What is the meaning of the word polysemy

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Not to be confused with Polysomy.

«Polysemia» redirects here. For the moth genus, see Polysemia (moth).

Polysemy ( or ;^[1][2] from Ancient Greek πολύ- (polý-) ‘many’, and σῆμα (sêma) ‘sign’) is the capacity for a sign (e.g. a symbol, a morpheme, a word, or a phrase) to have multiple related meanings. For example, a word can have several word senses.^[3] Polysemy is distinct from monosemy, where a word has a single meaning.^[3]

Polysemy is distinct from homonymy—or homophony—which is an accidental similarity between two or more words (such as bear 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) and enter homonyms as separate headwords (usually with a numbering convention such as ¹bear and ²bear).

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the three most polysemous words in English are run, put, and set, in that order.^[4][5]

Polysemes[edit]

A polyseme is a word or phrase with different, but related, senses. 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 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.^{[citation needed]} 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, and are sometimes called autohyponyms.^[6] For example, ‘dog’ can be used for ‘male dog’. Alan Cruse identifies four types of linear polysemy:^[7]

• 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:^[7]

• metonymy, where one sense «stands for» another (from «hands (body part)» to «hands (manual labourers)»)
• metaphor, 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 contexts, 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 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 can separate a polysemous word into separate homonyms. For example, check 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 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.^{[8][9][10][11]} Results for this contention, however, have been mixed.^{[12][13][14][15]}

For Dick Hebdige,^[16] polysemy means that, «each text is seen to generate a potentially infinite range of meanings,» making, according to Richard Middleton,^[17] «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.^[18]

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, 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[edit]

Man

1. The human species (i.e., man vs. other organisms)
2. Males of the human species (i.e., man vs. woman)
3. Adult males of the human species (i.e., man vs. boy)
4. (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.

Bank

1. a financial institution
2. the physical building where a financial institution offers services
3. to deposit money or have an account in a bank (e.g. «I bank at the local credit union»)
4. a supply of something held in reserve: such as «banking» brownie points
5. 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 homonyms 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.^[19] A river bank is typically visually bench-like in its flatness.

[edit]

A lexical conception of polysemy was developed by B. T. S. Atkins, in the form of lexical implication rules.^[20] 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.^[21]

Another clarification of polysemy is the idea of predicate transfer^[22]—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: «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[edit]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Joordens S, Besner D (1994). «When banking on meaning is not (yet) money in the bank: Explorations in connectionist modeling». Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 20 (5): 1051–1062. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.20.5.1051.
• Kawamoto AH, Farrar WT, Kello CT (1994). «When two meanings are better than one: Modeling the ambiguity advantage using a recurrent distributed network». Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. 20 (6): 1233–1247. doi:10.1037/0096-1523.20.6.1233.
• Borowsky R, Masson ME (1996). «Semantic ambiguity effects in word identification». Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 22: 63–85. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.22.1.63.
• Jastrzembski JE (1981). «Multiple meanings, number of related meanings, frequency of occurrence, and the lexicon». Cognitive Psychology. 13 (2): 278–305. doi:10.1016/0010-0285(81)90011-6. S2CID 54346331.
• Rubenstein H, Garfield L, Millikan (1970). «Homographic entries in the internal lexicon». Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior. 9 (5): 487–494. doi:10.1016/s0022-5371(70)80091-3.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• O’Sullivan; et al. (1994). Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural Studies. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-06173-5.
• Jamet, Denis (Ed.) (2008) «Polysemy», 1st issue of Lexis, E-Journal in English Lexicology.

External links[edit]

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).

Most words convey several
concepts and thus possess the corresponding number of meanings. A
word having several meanings is called
polysemantic,
and the
ability of words to have more than one meaning is described by the
term polysemy.

Most English words are
polysemantic.
It should be noted that the wealth of expressive resources of a
language largely depends on the degree to which polysemy has
developed in the language.

The number of sound
combinations that human speech organs can produce is limited.
Therefore at a certain stage of language development the production
of new words by morphological means becomes limited, and polysemy
becomes increasingly important in providing the means for enriching
the vocabulary. The process of
enriching the vocabulary does not consist merely in adding new words
to it, but, also, in the constant development of polysemy.

