Sememe

Sememe (from _el. σημαίνω (sēmaino) — mean, signify) - semantical language unit of meaning, correlative to morpheme.

A sememe is a proposed unit of transmitted or intended meaning; it is atomic or indivisible. A sememe can be the meaning expressed by a morpheme, such as the English pluralizing morpheme "-s", which carries the sememic feature [+ plural] . Alternately, a single sememe (for example [go] or [move] ) can be conceived as the abstract representation of such verbs as "skate, roll, jump, slide, turn," or "boogie". It can be thought of as the semantic counterpart to any of the following: a meme in a culture, a gene in a genetic make-up, or an atom (or, more specifically, an elementary particle) in a substance.

There are five types of sememes, two denotational and three conotational, while conotational are occurring only in phrase units (they do not reflect the denotat): [ [http://www.krsu.edu.kg/vestnik/2003/v2/a04.html Pragmatic and syntagmatic aspects of phraseology, Krassnoff (in russian)] ]

# Denotational 1: Straight denotation, for example "head" (body);
# Denotational 2: Secondary, denotation by resemblance with other denotation: "head" (ship);
# Conotational 1: High position, as the role or function of head in the operation of human body;
# Conotational 2:
# Conotational 3:

Notes

Bibliography

*cite book |last= Bazell |first= Charles Ernest |title= The sememe in "Litera", I |year= 1954 |location=Istanbul |pages=17-31. Reprinted in: cite book |last= Hamp |first= Eric P. | coauthors= Fred W. Householder, Robert Austerlitz (eds.) |title= Readings in linguistics II |year= 1966 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |pages=329-40

ee also

* seme (semantics)
* lexeme
* lexical unit
* memetics
* semantics
* semantic field
* word sense
* problem of universals