Synsemantic

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Synsemantikum (also synsemanticon , syn category or function word ) (English: synsemantic word or function word ) is a term from linguistics . It encompasses those words or parts of speech that, in addition to numerous but often weak lexical meanings, primarily have numerous grammatical functions in a sentence structure. In lexicography they are assigned a “categorical polyfunctionality and polysemy”, “which is more characteristic than an exception for the functional words”. Synsemantic words do not refer to things in the world (like house, beautiful, walk , etc.), but are necessary for the construction of a sentence. In the sentence "The cat sits in front of the stove" are the items the and the and the preposition before function words. The contrast is captured with the term auto semantic .

Scope and characteristics

Synsemantics are always part of the basic vocabulary of a language. They include:

In contrast to the synsemantic is the autosemantic or content word (noun, verb, adjective). Synsemantics, because they are independent of meaning, are also used regardless of the situation in which people are speaking or writing. Content words with their semantic relation to the world, on the other hand, can only be used depending on the current situation.

Basically, in all types of spoken or written text, function words are the most common words. The longer a text - or the more extensive a text corpus examined for it - is, the more function words appear in a word list arranged according to frequency in front of the content words. For example, in a study of English-language texts to the extent of 320,000 words, 47 synsemantics and only 3 content words were found among the 50 most frequent words.

terminology

There are several alternative names for this category of words in the literature; this is how the expressions are found

  • Service word
  • Form word
  • grammatical word
  • Empty word
  • Structure word
  • Sync category

The term syncategorie for this group of words can also be understood in a broader sense and then includes polysemic , i.e. multi-meaning linguistic expressions such as the word good , which has different meanings depending on the linguistic context. (As an adjective, this can denote the quality of an objective or abstract thing or a value, but it can also express approval of a statement in adverbial terms.)

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Synsemantikum  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wiktionary: Service  word - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wiktionary: Functional  word - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wiktionary: grammatical word  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hadumod Bußmann (Ed.): Lexicon of Linguistics. 3rd, updated and expanded edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-520-45203-0 (Synsemantikum).
  2. ^ For example in Graeme Kennedy: Introduction to Corpus Linguistics. Longman, London / New York 1998.
  3. ↑ Eva Breindl, Annette Klosa: Introduction. In: Eva Breindl, Annette Klosa (Ed.): Function | book | research. For the lexicographical representation of particles, connectors, prepositions and other functional words (=  German Linguistics. Vol. 221–222). Olms, Hildesheim / Zurich / New York 2013, pp. 7–18, here p. 8.
  4. ↑ In dispute; Meibauer: Introduction to German linguistics. 2nd Edition. 2007, p. 133: e.g. T. counted as a content word.
  5. ↑ Not listed in the literature under Evidence.
  6. ^ Graeme Kennedy: Introduction to Corpus Linguistics. Longman, London / New York 1998, pp. 101f.
  7. ↑ Winfried Ulrich: Basic Linguistic Concepts. 5th edition. Borntraeger, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-4430-3111-0 (Synsemantikum).
  8. ↑ Clément: Basic Linguistic Knowledge. 2nd Edition. 2000, p. 35.
  9. ↑ Ulrich: Basic Linguistic Concepts. 5th edition. 2002 (Synsemantikum).
  10. ↑ Ulrich: Basic Linguistic Concepts. 5th edition. 2002 (Synsemantikum).
  11. ↑ Hadumod Bußmann (Ed.): Lexicon of Linguistics. 3rd, updated and expanded edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-520-45203-0 (Synsemantikum).
  12. ↑ Hadumod Bußmann (Ed.): Lexicon of Linguistics. 3rd, updated and expanded edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-520-45203-0 (Synsemantikum).
  13. ↑ Hadumod Bußmann (Ed.): Lexicon of Linguistics. 3rd, updated and expanded edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-520-45203-0 (Synsemantikum).