the word (part 2)

8/18/2019 The Word (part 2)

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The Word


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• POLYSEMY

• HOMONYMY• MULTIWORD LEXEMES


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Polysemy

DEFINITION: It refers to the situation where the same

word has two or more dierent meanings.

ORIGIN: Greek- poly, ‘many’ + semeon, ‘sign’.


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E!"#$E

table

1. a pie%e of furniture

&. the persons seated at a ta'le

(. the food put on a ta'le, meals) %ooking*. a at sla' of stone or 'oard

. sla's of stone with words written on them or %ut intothem

/. Bibl. 0ords %ut into sla's of stone the ten ta'les.

1. an orderly arrangement of fa%ts, 2gures, et%.

3. part of a ma%hine-tool

4. a le5el area, plateau 67pl8t9*


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POLYSEMY

NATURE: In most %ases, only one of the meanings of

a polysemous word will 2t into the gi5en %onte;t

8. $ook at that bat under the tree.

&. ?usan may go to the bank today.


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Problems with the conceptof polysemy

@A"#$E B!>=CE:

>he num'er of

meanings

>ransferen%e of

meanings

Di%ulty in re%ogniFing


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>he num'er of meaning

o It’s di%ult to determine how many meanings a polysemous

word has

o >here is no %lear %riterion for either dieren%e or sameness of

meaning

E!"#$E: ‘eat’

Literal sense- ‘taking in through the mouth and swallowing’

eating nuts 2ngers) eating soup spoon@orresponds to ‘ drink’ ‘eat’ or ‘drink’ soup

Deried !ense- "use up, damage, or destroy something,

espe%ially 'y %hemi%al a%tion’

>he 5er' has a dierent meaning for e5ery type of food


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>ransferen%e of "eaning

DEFINITION: refers to the %ases where a word

appears to ha5e 'oth a ‘literal’ and ‘transferred’

meaning

NATURE- it is ‘irregular’, 'e%ause it applies to

indi5idual le;i%al items

Metaphor


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Literal !ense: eye, fa%e, foot, hand, leg, tongue- #!C>?

AH >E he whole set of the words applies only to the 'ody,

while only some of them %an 'e transferred to %ertain

o'Ke%ts


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@omparison of the use of the same metaphor a%ross

languages

>he se%ond type of transferen%e is fairly produ%ti5e

'e%ause it in5ol5es the transfer of meaning in a

predi%ta'le manner

E!"#$E:

Literal sense- ‘Lohn is sad’- e feels sadness

Trans#erred sense- ‘the 2lm is sad’- it %auses

someone to feel sad


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Di%ulty in re%ogniFing polysem

8. Celationship 'etween polysemy one word with

se5eral meanings and homonymy se5eral words

with the same shape- spelling andMor

pronun%iation

PRO$LE%: to de%ide when we ha5e polysemy and

when we ha5e homonymy


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omonymy

DEFINITION: it refers to a situation, where we ha5e

two or more words with the same shape.

NATURE: they are distin%t le;emes- they ha5e

unrelated meanings and dierent etymologies

Lead metal and lead dog’s lead- A"AGC!#

same spelling

Ri&ht' rite and (rite- A"A#ABE same sound


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omonymy @lashes

PO!!I$ILIT) : two homonyms with totally dierent

meanings may 'oth make sense in the utteran%e:

>he ro*te was 5ery long

>he root was 5ery long

elen did not see the bat animal

elen did not see the bat wooden

implementation

DIFFEREN+E: word %lass, spelling, o5erall %ontent


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omonymy @lashes

DIFFI+ULT): there is no %lear-%ut di5iding line

'etween homonymy and polysemy


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"ulti-word $e;emes

DEFINITION: a le;eme or le;i%al item is a ‘unit of

le;i%al meaning, whi%h e;ists regardless of any

ine%tional endings it may ha5e or the num'er of

words it may %ontain’

$e;eme is the headword in a di%tionary @rystal

Ane word- break, boy, down

"ore than one word: away from, brother-in-law


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"ulti-word Ner's

DEFINITION: the main 5er' and one or twoparti%les %an 'e analysed as %onstituents of a singleunit

Pre,ositional erbs: are followed 'y an o'Ke%t,

i.e. are all transiti5e) e.g. call for Lohn, look at

him

Nat*re: the o'Ke%t %an not o%%ur 'etween the

parti%le and the main 5er') e.g. %all Lohn for, $ook


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"ulti-word Ner's

Phrasal erbs: may 'e followed 'y an o'Ke%t, i.e.

transiti5e bring up, look up or intransiti5e give in,

sit down

Phrasal-,re,ositional erbs: %onstitute a 'ridge

%lass 'etween phrasal and prepositional 5er's. Nat*re: all transiti5e) ha5e two parti%les

e.g. check up on (my friend), get away with (that),

stand up for (your rights)


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oms

DEFINITION: a type of %ollo%ation in5ol5ing two or morewords in %onte;t

NATURE: multiword le;eme- %an not 'e predi%ted from

the meanings of its %onstituentT)PE!: partial idioms- some words ha5e their usual

meaning

e.g. ‘to make 'ed’- to make is not used in the usualsense of ‘to manufa%ture’

‘white %oee’- is 'rown in %olour

‘white wine ‘ is yellow in %olour


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oms

+ARA+TERI!TI+!: 8. !m'iguity and &. synta%ti%

pe%uliarities

Ambi&*ity- most idioms are %onstru%ted from

morphemes that are also used non-idiomati%ally

"$eat a dead horse.

Literal meanin&- the pro%ess of striking the %ar%ass of

an animal

Idiomati/ meanin&- wasting time dis%ussing a matter

that has already 'een %losed


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oms


pe%uliarities

synta/ti/ ,e/*liarity- ha5e spe%ial synta%ti%

property

"0ohn 1i/1ed the b*/1et.

Literal sense- passi5e 5ariant: ‘ the 'u%ket was ki%ked

'y Lohn’

Idiomati/ e2,ression- "1i/1ed the b*/1et. means

‘died’, the e;pression does not allow the use of the

%orresponding passi5e alternati5es


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oms


pe%uliarities

synta/ti/ ,e/*liarity- ha5e spe%ial synta%ti%

property

• Bo synonym %an repla%e a word in an idiomati%

e;pression

• Bone of the words in an idiomati% e;pression may 'e

the word (part 2)

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