Definition is frequently used in scientific and academic texts to explain objects and phenomena of the real world. When you define a word, of a natural language, you try to determine its meaning. So that every definition, besides being a structured procedure in binary form, states the relationship between two terms semantically equivalent, that in question and the one which tries to define it.
At the same time, when you define something, a series of semantic relations is set in motion, which relates the word in question to others. Accordingly, semantic relations, such as synonymy, antonymy, and hyperonymy, are fundamental semantic resources through which speakers construct a definition.
During school, we are faced with situations in which either we read the definition of a particular concept or we are required to produce it. We hereby consider how students in the last year of Polimodal and fi rst year of ESB construct a definition.
The analysis of the collected data made it possible for us to assess to what extent semantic relationships are used by students to formulate definitions required for their school work.
Keywords:
lexical relations, definition, linguistic resources, metalanguage, school performance
Cuñarro, M., & Bonorino, M. P. (2009). The use of semantic relations as linguistic resources in the construction of definitions. Lenguas Modernas, (34), Pág. 79–95. Retrieved from https://revistas.uchile.cl/index.php/LM/article/view/30662
