Topic summary
Semantic component
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Semantic feature.
Theoretical context
The analysis of semantic features is utilized in the field of linguistic semantics, more specifically the subfields of lexical semantics, and lexicology. 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, 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.