Lexical Semantics - Word Meaning

Reference:

Relation of word with the world

Sense:

Relation of word with other words (word web)

Denotation:

Factual/literal word meaning

Connotation:

Emotional/cultural word meaning

Reference - ‘thing’ referred to

• paper object containing text/pictures about a topic, pages

Sense - Relationship with other lexemes

• magazine
• page

Denotation - Specific meaning in use

• good book

Connotation - Emotional/affective impact

• ‘bookish'

Sense Relations: meaningful relations between words

Synonymy - same meaning 
Antonymy - opposite meaning
Meronymy - part-whole relationships
Hyponymy - sub category (kind of-)
Hypernymy - category
Co-ordinates - other member(s) of the same category
Collocation - often occurring with some words but not others

Semantic fields:

• Words that go together in a defined area of meaning

Word association Jenkins (1970)

• Meaning associations stronger than form associations
• Tendency to choose the same word class
• Semantic groupings rather than physical resemblance (for adults)

Strongest types of association:

• Co-ordination 
• Collocation (strongest for children)
• Hypernymy