The temptation is to think that the four types of bank must be related in meaning. Like synonyms, but synonyms are different words with one meaning. Homonymy refers to two unrelated words that look or sound the same. Synonymy and polysemy in terminology in my own terms. Pdf this paper describes a radically different approach to polysemy and homonymy from the. Pdf polysemy is characterised as the phenomenon whereby a single word form is associated with two or several related senses. Whereas a polysemy, is simply one word with multiple meanings. A word is polysemous if it can be used to express different meanings.
Words that have the same spelling and same pronunciation, but different meanings. Polysemy and homonymy are two similar concepts in linguistics. A ring can signify wedding, engagement, graduation, reward, etc. Aberdeen, has worked since 1987 in training, translating and translation consulting with the sinaugoro and kalo language groups of papua new guinea. The word polysemy comes from the greek for many signs. Pdf the ability of efl students to differentiate between. In these cases is it the same sign that stands for several things polysemy, or is it just an accident that signs which stand for these things happen to look like homonymy. Obviously, homophony and polysemy are fuzzy concepts, insofar as polysemy might evolve into homophony.
Abstract this paper highlights the concepts of homonymy and polysemy as they constitute one of the central issues in semantics and the psychology of word meaning. Its 2 completely different concepts, however polysemy is one word, that has many different meanings. Synonymy and polysemy in terminology when we deal with concepts, we also deal with terms in different forms. In constructional polysemy, the polysemy is more apparent than real, because lexically there is only one sense and it is the process of syntagmatic cocomposition pustejovsky 1991 which causes sense modulation. Homonymy and polysemy in semantic analysis, the theoretical distinction between homonymy and polysemy creates a problem that has captivated the attention of many linguists.
Two uses of the same word may become more and more dissimilar, to the point that the relation is not obvious anymore to ordinary speakers. Homonymy katharina baron seminar paper english language and literature studies linguistics publish your bachelors or masters thesis, dissertation, term paper or essay. Metonymy and polysemy if this is your first visit, be sure to check out the faq by clicking the link above. However, by changing the definitions of polysemy and homonymy to phenomena where an expression. Mojela,sesotho sa leboa national lexicography unit, university of limpopo, turfloop campus, polokwane, republic of south africa. The representation of homonymy and polysemy in the mental lexicon melina wiese term paper english language and literature studies linguistics publish your bachelors or masters thesis, dissertation, term paper or essay. A semiotic account of polysemy and homonymy springerlink. These systematic aspects make polysemy an important field of study of synchronic and generative linguistics. Homonyms, homographs, homophones english for everyone. View semantics, homonymy and polysemy research papers on academia. The adjective forms of the word include polysemous or polysemic. Homonymy and polysemy in information retrieval robert krovetz.
A polysemy is a word or symbol that has more than one meaning. A conceptual labyrinth niladri sekhar dash linguistic research unit indian statistical institute, kolkata email. The converse of this problem is synonymytwo or more word forms expressing one concept e. The paper concludesthat the theories and research aimed at distinguishing between polysemy and homonymy are conflicting therefore that the approach used by dictionaries in distinguishing between polysemy and homonymy is arbitrary. The representation of homonymy and polysemy in the mental. We conclude that the polysemous meanings of words like book rely on a. Polysemy pollyseamus in latin is defined roughly as the existence of one lexeme with many related meanings. Challenges relating to lexical entries in the sesotho sa leboa english bilingual dictionary v.
In deciding between polysemy or homonymy, it might be necessary to look at the history of the word to see if the two. It is most difficult to distinguish between polysemy and homonymy when a word has a number of nominative and. This paper is an endeavour to highlight the problem of multimeaningfulness in business english vocabulary. A polysemous lexeme has several apparently related meanings. Pdf there is no need for the terms polysemy and homonymy. They recognised that the various senses of a polysemous word could be derived from a basic sense but did not go further than that. Absolute vs partial homonymy 3 criteria for absolute homonyms. In order to be considered a polysemy, a word has to have separate meanings that can be different, but related to one another. If different senses of word are systematically related, then how these senses. It is intended to supplement the discussion on pages 2 of the textbook, not replace it. Two or more words are homonyms if they either sound. Therefore, such borderline cases between polysemy and homonymy could only be analyzed from the point of view of historical linguistics. What is the difference between polysemy and homonymy. Either of two or more words which have different meanings but which are pronounced or.
