'Semantic relativity' in brief.

1. Semantic Relativity
Altaf Ahmad Khan

2. Introduction
• Different languages do not simply provide
different ways to express the same idea but
they are also different in the most
fundamental sense that the ideas that can be
expressed differ from language to language.
• In other words, There are items in some
languages which certainly expresses
meanings not expressed in others.

3. Examples 1
Translation: Some linguistic items of a
language (those associated with the culture)
can not be translated in other languages. For
example:
• Customs as Birthday party
• Objects as sausages, hovercraft
• Institutions as university

4. Example 2
 Some concepts may not be present in other
languages. For example
• No single French word expresses the same
concept as these English word do
-Brown
-Monkey
-Chair
-Jug
-Carpet

5. Scope of Semantic Relativity
(How far reaching this semantic relativity is??)
To know the scope of semantic relativity, some
limits have been proposed to it.
Two important ones are:
I. Different ways of combining basic
components
II. It only applies to vocabulary

6. 1. Different ways of combination
(one limitation)
• All the concepts that serve as WordMeaning in different languages are
simply different ways of combining a
limited range of rather basic
components.

7. Example
(from the below examples it is shown that how the
concepts ‘animal’, ‘human’ and ‘eat’ are combined into
word-meaning in both the languages.)
English
The same word ‘eat’ is used
for both animal and human
though both ‘animal’ and
‘human’ are different
concepts.
• Eat
German
In German, two different
words are used depending
whether the eater is human
or animal
• essen (Human)
• fressen (Animal)

8. 2. Applies to vocabulary, only.
(other limitation)
• Semantic relativity only applies to vocabulary
But the case is that
Different concepts are expressed by
grammatical constructions (inflectional
morphology or syntactical constructions).
OR
the meaning that are expressed by
grammatical constructions can also vary.

9. Example
In Irish English, here is no single form which corresponds in
meaning to the mainland combination Have + past participle
Mainland English
o I have just seen him.
o
I have known his family all
my life.
o
I have pronounced it
wrongly.
Irish English
o I am after seeing him.
(be after)
o I know his family all me
life.
(Present)
o I`ve it pronounced wrong.
(Have + object + past participle)