Word is a word having only one meaning

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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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).

1. SEMASIOLOGY

Lecture 6

2. 1. Types of meaning

Semasiology is the branch of Linguistics which studies
the meaning of words, called semantics.
The name comes from the Greek semasia “signification”
(from sema “sign” semantikos “significant” and logos
“learning”).

3. The main objects of semasiological study are:

Semantic development of English words its causes and
classification, relevant distinctive features and types of
meaning, polysemy and the sematic structure of the
English polysemantic words and compounds, semantic
grouping and connections in the vocabulary system.

4.

There are two main types of meaning grammatical
meaning and lexical meaning.
The grammatical meaning is the meaning of an
inflectional morpheme or of some other syntactic device,
as word order. It depends on its role in a sentence.
For example, the tense meaning in the word forms of the
verbs: worked, told, bought; the meaning of plurality:
analyses, boys, types; the case meaning of nouns:
women’s, the green grocer’s, the optician’s.

5.

The lexical meaning of the word is the meaning proper
to the given linguistic unit in all its forms. The word
forms of the verb: to talk, talks, talked, talking possess
different grammatical meanings, but in each form they
have one and the same semantic component denoting
«the process of speaking».

6. 2. The causes of semantic changes

The causes of semantic changes can be extra-linguistic and
linguistic.
By extra-linguistic causes we mean various changes in the
life of the speech community, changes in economic and social
structure, scientific concepts and other spheres of human
activities as reflected in word meaning.
For example, the word «pen» comes back to the Latin word
«penna» (a feather of a bird). As people wrote with goose
pens the name was transferred to steel pens which were later
on used for writing. Still later any instrument for writing was
called «a pen».

7.

The main form of linguistic cause is
discrimination/differentiation of synonyms which can be
illustrated by the semantic development of a number of
words.
The conflict of synonyms when a perfect synonym of a native
word is borrowed from some other language one of them may
specialize in its meaning, e.g. in old English the noun «tide»
was polysemantic and denoted «time», «season», «hour».
When the French words «time», «season»,
«hour» were borrowed into English they ousted the word
«tide» in these meanings. It was specialized and now means
(regular movement of sea towards and away from the land).

8. 3.Semantic structure of English words

Every word has two aspects the outer aspect (its sound form) and the inner
form (its meaning) which presents a structure called the semantic structure
of the word. It is known that most words convey several concepts and
possess the corresponding number of meanings. One and the same word in
different syntactical relations can develop different meanings, e.g. the verb
«treat» in sentences:
The wood is treated with chemicals.
She was treated for minor injuries.
They treated me to sweets.
He treats his son cruelly.
These payments will be treated as income.
He treated my words as a joke.
In all these sentences the verb «treat» has different meanings and we can
speak about polysemy.

9.

A word having several meanings is called polysemantic and
words having only one meaning are called monosemantic
these words are few in number, e.g. molecule, hydrogen,
oxygen. These words are mainly scientific terms.
The bulk of English words are polysemantic. The ability of
words to have more than one meeting is described by the term
polysemy.
Polysemy is a phenomenon which has an exceptional
importance for the description of a language system and for the
solution of practical tasks connected with an adequate
understanding of the meaning of a word and its use.

10.

Different meanings of a polysemantic word may come together
due to the proximity of notions which they express.
For example, the word blanket has the following meanings: a
woolen covering used on beds, a covering for keeping a horse
warm, a covering of any kind (a blanket of snow), covering all
or most cases used attributively, e.g. we can say (A blanket
insurance policy).

11. Levels of analysis of the semantic structure of a polysemantic word

The semantic structure of a polysemantic word can be
distinguished between two levels of analysis.
On the first level the semantic structure is presented by
different meanings as the main or primary meaning stands in
the centre and the secondary meanings proceed out of it like
rays. Each second remaining can be traced to the primary
meaning. This type of the semantic structure of a polysemantic
word is called as radial polysemy and can be presented on the
diagram.

12.

airline
airbag
airmail
AIR
airman
airlift
aircraft
airport
airspeed

13.

