Sense relations - identity

Abstract or Introduction

One possible definition of sense relations is: “Any relation between lexical units within the semantic
system of a language”, (Matthews 1997:337). This means that there has to be a relation in meaning
between lexical units of a language. It does not matter if this relation expresses some kind of identity
or non-identity. One could also define sense relations as “a paradigmatic relation between words or
predicates”. “Paradigmatic relations are those into which a linguistic unit enters through being
contrasted or substitutable, in particular environment, with other similar units”, (Palmer 1981:67). In
other words, a paradigmatic relation is a relation where an individual lexical unit can be replaced by
another.
A less scientific approach to sense relations is made by David Crystal: “We have a sense relation
when we feel that lexemes relate to each other in meaning”, (Crystal 2003: 164).
The most common relations in meaning between lexical units are Synonymy and Antonymy.
Whereas the latter one belongs to a group of sense relations which express a non-identity, the first
one is the most known type of identity-expressing sense relations. Together with Hyponymy, Crystal
calls them the “chief types of lexical sense relations”. But in the field of semantics, there are far
more possibilities of expressing a relation in sense. For example, there are Paraphrase, Homonymy,
member-collection and portion-mass relationships, which all express a special kind of identity. In
this term paper, the focus lies on sense relations expressing a form of identity, sameness or identical
traits.