A Treatment of Independent Semantic Components

To distinguish things, we use terms which characterize them for us. For two balls it may be their color, for two people it may be their height, or their manner of speaking. In order to illustrate the differences in meaning for many words J. j. KATZ and J. A. FODOR (1963) proposed the use of "semantic characteristics ". They give an example for the meanings of man and ball: man- ...-(physical object)-(human)-(adult)-(male)(social activity)-(large)-(assembly) ball~- ...-(physical object) D. BOLINGER (1965) proposed the systematizing of these characteristics , with hierarchic structures, so that the meaning of the word bachelor could be represented by a row of characteristics (fig. 1). bachelor human~-,. an~nal male "~""~"~'-~ed ucand phocizm adult military hierarchic hirsute nonbecoming hierarchic permanent male unmated noble inferior adult inferior young dependent nubile proximate unmated young ~g.l. Here the meaning of a word is given by a refering it to other words. These words, in their turn, can be referenced by other words. There is the feeling that from here endless references will originate. Let us suppose that there are a number of elementary characteristics which can not be expressed in other characteristics. We shall call