linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Ling ...

, a semantic field is a lexical set of words grouped semantically (by meaning) that refers to a specific subject.Howard Jackson, Etienne Zé Amvela, ''Words, Meaning, and Vocabulary'', Continuum, 2000, p14. The term is also used in

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

,Ingold, Tim (1996). ''Key debates in anthropology''. Routledge. , . Source

(accessed: Sunday May 2, 2010), p.127

computational semiotics Computational semiotics is an interdisciplinary field that applies, conducts, and draws on research in logic, mathematics, the theory and practice of computation, formal and natural language studies, the cognitive sciences generally, and semio ...

, and technical

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretation ...

Definition and usage

Brinton (2000: p. 112) defines "semantic field" or "semantic domain" and relates the linguistic concept to hyponymy:

Related to the concept of hyponymy, but more loosely defined, is the notion of a semantic field or domain. A semantic field denotes a segment of reality symbolized by a set of related words. The words in a semantic field share a common
semantic property Semantic properties or meaning properties are those aspects of a linguistic unit, such as a morpheme, word, or sentence, that contribute to the meaning of that unit. Basic semantic properties include being ''meaningful'' or ''meaningless'' – fo ...
.

A general and intuitive description is that words in a semantic field are not necessarily synonymous, but are all used to talk about the same general phenomenon.Adrian Akmajian, Richard A. Demers, Ann K. Farmer, Robert M. Harnish, ''Linguistics'', MIT Press, 2001, p239. Synonymy requires the sharing of a sememe or

seme Seme may refer to: *Seme Border, a settlement in Nigeria on the border with Benin *Seme (dagger), a Maasai term for a type of lion hunting knife * Seme (martial arts), Japanese martial arts term meaning to attack ** Seme, a manga/anime term for a d ...

, but the semantic field is a larger area surrounding those. A meaning of a word is dependent partly on its relation to other words in the same conceptual area. The kinds of semantic fields vary from culture to culture and anthropologists use them to study belief systems and reasoning across cultural groups. Andersen (1990: p.327) identifies the traditional usage of "semantic field" theory as:

Traditionally, semantic fields have been used for comparing the lexical structure of different languages and different states of the same language.

History

The origin of the field theory of semantics is the

lexical field theory Lexical field theory, or ''word-field theory'', was introduced on March 12, 1931 by the German linguist Jost Trier. He argued that words acquired their meaning through their relationships to other words within the same word-field. An extension of t ...

introduced by

Jost Trier Jost Trier (15 December 1894 – 15 September 1970) was a German philologist who was Chair of German Philology at the University of Münster from 1932 to 1961. Biography Jost Trier was born in Schlitz, Hesse, Germany on 15 December 1894, the son ...

in the 1930s,David Corson, ''Using English Words'', Springer, 1995. although according to John Lyons it has historical roots in the ideas of

Wilhelm von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt (, also , ; ; 22 June 1767 – 8 April 1835) was a Prussian philosopher, linguist, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin, which was named afte ...

and Johann Gottfried Herder. In the 1960s Stephen Ullmann saw semantic fields as crystallising and perpetuating the values of society. For John Lyons in the 1970s words related in any sense belonged to the same semantic field, and the semantic field was simply a lexical category, which he described as a lexical field. Lyons emphasised the distinction between semantic fields and

semantic networks A semantic network, or frame network is a knowledge base that represents semantic relations between concepts in a network. This is often used as a form of knowledge representation. It is a directed or undirected graph consisting of vertices, ...

. In the 1980s

Eva Kittay Eva Feder Kittay is an American philosopher. She is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy ( Emerita) at Stony Brook University. Her primary interests include feminist philosophy, ethics, social and political theory, metaphor, and the application ...

developed a semantic field theory of

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...

. This approach is based on the idea that the items in a semantic field have specific relations to other items in the same field, and that a metaphor works by re-ordering the relations of a field by mapping them on to the existing relations of another field. Sue Atkins and

Charles J. Fillmore Charles J. Fillmore (August 9, 1929 – February 13, 2014) was an American linguist and Professor of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Michigan in 1961. Fillmore sp ...

in the 1990s proposed frame semantics as an alternative to semantic field theory.Pamela B. Faber, Ricardo Mairal Usón, ''Constructing a Lexicon of English Verbs'', Walter de Gruyter, 1999, p73.

Semantic shifts

The semantic field of a given word shifts over time. The

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

word "man" used to mean "human being" exclusively, while today it predominantly means "adult male," but its semantic field still extends in some uses to the generic "

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...

" (see Mannaz). Overlapping semantic fields are problematic, especially in

translation Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

. Words that have multiple meanings (called polysemous words) are often untranslatable, especially with all their connotations. Such words are frequently loaned instead of translated. Examples include " chivalry" (literally "horsemanship", related to "cavalry"), "

dharma Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for '' ...

" (literally, "support"), and " taboo".

Anthropological discourse

Semantic field theory has informed the discourse of Anthropology as Ingold (1996: p. 127) relates:

Semiology is not, of course, the same as semantics. Semiology is based on the idea that signs have meaning in relation to each other, such that a whole society is made up of relationally held meanings. But semantic fields do not stand in relations of opposition to each other, nor do they derive their distinctiveness in this way, nor indeed are they securely bounded at all. Rather, semantic fields are constantly flowing into each other. I may define a field of religion, but it soon becomes that of ethnic identity and then of politics and selfhood, and so on. In the very act of specifying semantic fields, people engage in an act of closure whereby they become conscious of what they have excluded and what they must therefore include.

References

{{Reflist Semantics Semantic relations

Definition and usage

History

Semantic shifts

Anthropological discourse

See also

References