Lexical Sense Relations And Their Applications In Vocabulary Instruction

Lexical sense relations have assumed an important part in the discussion of wordmeanings. These relations can be viewed either paradigmatically or syntagmatically,and the elaboration on the main sense relations falls into either of the two axes.Hyponymy and synonymy make up for the sameness of lexical meanings since theyare about the degrees of meaning overlap. The discussions about the oppositeness ofmeaning center upon the categories of multiple-incompatibility, complementarity,antonymy, and directional opposition. The syntagmatic sense relation deals with thepossibility of co-occurrence between lexical items. The structural semanticists takethe view that the lexicon is a structured whole built upon semantic fields either by theitems'frequency and sequence of co-appearance or by their interchangeability witheach other as parts of speech. Lexical sense relations throw lights on the vocabularyinstruction which centers on the integration of new lexical items into the acquiredlexicon, the critical differentiation between words from the same semantic fields, andthe proper usage of lexical items in view of context. This process of vocabularyacquisition runs from a passive lexicon to an active one, which is surely of theoreticalsignificance and practical usage, and is of interest to instructors and learnersconcerned. This thesis aims to build up a bridge between the study of sense relationsand the instruction of lexicon.