ABSTRACT
This chapter completes the explanation of senses, dealing with their internal structure. Most senses have a hierarchy of elements from defining or “necessary” elements to peripheral elements seldom invoked. Those elements also constitute a network, linked to the elements of other senses. Also, some elements within the sense act as links or “bonds”, relating the sense to others in paradigms such as the set of synonyms, and relating words syntactically to others in the phrase and clause. Further, word senses vary according to their semantic class, that is, according to the role they can take in the structure described in Chapter 2 – as head of a group, or as a subject of a clause, for example – relating them to parts of speech. Along the way, the chapter discusses compositionality of meaning within the groups and figures, decomposition of senses into sense elements, and the basis of sense elements in perception.
