One word with several meanings

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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Our language is multifaceted and rich. Sometimes, using this or that word, we do not think about the boundaries of its meaning. We know that the Earth is the name of our planet, and the earth is part of its surface, land, soil. Also, everyone knows that the world is the entire system around us and at the same time the world is the absence of enmity, life without war. Some of the semantic interpretations we express are the same lexical units, which are words with several meanings. Let’s find out why this happens.

Why are there words in the language that have several meanings?

Another linguist AA Potebnya, who lived in the XIX century, wrote in his monograph «Thought and Language» that the development of human speech goes in the direction of greater abstraction.

When our distant ancestors learned to express their desires and emotions with the help of sounds, they did not yet know what the geometry and Mendeleyev’s table were, they did not distinguish between the concepts «bad» and «terrible», «good» and «excellent.» The first words called objects, phenomena and feelings, the ability to identify and express which was necessary in everyday life. Similarly, children who are only learning to speak, first use simple words such as «mom», «dad», «house», «table», and only then understand what kindness, joy, hatred, anger means.

In the course of the development of an ancient person’s capacity for figurative and analytical thinking, it became necessary to come up with new designations for the newly emerging concepts. Sometimes as such notations used already existing words in the language, which, however, was given a new meaning. But the original meaning of these words was preserved. So many words appeared that have several meanings.

How correctly to name lexemes with several meanings

In linguistics, a word that has several meanings is called multivalued. This is the term of Russian linguistics, and in foreign science such words are called polisemic (from the Greek polis — «many», and semanticos — «signifying»).

Russian academician V. V. Vinogradov called multivalued the ability of one word to convey various information about objects and phenomena of extralinguistic reality. It should be said that the meaning embedded in the word, its real-semantic shell is called a lexical meaning. Above, examples of the interpretation of words with several lexical meanings are given. However, few people know that the word «peace» has not two, but seven values! Check it can be on the explanatory dictionary Ozhegova.

Polysemy and homonymy

In linguistics, as in any other science, there are concepts that are among the debatable. So, for example, AA Potebnya and R. Jakobson believed that words with several meanings do not exist, because if a lexeme under some circumstances began to designate another object or phenomenon, then it completely changed its semantic core.

However, in the traditional grammar, the concepts of polysemy and homonymy are still different, although they are often confused in Internet resources.

It is believed that words that have several meanings still retain in each interpretation their semantic center, some representation that lies at the very root of the structure of the lexical unit. It is assumed that polysemantic words have a continuity of meanings, and homonyms do not. For example, a crane and a crane in the kitchen, the note «salt» and the kitchen salt are homonyms, and not many-valued words, because there is no semantic connection between them.

How does the ambiguity of words

It is believed that polysemy occurs in three main ways:

• By metaphorical transfer. A metaphor is a shift in the meaning of a word, based on the similarity of several objects. For example: the wheat grain is the seed of truth.
• With the help of metonymy. By metonymy we mean the transfer of the meaning of one word to another according to the principle of the presence of semantic connections between two concepts. For example: a dish of expensive porcelain — a delicious dish of French cuisine.
• With the help of a synecdoche. Many linguists believe that the synecdoche is a special case of metonymy. By this term we mean the transfer of the part name to the whole. For example: «home» instead of «home» and «returning home from America» instead of «returning to Russia» (if you mean exactly coming to your country, and not specifically to your home from someone else’s house).

Examples of polysemantic words

We can assume that the name of our planet — Earth — appeared again from the name of land, soil. After all, people and mammals exist on land, it is their real habitat. And the name of our planet was formed by means of metonymic transfer, that is, the designation of a part of the surface was transferred to the whole. We also say, for example, that the class listens attentively to the teacher, meaning by this not the room, but the students in it.

We call the raspberries berries, and also the bush on which they grow. Multivalence here developed on the principle of synecdoche. But the vernacular meaning of the word «raspberry» — «thieves’ hangout» is, rather, homonymous to the other two examples of its use.

What does the word «prefix» mean?

Can you at once say — one or several meanings has the word «prefix»? From the school course of the Russian language, everyone knows that the so-called part of the word preceding the root and serving to change the meaning of the lexical unit is called. This noun is formed from the verb «pestering» and actually calls everything that is «attached», that stands next to something.

In the explanatory dictionary of the Russian language two meanings of this word are noted:

• Tape recorder, amplifying the sound power;
• Morpheme, prefix;
• 10-15 years ago, a prefix for virtual games was also called a prefix.

Language puns, based on polysemy and homonymy

In every developed language there are words that coincide in form but differ in meaning. The combination of such lexical units in one text is used to create a comic effect, play puns. Try to explain what the comic effect of the following phrases is based on:

• Mowed oblique oblique braid.
• He stoked the furnace all night. By the morning, she drowned.
• Parrot us, parrot.
• He learned the verse and the verse.

In the above phrases, the comic effect is based on the homonymy of certain forms of words. But the vocabulary forms of these lexical units are different. So, in the first example, the words «mow», «oblique», «braid» are used. «Oblique» as an adjective means «uneven,» «curve,» and «oblique» as a noun is a colloquial name for a hare. The second example uses the ambiguity of the word «sink»: kindle the fire, plunge deeply into the water. In the third example, homonyms are used: a parrot as a noun — the name of a bird, a parrot as an imperative from the verb «scare». And finally, in the fourth example, the pun is based on the coincidence of the past tense form of the verb «subscribe» and the noun in the nominative «verse» (a line in poetry).

It is not always easy to understand one or more meanings have words. The root of lexemes and the analysis of usage contexts can help to determine whether the units under consideration are multi-valued or homonymous.

Exercise on the interpretation of the meanings of many-valued words

Assignment: look at the list below and try to determine on your own whether one or more values have the selected words: wardrobe, fox, machine, path, hand, core . Explain your choice. How many values did you have for each word?

All of the above words have several lexical meanings:

• Wardrobe refers to clothing items, as well as a room where they are stored.
• The fox is an animal and at the same time a cunning person. The ambiguity developed due to the fact that in ancient times (and in the villages — now) foxes at night, when no one sees them, they penetrated into people’s dwellings and barns to steal food.
• The machine is both a vehicle and technical equipment.
• The path is both the road on earth, and the air communication, and metaphorically the life of man.
• The hand is part of the body and handwriting.
• The core is both the central part of something, and the basis of any movement, for example, of the army.

Several tasks for logic

Look at the phrases below. Can you guess what unites:

1. The post of diplomat and salting;
2. Radiation of the sun and the class of aristocrats;
3. Marital relations and badly made products;
4. A strip of land in the sea and the pride of a Russian beauty;
5. A river fish and a dishwashing brush.

Answers: the ambassador; shine; marriage; Braid; ruff.

How do you think, which of these examples relate to homonymy, and which ones to polysemy? Words with several meanings differ from homonyms by the presence of some logical-semantic connection between different concepts. In Example 2, the connection is based on a metaphor: how the sun illuminates the earth, and aristocrats, because of their education and development, were the adornment of society. And in Example 5, the connection between the fish and the brush is based on metonymy, so the external shape resembles a fish. Examples under numbers 1, 3, 4 are based on homonymy.

Thus, we found out that a word having several meanings is called polysemantic, or polysemantic. But it is desirable to be able to distinguish ambiguity from homonymy. If there is any semantic connection between words with several values, then there are no semimonies between homonyms.