Transcript Document
POLYSEMY
Lecture 5
POLYSEMY
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2.
3.
4.
5.
POLYSEMY DIACHRONIC APPROACH TO POLYSEMY SYNCHRONIC APPROACH TO POLYSEMY HISTORICAL CHANGEABILITY OF SEMANTIC STRUCTURE POLYSEMY AND CONTEXT. TYPES OF CONTEXT.
1. POLYSEMY
Polysemy
– is the ability of a word to possess several meanings or lexico semantic variants (LSV), e.g.
bright
means “shining” and “intelligent”.
Monosemantic
word - a word having only one meaning;
Polysemantic
word - a word having several meanings is called
The meanings of the word
table
in Modern English.
table
1
.
a piece of furniture 2. the persons seated at a table 3. the food put on a table, meals; cooking 4. a flat slab of stone or board 5. slabs of stone (with words written on them or cut into them) 6.
Bibl.
Words cut into slabs of stone (the ten tables).
7. an orderly arrangement of facts, figures, etc.
8. part of a machine-tool 9. a level area, plateau ['pl1tq4]
стол
1. предмет обстановки (сидеть за столом) 2.
Ср. арх.
застолица 3. пища (подаваемая на стол), еда 4.
Ср.
плита 5.
Ср.
скрижали 6.
Ср.
заповеди 7.
Ср.
таблица 8.
Ср.
планшайба 9.
Ср.
плато 10. Адресный стол 11. Стол заказов
Prof. V.V. Vinogradov
Meanings
are fixed and common to all people, who know the language system.
The
usage
is only possible application of one of the meanings of a polysemantic word, sometimes very individual, more or less familiar. Meaning is not identical with usage.
Prof. A.I. Smirnitsky
All the meanings of the word form identity supported by the form of the word.
A lexico-semantic variant (LSV) - a two facet unit.
Words with one meaning are represented in the language system by one LSV, polysemantic words – by a number of LSV. They are united together by a certain meaning – the semantic centre of the word.
2. DIACHRONIC APPROACH TO POLYSEMY
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2.
Polysemy in diachronic term implies that a word may retain its previous meaning or meanings and at the same time acquire one or several new ones.
According to the approach there are two types of meaning can be singled out:
the primary meaning; the secondary meaning (derived)
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2.
3. SYNCHRONIC APPROACH TO POLYSEMY Synchronically
polysemy is understood as the coexistence of various meanings of the same word at a certain historical period of the development of the English language.
According to the approach there are two types of meaning can be singled out:
the central (basic) meaning
frequent; – the most
marginal (minor) meanings
meanings. – all other
4. HISTORICAL CHANGEABILITY OF SEMANTIC STRUCTURE
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. The primary meaning of the word may become synchronically one of its marginal meanings and diachronically a secondary meaning may become the central meaning of the word.
Evidence ‘significant appearance, token’ ‘information tending to establish fact’
Middle English
diachronically synchronically
Modern English
diachronically synchronically
primary central primary marginal secondary marginal secondary central
5. POLYSEMY AND CONTEXT
Context
is the minimum stretch of speech determining each individual meaning of the word. Context can be linguistic (verbal) or extra-linguistic (non-verbal). Linguistic context can be subdivided into lexical and grammatical.
TYPES OF CONTEXT
Linguistic contexts:
In the
lexical context
of primary importance are the groups of lexical items combined with the polysemantic word under consideration, e.g.
heave table
(of great weigh);
heavy rain (
abundant, falling with force
); heavy industry (
the larger kind of smth).
In the
grammatical context
it is the grammatical (syntactic) structure of the context that serves to determine various individual meanings of a polysemantic word. The meaning of the verb
to make
– ‘to force, to induce’ is found only in the grammatical context possessing the syntactic structure ‘to make+pronoun+verb (
to make sb laugh, work, dance
). Another meaning of this verb syntactic structure – – ‘to become’ is observed in the context of a different to make+adj+noun (
to make a good wife, good teacher
).
Extra-linguistic context
When the meaning of a word is ultimately determined by the actual speech situation in which the word is used, i.e. by
the extra-
linguistic context (
or
context of situation
), e.g.
John was looking for the glasses ,
the meaning of word
glasses
has two readings ‘spectacles’ or to ‘drinking vessels’ .
It is possible to state the meaning of the word
glasses
only through the extended context or situation
References:
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Зыкова И.В. Практический курс английской лексикологии. М.: Академия, 2006. – С.29 32. Бабич Н.Г. Лексикология английского языка. Екатеринбург – Москва, 2006. – С. 62-63.
Гинзбург Р.З. Лексикология английского языка. М.: Высшая школа, 1979. – С. 33-38.
Антрушина Г.Б., Афанасьева О.В., Морозова Н.Н. Лексикология английского языка. М.: Дрофа, 2006. – С. – 131-136.