Paradigmatic Relations

10 December 2020
Polysemy vs Homonymy

The semantic structure of polysemantic words is not

homogeneous as far as the status of individual meanings is
concerned. Some meanings are representative of the word in
isolation, others are perceived only in certain contexts.
table1
table2

compare: I’ve booked a table for four.

Do you know how to insert a table in a Word document?
Polysemy and Homonymy

Are table1 and table2 polysemous or homonymous?

The problem of the interrelation and interdependence of the various meanings

in the semantic structure of one and the same word.

Are table1 and table2 interrelated enough to consider them as polysemous?

How about other meanings of table?

Polysemantic word table

 The word table, e.g., has at least nine meanings in Modern English:
1. a piece of furniture;
2. the persons seated at a table;
3. food put on a table, meals;
4. a thin flat piece of stone, metal, wood, etc;
5. slabs of stone;
6. words cut into them or written on them (the ten tables);
7. an orderly management of facts, figures, etc.;
8. part of a machine-tool on which the work is put to be operated on;
9. a level area, a plateau.
 The words of different languages which are similar or
identical in lexical meaning are termed correlated words.
For example, the Montenegrin for table is sto. However,
one-to-one correspondence between the semantic structure
of correlated polysemantic words in different languages is
scarcely possible.
Polysemantic word sto in BCSM

1. komad namjestaja;
2. jelo koje se nalazi na stolu;
3. stolica, stolac;
4. a) komad namjestaja koji stoji pored oltara u pravoslavnoj crkvi;
b) pocasno sjediste vladike i drugih uglednih vjernika;
5. presto;
6. gimnasticka sprava za preskoke;
7. ustanova (crkvena i svetovna);
8. praistorijska grobnic
Polysemy

Of all the meanings it has in Modern English, the primary

meaning is ‘a flat slab of stone or wood’, which is proper to
the word in the Old English period (OE. tabule from L.
tabula); all other meanings are secondary as they are
derived from the primary meaning of the word and appeared
later than the primary meaning. When we refer to the
meaning as ‘derived’, we imply that it is dependent on the
primary meaning and somehow subordinate to it.
 Polysemy is often based on figurative
meanings

master
‘person who has power over somebody’

‘person who has power over activity’

‘holder of second university degree’

Polysemy often results from metaphoric
extension

hand of a clock
foot a mountain
leg of a chair
tongue of a shoe
eye of a needle/potato
 Polysemy may also arise from
homonymy
Human ear vs earn of corn
L. auris L. acus, aceris

The human ear and the ear of corn are from the diachronic point of view
homonyms. Synchronically, however, they are perceived as two meanings of one
and the same word. The ear of corn is felt to be a metaphor of the usual type
(cf. the eye of the needle, the foot of the mountain) and consequently as one of
the derived meanings of the polysemantic word ear
The general rule on polysemy and
homonymy
If identical forms have different origin, they are
homonymous (and are listed as separate dictionary entries),
and if one origin, even if different meanings, they are
polysemous (and listed as a single entry).

e.g. pupil (student) and pupil (eyes)

sole (shoe) and sole (fish)
 
are historically from the same origin, so polysemy
Centrality of meaning

Table ’piece of furniture’ probably central for most people as it

occurs in various and widely different contexts, while minor
meanings are observed only in certain contexts, e.g. ‘to keep the
table amused’ or ‘table of contents’

However, in some cases it is difficult to single out the basic

meaning, e.g.
Get1 ‘to obtain’ (get a letter, knowledge, some sleep) or
Get2 ‘to arrive’ (get to London, to get into bed)

which one shall we regard as the basic meaning of this word?

Centrality of Meaning & Contexts

Yellow, when used in isolation is understood to denote a certain colour

But

other meanings of this word are perceived only in certain contexts

’a yellow look’ = suspicious, envious
’the yellow press’ = low quality, sensational
Frequency as a criterion?

 The meaning ‘a piece of furniture’ of the word table has

the highest frequency value and makes up 52% of all the
uses of this word

 The meaning ‘a man who does manual work’ of hand

accounts for only 2.8% of all occurrences of the word hand
 Stylistic stratification of polysemantic
words
We must state the meaning in which polysemantic words are used before we can
discuss their style.

Yellow is neutral in style when it denotes a colour.

Jerk is neutral in style when it denotes a ‘sudden movement or stopping of
movement’
BUT
Yellow is slang and American when it is used to mean ‘sensational’
Jerk is slang and American when it is used to mean ‘an odd person’
Lexical contexts

Heavy = ’of great weight’ (e.g. heavy load, heavy table, etc)

But

When combined with the lexical group of words denoting natural phenomena
such as wind, storm, snow, etc., it means ‘striking, falling with force, abundant’
as in heavy rain, wind, snow, storm, etc.

In combination with the words industry, arms, artillery and the like, heavy has
the meaning ‘the larger kind of something’ as in heavy industry, heavy
artillery, etc.
Grammatical Context

It is often the grammatical (mainly the syntactic) structure of the context that
serves to determine various individual meanings of a polysemantic word.

Make meaning ‘to force’ is found only in the structure to make somebody do
something, as in to make sb laugh, go, work, etc).

Make meaning ‘to become’, ‘to turn out to be’ is observed in the contexts of a
different structure, i.e. make followed by an adjective and a noun, as in to
make a good wife, a good teacher, etc).
Homonymy
Homographsare spelled the same but have different meanings. They may be pronounced the same
(homonyms), or they may be pronounced differently (heterophones)

Homonyms (same sound & spelling)

pen ’a holding area for animals’ vs pen ’a writing instrument’
river bank vs savings bank
seal ’aquatic animal’ vs seal ’device used for authentication’
file ’tool’ vs file ’databank’

Heterophones (same spelling but different sound)

address vs address
record vs record
Polish vs polish
wind vs wind
Homophony

 Homophony (homophones) (same sound but different spelling)

right vs write
lead vs led
too vs two
fair vs fare
fin vs Finn
grate vs great
hi vs high
clause vs claws
pair vs pear