Lets Know The Polysemy
Polysemy is the association of one word with
two or more distinct meanings. A polyseme is a word or phrase with multiple
meanings. Adjective: polysemous or polysemic. In contrast, a one-to-one match
between a word and a meaning is called monosemy. According to William Croft,
"Monosemy is probably most clearly found in specialized vocabulary dealing
with technical topics" (The Handbook of Linguistics, 2003).
According
to some estimates, more than 40% of English words have more than one meaning.
The fact that so many words (orlexemes) are polysemous "shows that
semantic changes often add meanings to the language without subtracting
any" (M. Lynne Murphy, Lexical Meaning, 2010).
Polysemy also mean is the existence of several
meanings for a single word or phrase. The word polysemy comes from the Greek
words πολυ-, poly-, “many”
and σήμα, sêma, “sign”. In other words it is
the capacity for a word, phrase, or sign to have multiple meanings i.e., a
large semantic field. Polysemy is a pivotal concept within the humanities, such
as media studies and linguistics.
A
word like walk is polysemous:
She
walks the tower (to haunt a place as a ghost).
The
workers threatened to walk (to go on strike).
Walk
with God! (to live your life in a particular way)
Semantic Structure of
Polysemantic Words
Synchronically, the problem of polysemy ie
the problem of interrelation and interdependence of different meanings of the
same word. The semantic structure of a polysemantic word is the sum total of
relations between its lexico-semantic variants.
The
analysis of the semantic structure of a polysemantic word is based onthe
following set of oppositions:
1.
Direct-derived meaning: rat – animal like, but larger than a mouse; rat
–cowardly person; strike-breaker.
2.
Extended-restricted meaning: to knock – strike, hit; to knock – of a petrol
engine – make a tapping or thumping noise.
3.
Free-bound meaning: hat – cover for the head; hat – nonsense (to speak through
one’s hat).
4.
General-specialized meaning: case – instance or example of the occurence of
smth; case – (med.) person suffering from a disease.
SOURCE:
http://www.afv.gr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=161:polysemy-a-homonymy&catid=121:miscellaneous&Itemid=352
http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/polysemyterm.htmL
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