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Componential Analysis
of Meaning
Dr. Riham Debian
By: Rasha Sakr, Sama Yassean
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2.
• Componential analysis is a way proposed by the structural
semanticists to analyse word meaning.
• The approach is based upon the belief that the meaning of a
word can be dissected into meaning components, called
semantic features.
• Componential analysis provides an insight into the meaning
of words and a way to study the relationships between words
that are related in meaning.
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3.
Components of Meaning
• Leech (1974) defines the term , componential analysis as " The method of reducing a word's
meaning to its ultimate contrastive elements ".
A simple example is shown by words such as man , woman , boy , girl . These words all belong to
the semantic field of the human race and the relations between them may be represented by this
diagram
adult
young
There are two dimensions of meaning , the first is of " sex " , the second is of " adulthood “, the
third dimension is presupposed by the isolation of the whole field and it is between human and
non – human species .
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Man Woman
Boy girl

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Components of Meaning cont.4
• Plus and minus signs are used to indicate whether a certain semantic feature is present
or absent in the meaning of a word, and these feature symbols are usually written in
capitalized letters.
• Man [+HUMAN,+ADULT,+MALE]
Woman[+HUMAN， +ADULT， -MALE]
• Boy[+HUMAN, -ADULT, +MALE]
• girl[+HUMAN,-ADULT,-MALE]
• By using such formulate , we can show the synonymy of two items , for example : adult
and grown up , can be given the same definitions + human , + adult although they differ
in stylistic meaning .
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5.
Components of Meaning cont.5
• A brief illustration of the principles of componential analysis is as following:
we can take the terms siège, pouf, tabouret, chaise, fauteuil, and canapé
(a subfield of the field of furniture terms in French).
• The word which acts as a superordinate to the field under consideration is
siège, ‘seating equipment with legs.’ If we use the dimensions s1 ‘for seating,’
s2 ‘for one person,’ s3 ‘with legs,’ s4 ‘with back,’ s5 ‘with armrests,’ s6 ‘of
rigid material,’ then chaise ‘chair’ can be componentially defined as [+ s1, +
s2, + s3, + s4, − s5, + s6], and canapé ‘sofa’ as [+ s1, − s2, + s3, + s4, +
s5, + s6], and so on.
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• We can use such formulate also in polysemy , where one lexical item has more than one
meaning or definition .
Man is defined by the features + human , + adult , + male , but also has a wider definition
consisting simply of the feature + human as in the sentence " man has lived on this planet
for over a million years “
 In determining the semantic components of any one meaning , it is essential to compare the
related meanings of other words .
 In treating for example " whistle " , we must know the different meanings of this word as in :
o He will whistle to us
o He bought a whistle
o And then analyse the two meanings in terms of other words ; then one can analyse the ways in
which different meanings of one term differ from another.
o So, the idea of components , does not introduce a new kind of relation but it offers a
theoretical frame work for handling kinds of relationships .
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8.
Apparent Advantages of The Componential Approach
• The most important advantage of the componential approach to semantics is:
• we can answer two different questions :
• the first is about the semantic acceptability or unacceptability of syntagmatic combinations of words or
phrases.
• the second question is " what is the meaning '' of a given or particular combination of lexical items ?
• For example:
• If we take the word ( pregnant ) and assume that it contains a component which restricts it to the
modification of nouns which contains the component ( female ) , according to this rule ( a pregnant
woman ) or ( a pregnant mare ) would be significant but the phrase ( the pregnant man ) or ( a pregnant
stallion ) , would be meaningless or uninterpretable.
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9.
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Advantages cont.
• Ethno linguistic investigations use this device of componential analysis successfully
although limit its use to relatively restricted areas of cultural experience like kinship
relations or colour categorization .
• Attempts have also been made to explain the relatedness of meaning in terms of
componential analysis of the senses of lexemes . This approach is also used in the
analysis of meaning for the vocabulary as a whole and shows how it can be used not
only in relatively clear – cut examples but also in complex ones.
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Advantages cont.
• In translation, its basic process is to compare a SL word with a TL word
which has a similar meaning, but is not an obvious one-to-one equivalent, by
demonstrating first their common and then their differing sense components.
Normally the SL word has a more specific meaning than the TL word, and
the translator has to add one or two TL sense components to the
corresponding TL word in order to produce a closer approximation of
meaning.
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s
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Also, we have to mention that componential analysis does not handle all semantic
relations with the same affectivity for on one hand , it is difficult to reduce the relational
opposites to components as in parent / child . We could treat this as having the same
components but in different direction , that they are relational and not atomic
components . On the other hand , the componential analysis can not remove the
hierarchical characteristic of hyponymy

13.
Conclusion
• Componential analysis made considerable contribute
• on to the development of semantics .
• The most significant thing is that it brought together both the formalization of syntax and the
formulization of semantics closer together and linguists are seriously concerned with the
relations between syntax and semantics.
• Componential analysis is also beneficial in defining what lexical gaps are there in a given language
, and on the other hand is good in handling not only the atomic constituents of meaning but the
complex ones also .
• Its clear effect in bringing closer both the framework of syntax with the framework of semantics
, is considered to be a big step towards the development of semantics in the last few decades .
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14.
References
• Abdul Razzaq Hobi E. ,Componential Analysis of Meaning, Pp 109-121
• Lyons , John ( 1968 ) , Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics ,Cambridge : Cambridge
University Press .
• Lyons , John . ( 1977 ) , Semantics .Vo .2 , Cambridge : Cambridge University Press .
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