Polysemy
A polysemy is a word or phrase with different,
but related senses. Since the test for polysemy is the
vague concept of relatedness, judgments of polysemy can be difficult to make.
Because applying pre-existing words to new situations is a natural process of
language change, looking at words' etymology
is helpful in determining polysemy but not the only solution; as words become
lost in etymology, what once was a useful distinction of meaning may no longer
be so. Some apparently unrelated words share a common historical origin,
however, so etymology is not an infallible test for polysemy, and dictionary
writers also often defer to speakers' intuitions to judge polysemy in cases
where it contradicts etymology. English has many words which are polysemous.
For example, the verb "to get" can mean "procure" (I'll
get the drinks), "become" (she got scared),
"understand" (I get it) etc.
In vertical
polysemy a word refers to a member of a subcategory (e.g., 'dog' for 'male
dog'). A closely related idea is metonym,
in which a word with one original meaning is used to refer to something else
connected to it.
Polysemy is became from two
words, there are poly “many” and sema “sign”. Polysemy is a word or phrase with
multiple meanings. It has association of one word with two or more distinct
meanings. So, polysemy is the phenomenon of having or being open to several or
many meanings.
Examples
Man
1. The human species (i.e., man vs.
animal)
2. Males of the human species (i.e.,
man vs. woman)
3. Adult males of the human species
(i.e., man vs. boy)
This
example shows the specific polysemy where the same word is used at different
levels of a taxonomy. Example 1 contains 2, and 2 contains
3.
Mole
1. a small burrowing mammal
2. consequently, there are several
different entities called moles (see the Mole disambiguation page). Although these
refer to different things, their names derive from 1. :e.g. A Mole burrows for information hoping to go
undetected.
Bank
2. the building where a financial
institution offers services
3. a synonym
for 'rely upon' (e.g. "I'm your friend, you can bank on me").
It is different, but related, as it derives from the theme of security
initiated by 1.
However: a river bank is a homonym
to 1 and 2, as they do not share etymologies. It is a completely different
meaning.[15]
River bed, though, is polysemous with the beds on which people
sleep.
1. a bound collection of pages
2. a text reproduced and distributed
(thus, someone who has read the same text on a computer has read the same book
as someone who had the actual paper volume)
3. to make an action or event a matter
of record (e.g. "Unable to book a hotel room, a man sneaked into a nearby
private residence where police arrested him and later booked him for unlawful
entry.")
Newspaper
1. a company that publishes written
news.
2. a single physical item published by
the company.
3. the newspaper as an edited work in a
specific format (e.g. "They changed the layout of the newspaper's front
page").
The
different meanings can be combined in a single sentence, e.g. "John used
to work for the newspaper that you are reading."
Milk
The verb milk (e.g. "he's
milking it for all he can get") derives from the process of obtaining milk.
Wood
1. a piece of a tree
2. a geographical area with many trees
Crane
1. a bird
2. a type of construction equipment
3. to strain out one's neck
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