Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
polisemy and homonimy
English answer:
Polysemy and Homonymy
Added to glossary by
Patricia Baldwin
Nov 3, 2003 18:23
20 yrs ago
English term
Mariano
polisemy and homonimy
English
Art/Literary
Linguistics
Linguistics / Language
Please explain these technical terms with examples if possible...
Responses
+4
5 mins
Patricia Baldwin
United States
United States
Native in English
&
English
United States
The power of your words
Native in: English 
, Spanish
Works in: Spanish to English, English to Spanish, Spanish, and 2 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
8
Selected
Polysemy and Homonymy
as your context seems literary...methinks this is what you are looking for ...
may I don my grammarian and linguist hat to help you ?
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-11-03 18:30:15 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Polysemy
where a word as a related number of meanings
i.e.:
mouth
1. pat of a river
2. entrance of a cave
3. part of the body
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-11-03 18:31:53 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Homonymy
Where similarity of pronunciation or spelling is accidental
(etimology supports this idea)
i.e.:
bank
1. he ground beside a iver
2. a financial instituion
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-11-03 18:32:25 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
2. a financial instiution
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-11-03 18:34:51 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
NOTE:
While in principle the difference between Homonymy and Polysemy is clear, in practice it can be very difficult to draw the distinction.
Lots of luck in your linguistic ventures,
Patricia.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-11-03 18:38:21 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Polysemy
Where a word has a related number of meanings
i.e.
love : (tennis term)
love¨: in life (that of man for woman, woman for man, for children, animals, and so on so forth)
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-11-04 01:09:31 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
I apologize asker for my horrible typos, I meant:
homonymy e.g.: \"bank\", the ground beside a river
polysemy: e.g.: \"mouth\", part of a river.
Greetings from Buenos Aires, Argentina,
Patricia.
may I don my grammarian and linguist hat to help you ?
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-11-03 18:30:15 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Polysemy
where a word as a related number of meanings
i.e.:
mouth
1. pat of a river
2. entrance of a cave
3. part of the body
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-11-03 18:31:53 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Homonymy
Where similarity of pronunciation or spelling is accidental
(etimology supports this idea)
i.e.:
bank
1. he ground beside a iver
2. a financial instituion
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-11-03 18:32:25 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
2. a financial instiution
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-11-03 18:34:51 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
NOTE:
While in principle the difference between Homonymy and Polysemy is clear, in practice it can be very difficult to draw the distinction.
Lots of luck in your linguistic ventures,
Patricia.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-11-03 18:38:21 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Polysemy
Where a word has a related number of meanings
i.e.
love : (tennis term)
love¨: in life (that of man for woman, woman for man, for children, animals, and so on so forth)
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-11-04 01:09:31 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
I apologize asker for my horrible typos, I meant:
homonymy e.g.: \"bank\", the ground beside a river
polysemy: e.g.: \"mouth\", part of a river.
Greetings from Buenos Aires, Argentina,
Patricia.
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Graded automatically based on peer agreement."
+1
5 mins
homonymy and polysemy
"Homonymy and polysemy are two well-known semantic problems. Bank in river bank and Bank of England are homonymous: they share no meaning whatsoever; they function as two totally unrelated words. River bed and hospital bed seem to be somehow semantically linked: it is a case of polysemy."
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 8 mins (2003-11-03 18:31:19 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Polysemy refers to cases where a lexeme (word) has more than one meaning. For example a chip can refer to a piece of wood, food, or electronic circuit: we say that the word \"chip\" has several different meanings in English, which are all related (\"action\" or \"paper\" are other examples of polysemous words).
Homonymy refers to cases where two (or more) different words have the same sounds. For example the word \"bank\" can mean a financial institution or an area of ground: these are two different words in English). Homonymous words can be either homophones = same sounds, but different spellings (ex.: I/eye; bear/bare) or homographs = same sounds and same spelling (ex bank/bank; file/file)
http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~rmorel/semant2.htm
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 8 mins (2003-11-03 18:31:19 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Polysemy refers to cases where a lexeme (word) has more than one meaning. For example a chip can refer to a piece of wood, food, or electronic circuit: we say that the word \"chip\" has several different meanings in English, which are all related (\"action\" or \"paper\" are other examples of polysemous words).