The system of meanings of
any polysemantic word develops gradually, mostly over the centuries,
as more and more new meanings are either added to old ones, or oust
some of them.
So the
complicated processes of polysemy
development involve both the appearance of new meanings and the loss
of old ones. Yet,
the general tendency with English vocabulary at the modern stage of
its history is to increase the total number of its meanings and in
this way to provide for a quantitative and qualitative growth of the
language’s expressive resources.

Thus, stone
has the
following meanings:

1)
hard compact
nonmetallic material of which rocks are made, a small lump of rock;

2)
pebble;

3)
the woody
central part of such fruits as the peach and plum, that contains the
seed;

4)
Jewellery,
short for gemstone;

5)
a unit of
weight, used esp. to Brit, a unit of weight, used esp. to express
human body weight, equal to 14
pounds or
6.350
kilograms;

6)
a calculous
concretion in the body, as in the kidney, gallbladder, or urinary
bladder; a disease arising from such a concretion.

My brother-in-law, he says
gallstones hurt worse than anything. Except maybe kidney stones.
(King)

The bank became low again,
and Miro crossed the brook by running lightly on the moss-covered
stones.
(Card)

“Here,” she said, and
took off a slim silver necklace with an intricately carved pale jade
stone the
size of a grape. (Hamilton)

Smoke curled lazily from the
brown and gray rock chimney made of rounded river stones.
(Foster)

Ukrainian
земля
is also
polysemantic:

1) третя від Сонця планета;

2) верхній шар земної кори;

3) речовина темно-бурого кольору, що
входить до складу земної кори;

4) суша (на відміну від водного простору);

5) країна, край, держава.

Polysemy
is very characteristic of the English vocabulary due to the
monosyllabic character of English words and the predominance of root
words. The greater the frequency of the word, the greater the number
of meanings that constitute its semantic structure. Frequency −
combinability
− polysemy
are closely connected. A special formula known as Zipf’s
law has
been worked out to express the correlation between frequency, word
length and polysemy: the shorter the word, the higher its frequency
of use; the higher the frequency, the wider its combinability,
i.e. the more
word combinations it enters; the wider its combinability, the more
meanings are realized in these contexts.

The word in one of its
meanings is termed a lexico-semantic
variant of
this word. The problem in polysemy is that of interrelation of
different lexico-semantic variants. There may be no single semantic
component common to all lexico-semantic variants but every variant
has something in common with at least one of the others.

All the lexico-semantic
variants of a word taken together form its semantic
structure
or semantic
paradigm.
The word
face, for
example, according to the dictionary data has the following semantic
structure:

1. The
front part of the head: He
fell on his face.

2. Look,
expression: a
sad face, smiling faces, she is a good judge of faces.

3. Surface,
facade: face
of a
clock, face of a building, He laid his cards face down.

4. Impudence,
boldness, courage: put
a good/brave/boldface on smth, put a new face on smth, the face of
it, have the face to do,
save one’s
face.

5. Style
of typecast for printing: bold-face
type.

Meaning is direct
when it nominates the referent without the help of a context, in
isolation; meaning is figurative
when the referent is named and at the same time characterized through
its similarity with other objects, Cf.

direct meaning	figurative meaning
tough meat head foot face	tough politician head of a cabbage foot of a mountain put a new face on smth.

Differentiation between the
terms primary/secondary
main/derived
meanings
is connected with two approaches to polysemy: diachrpnic
and synchronic.

If viewed diachronically,
polysemy is understood as the growth and development (or change) in
the semantic structure of the word.

primary meaning
→
secondary
meanings

table
―
Old Eng “a flat slab of stone or wood”.→
derived
from the primary meaning

Synchronically
polysemy is understood as the coexistence of various meanings of the
same word at a certain historical period of the development of the
English language. In that case the problem of interrelation and
interdependence of individual meanings making up the semantic
structure of the word must be investigated from different points of
view, that of main/derived, central/peripheric meanings.

An objective criterion of
determining the main or central meaning is the frequency of its
occurance in speech. Thus, the main meaning of the word table
in Modern
English is “a piece of furniture”.

Polysemy is a phenomenon of
language, not of speech. As a rule the contextual meaning represents
only one of the possible lexico-semantic variants of the word. So
polysemy does not interfere with the communicative function of the
language because the situation and the context cancel all the
unwanted meanings, as in the following sentences:

The steak is tough.

