Editing Semantic property (section)

{{short description|Aspect of a linguistic unit}}
'''Semantic properties''' or '''meaning properties''' are those aspects of a linguistic unit, such as a [[morpheme]], [[word]], or [[Sentence (linguistics)|sentence]], that contribute to the meaning of that unit. Basic semantic properties include being ''meaningful'' or ''meaningless'' – for example, whether a given word is part of a language's lexicon with a generally understood meaning; ''[[polysemy]]'', having multiple, typically related, meanings; ''[[semantic ambiguity|ambiguity]]'', having meanings which aren't necessarily related; and ''anomaly'', where the elements of a unit are semantically incompatible with each other, although possibly grammatically sound. Beyond the expression itself, there are higher-level '''semantic relations''' that describe the relationship between units: these include [[synonym]]y, [[antonym]]y, and [[hyponymy]].<ref>Akmajian, Adrian; Richard A. Demers, Ann K. Farmer, Robert M. Harnish (2001). ''Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication''. MIT Press. {{ISBN|0-262-51123-1}}. pp. 237–241</ref><ref>Small, Steven Lawrence; Cottrell, Garrison Weeks & Tanenhaus, Michael K. (1988). ''Lexical ambiguity resolution: perspectives from psycholinguistics, neuropsychology, and artificial intelligence''. Morgan Kaufmann. {{ISBN|0-934613-50-8}}, {{ISBN|978-0-934613-50-7}}.</ref><ref>Murphy, M. Lynne (2003). ''Semantic Relations and the Lexicon: Antonymy, Synonymy, and Other Paradigms.'' Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-78067-5}}, {{ISBN|978-0-521-78067-4}}.</ref>

Besides basic properties of semantics, semantic property is also sometimes used to describe the semantic components of a word, such as ''man'' assuming that the referent is ''human'', ''male'', and ''adult'', or ''female'' being a common component of ''girl'', ''woman'', and ''actress''. In this sense, semantic properties are used to define the [[semantic field]] of a word or set of words.<ref>Brinton, Laurel J. (2000). ''The structure of modern English: a linguistic introduction''. Illustrated edition. John Benjamins Publishing Company. {{ISBN|9027225672}}, 9789027225672. p.112</ref><ref>Leech, Geoffrey (1974). ''Semantics''. Pelican Books. {{ISBN|0-14-021694-4}}. pp. 96-102</ref>