1,824
Views
9
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Articles

A System for the Description of Semantic Elements

Pages 1-14 | Published online: 04 Dec 2015

  • See M. B. Emenau, Language and Non-Linguistic Patterns, Language 26.2 (1950); C. F. Voegelin, Linguistically Marked Distinctions in Meanings, Proceedings of 29th Congress of Americanists (1950); and Dwight L. Bolinger, Rime, Assonance and Morpheme Analysis, Word 6.2 (1950).
  • However, for a different view of such problems, see G. L. Trager and Henry Lee Smith, Jr., An Outline of English Structure, pp. 29–30 (Washington, D. C. 1950).
  • Thomas A. Sebeok, Finnish and Hungarian Case Systems: Their Form and Function, Acta Instuti Hungarici Universitatis Holmiensis (1946).
  • Allen Walker Reed, English Words with Constituent Elements Having Independent Semantic Value, Philologica (The Malone Anniversary Studies) 1949.
  • Leonard Bloomfield, Language pp. 244–5 (New York, 1933).
  • There are certain ambiguities in these forms because of homophonous endings, but this does not concern us at this point.
  • It would be possible to say that a form such as man has two linguisememes: (1) that of a noun and (2) that of a verb. However, it is probably preferable to include all distributions under one complex linguisememe and to consider the linguisemes as relatable by virtue of the fact that identical forms may have such diverse distributions.
  • As a matter of field procedure, one should assume that hesitancy about relating homophonous forms should be interpreted as meaning that such forms are not to be related.
  • The implied technique of asking a native speaker whether or not he relates particular forms is a practical approach to the more accurate, but as yet only theoretical, procedure of describing statistically the stimulus-response correlations, and on the basis of vast quantities of such data, plotting relationships by areas of occurrence and statistical frequencies.
  • For a somewhat fuller description of these problems, see Eugene A. Nida, Morphology (Ann Arbor, 1949).
  • A distinction between such layers in any one language depends upon the type of structure which the language possesses.
  • These constructions have been limited to the fewest possible constituents so as not to confuse the issue.
  • Such terms are suggested only as a means of indicating the analogical relationships between the various semantic features of a language.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.