Lexical field, semantic field and lexical family

In this lesson from a TEACHER we will tell you about three very important concepts of semantics: the lexical field, the semantic field and the lexical family. In this way, you will be able to better understand how words and their meanings are organized in the Spanish language. A lesson accompanied by a video carried out by a language teacher and who, in addition, has exercises with solutions for you to test your knowledge. Find out what the lexical field, semantic field, and lexical family are in this lesson.

Index

1. Brief introduction to the lexical field, semantic field and lexical family
2. What is the lexical field - with examples
3. What is the semantic field - with examples
4. What is the lexical family - with examples

Below we summarize this lesson on the lexical field, semantic field and lexical family:

• Lexical field: it would be a grouping of words which are related to each other with a topic and which may have different grammatical categories.
instagram story viewer
• Semantic field: are words of the same grammatical category that are within the same group of words. In the semantic field there is a hyperonym (the word that includes the others) and hyponyms (the words that are within the hyperonym).
• Lexical family: are the words that share the same lexeme.

To delve into the agenda, keep reading because we will continue to analyze each case in a concise way.

We will start with the definition of a lexical field so that you can better understand what this semantics term consists of. The lexical field is the word group that can be related to each other because they refer to the same topic. The words that form a lexical field can be of different grammatical categories, since the relationship they have between them is the semantic type, not grammatical.

Therefore, the words that make up the same lexical field can be verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc., with the feature that they all refer to the same topic.

Lexical field examples

So that you better understand what the lexical field is, here is a list with examples:

• Family lexical field: mother, father, son, nephews, home, etc.
• Leon lexical field: Africa, savanna, zoo, mammal, carnivore, etc.
• Lexical field of school: teacher, lesson, notes, books, studies, classmates, etc.

Image: Maestro San Blas

We now turn to the meaning of the semantic field to understand what its definition is within linguistics. The semantic field is the group of words that share some feature in their meaning. That is, they are words that have a similar meaning and that refer to a reality, although not the same, it is similar.

Note: they are not synonyms, because the meaning is similar, but it is not the same. Therefore, they cannot be substituted for each other. In Spanish there are many words that are part of the same semantic field, such as, for example, "wall" and "barrier", since both refer to an element that prevents the passage.

Examples of semantic fields

In order to better understand this concept, here are some examples of the semantic field that will help you better understand what we mean.

• Fruit semantic field: pears, apples, melon, watermelon, grape, etc.
• Semantic field of animals: dog, cat, tiger, lion, bat.
• Vegetation semantic field: flowers, grass, trees, bushes, etc.

And we close this lesson by talking about the lexical family or word family. This term refers to a group of words that come from the same lexical root and, therefore, they come from the same origin. These words are related to each other and are derived words from the same root.

Lexical families are made up of different words that come from the primitive word and that is derived through the derivation processes that the Spanish language has: suffixes, prefixes and infixes.

Examples of lexical or word families

There are many examples of lexical families, but here are some well-known ones:

• Lexical book family: bookcase, bookcase, notebook, book holder, booklet, etc.
• House word family: home, farmhouse, house, casino, shack, etc.
• Bread lexical family: baker, bakery, breadmaker, pie, muffin, etc.

If you want to read more articles similar to Lexical field, semantic field and lexical family, we recommend that you enter our category of Grammar and Linguistics.

• Llopart, M. M. (1976). Modeling of the semantic field of verbs of motion. Spanish Journal of Linguistics, 6 (1), 145-166.
• Geckeler, H. (1976). Structural semantics and lexical field theory (Vol. 241). Gredos Editorial SA.