A word that only has one meaning

Certain words you hear in English are only ever heard in a single context. For example, skirl is used to describe the sound a bagpipe makes. Etymonline generously says the word is «rarely» heard outside that context, but I can’t recall ever hearing it used for anything else. I imagine one could use it figuratively to describe another godawful high-pitched screech (sorry, bagpipe lovers), but there’s no other bona fide usage for it.

What I want to know is stated in the title of the question: Is there a term for these one-off words? I’m sure there must be, but I can’t think of what it might be.

Edit: Judging from some of the head-scratching comments I’ve received, there seems to be some confusion. Perhaps I did not make my meaning clear. I’m not looking for a word to describe the single instance of skirl. I’m asking about a class of words like skirl. I know there exist other examples of words that are only ever used in one context, but I can’t think of any others at the moment.

What are polysemous words? Is it easy to understand someone if they say ‘did you get the bat?’ Polysemy refers to a single word with more than one meaning. The multiple meanings are listed under one entry in a dictionary. An example of polysemy is the word dish. If we took a look at the dictionary we see that dish has multiple definitions, or polysemous meanings, under one entry:

• It’s your turn to wash the dishes = a kind of plate.
• How long does it take to cook this dish? = a meal.

Wing (noun)

The term polysemy, or polysemous words, comes from the Greek words poly and sēma which together mean ‘many signs’. The opposite of polysemy is monosemy. Monosemy is when one word has only one meaning.

Polysemy is related to homonymy (one word that has multiple meanings but is pronounced and/or spelt the same). Additionally, because polysemous words have more than one meaning, they can cause lexical ambiguity. This can happen when someone hears/reads something without the same frame of reference or contextual information as the speaker/writer. For example, ‘Let’s go to the bank!’ isn’t clear. Does this mean ‘a river bank’ or ‘a financial institution’?

1. He has served his time in prison.
2. The free food is served to homeless people only.
3. This old bike has served me well.
4. The new mall will serve the community well.
5. My mom served in the medical corps.

All five sentences use the same verb serve. Although each sentence carries a different sense of serve, they all imply the same meaning of ‘giving service’:

1. He has served his time in prison → spend some time (in prison).
2. The free food is served for homeless people only → provide.
3. This old bike has served me well → be useful.
4. The new mall will serve the community well → provide.
5. My mom serves in the medical corps → work as.

Serve is then a very good example of polysemous words. Some other examples of polysemy include:

• Verb: get — receive, bring, move/travel.
• Noun: bank — of a river/canal, a place to deposit money, a slope.
• Adjective: light — colours, not heavy, not serious.

Polysemy examples in literature

How can we analyse polysemic examples in literature? Take a look at this excerpt from Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale (1623) (Act 5, Scene 3) below and analyze the polysemous meaning of the word gallery:

The word gallery has several different polysemous meanings:

1. A long corridor to exhibit works of art in Elizabethan and Jacobean houses.
2. (In a theatre) the highest of such projecting platforms, containing the cheapest seats.
3. A crypt or a catacomb.

• Refers to a word with multiple meanings.
• Are listed under a single dictionary entry.
• Must stem from the same word class, eg noun-noun: mouse (an animal — computer device), wings (parts of birds for flying — part of a building), beam (a line of light — a piece of wood).

Homonymic words

• Refers to words with different meanings but with the same pronunciation and/or spelling.
• Are listed under multiple dictionary entries.
• Can be verb-noun combination: to address — an address, to rock — a rock, to park — a park.

Polysemy vs. homonymy

What is the difference between polysemic words and homonymy? Take the word address.

First, analyse the multiple meanings and word class. Address has two meanings and two different word classes:

Second, if the words have multiple forms (multiple entries in a dictionary), eg a verb and noun, they are homonyms. If the two words stem from a single form (one entry in a dictionary), eg a verb or noun, they are polysemies. The word address has two word forms: a verb and a noun. This proves that address is a homonym.

