Polysemy ( or ; ) is the capacity for a
sign (e.g. a
symbol, a
morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful Constituent (linguistics), constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistics, linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology (linguistics), morphology.
In English, morphemes are ...
, a
word
A word is a basic element of language that carries an semantics, objective or pragmatics, practical semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of w ...
, or a
phrase
In syntax and grammar, a phrase is a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adjective phrase "very happy". Phrases can consi ...
) to have multiple related meanings. For example, a word can have several
word sense
In linguistics, a word sense is one of the meanings of a word. For example, a dictionary may have over 50 different senses of the word "play", each of these having a different meaning based on the context of the word's usage in a sentence, as fo ...
s.
Polysemy is distinct from ''monosemy'', where a word has a single meaning.
Polysemy is distinct from
homonymy—or
homophony
In music, homophony (;, Greek: ὁμόφωνος, ''homóphōnos'', from ὁμός, ''homós'', "same" and φωνή, ''phōnē'', "sound, tone") is a texture in which a primary part is supported by one or more additional strands that flesh ...
—which is an
accidental similarity between two or more words (such as ''
bear
Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...
'' the animal, and the verb
''bear''); whereas homonymy is a mere linguistic coincidence, polysemy is not. In discerning whether a given set of meanings represent polysemy or homonymy, it is often necessary to look at the history of the word to see whether the two meanings are historically related.
Dictionary writers often list polysemes (words or phrases with different, but related, senses) in the same entry (that is, under the same
headword
In morphology and lexicography, a lemma (plural ''lemmas'' or ''lemmata'') is the canonical form, dictionary form, or citation form of a set of word forms. In English, for example, ''break'', ''breaks'', ''broke'', ''broken'' and ''breaking'' ...
) and enter homonyms as separate headwords (usually with a numbering convention such as ''¹bear'' and ''²bear'').
Polysemes
A polyseme is a word or phrase with different, but related,
senses
A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the world through the detection of stimuli. (For example, in the human body, the brain which is part of the central nervous system rec ...
. Since the test for polysemy is the vague concept of the relatedness, judgments of polysemy can be difficult to make. Because applying pre-existing words to new situations is a natural process of language change, looking at words'
etymology
Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...
is helpful in determining polysemy but not the only solution; as words become lost in etymology, what once was a useful distinction of meaning may no longer be so. Some seemingly unrelated words share a common historical origin, however, so etymology is not an infallible test for polysemy, and dictionary writers also often defer to speakers' intuitions to judge polysemy in cases where it contradicts etymology. English has many polysemous words. For example, the verb "to get" can mean "procure" (''I'll get the drinks''), "become" (''she got scared''), "understand" (''I get it'') etc.
In linear or vertical polysemy, one sense of a word is a subset of the other. These are examples of
hyponymy and hypernymy
In linguistics, semantics, general semantics, and ontologies, hyponymy () is a semantic relation between a hyponym denoting a subtype and a hypernym or hyperonym (sometimes called umbrella term or blanket term) denoting a supertype. In other ...
, and are sometimes called autohyponyms. For example, 'dog' can be used for 'male dog'. Alan Cruse identifies four types of linear polysemy:
* autohyponymy, where the basic sense leads to a specialised sense (from "drinking (anything)" to "drinking (alcohol)")
* automeronymy, where the basic sense leads to a subpart sense (from "door (whole structure)" to "door (panel)")
* autohyperonymy or autosuperordination, where the basic sense leads to a wider sense (from "(female) cow" to "cow (of either sex)")
* autoholonymy, where the basic sense leads to a larger sense (from "leg (thigh and calf)" to "leg (thigh, calf, knee and foot)")
In non-linear polysemy, the original sense of a word is used figuratively to provide a different way of looking at the new subject. Alan Cruse identifies three types of non-linear polysemy:
*
metonymy, where one sense "stands for" another (from "hands (body part)" to "hands (manual labourers)")
*
metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...
, where there is a resemblance between senses (from "swallowing (a pill)" to "swallowing (an argument)")
* other construals (for example, from "month (of the year)" to "month (30 days)")
There are several tests for polysemy, but one of them is
zeugma: if one word seems to exhibit zeugma when applied in different
context
Context may refer to:
* Context (language use), the relevant constraints of the communicative situation that influence language use, language variation, and discourse summary
Computing
* Context (computing), the virtual environment required to su ...
s, it is probable that the contexts bring out different polysemes of the same word. If the two senses of the same word do not seem to ''fit,'' yet seem related, then it is probable that they are polysemous. This test again depends on speakers' judgments about relatedness, which means that it is not infallible, but merely a helpful conceptual aid.
The difference between
homonyms
In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones ( equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definition ...
and polysemes is subtle.
Lexicographers define polysemes within a single dictionary
lemma, while homonyms are treated in separate entries, numbering different meanings (or lemmata).