From the diagram above it is observed that all secondary meanings
of the key word «air» are connected with the primary meaning in
the center and motivated by it.
The second level of analysis is determined as the semantic
components within each separate meaning, where some semantic
structures are arranged on different principles, they are not
correlated with each other and have variable meanings. This type of
a polysemantic word can be called the chain of polysemy.
In the following list of meanings of the adjectives dull and high one
can hardly find a generalized meaning covering and holding together
the rest of the semantic structure.

14.

15.

As you see from this table the adjectives dull and high with
the different nouns forming new word-groups which are
distinguished into separate meanings.
In most cases in the semantic development of a word both
ways: radial polysemy and chain polysemy are combined.

16. 4.Nature of semantic changes

A necessary condition of any semantic change is some
connection, some association between the old meaning and
new one.
There are two kinds of association involved in various
semantic changes — metaphor and metonymy.

17. Metaphor

The word «metaphor» came from the Greek language metaphero (to carry over,
to transfer) — meta (between) and phero (to bear, to carry).
A metaphor is a transfer of the meaning based on comparison and an association
of similarity of two objects, phenomena. Metaphor can be based on different
types of similarity:
Similarity or shape, e.g. head (of a cabbage), the neck (of the bottle), teeth (of
a saw, a comb);
Similarity of position, e.g. foot (of a page, of a mountain), head (of a chair,
the procession);
Similarity of function, behavior, e.g. a lady-killer — a man who is attractive
and successful with women and can fascinate them, a whip (an official in the
British Parliament whose duty is to see that members were present at the
voting)
Similarity of color, e.g. orange, hazel, chestnut, the gilded youth, a sunny
smile, black gold, black economy.

18. Metaphor

Many metaphors are based on parts of a human body, e.g. the leg
of a table, an eye of a needle, arms and mouth of a river, head of
an army.
A special type of metaphor is when proper names become
common nouns, e.g. philistine- a mercenary person, vandals destructive people, a Don Juan — a lover of many women, etc.
When new words are needed in order to describe things that did not
exist before, they are often created by means of metaphor. With the
growth of computer technology, we need words to describe many
new objects and activities — and most of these new words have been
produced metaphorically: surfing, net, home, page, mailbox,
mouse, virus, window.

19. Metonymy

Metonymy is a transfer of the meaning on the basis of contiguity. It is a
change of names between things that are known to be in some way and
associating two referents, one of which can have resembles the other. There
are different types of metonymy:
The material of which an object is made may become the name of the
object, e.g. a glass, board, iron etc.;
The name of the place may become the name of the people or of an
object placed there, e.g. the House – members of Parliament, Fleet Street
– bourgeois press, the White House – the Administration of the USA, etc.;
Names of musical instruments may become names of musicians, e.g.
the violinist, the saxophonist, the pianist, etc.;

20. Metonymy

The name of some person may become a common noun, e.g.
“boycott” was originally the name of an Irish family who were so
much disliked by their neighbours that they did not mix with them,
“sandwich” was named after Lord Sandwich who was a gambler.
He did not want to interrupt his game and had his food brought to
him while he was playing cards between two slices of bread not to
soil his fingers;
Names of inventors very often become terms to denote things
they invented, e.g. “watt”, “om”, “roentgen” etc.;
Some geographical names can also become common nouns
through metonymy, e.g. Holland (linen fabrics), Brussels (a
special kind of carpets), china (porcelain), astrakhan (a sheep fur)
etc.

21. 5. The main Semantic Aspects of Compounds

The structural meaning of compounds is formed on the base of the
the order and arrangement of the constituents of a compound word.
A change in the order and arrangement of the same components of
the word gives us the compounds with different lexical meanings,
e.g. finger-ring denotes a ring which is worn on finger, whereas the
compound word ring-finger means the finger next to the little
finger, especially of the left hand, on which the wedding ring is
worn.
So, these words contain two root morphemes, the combined lexical
meaning of which can be changed account for the difference in the
arrangement of the component morphemes.

22.

The semantic structure of compound words can be
changed in a result of rearrangement of their distributional
patterns, e.g. dog house – it is a special house for a dog
(конура), house-dog – it is a kind of a dog living near the
house or in the house and protecting the house and
housekeeper. The shift in order and place of the constituent
parts of a compound can destroy its meaning.