To explain the difference between polysemous words and hyponymic expressions, let’s take the word mouse.

Polysemy describes one word with more than one meaning.

Because the word mouse has multiple meanings it can cause lexical ambiguity: «Do you mean the animal mouse or the computer device?» Hyponymy describes a super and subordinate relationship between words.

Through our examples of polysemy, we see that a house mouse and a field mouse aren’t the two different meanings of a mouse. Both types of the singular mouse refer to one thing, the animal.

From the perspective of hyponymy, the mouse that is the computer device isn’t a kind of the animal mouse. It is a mouse (the connotative meaning of mouse = polysemy).

Bring me the mouse!

¹ A. Sabatier, Shakespeare and Visual Culture, (2016).

5.1. Polysemantic
and monosemantic words. Classification

5.2. Diachronic
approach to polysemy.

5.3. Synchronic
approach to polysemy.

5.4. The
semantic structure of correlated words in English and Russian.

5.5. The
national character of the semantic structure.

5.1.
Polysemy
is the ability of words to have more than one meaning. A word with
several meanings is called polysemantic.
Monosemantic
words, which have only one meaning, are comparatively few; they are
mainly scientific terms (e.g. hydrogen) or rare words (e.g.
flamingo).

The bulk of English words are
polysemantic. All the meanings of a polysemantic word make up a
system which is called the semantic structure of the word.

e.g. The
word TABLE
has the semantic structure made up of at least 9 meanings:

1. piece of furniture;

2. the persons seated at a
   table;

3. (sing.) food put on the
   table;

4. a thin flat piece of
   stone, metal, wood, etc.;

5. (pl.) slabs of stone;

6. words cut into them or
   written on them (the Ten Tables);

7. an orderly arrangement of
   facts, figures, etc.;

8. part of a machine tool on
   which work is put;

9. a level area, a plateau.

5.2. Polysemy
can be viewed diachronically
and synchronically.

The system of meanings of a
polysemantic word develops gradually, mostly over centuries, as new
meanings are added to old ones or oust some of them. As a result, the
total number of meanings grows, and the vocabulary is enriched.

Thus,
polysemy
viewed diachronically
is a historic change in the semantic structure of a word that results
in disappearance of some meanings and appearance of new meanings, and
also in the rearrangement of the meanings in the semantic structure.

Diachronically,
we distinguish between the
primary meaning
and secondary
meanings
of a word.

The
primary meaning
is the oldest meaning of the word, its original meaning with which
the word first appeared in the language,

e.g. the
primary meaning of TABLE
is «slabs of stone»: O.E. tabule f. Lat tabula.

All the other meanings
appeared later than the primary meaning.

When we
describe a meaning as secondary
we imply that it can’t have appeared before the primary meaning; when
we say a meaning is derived we imply not only that but also that it
is dependent on another meaning and subordinate to it,

e.g. TABLE
1,2,3 are secondary, appeared later than TABLE 5;

TABLE 2, 3 are derived from
TABLE 1.

The main
source of polysemy is semantic
derivation
(radiation of meanings; adding new meanings to the existing ones).

Polysemy
may also result from homonymy.
When two words coincide in sound-form, their meanings come to be felt
as making up one semantic structure.

e.g. the
human EAR
(f. Lat auris) and the EAR
of corn
(f. Lat acus, aceris) diachronically are homonyms. Synchronically,
however, they are perceived as two meanings of one polysemantic word
ear. The ear of corn is felt to be a metaphoric meaning (Of.: the eye
of a needle, the foot of the mountain) and thus, as a derived meaning
of the word. Cases of this type are comparatively rare.

5.3.
Viewed
synchronically,
polysemy is understood as co-existence of several meanings of the
same word and their arrangement in the semantic structure.

The status
of individual meanings is not the same. We distinguish between the
central (=basic, major) meaning
and minor
meanings.

How do we determine which
meaning is the basic one?

