn up the earth with a plow," then the idea of a car "ploughing through traffic" would clearly be a metaphor. The expression would be a comparison between the motion of the plow cutting through the soil and a car speeding through traffic. In order to understand it, one would need to grasp the comparison. However, "to plough" has taken on an additional meaning of "to move in a fast and uncontrolled manner," and so to say that a car "ploughed through the traffic" is a literal statement. No knowledge of the original metaphorical symbolism is necessary to understanding the statement.

Examples

There are many of examples of dead metaphors in the English language. A brief list of examples is given below.

• flowerbed
A flower
• head teacher
• forerunner
• to run for office
• to lose face
• to lend a hand
• to broadcast
• pilot -- originally meant the rudder of a boat.
• flair -- originally meant a sweet smell.
• a computer mouse
• fishing for compliments
• seeds of doubt
• catch her name
• world wide web
• tulip -- originally meant the eastern headdress, the turban.
• turn-on
• flared jeans
• he ploughed through the car at traffic lights
• foothills or the foot of a mountain
• brow of the hill
• branches of government
• windfall gain
• fly
• kidney beans

Radiation——Approaches to polysemy

Polysemy is used in semantic analysis to refer to a lexical item which has a range of different meanings. Polysemy is an essential feature of a language’s economy and efficiency.

Semantically, radiation is the process in which the primary or central meaning stands at the center while secondary meanings radiate from it in every direction like rays.

The word head affords a good example of radiation. We may regard as the central meaning that with which we are most familiar, —— a part of the body. From this we get ① the “top” of anything, literally or figuratively, whether it resembles a head in shape (as the head of a cane, a pin, or a nail), or merely in position or preeminence (as the head of a page, the head of the table, the head of the hall); ② figuratively, “leadership”, or concretely, “ a leader” (the head of the army, the head of the school); ③ the “head”of a coin (the side on which the ruler’s head is stamped); ④the “source”of a stream, “spring” “well-head”, “fountain-head”;⑤the hydraulic sense (head of water); ⑥a “promontory”, as Beechy Head; ⑦ “an armed farce”,“ a troop” (now obsolete); ⑧a single person or individual, as in “five head of cattle”; ⑨the “main points”, as in “the heads of a discourse”(also “notes” of such points).

We observe that any derived meaning may itself become the source of one or more further derivatives. It may even act as a centre whence such derivatives radiate in considerable numbers, precisely as if it were the primary sense of the word.

Thus, in the case of head, the sense of the “top”of anything immediately divides into that which resembles a human head in ①shape, or ② position merely. And each of these senses may radiate in several directions. Thus from ①we have the head of a pin, of a nail, of a barrel, of an ulcer; from ② we have the head of a table, of a hall, of a printed page, of a subscription-list. And some of these meanings may also be further developed. “The head of the table”, for instance, may indicate position, or may be transferred to the person who sits in that position.

Sense No. ②, the “forefront” of a body of persons, the “leader”,cannot be altogether separated from No. ①But it may come perfectly well from the central meaning. In every animal but man the head actually precedes the rest of the body as the creature moves. At all events, the sense of “leadership” or “leader”(it is impossible to keep them apart) has given rise to an infinity of particular applications and idiomatic phrases. The head of a procession, of an army, of a class, of a revolt, ——these phrases all suggest personal leadership, but in different degrees and very various relations to the persons who are led, so that they may all be regarded as radiating from a common centre.

Another example is the word “hand”. The word “hand” may signify:
1) part of the human body beyond the wrist
2) keeping, possession: The property is no longer in my hands.
3) (sing. only) skill: She has a light hand at pastry.
4) person who does (what is indicated in the context) He is a new hand.
5) employee The factory has taken on 200 extra hands.
6) turn, share in an activity Do you think he had a hand in it?
7) a thing like a hand, pointer on a watch, clock the hour (minute, second) hand
8) member of a group of card-players We have only three players, we need a fourth hand.
9) applause Give a performer a big hand.

The primary meaning of the word hand (a part of the human body beyond the wrist) is used as a central meaning which stands at the center. Other meanings are derived from it in every direction like rays.