23. The semantic structure of compounds

The semantic structure of compounds can be divided into two
groups:
a) Non-idiomatic compounds
b)Idiomatic compounds
Non-idiomatic compounds represent meanings which can be
described as the sum of their constituent meanings, e.g. classroom,
bedroom, raincoat, nightdress, dancing-hall, changing-room.

24.

The compounds which meanings do not correspond to the separate
meanings of the constituent parts are called idiomatic compounds.
They are divided into two types:
Partial (non complete) changed meaning;
Total (complete) changed meaning.
In the first type of compounds one of the components has changed its
meaning. In this type of compound words we see the process of
alternation of meaning.
E.g. a blackbird, a blackboard, chatter-box, blackberries.
For example, the compounds a blackbird, a bluebird convey only one
concept: the type of bird.
The compound word blue-baby is about a child who has a weak heart or
something wrong with heart whose skin is slightly blue.

25.

The second type of compounds it is a process of complete change of
meaning or the key semantic aspect has been lost, e.g. a ladybird, tallboy,
bluestockings, bluebottle, butter-fingers, lady-killer, lady-finger.
A ladybird is not a bird, but insect;
A tallboy is not a boy, but a piece of furniture;
Bluestockings – an old fashioned word is about a well-educated woman who
is more interested in ideas and studying, who dedicates her life to science
Bluebottle- is not a bottle, it is a large fly with a blue body
Butter-fingers is a clumsy person often has accidents.
Lady-finger – a small long thin cake made with eggs, sugar and flour.

26. Seminar task:

1. Explain the different meanings and the different usages, giving Russian/Kazakh
equivalents of:
Smart, adj.
Smart clothes, a smart answer, a smart house, a smart garden, a smart officer, a smart blow, a
smart punishment.
Stubborn, adj.
A stubborn child, a stubborn look, a stubborn horse, a stubborn resistance, a stubborn fighting, a
stubborn cough, a stubborn depression.
Blank, adj.
Blank wall, blank verse, blank sheet, blank form, blank years, blank face, blank look.
Root, n.
The root of the tooth, the root of the matter, square root, cube root, family roots.
Perform, v.
To perform one’s duty, to perform an operation, to perform a dance, to perform a play.

27. Seminar task:

2. Arrange the compounds into 2 groups: a) idiomatic,
b) non-idiomatic. Say whether the semantic change
within idiomatic compounds is partial or total.
Light-hearted, butterfly, flower-pot, backache, watermelon, cabman, blackberry, bluebell, wolf-dog, highway,
horse-marine, greengrocer, lazy-bones, blacklist, butterfinger, earth-quake, lady-killer, seaman, sun-flower,
ladybird, bluecoat, money-box, flower-bed, sunflowerseed, air-kiss, culture-vulture.

28. Seminar task:

3. Define the difference in meaning of the given
compounds, possessing the change of distributional patters.
(Do the given task according to the following example).
The change of the order of its components will change its
lexical meaning: vid-kid is “a kid who is a video fan” while
kid-vid means “a video film for kids”.
Pot-flower – flower-pot, fruit-market – market-fruit, boathouse – house-boat, school-grammar – grammar-school,
board-school – school-board.

29. SIW

Find 20 idiomatic compound words (partial and
total) and give the complete analysis and translation.

Presentation on theme: «POLYSEMY Lecture 5. POLYSEMY 1.POLYSEMY 2.DIACHRONIC APPROACH TO POLYSEMY 3.SYNCHRONIC APPROACH TO POLYSEMY 4.HISTORICAL CHANGEABILITY OF SEMANTIC STRUCTURE.»— Presentation transcript:

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POLYSEMY Lecture 5

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POLYSEMY 1.POLYSEMY 2.DIACHRONIC APPROACH TO POLYSEMY 3.SYNCHRONIC APPROACH TO POLYSEMY 4.HISTORICAL CHANGEABILITY OF SEMANTIC STRUCTURE 5.POLYSEMY AND CONTEXT. TYPES OF CONTEXT.

