Chapter 5:

Polysemy,
Homonymy &
Ambiguity

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Polysemy /pəˈlɪsɨmi/ or /ˈpɒlisiːmi/
(p.78)
• Polysemy is a sense relation in
which a word or a lexical item,
has acquired more than one
meaning.

• Polysemy is the diversity of

meaning, the case of where a
word has very closely related
meanings. 2
Polysemy
e.g. the term “flight” can mean all of
the following:
1. the action of flying
2. an air journey
3. a number of stairs/ steps
leading up or down
4. the action of running away
5. a unit of the air force

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Polysemy
To get:
1. procure (I’ll get the drinks.)
2. become (I got scared.)
3. understand (I get it.)
4. reach a place (We got to San Diego
at about 10.)

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Polysemy

Check:
- in bank check
- in chess
- meaning “verification”

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Polysemy
Man:
1. the human species
2. males of the human species
3. adult male of the human species

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Polysemy
To run:
1. move using your legs, going
faster than when you walk
2. move quickly in a particular
direction
3. flow
4. travel at regular times
5. start a machine

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Polysemous words
• A polysemous word is a word
which has 2 or more closely related
meanings.

Ex1. Foot → the lowest part of the

human body
→ the lowest part of the
stairs

He hurt his foot.

She stood at the foot of the stairs.
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 [+lowest part].
Polysemous words
Ex2. Chip:
(1) a small piece of some hard
substance broken off from
something larger.
(2) a small cut piece of potato which
is fried for eating.
(3) a small but vital piece of a
computer.
 [+small piece]
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Polysemous words
Ex3. Break

1. separate into 2 or more parts as a

result of force.

2. become unusable by being

damaged
 [+can no longer be used]

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 What do they mean?
1. The newspaper got wet in
the rain.
The newspaper fired some of
its editing staff.
2. John was a good man. He
donated a lot of money to
charity.
Bill was a good painter. His
drawings always were exciting 11
Homonymy (p.72)

• Homonymy is a relation in which

various words have the same
(sound or written) form but have
different meanings.
• Ex1: bank1 → a financial institution
bank2 → the shore of a river
• Ex2: bear (n) → a large heavy
animal with thick fur
bear1(v) → give birth to
bear2(v) → tolerate 12
Homonymy
1. Absolute homonyms should satisfy
the following three conditions:
a. They will be unrelated in meaning;
b. All their forms will be identical;
c. The identical forms will be
grammatically equivalent.
2. Partial homonyms are common.
a. find(v) and found (v) share found
(past tense of find)
b. rose (n) and rose (past tense of the
verb “rise”) 13
Homonymy
• left – opposite of right/departed from
• fall – Autumn/ drop down toward the
ground
• lie – untrue statement/put yourself
on a flat position
• book – written document/make a
reservation
• can – metal container/ asking
permission
• tire – car wheel/ get fatigued 14
Homophony
• Homophony is a relation in which
various words have the same sound
but have different meanings and
written forms.
• Ex1: hour → a twenty-fourth part of a
day & night
our → belonging to us
• Ex2: flour → a powder used for
making bread, cakes
flower → a beautiful part of a
plant or tree from which seeds or 15
fruit grow
Homophony
• they’re / their
• by / buy
• meat / meet
• sunday / sundae
• to / too / two
• very / vary
• draught / draft
• some / sum
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Homophony

1. accessary, 6. principal,
accessory principle
2. bare, bear 7. profit, prophet
3. be, bee 8. waist, waste
4. boar, bore 9. weather, whether
5. cell, sell 10. yoke, yolk

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Homography
• Homography is the relation in
which various words have the
same written form but have
different meanings and sound
forms.
e.g.
lead /li:d/ → Does this road lead to
town?
lead /led/ → Lead is a heavy metal.
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Homography
• buffet to hit, punch or slap/a self-
serve food bar
• desert a hot, arid region/to leave

• minute 60 seconds/extremely small

• tear to rip/a drop of water from the

eye
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Homography
• bass - type of fish/lowest part in
music
• close - next to/ shut the door

• bow - an act of bowing/a weapon

for shooting arrows

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Homonymy and Polysemy
• Consider the following examples:
1. “Mine is a long and sad tale”
said the mouse, turning to Alice, and
sighing.
“It is a long tail, certainly,” said
Alice looking down with wonder at
the Mouse’s tail, “But why do you call
it sad?”
(Alice in Wonderland)
2. They found the hospitals and 21
Homonymy and Polysemy

– If different meanings associated

with one form are perceived as
related, they constitute a
polysemantic word.

– If these meanings are not

related in any way, they are
treated as homonyms.
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Homonymy and Polysemy
Using etymology (từ nguyên), or
historical origin.
bank1 (financial institution) borrowing
from French
bank2 (shore of a river) borrowing
from Scandinavian.
bank  homonymic word

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http://www.etymonline.com/index.
php

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Distinction between
polysemy and homonymy

1. 2. Using antonyms and

synonyms
plain: clear and easy = simple

plain: undecorated ≠ complex

→ polysemic word

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Distinction between
polysemy and homonymy
3. Homonyms are treated in
distinct dictionary entries.