Homonymy refers to cases where two (or more) different words have the same sounds. For example the word \"bank\" can mean a financial institution or an area of ground: these are two different words in English). Homonymous words can be either homophones = same sounds, but different spellings (ex.: I/eye; bear/bare) or homographs = same sounds and same spelling (ex bank/bank; file/file)
http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~rmorel/semant2.htm
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Anglo-German (X)
5 hrs
|
20 mins
Francesca Siotto
Italy
Italy
Italy
Painstaking research and creativity
Native in: Italian
Works in: English to Italian, French to Italian, Spanish to Italian, and 1 more.
see explanation
Ciao Mariano, scusa se ti rispondo in Italiano ma sicuramente riuscirei a esprimermi meglio
polisemia e omonimia sono due fenomeni semantici strettamente connessi, che riguardano in generale il rapporto tra i significati al di là di ogni parola.
Si definisce polisemico un lessema (la comune parola) che ha UN SOLO SIGNIFICANTE, OSSIA UNA SOLA FORMA GRAFICA, MA PIù di un significato, esempi:
riso = manifestazione di ilarità; alimento comune in oriente;
pesca = frutto; atto di pescare
Si definisce omonimia la relazione tra due parole con LO STESSO SIGNIFICANTE GRAFICO, MA SIGNIFICATO DIVERSO
tasse= femmine del tasso; imposte
lira: tipo di moneta; strumento
ci sono anche altre relazioni tra parole, quali l'antonimia, la sinonimia, ecc.
spero ti aiuti a capire
polisemia e omonimia sono due fenomeni semantici strettamente connessi, che riguardano in generale il rapporto tra i significati al di là di ogni parola.
Si definisce polisemico un lessema (la comune parola) che ha UN SOLO SIGNIFICANTE, OSSIA UNA SOLA FORMA GRAFICA, MA PIù di un significato, esempi:
riso = manifestazione di ilarità; alimento comune in oriente;
pesca = frutto; atto di pescare
Si definisce omonimia la relazione tra due parole con LO STESSO SIGNIFICANTE GRAFICO, MA SIGNIFICATO DIVERSO
tasse= femmine del tasso; imposte
lira: tipo di moneta; strumento
ci sono anche altre relazioni tra parole, quali l'antonimia, la sinonimia, ecc.
spero ti aiuti a capire
10 hrs
chica nueva
Native in English
&
English
Works in field
http://youtube/iraVWQu3Zf8
Native in: English (Variants: British, New Zealand)
Works in: Chinese to English
Related KudoZ points
:
4
a word with closely-related meanings; words which look and sound the same with different meanings
Definitions and examples from Richards, Platt&Platt, Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics:
"polysemy
(of a word) having two or more closely related meanings, eg foot in:
He hurt his foot
She stood at the foot of the stairs
The foot is the lowest part of the stairs just as the foot is the lowest part of the human body.
A well-known problem in semantics is to decide whether we are dealing with a single polysemous word (like foot) or with two or more homonyms."
"homonyms, homonymy
words which are written in the same way and sound alike but which have different meanings.
For example, the English verbs lie in You have to lie down, and lie in Don't lie, tell the truth!
It is a well-known problem in semantics to tell the difference between homonymy (several words with the same form and different meanings) and polysemy (a single word with more than one meaning)"
(Apart from this, I have heard of 'polysemy' in relation to literary criticism and the thought of Bakhtin...)
"polysemy
(of a word) having two or more closely related meanings, eg foot in:
He hurt his foot
She stood at the foot of the stairs
The foot is the lowest part of the stairs just as the foot is the lowest part of the human body.
A well-known problem in semantics is to decide whether we are dealing with a single polysemous word (like foot) or with two or more homonyms."
"homonyms, homonymy
words which are written in the same way and sound alike but which have different meanings.
For example, the English verbs lie in You have to lie down, and lie in Don't lie, tell the truth!
It is a well-known problem in semantics to tell the difference between homonymy (several words with the same form and different meanings) and polysemy (a single word with more than one meaning)"
(Apart from this, I have heard of 'polysemy' in relation to literary criticism and the thought of Bakhtin...)
Reference:
Richards, Platt&Platt, Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, 1996
Something went wrong...