This is a tough problem.

Prof. Holborn is a tough examiner.

When analysing the semantic
structure of a polysemantic word, it is necessary to
distinguish between two levels of analysis.

On the first level, the
semantic structure of a word is treated as a system of meanings.
For example, the semantic structure of the noun fire
could be
roughly presented by this scheme (only the most frequent meanings are
given):

Figure 2

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Polysemy is the association of one word with two or more distinct meanings, and a polyseme is a word or phrase with multiple meanings. The word «polysemy» comes from the Greek for «many signs.» The adjective forms of the word include polysemous or polysemic.

In contrast, a one-to-one match between a word and a meaning is called «monosemy.» In «The Handbook of Linguistics,» William Croft notes: «Monosemy is probably most clearly found in specialized vocabulary dealing with technical topics.»

According to some estimates, more than 40% of English words have more than one meaning. The fact that so many words (or lexemes) are polysemous «shows that semantic changes often add meanings to the language without subtracting any,» says M. Lynne Murphy, in «Lexical Meaning.»

Examples and Observations

«The word good has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.»

– G.K. Chesterton, «Orthodoxy,» 1909

«Have You Met Life Today?»

– Advertising slogan of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, 2001

«Now, the kitchen was the room in which we were sitting, the room where Mama did hair and washed clothes, and where each of us bathed in a galvanized tub. But the word has another meaning, and the ‘kitchen’ I’m speaking of now is the very kinky bit of hair at the back of the head, where the neck meets the shirt collar. If there ever was one part of our African past that resisted assimilation, it was the kitchen.»

– Henry Louis Gates, Jr., «Colored People.» Alfred A. Knopf, 1994

Polysemy in Language

«Sports Illustrated can be bought for 1 dollar or 35 million dollars; the first is something you can read and later start a fire with, the second is a particular company that produces the magazine you just read. Such polysemy can give rise to a special ambiguity (He left the bank five minutes ago, He left the bank five years ago). Sometimes dictionaries use history to decide whether a particular entry is a case of one word with two related meanings, or two separate words, but this can be tricky. Even though pupil (eye) and pupil (student) are historically linked, they are intuitively as unrelated as bat (implement) and bat (animal).»

– Adrian Akmajian, et al., «Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication.» MIT Press, 2001

«The simplest form of this verb is when it signifies movement forward: ‘The advance of the army was rapid.’ The word can also mean the state of being in a forward position: ‘We were in advance of the rest of the army.’ More figuratively, the word can be used to signify promotion in rank or position or salary: ‘His advance to stardom was remarkable.’ It is also possible to advance an argument in the sense of putting forward reasons for supporting a particular view or course of action: ‘I would like to advance the argument that being in debt is a desirable state while interest rates are so low.’ »

– David Rothwell, «Dictionary of Homonyms.» Wordsworth, 2007

Polysemy in Advertising

«Common polysemic puns involve words like bright, naturally, clearly, where the advertiser will want both meanings. This headline ran above a picture of a sheep:

‘Take it from the manufacturer. Wool. It’s worth more. Naturally.’ (American Wool Council, 1980)

Here the pun is a way of attributing wool, not to a manufacturing industry, but to nature

– Greg Myers, «Words in Ads.» Routledge, 1994

As a Graded Phenomenon

«We adopt as a working hypothesis the view that almost every word is more or less polysemous, with senses linked to a prototype by a set of relational semantic principles which incorporate a greater or lesser amount of flexibility. We follow the now common practice in polysemy research and regard polysemy as a graded phenomenon…where contrastive polysemy deals with homonyms such as match (a small stick with a tip which ignites when scraped on a rough surface) and match (contest in a game or sport), whereas complementary polysemy deals with interrelated semantic aspects of a word, such as, in the case of record, for example, the physical object and the music.»

– Brigitte Nerlich and David D. Clarke, «Polysemy and Flexibility.» Polysemy: Flexible Patterns of Meaning in Mind and Language. Walter de Gruyter, 2003

The Lighter Side of Polysemy

«Leave it to Americans to think that no means yes, pissed means angry, and curse word means something other than a word that’s cursed!»

