Meaning Relations/ Semantic Relation

 The meaning relations that exist among different words John Lyons has proposed a classification which simplifies the seven way distinction of Geoffrey Leech.

Lyons classifies meaning as follows:

  1. Descriptive meaning
  2. Expressive meaning
  3. Social meaning
Social meaning refers to the use of language to establish and maintain social roles and social relations. This kind of meaning is called phatic communion which means "communication by means of speech".



Eg: Greeting like "Good morning" do not provide any information, they just establish a rapport between interlocution.

Expressive meaning refers to what is reflected as the speaker's feelings, attitudes, beliefs and personality. This meaning includes emotive meaning.

Eg: When we associate "compassion" and "sacrifice" with the "mother", what we have is the expressive meaning.

Descriptive meaning refers to propositional or experiential meaning. The experience may be real or imaginary.


Eg: "The God's drink ambrosia" expresses, imaginary experience, where a "sun rises in the east" expresses real experience.

Lyons says that lexemes are completely or absolutely synonymous if they have the same descriptive, expressive and social meaning. This kind of absolute synonymy is very rare. Descriptive synonymy, is quite common. Eg: "father", "daddy", and "dad" are descriptively synonymous. However, they cannot be used in all contexts are substitutes. 

Dr. Susan Mathew
CMS College

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