Semantic field

Sub-word field is generally understood as a set (group ) of partially synonymous words whose meanings depend on each other.

Almost synonymous with " word field " are: lexical field, meaning field, conceptual field, meaning the district as well as semantic field. In modern lexicology is spoken in this context of " synset ".

The concept of " word field " has established in 1931 in the linguistic discussion Jost Trier. So He described a group of similar meaning words of a language whose meanings to mutually define and which are completely covering a specific conceptual area.

Definitions and reception

Definition of Kühn: "Under a word array is a lexical- semantic paradigm understood, which is held together by the appearance of a common semantic feature, and in which are the lexemes each other by certain semantic features in opposition, and thus a network of semantic relationships constitute "

Definition of Wunderlich, "A paradigmatic lexical field is a lot of words ( expressions) with similar meaning. The words belong to the same grammatical category and can be used in sentences for each other ( substituted ), without changing their meaning thereby change significantly. The field can be characterized by a single term from the language in question often. "

Is as much points out: " So the field is less than a two-dimensional structure to be understood as a mosaic, but rather than force field '. Its properties are orderliness, exchange definiteness ( the individual contents ), completeness (there are no blank spaces ) and well- separateness (from other fields). "This is likely to be a rather idealized description.

The field concept is based on the basic concept of Wilhelm von Humboldt, that the " outline the most common and most profound characteristic of all language" is.

The term word field was introduced in 1924 by Gunther Ipsen and 1931 adopted groundbreaking of Jost Trier in his work ( habilitation thesis ) " The German vocabulary in mind district of mind ". The word field theory has been further developed especially by Leo Weisgerber as part of its " content -related linguistics " and systematized. According to some authors " can ( they ) are considered as precursors of structural semantics ".

The theory of the word field is accused that " it is less structured and more intuitive to explicit rules " and the "objective of fixing, field boundary ' [ ... ] a problem". The " field view " of Trier / Weisgerber was " heavily criticized were referred to as linguistic in-between world " in his series of philosophical interpretation of the fields. The in-between world - theory of Leo Weisgerber expected but on a " neohumboldtianischen conception of language 'method, was for the development of the semantic field theory of fundamental importance.

The word field theory was formalized by structuralist work on semantic components analysis. Word fields is used to analyze semantic relations between lexemes and serve as " a means of description of lexical subsystems ". Studies on the empirical foundation of semantic fields provide Goeke and Cornelius dar.

Example

As an example of a word field is listed here die after Weisgerber / tree gardener.

This analysis is similar to the generative semantics of Jerry Fodor, George Lakoff, James McCawley and others, who have admittedly not find any reception semantic field theory and Weisgerber 's positions.

Differentiations

One can distinguish between closed and open word fields. Examples of closed word fields are weekdays and month names, as an example of an open field the word of names for colors.

As a special form of semantic fields syntagmatic lexical fields can be considered. " A syntagmatic lexical field is a pair of words ( expressions) which follow one another in a syntactic construction and always related to one another [ ... ]. The corresponding words in the pairs belong to the same grammatical category and the same paradigmatic box " Examples: animal sounds. Dog / bark; Lion / roar; Hirsch / tubes; Frog / croaking.