Materi Kuliah Semantics

 Talk about semantic, we talk about the meaning. There are many meanings in the words. As we know, if the words are formed, the will have new meaning. New meaning from the new word will discuss about Derivation.

•  Derivation

 Derivation is the process forming of new words according to a (fairly) regular pattern on the basis of the pre-existing word.

Example:  the word “ Sweep”  + er    become Sweeper

                It is a process of derivation

Derivation Process

The process of derivation is called “The simultaneous process.”
They are three process of derivation:
1.    Morphological process
2.    Syntactic process
3.    Semantics process

1.  Morphological-process

          Morphological Process is the adding of prefix or suffix in the pre existing words.
           (e.g Changing the shape of a word by adding a prefix and suffix)

• Prefixes and Suffixes

            A prefix is a group of letters added before a word or base to alter its meaning and form a new word. In contrast, a suffix is a group of letters added after a word or base
Prefixes and Suffixes Word Lists

Prefixes and Suffixes Word Lists
anti-	de-	dis-	ex-	mis-	-ly
pre-	re-	un-	-ful	-less	-er

Example of Morphological Process:

The root word of “ Love” (Verb) is added by the  Suffix –Er, It becomes “Lover” (noun)

2.    Syntactic Process
       Syntactic Process is changing  the part of speech.(e.g.: from verb to noun)

       E.g. : clean becomes cleaner
       Clean is from adjective and it becomes noun.

3.    Semantics process
       It is producing a new sense  of the words.

E.g.  Sweep  be sweeper

 ( sweep (V) or verb, and  sweeper can be as noun and also can be as human).

      

Changeable words	Morphological Process	Syntactic Process	Semantic Process
Laugh: Laughter	Add suffix –ter	Change verb to noun	Produce word denoting an act or activity
Write: writer	Add suffix –er	Change verb to noun	Produce word denoting an agent
Happy: Happiness	Add suffix -ness	Change adjective to noun	Produce word denoting a property

Every derivation should has three simultaneous process
a.    Zero derivation  without morphological process.
       e. g: swim (verb)  --> swim (noun)

b.    Derivation without syntactic process
        It is possible that the syntactic process is unseen?
       Anwer :  Yes, it is.
        E.g: small (adj) -->smaller (adj)
        But that all there are a changes of sense.
         Three kinds of Derivation, they are:
        1.    An Inchoative from denotes the beginning, or coming into existence, of some state.

               e. g: Dark (adjective) denotes a state. Darken (intransitive verb), as in Darken in my Face.

         2.    A causative  from denotes an action which causes something to happen.

                e.g.:  ‘Open’ (verb) can become ‘Open’ (adjective

• I open the meeting. (verb)

• It is an open meeting.(adjective)

           3.    A  resultative from denotes a state resulting from some action.

     e.g: Broken  (used as adjective) is the resultative from corresponding to break (transitive verb). 

      The sate of being Broken  result from the action breaking.

A derivational process is completely PRODUCTIVE if it can be used to produce an existing derived word from EVERY appropriate source word.

SUPPLETION is a process whereby, in irregular and idiosyncratic cases, substitution of a MORPHOLOGICAL UNRELATED from is associated with the specific semantic and/or syntactic processes normally accompanying a morphological process.

Conclusion:
So from the explanation above, the derivation  makes the new words, so that we have many vocabs.


References

Hurford, James R. Dan  Harsley, Brendan. 1986. Semantics: a Course Book. Australia: Cambridge University Press