Paradigmatic Relations

A paradigm is a set of associated concepts which are members of a category, and are represented by words. For example: sat, fat, hat, mat, bat.

What is a paradigmatic relation?

Paradigmatic relation is concerned with the way words are grouped together into categories, like nouns, verbs, adjectives etc. Words in the same group, or word class, can be exchanged for each other in a sentence: 'The dog/cat/chimpanzee bit me '.

Let's look at some of the theory behind this idea.

Semiotics, saussure, and paradigmatic delations

'Paradigmatic relation' is closely related to semiotics. Semiotics is about how meanings are produced by signs. The word semeion means 'sign' in greek.

Any sign is made up of two parts, a concept and sound-image. We do not mean a sound like a dog's bark, but the sensory impression the word gives us. Signs explain the whole concept of the word and the meanings we attach to it. Language is then considered by Saussurean linguistics to be a self-enclosed system. Saussure replaces word 'concept' with signified and 'sound-image' with signifier. The word 'tree' has two parts: it is a sound (/ tri: /) and it is an idea (whatever you think of when you hear the word 'tree'. The sound (/ tri: /) is the signifier and the idea-in-your-head is the signified.

Fig. 1 - A sign is made up of two parts.

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) is considered the founder of structuralist linguistics. Structuralist linguistics analyses the structure of language, and how meaning is embedded in words and sentences.

In his studies, Saussure offered three main ideas:

Another way to think about signs is this picture:

Fig. 2 - In English, this means "this is not a pipe."

You may know this, but this is not an actual pipe. We have randomly assigned meaning to the painting of a pipe. But it is not a pipe. It is a painting of a pipe. Magritte's painting subverts our expectations about objects and their names.

The choice of signs and their arrangement in a sentence is crucial to understanding language analysis and semiotic relationships.

Paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations

It may be easy to get these two terms mixed up...Let's take a look at the differences between the two!

Syntagmatic relations

Syntagmatic relation refers to the relationship between words in a sentence. Any alterations to the word combination can change the meaning of the sentence:

1. Paul is bathing a dog.
2. A dog is bathing Paul.

Both sentences have the same components but in a different order. In other words, the syntagmatic relation explains how the word's position in a sentence determines the meaning of the sentence.

Paul + is bathing + a dog

A dog + is bathing + Paul

Paradigmatic relations

Paradigmatic relation involves the differentiation and selection of words in a sentence. Look at this sentence:

Paradigmatic relationships are sets of associated words (paradigms) which are all members of some defining category.

Paradigmatic relations examples

Below are some more examples of paradigmatic relations:

As you can see, there are several possible variations of 'The beautiful woman buys the bread':

We can conclude that:

Paradigmatic relation:

Let's take 'The beautiful woman buys some brioche'.

Syntagmatic relation:

Let's take 'That handsome man ate some chicken'.

What are the different types of paradigmatic relations?

There are different types of paradigmatic relations. From the examples above, we can see that paradigmatic relations involve substituting a word for another word from the same word class, either with a similar meaning (synonymy), an opposite meaning (antonymy), or a-kind-of meaning (hyponymy).

Synonymy

Some examples of synonyms are:

• I want to live in a big country house ≈ I want to live in a huge country house.
• It was a difficult decision to make ≈ It was a hard decision to make.
• The food was excellent ≈ The food was great.

Synonyms can be divided into two subtypes:

1. Absolute synonyms: the meaning and grammatical function of the synonymous words are exactly the same, eg airport and aerodrome.
2. Partial synonyms: the meaning of the synonymous words are only similar. Partial synonyms can differ in collocation, register, and regional/social variation.

Be careful when doing word substitution with synonymy. Not every synonymous word fits in all situations (partial synonyms). You have to consider some factors, such as the context, relationship between words, register, regional variation, etc.

• 'China has the world's largest population' vs. 'China has the world's most gigantic population' → differ in collocation.
• 'We will commence the construction next month' vs. 'We will start the construction next month' → differ in register (formal-informal).
• 'I'll make some chocolate biscuits for Christmas' vs. 'I'll make some chocolate cookies for Christmas' → differ in regional usage (British English vs. American English).

Antonymy

Antonymy is when words have opposite meanings. The meaning of A is the opposite of B (A↔B).

Some examples of antonyms are:

• I want to live in a big country house ↔ I want to live in a small country house
• It was a difficult decision to make ↔ It was an easy decision to make
• The food was excellent ↔ The food was terrible

Antonyms can be divided into three subtypes:

1. Gradable antonyms define words that are at the opposite ends of a spectrum with some gradation in between the two extremes, eg hot - cold.
2. Complementary antonyms explain an either-or relationship between opposite word pairs, eg true - false.
3. Relational/converse antonyms show a dependent relationship between the opposite words, eg husband-wife.

Hyponymy (hypernym & co-hyponym)

Hyponymy refers to a super- and subordination relationship between words. A is a kind of B (A ↑ ↓ B).

Some examples of hyponyms are:

• Sweep, wipe, and scrub (hyponyms) are kinds of (to) clean (hypernym).
• Red, blue, and yellow (hyponyms) are kinds of colours (hypernym).
• Poodle, labrador, and pomeranian (hyponyms) are kinds of dogs (hypernym).

If you want to keep the sentence meaning like its original, substitute the word with its hypernym (superordinate of a word) and not with its co-hyponym (hyponyms on the same hierarchical level). For instance,

I have to babysit my sister's poodle this weekend.

• Meaning kept: substitute poodle with dog (hypernym of poodle) → 'I have to babysit my sister's dog this weekend'. The meaning is not exactly the same, but it generalizes the category.
• Meaning changed: substitute poodle with labrador (co-hyponym of poodle) → 'I have to babysit my sister's labrador this weekend'. The meaning is different.

With this in mind, the sentence 'The beautiful woman buys some brioche' can be re-written in a variety of meaningful ways. By using or we can create a range of sentences: