Sense Relations in Arabic and English
Sense Relations in Arabic and English
Introduction:
Sense relations are the relations between words and other words; they focus on the relationship between words and their meaning inside the language, i.e. sense relations have nothing to do with the world outside the language, unlike reference, which is the relationship of words to the world.
There are various types of sense relations, such as synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, homonymy, and polysemy. They originally grabbed scholars’ attention because there was a fashion, mainly in the 17th Century, to find the perfect language. In the perfect language, some scholars argued, there would be a one-to-one relationship between word-form and concept – messy things like synonyms and homonyms would be outlawed.1
These types of sense relations were found in the Arabic language in the Noble Qur’an, in the Hadith of the prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, and in the Arabic poetry. Arab scholars have written many books about sense relations, and some of them wrote a whole book about only one type of sense relations. Arab scholars started writing about this subject more than a thousand years ago, and they still write about it now. They wrote whole books about the use of sense relations in the Noble Qur’an and generally in the Arabic language, e.g.:
"الوجوه و النظائر في القران الكريم"— لمقاتل بن سليمان البلخي (ت150ه)
"الألفاظ المترادفه و المتقاربه في المعنى"— لأبي الحسن علي بن عيسى الرماني (ت384ه)
" الوجوه و النظائر في القران"— لهارون بن موسى الأزدي الأعور (ت170ه)
"البيان في روائع القران"— د. تمام حسان
, and many other books.
Types of sense relations:
1. Synonymy:
Synonymy is the sense relation that exists between words with closely related meanings. When two words are similar in meaning, they are synonyms. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn (σύν) ("with") and onoma (ὄνομα) ("name"). The words car and automobile are synonyms. Similarly, if we talk about a long time or an
Introduction:
Sense relations are the relations between words and other words; they focus on the relationship between words and their meaning inside the language, i.e. sense relations have nothing to do with the world outside the language, unlike reference, which is the relationship of words to the world.
There are various types of sense relations, such as synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, homonymy, and polysemy. They originally grabbed scholars’ attention because there was a fashion, mainly in the 17th Century, to find the perfect language. In the perfect language, some scholars argued, there would be a one-to-one relationship between word-form and concept – messy things like synonyms and homonyms would be outlawed.1
These types of sense relations were found in the Arabic language in the Noble Qur’an, in the Hadith of the prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, and in the Arabic poetry. Arab scholars have written many books about sense relations, and some of them wrote a whole book about only one type of sense relations. Arab scholars started writing about this subject more than a thousand years ago, and they still write about it now. They wrote whole books about the use of sense relations in the Noble Qur’an and generally in the Arabic language, e.g.:
"الوجوه و النظائر في القران الكريم"— لمقاتل بن سليمان البلخي (ت150ه)
"الألفاظ المترادفه و المتقاربه في المعنى"— لأبي الحسن علي بن عيسى الرماني (ت384ه)
" الوجوه و النظائر في القران"— لهارون بن موسى الأزدي الأعور (ت170ه)
"البيان في روائع القران"— د. تمام حسان
, and many other books.
Types of sense relations:
1. Synonymy:
Synonymy is the sense relation that exists between words with closely related meanings. When two words are similar in meaning, they are synonyms. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn (σύν) ("with") and onoma (ὄνομα) ("name"). The words car and automobile are synonyms. Similarly, if we talk about a long time or an