A semantic feature is a component of the concept associated with a lexical item ('female' + 'performer' = 'actress'). More generally, it can also be a component of the concept associated with any grammatical unit, whether composed or not ('female' + 'performer' = 'the female performer' or 'the actress'). An individual semantic feature constitutes one component of a word's intention, which is the inherent sense or concept evoked. Linguistic meaning of a word is proposed to arise from contrasts and significant differences with other words. Semantic features enable linguistics to explain how words that share certain features may be members of the same

semantic domain A semantic domain is a specific place that shares a set of meanings, or a language that holds its meaning, within the given context of the place. Harriet Ottenheimer (2006), a writer in Linguistic Anthropology, defines a semantic domain as a “spe ...

. Correspondingly, the contrast in meanings of words is explained by diverging semantic features. For example, ''father'' and ''son'' share the common components of "human", "kinship", "male" and are thus part of a semantic domain of male family relations. They differ in terms of "generation" and "adulthood", which is what gives each its individual meaning.

Theoretical context

The analysis of semantic features is utilized in the field of linguistic semantics, more specifically the subfields of

lexical semantics Lexical semantics (also known as lexicosemantics), as a subfield of linguistic semantics, is the study of word meanings.Pustejovsky, J. (2005) Lexical Semantics: Overview' in Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, second edition, Volumes 1-14Ta ...

, and

lexicology Lexicology is the branch of linguistics that analyzes the lexicon of a specific language. A word is the smallest meaningful unit of a language that can stand on its own, and is made up of small components called morphemes and even smaller element ...

. One aim of these subfields is to explain the meaning of a word in terms of their relationships with other words. In order to accomplish this aim, one approach is to analyze the internal semantic structure of a word as composed of a number of distinct and minimal components of meaning. This approach is called

componential analysis Componential analysis (feature analysis or contrast analysis) is the analysis of words through structured sets of semantic features, which are given as "present", "absent" or "indifferent with reference to feature". The method thus departs from the ...

, also known as semantic decomposition. Semantic decomposition allows any given lexical item to be defined based on minimal elements of meaning, which are called semantic features. The term ''semantic feature'' is usually used interchangeably with the term ''semantic component''. Additionally, semantic features/semantic components are also often referred to as

semantic properties Semantic properties or meaning properties are those aspects of a linguistic unit, such as a morpheme, word, or sentence, that contribute to the meaning of that unit. Basic semantic properties include being ''meaningful'' or ''meaningless'' – for ...

. The theory of componential analysis and semantic features is not the only approach to analyzing the semantic structure of words. An alternative direction of research that contrasts with componential analysis is

prototype semantics Prototype theory is a theory of categorization in cognitive science, particularly in psychology and cognitive linguistics, in which there is a graded degree of belonging to a conceptual category, and some members are more central than others. I ...

Notation

The semantic features of a word can be notated using a binary feature notation common to the framework of

. A

semantic property Semantic properties or meaning properties are those aspects of a linguistic unit, such as a morpheme, word, or sentence, that contribute to the meaning of that unit. Basic semantic properties include being ''meaningful'' or ''meaningless'' – fo ...

is specified in square brackets and a plus or minus sign indicates the existence or non-existence of that property. * ''cat'' is **

animate Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anima ...

domesticated Domestication is a sustained multi-generational relationship in which humans assume a significant degree of control over the reproduction and care of another group of organisms to secure a more predictable supply of resources from that group. A ...

** feline* ''puma'' is **

** minus;domesticated ** feline* ''dog'' is **

** minus;feline* ''wolf'' is **

** minus;domesticated** minus;feline Intersecting

semantic class A semantic class contains words that share a semantic feature. For example within nouns there are two sub classes, concrete nouns and abstract nouns. The concrete nouns include people, plants, animals, materials and objects while the abstract nou ...

es share the same features. Some features need not be specifically mentioned as their presence or absence is obvious from another feature. This is a redundancy rule.

References

Bibliography

* * * * Semantics Semantic relations {{semantics-stub de:Semantisches Merkmal pl:Cecha semantyczna ta:சொற்பொருள் அம்சம்