What is a semantic field?

The basic assumption underlying the theory of  semantic field is that words do not exist in isolation: rather, they form different semantic fields, such as an ‘animal’ field which contains all kinds of words that denote animals, or a ‘cooking’ field which includes various words related to cooking, and so on. Words that belong to the same semantic class are in the same semantic field. Let us look at some more examples of semantic fields:

 

(1)   vehicle:       car, lorry, truck, coach, van, motor-scooter.

 

(2)   building:     factory, hospital, house, church

 

(3)   vegetable:   spinach, cauliflower, cabbage, pepper, onion, tomato, cucumber

 

(4)   walk:          amble, stroll, saunter, wander, stride, strut, pace, parade, tramp, ramble

 

(5)   run:            race, dash, scamper, scurry, scuttle, scramble, dart, bolt

 

 

According to the theory of semantic field, the meaning of a word is decided by its relationships with other words in the same semantic field. There are various kinds of such sense relationships, for example, hyponymy, part/whole relationships, synonymy and antonymy.

 

 

 

 

文秋芳，1995，《英语语言学导论》，215-216，江苏教育出版社.

相关词语和表达组合能够说明其内在联系的组织体系