Semantics is basically about the meanings words have.
Key terms:
Denotation - the dictionary definition
Connotation - meanings we associate with a word: spinster connotes old/ugly/miserable
Collocation - words which are strongly associated or often found together: vast majority;
Antonym - opposite: day/night
Synonym - same/similar meaning: bright/clever/smart
Euphemism - putting something in a ‘nicer’ way, covering up the truth: passed away,
sleeping with
Idiom - everyday metaphor, not literally true but understood by most/all within a
cultural context: raining cats and dogs, dressed to the nines
Simile - comparing two things using “like” or “as”
Metaphor - comparison without “like” or “as”, non-literal phrase
Hyperbole - exaggeration: I’ve told you a thousand times!
Oxymoron - contradictory or opposing terms put together: brilliant darkness
Metonym - using a part of something, or something associated with it to stand in
for it: the crown (meaning monarch) skirt (meaning girl/woman)
Semantic field - a group of words related by meaning. For example, in the field
of furniture we have things like: chair, table, lamp, sofa etc etc. In this example
field, the word furniture is the hypernym and chair etc are the hyponyms. In other
words, the hypernym is the head word/title and the hyponyms are the lower terms.
A hyponymic list is (unsurprisingly) a list of hyponyms: “He ate hungrily. Meat,
potatoes, vegetables all were shovelled...”
See the next page (semantics 2) for uses of semantic analysis
