Transcript Morphology

English Lexicology
Polysemy and Homonymy
Week 9
Instructor: Liu Hongyong
Polysemy and homonymy
Polysemy refers to the phenomenon that a word has more
than one meaning.
face: the front of the head
a surface of a thing
a person's countenance

a person
 Homonymy refers to the phenomenon that two or more
words have the same form, but have different meanings.
lie: make an untrue statement.
lie: put oneself in a resting position.
Polysemous



When a word is first coined, it is always the case
(true) that it has only one meaning (monosemic).
But in the course of development, the same
symbol may be used to express new meanings.
The result is polysemy.
Polysemy shows the economy and efficiency of
human languages. If it is impossible for one word
to possess several senses, one would have to learn
a large number of words to express ideas.
Two approaches to polysemy
Diachronic
approach (历时）
How does a word acquire
new meanings? In What
way are the meanings
related to each other?
Synchronic
approach（共时）
Diachronic approach




At the time when the word was created, it was
endowed with only one meaning.
This first meaning is the primary meaning.
With the development of the language, more and
more meanings become associated with the word.
These later meanings are called derived meaning,
as they are derived from the primary meaning.
Example: face
a person
(Derived
Meaning)
We can get the derived
meanings by extension,
narrowing, analogy,
transfer, etc.
self-respect
outward
appearance
(Derived
Meaning)
the front of
the head
(Derived
Meaning)
(Primary
Meaning)
countenance
(Derived
Meaning)
the surface of
a thing
(Derived
Meaning)
Diachronic approach

There are also instances in which the primary
meaning gave birth to new meanings, and then the
primary meaning disappeared.
suffering
painpenalty
disease
(derived
meaning)
(primary meaning)
(derived
meaning)
Synchronic approach


The development
of the meaning
of “gay”
Synchronically, polysemy is viewed as(1)
theJoyous, merry,
coexistence of several meanings of the same
word
happy
in a particular period of time, say, Modern
English.
(2) Bright,
brilliant of a
The basic (most frequently occurring) meaning
word is called the central meaning. The(3)other
Given to social
life and
meanings are secondary meaning.
pleasure
gayhomosexual
gay happy
(central meaning)
(secondary
meaning)
(4) Wanton,
licentious
(5) homosexual



Synchronically, we are interested in the interrelation
between the central meaning and the secondary
meaning.
In most cases, the primary meaning (diachronically)
and the central meaning (synchronically) coincide.
However, sometimes a derived meaning can become
the central meaning.
prevent
Diachronic
synchronic
to anticipate
primary meaning
secondary meaning
to keep something
from happening
derived meaning
central meaning
Two processes leading to polysemy

There are two important processes in the
development of meaning:


Radiation (发散)
Concatenation(串联)
Radiation


Radiation is a process in which the primary
meaning stands in the center, and the derived
meanings radiate from it in every direction like
rays.
All the derived meanings can be traced back to
the primary meaning.
7
6
2
1
5
3
4
Concatenation


Concatenation is a process in which the meaning of a
word moves gradually from its primary meaning by
successive shifts, like the links of a chain, until there is no
connection between the meaning that is finally developed
and the primary meaning.
Unlike radiation where each of the derived meaning is
directly related to the primary meaning, concatenation is a
process where each of the later meaning is related only to
the preceding one.
1
2
3
4
5
6
Example: candidate
A
A+B
B
a person dressed in white
a white robed applicant for office
(because the Romans wore white
bridging
robes when standing for office)
context
a person taking an examination
There is no connection between A and B, because the middle link (A+B) has vanished.
The primary meaning A has also vanished. Now the derived meaning has become the
central meaning.
Homonymy (同形/同音不同义）


In English, there are many pairs or groups of
words, which have different meanings, but have
the same spelling or the same pronunciation.
Such words are called homonyms.
tear: n.
tear: vt.
Types of homonymy

Perfect homonyms; Homographs; Homophones
Perfect homonyms: words identical in both sound
and spelling, but different in meaning
lie: vi.
bear: n.
lie: vi.
bear: vt.

bank: n.
bank: n.
Types of homonymy

Homographs: words identical only in spelling but
different in sound and meaning.
bow: vi. to bend one’s head as a greeting
bow: n. the device used for shooting arrows
sow: n. female pig
sow: vi. to scatter seeds
perfect: v. /- ’-/
perfect: adj. /’- -/
Types of homonymy

Homophones: words identical only in sound but
different in spelling and meaning.
son
sun
deer
dear
pair
pear
stationary
stationery
right
write
Differentiation of perfect homonyms
from polysemous words


Both perfect homonyms and polysemous words
have this property: the same form (spelling and
pronunciation), but different meanings.
How can we differentiate them?
having different
sources
perfect homonyms
developed from the
same source
polysemous words
the same lexeme
which has several
different meanings
different lexemes
which have the
same form
The use of polysemy and homonymy

One of the most common writing techniques is “punning”,
using puns to achieve certain literary effect, such as humor,
irony, etc. Polysemous words and homonyms are often
used as puns.

Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland
“how is bread made?”
“I know that!” Alice cried eagerly. “You take some flour-.”
“Where do you pick the flower?” the White Queen asked. “In a garden, or in
the hedges?”
“Well, it isn’t picked at all,” Alice explained: “it’s ground-.”
“How many acres of ground?” said the White Queen.