Two or more closely related

meanings of the polysemous word
foot, chip, or plain are linked
together within only one dictionary
entry

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Distinction between
polysemy and homonymy

Though Homonymy and

Polysemy can be
distinguished as different
notions, the boundary
between them is not clear-
cut.

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Decide whether the following words
are examples of homonymy (H) or
polysemy (P)
1. bark (of a dog vs. of a tree)
H
2. fork (in a road vs. instrument for P
eating) P
3. tail (of a coat vs. of an animal)
H
4. steer (to guide vs. young bull)
P
5. lip (of a jug vs. of a person)
6. punch (blow with a fist vs. H kind
of fruity alcoholic drink) 28
7. a. Sarah climbed down the
ladder. H
b. Sarah bought a down
blanket. P
8. a. John was a good man.
b. Bill was a good writer. H
9. a. He sowed the seeds of
revolution.
b. Have you fed the sow?
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 Exercise 17-18
(pp 75-77 - Tô Minh Thanh)

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Ambiguity
• Ambiguity is a word, or a phrase, or
a sentence which has more than
one meaning is said to be
ambiguous.

• It is not clear in its meaning.

• There are two types of ambiguity:

- structural ambiguity
- lexical ambiguity 31
Structural Ambiguity

• Structural ambiguity is caused by the

use of grammatical structures.

• A sentence is considered as
structurally ambiguous when its
structure permits more than one
interpretation.
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Structural Ambiguity

1. We watched the hunters with

binoculars.
2. The police are looking for the
car with broken headlights.

3. He killed the girl with a pair of

scissors. 33
Lexical Ambiguity
• Any ambiguity resulting from the
ambiguity of a word is lexical
ambiguity.
• Lexical ambiguity is caused by
polysemy and homonymy.
Ex1. They were waiting at the bank.
bank1: financial institution
bank2: shore of the river
bank1 and bank2 are two
homonyms. 34
Lexical Ambiguity

Ex2. That robot is bright.

bright is polysemous word which
has 2 slightly different but closely
related meanings: shining and
intelligent.

• Thus, both polysemy and

homonymy contribute to lexical
ambiguity.
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Lexical Ambiguity

Ex 3: I bought a pen for my dog.

It is avoided by giving a context.
- My dog keeps destroying the
furniture at night, so I bought
him a pen.
- My dog really want to write a
novel, so I bought him a pen.

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How to disambiguate an ambiguous
sentence?
• To disambiguate an ambiguous
sentence, we have to use paraphrases
which are sentences with easier
vocabulary and/or simpler grammatical
structure used to make it clear.
Dr. Jekyll is a butcher.
butcher can refer to:
→ a meat vendor, the owner of a meat
shop; a person who kills animals for
market or kills animals for meat.
→ a person who kills other people
without mercy
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How to disambiguate an ambiguous
sentence?
The sentence “Dr. Jekyll is a
butcher.” is said to be polysemous
because of the use of polysemous
word “butcher”. This kind of
ambiguity is lexical ambiguity.

• Possible paraphrases are:

Doctor Jekyll is a meat vendor.
Doctor Jekyll is a murderer.
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39
 Disambiguate the following
ambiguous sentences
• The lady hit the man with an umbrella.
-> The lady with an umbrella hit the man
-> The lady hit the man who had an umbrella
• He gave her cat food.
-> He gave cat food to her
-> He gave food to her cat
• John went to the bank (trong sách)
• They are hunting dogs.
-> They are the type of hunting dogs
-> People are hunting dogs
• I saw her duck.
->
• I love hunting dogs.
• Will Will will the will to Will?
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Anomaly
• Anomaly is “a violation of
semantic rules to create
nonsense.”
That bachelor is pregnant.
My brother is the only child in the
family.
Colorless green ideas sleep
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furiously.
Anomaly & Contradiction
• Anomaly involves us in the notion
contradiction in the sense that
semantically anomalous sentences
constitute a type of contradictory
sentences.
John killed Bill, who remained alive for
many years after.
is semantically anomalous because the
so-called sentence represents a
contradiction: no living organism can
remain alive after being killed. (Rf. 42
 Exercises 20-26
(pp 82-85; 88-90)
Tô Minh Thanh

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The End

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Practice
1. Discuss the criterion between polysemy
and homonymy.
2. Comment on the following homonyms
and polysemantic words.
1. Don’t spit in the well, you may need its water.
All is well that ends well.
2. She is a good match for you.
The match ended in a draw.
3. Comment on the type of homonyms.
wait-weight; sole-soul; rose-rose;
bear(v)-bear(n); read(adj.)-read(v).
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