Semantic field

            Every language cuts up the world in different ways. It means that each language has different categories to view the world different from others. For example, the Arabic language has many words for the animal camel , because this type of animal has a strong relationship with Arabs , while in the English society the animal dog has many words in the English language. This is because the language has a strong relationship with the culture of the people and each culture of different people see the world different from others. 

          This is often illustrated by the field of colour terminology. People of different culture have different terms for colours . For example , in the English culture the colour ‘’ glas’’ covers the blue, while in the Welsh culture the same colour covers the area of green and grey. Even in translation we have a proble to translate words or to find equivalents for different word in different languages . For example, the sentence ‘’ the cat sat on the mat ‘’ in the English language . It is difficult to translate this sentence into French, since we have no equivalents in the French language. The problem is how to translate the word ‘’mat’’ into the English language. Does this word mean in the French language  a small rug or carpet or door mat. This is because of different cultures. 

           Concerning colour terminology, some colours become meaningful  in relation to their neighbors. For example purple denotes the colour between blue and red. In semantics as in phonology and syntax language is not an accidental junk-heap consisting of  haphazard collection of different items. Therefore , it is important for a linguist to study meaning according to lexical structure rather than individual words , because many words in the language become meaningful when they are put near their neighbors.

Assistant Prof. Manaf Abdul Hussain