Seme (semantics)

Seme, the smallest unit of meaning recognized in semantics, refers to a single characteristic of a sememe. These characteristics are defined according to the differences between sememes. The term was introduced by Eric Buyssens in the 1930s and developed by Bernard Pottier in the 1960s. It is the result produced when determining the minimal elements of meaning, which enables one to describe words multilingually. Such elements provide a bridge to componential analysis and the initial work of ontologies.

v t e Lexicology
Major terms	Lexical item Lexicon Lexis Word
Elements	Chereme Glyphs Grapheme Lemma Lexeme Morpheme Phoneme Seme Sememe
Semantic relations	Antonymy Hypernymy and hyponymy Meronymy and holonymy Idiom Lexical semantics Semantic network Synonym Troponymy
Functions	Function word Headword
Fields	Controlled vocabulary English lexicology and lexicography International scientific vocabulary Lexicographic error Lexicographic information cost Linguistic prescription Morphology Specialized lexicography
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v t e Lexicography
Types of reference works	Dictionary Glossary Lexicon Phrase book Thesaurus
Types of dictionaries	Advanced learner's Anagram Bilingual Biographical Conceptual Defining vocabulary Electronic Encyclopedic Etymological Explanatory Historical Idiom Language-for-specific-purposes Machine-readable Medical Monolingual learner's Multi-field Picture Reverse Rhyming Rime Single-field Specialized Spelling dictionary Sub-field Visual
Other	International scientific vocabulary List of lexicographers List of online dictionaries
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See also

Further reading