Linguistics - Types of Ambiguity - Assignment Example

Relationships between words:

1. Synonyms refer to two words with the same meaning for example the words “slim” and “slender”.
2. Antonyms refer to two words with opposite meanings for example the words “clean” and “dirty”. Gradable antonyms refer to a single word pair with differing meanings and occur when the two meanings are in on an uninterrupted range. An example is in the pair of words “light heavy”. Complementary antonyms refer to a single word pair with conflicting meanings and exist when the word's meanings do not lie on an uninterrupted range. An example is the pair of words “dead and alive “.Relational antonyms on the other hand refer to single words paired with differing senses and occur in a situation or a certain context of the relation in the words pair.   An example is the words “patient and doctor” (Baker, 2012).
3. Polysemy implies a word with two or more same meanings. For example, The cow is at the “foot” of the hill
4. Homonymy refers to the relationship between words having the same forms but diverse meanings. For example the word “bank” as in savings bank and river bank.
5. homophone is a word whose pronunciation is identical to another but their meaning and even spelling are different for example the words “too” and “two”.
6. antonyms refer to a word that is informal and appears to mean a thing yet it means another). An example is the word “disloyal”.
7. homographs refer to words with the same spelling but have different pronunciations and meaning an example is the word “desert” which means a dry place and to leave.

Practice for synonyms and antonyms:

1. the synonym for help is assist
2. the synonym for fast is quick
3. A synonym for a juvenile is young
4. an antonym for large is small
5. an antonym for married is divorced
6. an antonym for always is never
7. Examples of words that are both homophones and homographs.

The word “capital” is both a homophone and a homograph. It refers to assets and the same time the headquarter of a country

8. distinguishing between polysemy and homonymy.
9. Steal/steel means “rob” and “kind of metal”

The words steel and steal have the same pronunciation and thus may give misleading meaning

1. Sound means “stretch of water” and “noise”

Both the word “noise” and words “stretch of water” imply the same meaning and in different contexts, it might be difficult to distinguish between them.

9. the different types of semantic change

The first is the narrowing semantic change from the subordinate to the superordinate level to level. For example, the word “skyline” was earlier referred to as “horizon”. The second semantic change is the widening change where specific words are used to mean a general thing for example the word “vegetables” and “tomatoes”. Another semantic change is hyperbole, which is a change from a strong to a weak meaning for example “slaughter and “torment” referring to the process of killing (Baker, 2012).