Componential Analysis

The meaning of a word can be analyzed in terms of a number of distinct elements or components of meaning. This approach to the description of meaning of words rests upon the thesis that the sense of every lexeme can be analyzed in terms of a set of more general sense components or semantic features, some or all of which will be common to several different lexemes in the vocabulary.

A particular characteristic of componential analysis is that it attempts to treat components in terms of 'binary' opposites, e.g. between male and female, animate and inanimate, adult and non-adult, human and non-human. Thus, the sense of man might be held to combine the concepts male, adult and human; and the sense of woman might be held to differ from that of man in that it combines female (not male) with adult and human.

The earliest and most influential proponents of componential analysis were L. Hjelmslev and R. Jakobson. Among the representatives of European version of componential analysis are A. J. Greimas and E. Coseriu. Componential analysis in America appears to have developed independently. It was first proposed by anthropologists as a technique for describing and comparing the vocabulary of kinship terms in various languages (W. H. Goodenough, F. G. Lounsbury and others). Later it was taken up and generalized by such scholars as Sydney M. Lamb, E. A. Nida, and U. Weinreich, as well as by J. J. Katz and J. A. Fodor, which led to the integration of semantics and syntax within the framework of transformational grammar.

Thus, attempts have been made to find efficient procedures for the analysis of meaning. An important step forward was taken in 1950's with the development of componential analysis. In the classical form componential analysis was applied to closed subsystems of vocabulary. In its more elaborate form it was introduced in 1963 by American linguists J. Katz and J. Fodor in their paper The Structure of ? Semantic Theory.

Turning to the structure of vocabulary, J. Katz and J. Fodor analyzed the word bachelor. A dictionary would distinguish between four meanings of the word bachelor:

(1) a man who has never married,

(2) a young knight serving under the banner of another,

(3) someone with a first degree,

(4) a young male unmated fur seal during the mating season.

These four meanings can be partly differentiated by what they call ?markers? (placed in round brackets) together with some specific characteristics which are called ?distinguishers? (in square brackets), thus the semantics of bachelor can be set out in a tree diagram.

An important question is ?How do we establish which are the markers?? The answer is that they are those features that allow us to disambiguate a sentence (The old bachelor finally died). This cannot refer to the fur seal because such bachelors are by definition young. It follows from this that (young) must be a marker for the fur seal and that it must now appear not among the distinguishers, but as a marker. In theory there is no limit to the number of markers.

The distinction between markers and distinguishers is that markers refer to the features which the lexeme has in common with other lexical items, whereas a distinguisher differentiates it from all other items. There is also more important conclusion that can be drawn from the procedure, i.e. the difference in the type of meaning revealed by the componential analysis. Distinguishers can be regarded as providing a denotational distinction, while semantic markers represent conceptual components of the meaning of lexical items.

Componential analysis is an attractive way of handling semantic relations. It is currently combined with other linguistic procedures used for the investigation of meaning.

Date: 2016-06-12; view: 231