Semantic shift
Semantic change (also semantic shift, semantic progression, semantic development, or semantic drift) is a form of language change regarding the evolution of word usage—usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from ...
can separate a polysemous word into separate homonyms. For example, ''
check
Check or cheque, may refer to:
Places
* Check, Virginia
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Check'' (film), a 2021 Indian Telugu-language film
* ''The Checks'' (episode), a 1996 TV episode of ''Seinfeld''
Games and sports
* Check (chess), a thr ...
'' as in "bank check" (or ''Cheque''), ''check'' in chess, and ''check'' meaning "verification" are considered homonyms, while they originated as a single word derived from
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
in the 14th century. Psycholinguistic experiments have shown that homonyms and polysemes are represented differently within people's mental
lexicon: while the different meanings of homonyms (which are semantically unrelated) tend to interfere or compete with each other during comprehension, this does not usually occur for the polysemes that have semantically related meanings.
Results for this contention, however, have been mixed.
For
Dick Hebdige
Dick Hebdige (born 1951) is an expatriate British media theorist and sociologist, and a professor of art and media studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His work is commonly associated with the study of subcultures, and its ...
, polysemy means that, "each text is seen to generate a potentially infinite range of meanings," making, according to
Richard Middleton, "any homology, out of the most heterogeneous materials, possible. The idea of ''signifying practice''—texts not as communicating or expressing a pre-existing meaning but as 'positioning subjects' within a ''process'' of
semiosis—changes the whole basis of creating social meaning".
Charles Fillmore and
Beryl Atkins' definition stipulates three elements: (i) the various senses of a polysemous word have a central origin, (ii) the links between these senses form a network, and (iii) understanding the 'inner' one contributes to understanding of the 'outer' one.
One group of polysemes are those in which a word meaning an activity, perhaps derived from a verb, acquires the meanings of those engaged in the activity, or perhaps the results of the activity, or the time or place in which the activity occurs or has occurred. Sometimes only one of those meanings is intended, depending on
context
Context may refer to:
* Context (language use), the relevant constraints of the communicative situation that influence language use, language variation, and discourse summary
Computing
* Context (computing), the virtual environment required to su ...
, and sometimes multiple meanings are intended at the same time. Other types are derivations from one of the other meanings that leads to a verb or activity.
Examples
;
;Man
:# The human species (i.e., man vs. other organisms)
:# Males of the human species (i.e., man vs. woman)
:# Adult males of the human species (i.e., man vs. boy)
:#(As a verb) to operate or constitute a vehicle or machine (To man a ship)
This example shows the specific polysemy where the same word is used at different levels of a
taxonomy
Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification.
A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...
.
;Bank
:#
a financial institution
:# the physical building where a financial institution offers services
:# to deposit money or have an account in a bank (e.g. "I bank at the local credit union")
:# a supply of something held in reserve: such as "banking"
brownie points
Brownie points in modern usage are an imaginary social currency, which can be acquired by doing good deeds or earning favor in the eyes of another, often one's spouse.
Conjectures for etymology
Girlguiding
A popular etymology is an allusion to t ...
:# a
synonym for 'rely upon' (e.g. ''"I'm your friend, you can ''bank'' on me"''). It is different, but ''related,'' as it derives from the theme of security initiated by 1.
:However: 1 is borrowed from Italian ''banco'', a money lender's bench, while a river ''bank'' is a native English word. Today they can be considered
homonym
In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones ( equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definiti ...
s with ''completely different'' meanings. But originally they were polysemous since Italian borrowed the word from a Germanic language. The Proto-Germanic cognate for "bank" is *bankiz. A river bank is typically visually bench-like in its flatness.
Related ideas
A lexical conception of polysemy was developed by
B. T. S. Atkins
Beryl T. "Sue" Atkins (née Sinclair; 23 January 1931 — 3 September 2021) was a British lexicographer, specialising in computational lexicography, who pioneered the creation of bilingual dictionaries from corpus data.
Biography
Sue Atk ...
, in the form of lexical implication rules. These are rules that describe how words, in one lexical context, can then be used, in a different form, in a related context. A crude example of such a rule is the pastoral idea of "verbizing one's nouns": that certain nouns, used in certain contexts, can be converted into a verb, conveying a related meaning.
Another clarification of polysemy is the idea of
predicate transfer In linguistics, predicate transferG. Nunberg, "Transfers of Meaning", ''Journal of Semantics'', 1995 - Oxford Univ Press is the reassignment of a property to an object which would not otherwise inherently have that property. Thus, the expression "'' ...
—the reassignment of a property to an object that would not otherwise inherently have that property. Thus, the expression "''I am parked out back''" conveys the meaning of "parked" from "car" to the property of "I possess a car". This avoids incorrect polysemous interpretations of "parked": that "people can be parked", or that "I am pretending to be a car", or that "I am something that can be parked". This is supported by the
morphology
Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to:
Disciplines
* Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts
* Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...
: "''We are parked out back''" does not mean that there are multiple cars; rather, that there are multiple passengers (having the property of being in possession of a car).
See also
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
*Jamet, Denis (Ed.) (2008)
Polysemy, 1st issue of ''Lexis, E-Journal in English Lexicology''.
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
Homonymy
Lexical semantics
Philosophy of language
Psycholinguistics
Semantic relations