24. Polysemy. Semantic structure of English words. Diachronic and synchronic approaches to polysemy.

Polysemy (Gr. πολυσημεία ‘multiple meaning’) is the ability of words to have more than one meaning.

Polysemy is typical of the English vocabulary due to:

its monosyllabic character;

the predominance of root words.

A monosemantic word is a word having only one meaning; these are mostly terms, e.g.: hydrogen, molecule.

A polysemantic word is a word having more than one meaning; highly polysemous words can include dozens of meanings, e.g. to go – appr. 40 meanings), to get, to put, to take – appr. 30 meanings).

A lexeme is the totality of all the forms and meanings of a word; a structural item of the vocabulary.A lexico-semantic variant is one of the individual meanings of a polysemantic word.

The semantic structure of a word is an organised system comprising all meanings and shades of meanings that a particular sound complex can assume in different contexts together with emotional, stylistic and other connotations.

Polysemy in diachronic terms implies that a word may retain its previous meaning and at the same time acquire one or several new ones. The main question of diachronic approach is which meaning came first, e.g. table, n. ‘a flat slab of stone or wood’ (primary meaning); ‘a piece of furniture’, ‘the food put on the table’, ‘people seated at a table’ (secondary meanings).

Synchronically polysemy is understood as co-existence of various meanings of the same word at a certain historical period and the arrangement of these meanings in the semantic structure of a word. Synchronic typology of meaning is concerned with the opposition of main and derived meanings.

25.Homonyms. Classifications and sources of homonyms.

Homonymy (Gr. homos ‘same’ + onyma, dial. form of onoma ‘name’) is the sameness of form combined with the difference in meaning.

Homonyms are two or more words identical in sound-form or / and spelling but different in meaning and distribution, e.g. hole, n – whole, adj; need, n – knead, v; polish, n – Polish, adj, etc.

Oxford English Dictionary registers 2540 homonyms, of which 89% are monosyllabic words and 9,1% are disyllabic.

From the viewpoint of their origin homonyms are classified into:

historical homonyms which result from the breaking up of polysemy; then one polysemantic word will split up into two or more separate words (see the examples on the divergence of word meanings);

etymological homonyms, i.e. words of different origin which come to be identical in sound or / and in spelling (see the examples on the convergent sound development).

From the point of view of the correlation between the sound form and the graphic forms, homonyms are classified into:

homonyms proper (perfect, absolute, full) are words identical both in pronunciation and in spelling but different in meaning, e.g. back n. ‘part of the body’ - back adv. ‘away from the front’ - back v. ‘go back’; bear n. ‘animal’ - bear v. ‘carry, tolerate’;

homographs are words identical in spelling but different in sound and meaning e.g. bow /bəu/ - bow /bau/; lead /li:d/ - lead /led/;

homophones are words identical in sound but different in spelling and meaning: son – sun; pair – pear; air - heir, buy - by, him - hymn, steel – steal; storey – story;

homoforms are words identical in some of their grammatical forms: bound, v. ‘to jump, to spring’ - bound (past participle of bind); found, v. ‘establish’ - found (past participle of find);

capitonyms are words that share the same spelling but have different meanings when capitalised, e.g. polish, v. ‘to make shiny’ - Polish, adj. ‘coming from Poland’; Boxing Day (26th of December) – boxing ‘ a kind of sport’.

The classification based on the distinction between homonymy of words and homonymy of individual word-forms (suggested by Prof. Smirnitskiy).

Full homonyms are two or more words which belong to the same part of speech and coincide in all their forms, i.e. their paradigms are identical, e.g.

blow, v. ‘to send out a strong current of air’ - blow, v. ‘to produce flowers’; mole, n. ‘a small, furry, almost blind animal that digs holes and passages underground to live in’ – mole, n. ‘a small, dark brown, slightly raised mark on a person’s skin’;

Partial homonyms are words found within different (rarely the same) parts of speech which coincide only in some of their forms, i.e. their paradigms are not identical. e.g.:

seal, n. (seals) ‘a semi-aquatic marine mammal’ – seal, v. (sealed, sealing) ‘to close tightly’; lie, v. (lies – lying – lay – lain) ‘to be in a horizontal or resting position’ – lie, v. (lies – lying – lied – lied) ‘to make an untrue statement’;

According to the type of meaning, homonyms are classified into:

lexical homonyms, if they belong to the same part of speech but differ in lexical meaning, e.g.:

bank, n. ‘land along the side of a river’ – bank, n. ‘an establishment for keeping money, valuables, etc.’;

lexical-grammatical homonyms, if they belong to different parts of speech and differ both in their lexical and grammatical meanings, e.g.:

bear, n. – bear, v.; right, adj. – write, v.;

grammatical homonyms, i.e. homonymous word-forms of one and the same word differing in grammatical meaning, e.g. the homonymy of the plural, Possessive Case singular and plural: bears - bear's - bears'.