A semantic component is a potentially contrastive part of the meaning of a lexical unit .
The focal semantic component of execute is "put to death".
Here is a table that describes some kinds of semantic components:
|
Semantic Component |
Description |
Example |
|---|---|---|
|
Contrastive Also known as:
diagnostic, distinctive, essential |
Distinguishes one lexical unit from another |
"Male" is the contrastive semantic component distinguishing man from woman, and boy fromgirl. |
|
Shared Also known as:
common |
Occurs in each member of a group of lexical units |
"Human" is a shared component for man,woman, boy, and girl. |
This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library. Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003.