Polysemy and homonymy

When analyzing the word-meaning we observe that words as a rule are not units of a
single meaning. Monosemantic words are very few in number, and these are mainly
scientific terms. Most of the English words are polysemantic they possess more than
one meaning.
The progress of civilization makes it necessary to give names to new objects and
phenomena appearing almost every day. However, if we have to invent a new word for
everything, it will be practically impossible to remember all those words. Very often a
new word is expressed by an old word which acquires a new meaning or a new shade of
meaning. The result is that most of the words have more than one meaning (polysemy).
How do new meanings actually develop? Every object or phenomenon is in fact unity of
different elements or components interrelated in the form of some structure. This
complexity is reflected in human thought and expressed through language. Every notion
is a complex of the most typical characteristic features of an item. However, one may
view one and the same item from various aspects and consequently stress one feature or
another.
If polysemy is viewed diachronically, it is understood as the growth and the development
of or, in general, as a change in the semantic structure of the word. Polysemy in
diachronic terms implies that a word may retain its previous meaning or meanings and at
the same time acquire one or several new ones.
For example, the word table is a polysemantic word, but its primary meaning a flat slab
of stone or wood is still preserved as primary and all other meanings of the word are
secondary as they are derived from the primary meaning of the word and appeared later.
So, the main source of polysemy is a change in the semantic structure of the word.
Polysemy may also rise from homonymy. When two-words become identical in soundform, the meaning of the two words are felt as making up one semantic structure. Thus,
the human ear and the ear of the corn are from diachronic point of view two homonyms.
Etymologically they are related to different words. Synchronically, however, they are
perceived as two meanings of one and the same word. However, as 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.
Sources of polysemy
1) Shifts in application this is the main source of polysemy. If we take, for
example, the word green, its first dictionary meaning is denoting colour.
However, the word has acquired some additional connotations like unripe and
could consequently be used in the meaning of young. Another interesting
example is the verb to wear. One wears a dress and from long use it wears out.
Obviously here the word wear is used in two opposite meanings and it is only
the context that will provide information about the particular use.
2) Specialization this is when a word acquires additional meaning in terms. For
example the word hand. Its primary meaning is a part of the body, but it

acquired the meaning as a hand of a clock. The literal meaning of mouse is the
rodent; a derived meaning is the computer mouse.
3) Figurative expressions those are stable metaphors or can be created by authors.
Such example is the word mountains, with its primary meaning a raised part of
the Earth's surface. However, it can also be used in the phrase mountains of
luggage, where it is used figuratively. A bed is "a piece of furniture that you lie
on"1 (literal); it is something flat at the bottom of something else (a river bed) or a
place where something can be found in abundance (a shellfish bed, a bed of roses)
in a figurative way.
4) Borrowings For, example the first meaning of the word eventually is in the
end, but when it first came to language, its first meaning was actually
There are two models in the shift of meaning:
1) Radiation - we have radiation when all the connotations are on equal distance
from the core. For example, the word ball is the core and its meanings: a
globural body, ball of the eyes, a round mass do not derive from one another
but separately derived from the core meaning of ball.
2) Divergency this is in the case when one meaning develops from the basic one,
then it gives rise to yet another one, and so on. In this case there is a great
possibility for a particular connotations with the original basic notion of the word
and thus grow into a separate word. Therefore, such borderline cases between
polysemy and homonymy could only be analyzed from the point of view of
historical linguistics.
Plurality of meaning is widely used in fiction and poetry but it should definitely
be avoided in scientific and technological texts. Sometimes it could cause
misunderstanding, as in the famous joke when the maid came into the hotel room
and asked the guest Shall I strip (the table)?
Polysemy is lexical when words refer to objects which we think of as being somehow
related. Polysemy can also be grammatical. For example one of the meanings of the verb
to make is to force and is found only in the grammatical context with the following
structure: to make sb do sth (followed by a noun and the infinitive of some other verb).
Another meaning of the same verb is to become where it is followed by an adjective
and a noun.
In most cases, however, both types should be taken into consideration in order to
determine the meaning of a polysemantic word.
Homonymy It consists of the fact that homonyms are words that have one and the same
form but different meaning. Most of the words in English are monosyllabic. English has
borrowed all the time through its existence
Homonymy is somehow opposite to polysemy. Polysemy is inherent part while
homonymy is a matter of coincidence.
Classification:
1. Partial homonyms some of the forms of the word coincide
2. Complete/Full homonyms belong to one and the same part of speech
1

Lie(n) lie(v) lie(v)

Every new form can be homonymous with another form. Arms oryjie; spirits-alkohol
The cases of pluralia tantum are supposed to be known also as a particular homonymy.
Words belonging to different grammatical categories.
Conversion /word formation/ is a typical case of homonymy. It is marked by a zero
morpheme
a. stressed marked conversion
b. shift of the stress
love does not change in stress a perfect homonym
permit - noun-verb theres no change in the meaning
refuse the change of stress changes the meaning
Formal classification
- homophones coincide in sound but different in spelling
- homographs coincide in spelling and different in pronunciation.
- perfect homonyms identical both in spelling and in sound and different in
meaning
There is a matter of coincidence
1. historical reasons changes in phonological form throughout the historical
development of the language.(the great vowel shift)
2. borrowings rein (A-S) reign-borrowing
3. semantic reasons usually concern borrowings and shift in meaning on the basis
of metaphor ex: flour; flower
4. contraction shortening of long words
5. Dialecticism - mother-mummy
6. paradigmatic homonyms: lies, lies, lies