Lexis and Semantics key terminology

Lexis: Vocabulary, and the types of words that are used 

Semantics: How words create meaning 

The dennotation is the literally understand/ physical meaning of a phrase or symbol (e.g. a thumbs up) however the conotation is the understanding that the thumbs up means 'good' or 'well'.  We only understand what the meaning is because we have connotations with certain symbols.

Collocations are words or groups of words that are often used together

these combinations sound very natural to native speakers but can be challenging for forigners 

some examples are : 'a nice cup of tea' or 'rich taste' or 'heavy rain' 

Idioms are groups of words whose individual meanings dont aquate to their collective meaning that dont literally make sense but insinuate a different meaning. 

An example is 'last straw' or 'knock your socks off' doesnt mean to literally pull someones socks off it means to be shocked or suprised 

To implicitly talk about taboo subjects such as sex or death in a way that wont socially cause offense.

A semantic feild is a group of words which are related in meaning to a particular theme 

such as the semantic feild of witchcraft, or weather.

Is the ability for a word to belong to more than one semantic feild 

the more specialised the word the less valancy it has 

A euphamism is a way of saying something to be polite. The expressions are usually used around taboo topics to avoid directly saying something such as 'adult entertainment' meaning ***********. 

A dyphamism is a derogatory harsher way of saying something instead of a pleasant or neutral term. they are used with people you feel comfterable with also used in social bonding for comedy 

Euphamism:  Bun in the oven 

Neautral: Pregnant 

Dyphamism: Knocked up 

A hybird of two words literally and their meaning

e.g. banoffee = toffee and banana 

names that originally belonged to one company but are now everyone uses as a generisism such as 'hoover' is a company but insead of vaccum cleaner people call them 'hoovers' even if its made by dyson 

To use it for the first time 

To use it for the first time 

the origin of the word where it comes from