NOUN VOCABULARY

NOUN VOCABULARY

INTRODUCTION

          Linguistics is the science which employs language as an object of study. Language as a tool of communication consists of several components. They are phoneme, morpheme, word, phrase, clause and sentence. A word, as the smallest unit of language, contains a meaning.  In the level of linguistics, the meaning gives the term semantics.

Semantics is the subfield that is devote to the study of meaning, as inherit at the levels of words, phrases, sentences, and larger units of discourse. Griffiths (2006:41) gives notion that semantics is the study of the “toolkit” for meaning: knowledge encoded in the vocabulary of the language and in its patterns for building more elaborate meanings, up to the level of sentence meanings.

          Nouns form a majority of the words in the vocabulary of English (Griffiths, 2006:41). In contrast to the meanings of adjectives, nouns denote person, animal, plant, object, material, abstract concept, etc.

In terms of noun vocabulary, this paper outlines ways of describing the complexity, starting with a sense relation which Griffiths will call the has-relation. Besides, it deals with the way nouns are grouped into semantic categories and ends of the meaning differences between count and mass nouns.

DISCUSSION

1.  The Has-Relation

        For many words, however, we can only be sure that all the parts are there if the has-relation is stated in terms of prototypes (Griffiths, 2006:41). Prototype in linguistics relates to the problem of categorization which relates the mapping (our cognitive ability) of ‘words’. Prototypes are clear, central members of the denotation of a word. For instance, a prototype face has two eyes, a nose, and a mouth and a prototype house has a roof, a door and has windows.

Concerning restricted prototype, the has-relation makes available entailments. Some of examples are below:

There’s a house at the corner => ‘If it is like a prototype for house then it has a roof ’

The child drew a face =>’if the face was prototypical, the child drew a mouth’

1.1 Pragmatic inferences from the has-relation

        Restricted to prototypes, the has-relation can be the basis for some of pragmatic expectations in language use. It is revealed in a switch from indefinite to definite articles.

A: “I’ve bought a house.” B: “Where’s the house?” (not:“Where’s a house?”

If a whole that has a part has been mentioned, then the part can, on first mention, be referred to by the use of the as the following example:

A: “I’ve bought a house.” B: “I hope the roof doesn’t leak.”

1.2 Parts can have parts 

Words denoting wholes bear the has-relation to the labels for their parts, but the parts can, in turn, have parts, and a whole can be a part of a larger whole. For example:

-       A suburb has houses, a house has windows, a window has pane

1.3 Spatial parts

A prototype thing, such as a rock, can be said to have spatial parts which are deictic. For example: Rock has a top, a bottom (or base), sides and a front and back.

Pragmatics enters the interpretation of deictic words. The meaning of a deictic word is tied to the situation of utterance. The front of a rock faces the speaker and the back of a rock faces away from the speaker, and the sides are to the left and right from the point of view of the speaker.

1.4 Ends and beginnings

Long thin things have ends, and sometimes two different kinds of end are distinguished: beginnings and ends. For example; rope, ships, roads, trains and etc.

Nouns denoting periods of time have beginnings and ends. They also have middles as the following:

a. day, week, month, era, term, semester, century

b. conversation, demonstration, ceremony, meal, reception, process

2.  Hyponymy

Hyponymy is the semantic relationship that exist between two (or more) words in such a way that the meaning of one word includes (or contains) the meaning of other words. Griffiths (2006:46) considers this relation as an important for describing nouns. It is concerned with the labeling of sub-categories of a word’s denotation. For example, a house is one kind of building, and a factory and a church are other kinds of building; buildings are one kind of structure; dams are another kind of structure. The pattern of entailment that defines hyponymy is described below:

a.  There’s a house next to the gate.

b.  There’s a building next to the gate.

c.  (a ⇒  b) & it cannot be (b ⇒  a)    

2.1 Hierarchies of hyponyms 

House is a hyponym of the superordinate building, but building is, in turn, a hyponym of the superordinate structure; and, in its turn, structure is a hyponym of the superordinate thing. A superordinate at a given level can itself be a hyponym at a higher level, as shown below:

  thing                    superordinate of structure

                                 

structure                hyponym of thing; superordinate of building

 building                 hyponym of structure; superordinate of house

     

house                    hyponym of building

Griffiths (2006:47) mentions that the hyponymy relation passes through intermediate levels in the hierarchy, which means that house is not only a hyponym of building, but is also a hyponym of building’s immediate superordinate, structure; and,via structure, house is also a hyponym of thing.

          According to Yule (2006:105)

“When the meaning of one form is included in the meaning of another, the relationship   is   described   as   hyponymy.   When   we   consider   hyponomous connections, we are essentially looking at the meaning of words in some type of hierarchical relationship”.

          For example:

             Living thing

 

creature                           plant

 

animal         insect     vegetable flower          tree

 

dog  horse snake  ant   cockroach  carrot     rose      banyan

Looking at diagram, we can say that “horse” is a hyponym of “animal” or “cockroach” is a hyponym of “insect”. In these two examples, animal and insect are called the superordinate ( = higher level ) terms. We can also say that two or more words that share the same superordinate term are co-hyponyms. So, dog and horse are co-hyponyms and the superordinate term is animal.  

2.2 Hyponymy and the has-relation 

These two semantic relations should not be confused: hyponymy is about categories being grouped under superordinate terms (for example, tandems, ATBs, tourers and racers are kinds of bicycle; and bicycles, unicycles and tricycles are kinds of cycle), but the has-relation concerns parts that prototypical members of categories have (for instance, a prototype cycle  has wheel(s), a frame, handlebars and pedals; a prototype bicycle has these parts too and also has a chain).

3. Incompability

A semantic relation called incompatibility holds between the hyponyms of a given superordinate. Hyponymy is about classification: breakfast, lunch and dinner are kinds of meal. Incompatibility is about contrast: breakfast, lunch and dinner are different from each other within the category of meals; they are eaten at different times of day.

4. Count Nouns and mass nouns

In the grammar of English, there is a clear distinction between count nouns, exemplified by loaf and coin and mass nouns, exemplified by bread and money. The whole noun vocabulary divides into words that are almost always count nouns, ones that are almost always mass nouns (like clothing).

 Mass nouns resist being quantified with numbers and plural suffixes or the word many or the singular indefinite article a, while count nouns (in the left-hand column) can be quantifiedin this way. Count nouns denote distinguishable whole entities, like beans or people or shirts. They can be counted. Mass nouns are quantified with the word much. They denote undifferentiated substance, like dough or water or lava.

CONCLUSION

          This paper has explained three semantic relations as important sources in contributing nouns vocabulary. Those are the has-relation deals with prototype as central view, the stereotypical member of any category; hyponymy is a term o refer to a set or a group of words that are included in a higher term of word; and incompability which is the relation holding between the different hyponymy of any superordinate; the end explanation is about two noun categories (count and mass nouns) which count nouns is countable and mass nouns are things which can’t be counted by themselves because they are always treated as a group, volume, ass or quantity.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Griffiths, Patrick. 2006. An Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics. Edinburgh .Edinburgh University Press Ltd

Yule, George. 2006. The Study of Language –Third Edition. New York: Cambrigde University Press