(1) The basic meaning occurs
in various and widely different contexts. It is representative of the
word taken in isolation, i.e. it occurs to us when we hear/see the
word in isolation; that is why it is called a free meaning.

e.g. the
central meaning of TABLE is «a piece of furniture» Minor
meanings occur only in specific contexts,
e.g. to
keep the table amused (TABLE 2) or the table of contents (TABLE 7).

(2) The basic meaning has the
highest frequency in speech,

e.g. TABLE
1 has the highest frequency value and makes up 52% of all the uses of
the word; TABLE 7 accounts for 35%; all the other meanings between
them make up just 13% of all the uses.

(3) The basic meaning is
usually stylistically neutral and minor meanings are as a rule
stylistically coloured,

e.g.
YELLOW
1) coloured like egg yoke or gold (neutral),

2) sensational (Am slang),

3) cowardly (coll).

Synchronically,
we also distinguish between direct
meanings
and figurative
(transferred) meanings,

e.g. YELLOW 4) (fig) (of
looks, mood, feelings, etc.) jealous, envious, suspicious.

We should note that a word may
have two or more central meanings,

e.g. GET
«obtain» and «arrive» are equally central in the
semantic structure.

As the semantic structure of a
word is never static, the status (type) of its meanings may change in
the course of time. The primary meaning may become a minor one; a
secondary meaning may become the central meaning of a word.

e.g. The
primary meaning of QUICK
is «living»; it is still retained in the semantic structure
but has become a minor meaning which occurs only in some expressions:
to touch/ wound to the quick, the quick and the dead; «rapid,
fast» has become the central meaning.

5.4.
Words of different languages are said to be correlated when their
central meanings coincide,

e.g. table
– cтол
«piece of furniture».

But there
is practically no one-to-one correspondence between the semantic
structures of correlated polysemantic words of different languages.
The relations between correlated words are quite complicated, and we
may single out the following cases (and show them graphically).

The semantic structures of two
correlated words may coincide; usually they are monosemantic words,

e.g.
flamingo.

We
can show this relationship like this: two overlapping circles.

If the
number of meanings is different, the semantic structure of one word
may include that of its correlate it is the relationship of
inclusion,

e.g.
MEETING
1) a gathering of people for a purpose

2)
the people in such a gathering

3) the coming together of
two or more people, by chance or arrangement

МИТИНГ
a (political) gathering of a number of people».

Some meanings of two
correlated words may coincide and the others don’t. This is the
relationship of intersection.

e.g.
BOY МАЛЬЧИК

1) male child 1) male
child,

1. young man 2) apprentice
   (obs.),

2. male native servant,

3. junior sailor.

5.5.
All lexical meanings of a polysemantic word are interconnected.
The relations beween them are based on various logical and
psychological associations. Some of these relations are common to all
or to many languages; others are peculiar to a particular language.
Thus, a semantic structure has a national character (some specific
characteristics).

Relations
that
are common to all/most languages are:

1)
metaphorical
relations,

e.g ass
¹
«animal»
— осёл
¹
«animal»,

ass ²
(fig)
«stupid person» — осёл²
«person».

2)
metonymic
relations,

e.g. table
¹

«piece of furniture» — стол
¹
«piece of furniture»,

table ³

«food«
– стол
³

«food
put on (1)
«.

Relations
typical of English, but not of Russian are:

1.
One and the same English verb may have both transitive and
intransitive meanings in its semantic structure,

e.g. Paper
burns easily. (intr)
Cf.:
гореть,

She burnt his letters, (tr)
жечь.

2. One
word has countable and uncountable, concrete and abstract meanings,

e.g. his
love of painting Сf.:живопись
— the
paintings on the wall картина,

coal — a coal, hair — a
hair.

3. In the same semantic
structure we find individual and collective meanings,

e.g.
YOUTH 1) young people collectively Сf.: молодежь,

1. a young man – юноша,

2. the
   state of being young — юность.

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