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1. POLYSEMY  Polysemy – is the ability of a word to possess several meanings or lexico- semantic variants (LSV), e.g. bright means “shining” and “intelligent”.  Monosemantic word — a word having only one meaning;  Polysemantic word — a word having several meanings is called

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The meanings of the word table in Modern English. tableстол 1. a piece of furniture 1. предмет обстановки (сидеть за столом) 2. the persons seated at a table 2. Ср. арх. застолица 3. the food put on a table, meals; cooking 3. пища (подаваемая на стол), еда 4. a flat slab of stone or board 4. Ср. плита 5. slabs of stone (with words written on them or cut into them) 5. Ср. скрижали 6. Bibl. Words cut into slabs of stone (the ten tables). 6. Ср. заповеди 7. an orderly arrangement of facts, figures, etc. 7. Ср. таблица 8. part of a machine-tool 8. Ср. планшайба 9. a level area, plateau [‘pl1tq4] 9. Ср. плато 10. Адресный стол 11. Стол заказов

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Prof. V.V. Vinogradov  Meanings are fixed and common to all people, who know the language system.  The usage is only possible application of one of the meanings of a polysemantic word, sometimes very individual, more or less familiar. Meaning is not identical with usage.

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Prof. A.I. Smirnitsky  All the meanings of the word form identity supported by the form of the word.  A lexico-semantic variant (LSV) — a two- facet unit.  Words with one meaning are represented in the language system by one LSV, polysemantic words – by a number of LSV.  They are united together by a certain meaning – the semantic centre of the word.

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2. DIACHRONIC APPROACH TO POLYSEMY  Polysemy in diachronic term implies that a word may retain its previous meaning or meanings and at the same time acquire one or several new ones.  According to the approach there are two types of meaning can be singled out: 1.the primary meaning; 2.the secondary meaning (derived)

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3. SYNCHRONIC APPROACH TO POLYSEMY  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.  According to the approach there are two types of meaning can be singled out: 1.the central (basic) meaning – the most frequent; 2.marginal (minor) meanings – all other meanings.

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4. HISTORICAL CHANGEABILITY OF SEMANTIC STRUCTURE  The semantic structure is never static, the relationship between the diachronic and synchronic evaluation of individual meanings may be different in different periods of the historical development of language.  The primary meaning of the word may become synchronically one of its marginal meanings and diachronically a secondary meaning may become the central meaning of the word.

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Evidence ‘significant appearance, token’ ‘information tending to establish fact’ Middle English diachronicallysynchronicallyprimarycentralsecondarymarginal Modern English diachronicallysynchronicallyprimarymarginalsecondarycentral

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5. POLYSEMY AND CONTEXT  Context is the minimum stretch of speech determining each individual meaning of the word.  Context can be linguistic (verbal) or extra-linguistic (non-verbal). Linguistic context can be subdivided into lexical and grammatical.

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TYPES OF CONTEXT Linguistic contexts:   In the lexical context of primary importance are the groups of lexical items combined with the polysemantic word under consideration, e.g. heave table (of great weigh); heavy rain (abundant, falling with force); heavy industry (the larger kind of smth).

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 In the grammatical context it is the grammatical (syntactic) structure of the context that serves to determine various individual meanings of a polysemantic word.  The meaning of the verb to make – ‘to force, to induce’ is found only in the grammatical context possessing the syntactic structure ‘to make+pronoun+verb (to make sb laugh, work, dance). Another meaning of this verb – ‘to become’ is observed in the context of a different syntactic structure – to make+adj+noun (to make a good wife, good teacher).

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Extra-linguistic context  When the meaning of a word is ultimately determined by the actual speech situation in which the word is used, i.e. by the extra- linguistic context (or context of situation), e.g. John was looking for the glasses, — the meaning of word glasses has two readings ‘spectacles’ or to ‘drinking vessels’. It is possible to state the meaning of the word glasses only through the extended context or situation

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References: 1.Зыкова И.В. Практический курс английской лексикологии. М.: Академия, 2006. – С.29- 32. 2.Бабич Н.Г. Лексикология английского языка. Екатеринбург – Москва, 2006. – С. 62-63. 3.Гинзбург Р.З. Лексикология английского языка. М.: Высшая школа, 1979. – С. 33-38. 4.Антрушина Г.Б., Афанасьева О.В., Морозова Н.Н. Лексикология английского языка. М.: Дрофа, 2006. – С. – 131-136.