– Excalibur employee in «It Hits the Fan.» «South Park,» 2001

Lt. Abbie Mills: You sure you want to stay in this old cabin? It’s a bit of a fixer-upper.

Ichabod Crane: You and I have very different definitions of old. Seems if a building stays upright for more than a decade, people declare it a national landmark.

– Nicole Beharie and Tom Mison in «John Doe» an episode of the television show «Sleepy Hollow,» 2013

polysemy is a linguistic phenomenon characterized by the existence of a termthat has more than one meaning. The word “tongue”, for example, can mean an organ or a language, depending on the context in which it is used. If they are not well contextualized, some polysemic words can generate the ambiguity, which is the double meaning of the statement.

Polysemy also differs from homonymy, which consists of words that have the same pronunciation and/or spelling, but different meanings, such as the words “accent” (graphic sign) and “seat” (place to sit).

Read too: Notational problems of the Portuguese language

What is polysemy?

Polysemy is the name given to the fact that a termto introducemore than one meaning. Thus, the meaning of the term also depends on the context in which it is used. So if, for example, you say you have the penalty of Camões, without contextualizing your statement, your listener will be in doubt, won’t know if you’re worth it (writing instrument) that belonged to Camões or if you feel sorry (of) that Camões felt.

examples of polysemy

He suffered a lot when he had to leave and return to your home country.
(leave = leave)

Leandro, be careful not to leave the table.
(break = break)

Got a cat pet named Astrogildo.
(cat = animal)

I think Pierre Batcheff is a cat, but there are those who disagree with me.
(cat = attractive man)

I was so hungry that I burned the tongue with the hot soup.
(tongue = organ)

THE tongue it is alive and constantly changing.
(language = language)

We need to understand what is our paper in all of this.
(role = function)

After reading the letter, he placed the paper on the table and cried.
(paper = place of writing)

I avoid going to Bank, I prefer to pay my bills through the app.
(bank = financial institution)

John sat in the Bank and was admiring the landscape.
(bench = seat)

Bruna didn’t know the answer, so kicked.
(kicked = risked or tried to guess an answer)

When she kicked, I knew the goal was right.
(kicked = kicked a ball)

Read too: Paronymy – similar words in pronunciation and writing, but with different meanings

Differences between polysemy and ambiguity

THE polysemy refers to a term that has more than one sense and, therefore, it depends on the enunciation context, because, if it is out of context, it can cause the ambiguity, which consists of the double meaning of a statement.

Note this dialogue:

— Jenival cut the hose.

— What a pity! I liked those sleeves so much.

— I’m talking about the plant watering hose.

— Oh, I thought…

— He made hula hoops for the kids.

Thus, if the enunciator of the speech “Jenival cut the hose” had contextualized the information, would not provoke the confusion of your interlocutor in front of the ambiguous statement. However, the ambiguity, considered a language addiction, is not generated only by decontextualizing a polysemic word. It can also be caused by the inappropriate use of a hyperbatic, that is, the alteration of the direct order (subject, verb, complement or predicative) of a clause:

The son loved the father.

In this statement, there are ambiguity, because we do not know who loved whom, whether the subject is the son or the father, since it is not possible to say whether the prayer is in the direct or reverse order. Thus, if, exceptionally, we change the transitivity of the verb “to love”, we end the ambiguity:

To the son loved his father.

The use of possessive pronouns «your» and «your» also usually generate ambiguity at the Brazilian portuguese, since, in Brazil, the pronouns “teu” and “tua” are rarely used. See the statement:

Pedro, I was trying to calm Maria when they stole the your car.

Here it’s hard to know if the stolen car was Pedro’s or Maria’s.

See too: The top five mistakes made by copywriters

Differences between polysemy and homonymy

Polysemy is a linguistic phenomenon that consists in the existence of a term with more than one meaning. already the homonymy is related to words with same pronunciation and/or same spelling; however, with different meanings. The homonyms can be classified as follows:

• heterophonic homographs: same spelling and different sounds.

She wasn’t a big fan of game playing cards.
(substantive)

When game deck, I forget my problems.
(verb)

• heterographic homophones: same sound and different spellings.

This year, I must answer one more census of IBGE.
(census)

People here don’t have good sense.
(judgment, discernment)

• homographic homophones: same sound and same spelling.

