POLYSEMY 1 The notion of polysemy and its

POLYSEMY 1. The notion of polysemy and its causes. 2. Types of meaning of a polysemantic word. 3. Polysemy and homonymy.

Recommended literature: • Антрушина, Г. Б. , Афанасьева, О. В. , Морозова, Н. Н. Лексикология английского языка: Учеб. пособие для студентов. – 3 -е изд. , стереотип. – M. : Дрофа, 2001. - С. • Arnold I. V. The English word. – M. : Высш. школа, 1986. – С. • Харитончик З. А. Лексикология английского языка: Учеб. пособие. –Мн. : Выш. шк. , 1992. – С. 223 -226. • Дубенец Э. М. Лексикология современного английского языка: лекции и семинары. Пособие для студентов гуманитарных вузов. – М. : «Глосса. Пресс» , 2002. – С.

1. WORD MEANING • The relation of • the type ‘one word – one meaning’ is called monosemy. The relation ‘one word – numerous meanings’ is called polysemy.

Polysemy is a product of human associations • Functional: hand –a part of a body with which the work is done -> a helper, worker in the house; • Qualitative : brilliant eyes – shining, beautiful; • Positional: foot of the mountain; etc.

THE SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF A WORD • All meanings of a polysemantic word are related in the minds of speakers and these separate but semantically related meanings are called lexico-semantic variants of a word • According to A. I. Smirnitsky LSV is the smallest, elementary bilateral (having form and meaning) lexical unit. • The totality of LSV creates a semantic structure of a word.

CAUSES OF POLYSEMY • Non-linguistic causes of semantic • development are connected with the development of human mind as it moulds reality to conform to its needs Linguistic causes are due to the constant interdependence of vocabulary units in language and speech

Semantic change: Differentiation of synonyms • is a gradual change observed in the course of language history sometimes involving the semantic assimilation of loan words • E. g. in O. E. land – 1. ‘solid part of earth’s surface’, 2. ‘territory of a nation’ • in Mid. E. ‘country’ was borrowed with the meaning ‘territory of a nation’ • the word ‘land’ lost its 2 nd meaning which was expressed by ‘country’ only.

Ellipsis • is a case of omission of a qualifying word in a frequent phrase when the head word stands for the whole phrase: • E. g. ‘sale’ < ‘cut-price sale’, ‘propose’ < ‘to propose marriage’, ‘to be expecting’ < ‘to be expecting a baby’.

Widening /generalization of meaning • implies the idea that the scope of a new notion is wide than of the original one • E. g. target – OE ‘round shield’, => Mod. E. ‘anything that is fired at, the aim’; ready – OE ‘ready for a ride’ => Mod E. ‘prepared for anything’

Specialization /Narrowing of meaning • the restriction of the range of referents denoted by the word • E. g. , meat –O. E. ‘any food’, Mod. E. ‘kind of food’; hound – O. E. ‘any dog’, Mod. E. ‘a dog for hunting’; fowl – OE ‘any bird’, Mod. E. ‘domestic bird’; write < OE writan ‘to scratch’

Transference • Metaphoric - based on the relations of similarity: a foot of the mountain, a branch of knowledge; Metonymic – based on the relations of contiguity: the foot/head of a bed, the school is on holydays;

Processes connected with the social evaluation of a word • Amelioration -is a process connected with the social evaluation of a word when a meaning once perceived as bad, unpleasant comes to denote something positive due to its referent’s coming up the social scale: • E. g. O. E. cwen ‘a woman’ > Mod. E. queen ‘a monarch’; O. E. cniht ‘a young servant’ > Knight ‘a noble man’

• Pejoration or Degradation of meaning involves lowering on a social scale connected with the appearance of a derogatory and scornful emotive tone reflecting the disdain: e. g. vulgar - ‘ordinary, popular’ (vulgar Latin) – Mod. E. ‘abusive’; knave – O. E. cnafa ‘a boy, servant’ – Mod. E. ‘rascal’(жулик, мошенник, плут).

2. Types of lexical meaning of a polysemantic word • From the diachronic point of view the meaning which was the 1 st to appear is known as primary, all other meanings which appeared later are secondary or derived: e. g. ‘revolution’- 1. ‘act of revolving, motion on orbit’- primary; 2. ‘complete change’ - secondary. • From the synchronic point of view polysemy is understood as the coexistence of the different meanings in the semantic structure of a word at a certain period of language development

Syncronically • there are meanings which are perceived in isolation as representative of a word, such meanings • are called main, or central/ basic/direct nominative, those meanings which need context are minor or secondary/figurative. E. g. head – 1. ‘part of a body’ – direct; 2. ‘top of a page’ – figurative, metaphoric; 3. ‘intellect, ’ – figurative, metonymic.

• If the approach is diachronic the meanings are arranged chronologically beginning with the primary one. • If the approach is synchronic the main factor arranging the meanings is frequency of use: the main meaning has the highest frequency as it serves as the representative of a word: e. g. ‘hand’ meaning ‘part of a body’ occurs in 77% of uses in speech and texts.

The types of meanings may be structured depending on the difference between them: • extended – narrow; general – particular, • collective – individual; countable –uncountable; • abstract – concrete, e. g. , youth – 1. ‘the state/time of being young’ – abstract, uncountable; 2. ‘young man’ – concrete, individual, countable; 3. ‘young men and women’ – collective, uncountable;

3. Polysemy and homonymy • Homonyms ( Gr. Homos ‘similar’, onoma ‘name’) are words which are identical in sound and spelling, or, at least, in one of the aspects, but different in their meaning.

Causes of homonymy • 1) homonymy due to • phonetic changes, namely, convergent sound development, when 2 or 3 words of different origin accidentally coincide in sound; 2) homonymy developed from polysemy through divergent sense development.

Homonymy due to phonetic changes • 1. E. g. , In O. E. the words zesund and sund ‘were separate words both in form and meaning. In the course of time they have changed their meaning and phonetic form and accidentally coincided: O. E. sund ‘swimming’ > Mod. E. sound ‘strait’, O. E. zesund ‘healthy’ > Mod. E. sound ‘healthy’. • 2. phonetic changes combined with loss of affixes: O. E. lufu love n, v O. E. lufian

Homonymy developed from polysemy: • The phenomenon is known as disintegration or split of polysemy. • Board – a long and thin piece of timber, • Board – daily meals (‘room and board’), • Board – an official group of persons who direct or supervise some activity (‘a board of directors’)

Split polysemy: ‘Board’ [A piece of • 1. [A long, ] 2. [Meals thin piece of furniture (seldom used; provided for timber ] ousted by the pay] French borrowing table) - 3. [An official group of people