Lexical Semantics: Semantic Fields and Collocations

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,0, University of Würzburg, language: English, abstract: This term paper will focus on an aspect of lexical semantics: interrelations of word meanings on a paradigmatic, as well as on a syntagmatic level. Starting with paradigmatic word relations, the paper will cover the topic of semantic fields first, describing the history of how this aspect was introduced to semantics and explaining the theoretical background behind the topic. Furthermore the development of different theories from the first structuralist approaches in the 1930s to the more recent approaches of cognitive semantics and the frame theory will be outlined. In the second part, the paper will cover the topic of syntagmatic relations of word meanings, namely collocations. The term will be defined and examples will be mentioned, before dealing with the important concepts of 'statistically significant' and 'institutionalized collocations'. Finally there will be a demarcation to the phenomenon of idioms, before the term paper finishes with a conclusion about the whole topic.