Early my right in your favor.
(verb)

I woke up early to protest.
(adverb)

So, you might be wondering if the word “early”, in addition to being homonymous, is also polysemic. The answer is no. Polysemy refers to just one word with more than one meaning. Homonymy, on the other hand, consists of two or more words that have the same pronunciation and/or the same spelling, but different meanings. Therefore, «early» and «early» are two different words, since one is verb and the other, adverb.

Analyze these statements:

Auriete is a lady, so she didn’t give an answer equal to the offense.

Auriete knew that, in chess, the queen is almost as important as the king.

In this case, «lady» is one word only, because in both examples it is a substantive; however, it has different meanings — woman from a noble family (first statement) and chess piece (second statement). So it’s a polysemic word.

Read too: Difference between hyperonyms and hyponyms

solved exercises

Question 01 (Enem)

this little

My time is short, her time is spare
My hair is gray, hers is pumpkin color
I’m afraid our novel doesn’t last long, but
I’m so happy with her
My day flies and she doesn’t wake up
I go to the corner, she wants to go to Florida
I don’t even know what she says, but
I don’t get tired of looking at her
Like miser, I count my minutes
Every second that goes away
Taking care of her, who walks in another world
She who wastes her hours in the wind, oh
Sometimes she paints her mouth and leaves
Make yourself comfortable, I say, take your time
I feel like I’m still going to pity this little one, but
O blues it was already worth it

CHICO BUARQUE. Available at: www.chicobuarque.com.br. Accessed on: June 31 2012.

The text this little it registers the enunciator’s subjective expression, worked in an informal language, common in popular music.

As a mark of the colloquial variety of language present in the text, the use of

a) borrowed words from a foreign language, of unusual use in Portuguese.

b) popular expressions, which reinforce the proximity between the author and the reader.

c) polysemic words, which generate ambiguity.

d) first person pronominal forms.

e) sound repetitions at the end of the verses.

Resolution:

Alternative “b”.

In these lyrics, the lyrical self uses popular expressions, such as “our soap opera”, “day flies”, “walks in another world”, “this little one”, “it was worth it”. There are, in the text, polysemic words, such as “novel”, “fly” and “pen”; however, they are unambiguous.

Question 02 (Enem)

In the creation of the text, cartoonist Iotti creatively uses an intertext: the lines reconstruct a scene from Guernica, panel by Pablo Picasso portraying the horrors and destruction caused by the bombing of a small town in Spain. In the cartoon, published during the Carnival period, the figure of the car is highlighted, an element introduced by Iotti in the intertext. In addition to this figure, verbal language contributes to establishing a dialogue between Picasso’s work and cartoon, by exploring

a) a reference to the context, “transit during the holiday”, clarifying the referent of both Iotti’s text and Picasso’s work.

b) a reference to the present time, with the use of the verb form “é”, highlighting the topicality of the topic addressed by both the Spanish painter and the Brazilian cartoonist.

c) a pejorative term, «traffic», reinforcing the negative image of the chaotic world present in both Guernica as in the cartoon.

d) a temporal reference, «always», referring to the permanence of tragedies portrayed both in Guernica as in the cartoon.

e) a polysemic expression, “dramatic picture”, referring both to the pictorial work and to the context of Brazilian traffic.

Resolution:

Alternative “e”.

There is a dialogue between the work of Picasso and the cartoon, which says that “The transit in the holiday season is always a dramatic picture!”. In this verbal text, polysemy occurs in the expression “dramatic picture”, which can refer as much to a painting as to a dramatic situation.

Question 03 (Enem)

Available at: www.ivancabral.com. Accessed on: Feb 27 2012.

The cartoon’s meaning effect is caused by the combination of visual information and linguistic resources. In the context of the illustration, the uttered sentence refers to the

a) polysemy, that is, the multiple meanings of the expression “social network” to convey the idea it intends to convey.

b) irony to give a new meaning to the term “something else”.

c) homonymy to oppose, from the adverb of place, the space of the poor population and the space of the rich population.

d) personification to oppose the poor real world to the rich virtual world.

e) antonymy to compare the world wide web with the family’s home rest network.

Resolution:

Alternative “a”.

In the phrase, «social network» can refer to both a site or application regarding the network occupied by family members. So it’s a polysemic expression.

by Warley Souza
grammar teacher