The meanings and the words must have the same spelling and pronunciation and they must have the same origin. The most debatable problem of homonymy is the demarcation line between homonymy and polysemy, i. Polysemy and homonymy present a significant problem in that one wordform often expresses two or more differing k. The effects of homonymy and polysemy on lexical access. Although the meanings of the underlined word pairs only have a subtle difference. English lessons with adam learn english engvid recommended for you. Since 2007 he has been involved in training translators and consultants in asia handong global.
There is no need for the terms polysemy and homonymy in lexicography article pdf available in lexikos 241. Semantic fields every word is determined in its meaning by the presence of other words in the vocabulary those that are related to the same or associated ranges or phenomena. Contrastive view of polysemous and homonymous terms in business english jargon summary. I develop a pragmatic account of polysemy within the framework of sperber and. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext. Drawing on the observation that homonymy and polysemy are relative concepts, it seems that some types of metaphorically motivated polysemy are closer to homonymy. Polysemy is the association of one word with two or more distinct meanings, and a polyseme is a word or phrase with multiple meanings. A word is polysemous when it has more than one meaning e. In contrast to the notion of sense relations, polysemy and homonymy refer to similarities rather than differences between meanings. In case of polysemy it is easy to discover a central core of meaning which brings the lsvs under a single general notion. Homonymy and polysemy both involve one lexical form that is associated with multiple senses and as such both are possible sources of lexical ambiguity. Lexicographers and semanticists sometimes have to decide whether a form with a wide range of meanings is an instance of polysemy or of homonymy. On the other hand, metonymically motivated polysemy is a step further away from homonymy and possibly represents pure polysemy apresjan, 1974.
A word whose meaning is a special case of some more general word 4. Polysemy, homonymy, hyponymy, synonymy and antonymy complementarity, converseness. Homonymy refers to the existence of homongmy or more words having the same spelling or pronunciation but different meanings and origins. As frath 44 shows, the lexicographic treatment of polysemy and homonymy is. Pdf abstract this paper highlights the concepts of homonymy and polysemy as they constitute one of the central issues in semantics and the psychology.
A word is polysemous if it can be used to express di erent meanings. The findings also provide neural correlates for a behavioral study of lexical ambiguity that demonstrated that the. One of two words which, in some sense, have opposite meanings 2. Homonymy and polysemy this handout contains a brief explanation of homonymy and polysemy. But while homonyms are distinct lexemes that happen to share the same form, in polysemy. The resolution of the difference between wordform and concept representation is. Polysemy and homonymy a case study of the challenges.
Polysemy is thus distinct from homonymy or homophonywhich is an accidental similarity between two words such as bear the animal, and the verb to bear. Words that have the same written or spoken form but different meanings are. The representation of homonymy and polysemy in the mental lexicon melina wiese term. In contrast, a onetoone match between a word and a meaning is called monosemy.
It deals with the phenomena of polysemy and homonymy which often appear as stumbling blocks to linguists and learners of business english. Pdf there is no need for the terms polysemy and homonymy in. Pdf, epub and mobi for pc, kindle, tablet, mobile add to cart. If we think of dictionaries, they put all concepts in one entry, while in a termbase we register each concept on separate term entries, a key difference between lexicography and terminology. The di erence between the meanings can be obvious or subtle. The problem of how to draw the line b etween homonymy and polysemy can be solved by the. Homonymy and polysemy are then defined in terms of formal identity only. Homonyms are presented as separate lem mas, each with a distinguishing homonym marker gum1 and gum2 whereas the different senses of a polysemous.
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