polysemy-and-homonymy

1SenserelationsWordsarearbitrarysymbolsandareindependentidentitiessofarastheirouterfacet-spellingandpronunciation,isconcerned.Butsemantically,allwordsarerelatedinonewayoranother.Awordwhichisrelatedtootherwordsisrelatedtotheminsense,hencesenserelations.WecanevensaythatthesensesofthewordareprominentonlywhentheyarerelatedinthesystemThesubjectsthathavelongheldtheinterestandattentionofsemanticistsarepolysemy,homonymy,synonymy,antonymyandhyponymyandtaxonomy.Thesewillbediscussedinthischapter.Moreover,thediscussionwillalsocoversemanticfield,whichiscommonlyfelttobeanintegralpartofsenserelations.ThemainsenserelationsinEnglishvocabularyareshownasfollows:polysemyOnSundaytheyprayforyou,butonMondaytheypreyonyou.HomonymyGivemeahandplease.Heisanewhand.Synonymyhecomesinpanting.Hesitsonachair,breathless.SenserelationHesaid:I’mpuffed.I’mpuffed.Antonymymyonlylovesprungfrommyonlyhate.HyponymyAfamilyusuallyincludesafather,motherandchild.TaxonomyXisatypeofY.I.Polysemy1.1definitonpolysenyisauniversalfeatureofallnaturallanguages.Itisatermusedinsemanticanalysistorefertoalexicalitemwhichhasarangeofdifferentmeanings.Theco-existenceofseveralmeaningsinawordiscalledpolysemy.Polysemycanbeusedtoachievehumor,irony,adramaticeffect.Englishlikeallotherlanguages,isfullofpolysemicwords.e.g.Theword“flight”maymean“passingthroughtheair”,“powerofflying”,“airofjourney”,hand:thatpartofhumanbodybeyondthewrist.But:givemeahand,please.(help)Heisanewhand.(aperformer)\Weneedsomeextrahands.(Workerman)Hewritesagoodhand.(Handwriting)Allhandsondeck!(sailor)Theclockhasonehandonly.(pointer)1.2Whywouldpolysemyappearineachlanguage?Thatisduetothegreatgeneralityandthechangeinwordmeaning.Whenwordsarefirstcoined,theyarealwaysmonosemic，butwithinthecourseofdevelopment,thesamewordmayhastwoormoredifferentmeanings.1.3Twoapproachestopolysemy:1）diachronicapproach（历时角度）:Itreferstothestudyofthegrowthorchangeinthesemanticstructureofaword,orhowthesemanticstructureofawordhasdevelopedfromaprimarymeaningtothepresentpolysemicstate,i.e.withderived(second)meaningsspringingfromtheoriginal(primary)meaning.Fromthediachronicpointofview,polysemyisassumedtobetheresultofgrowthanddevelopmentofthesemanticstructureofoneandsameword.Theprimarymeaninggavebirthtonewmeaning.Theprimarymeaningbecomeeitherabsoluteordisappearedaltogether2）synchronicapproach（共时角度）:Itreferstothecomparativevalueofindividualmeaningandtheinterrelationbetweenthecentralmeaningandsecondarymeanings.Synchronically,polysemyisviewedasthecoexistenceofvariousmeaningsofthesamewordinacertainhistoricalperiodoftime,say,ModernEnglish.Thebasicmeaningofawordisthecoreofwordmeaning.Thecoreofwordmeaningcalledthecentralmeaning（secondarymeaning）.Thecentralmeaninghasgraduallydiminishedincurrencywiththechangesandoneofthederivedmeaningshasbecomedominant.E.g.gay1.4twoprocessesofthedevelopmentThedevelopmentofword-meaningfrommonosemytopolysemyfollowstwocourses,traditionallyknownasradiationandconcatenation.21.4.1radiation（辐射型）:Face:Itscentralmeaningis(1)thefrontpartofthehead(drawapictureofradiation)itssecondarymeaningsare:(2)thefaceoftheclocklooksbetter.(3)Thenorthfaceofamountain(4)Thefaceofthecity(5)Hehasasmilingface.(6)Hehastriedhisbesttosavehisface.(7)Whichfaceshallweprintthecoverin?radiationistheprocessinwhichtheprimaryorcentralmeaningstandsatthecenterwhilesecondarymeaningradiatefromitineverydirectionlikerays.Takethewordpowerforexample;ithasthirteensenseslistedinCOD.Thesimplemeaning“abilitytodoact”standsatthecenter.Andallthesecondarymeaningsmighteasilyhavedevelopedfromthecentralmeaningwithoutregardtoanyoftheothers.Thewordneckaffordsanothergoodexample.Theprimarymeaningis(1)thatpartofmanoranimaljoiningtheheadtothebody;fromthisarederived(2)thatpartofthegarment;(3)theneckofananimalusedasfood,e.g.theneckoflamb;(4)anarrowpartbetweentheheadandbodyorbaseofanyobject,e.g.theneckofaviolin;(5)thenarrowestpartofanything:bottle,land,straitorchannel(WNWD).Thoughthereferentofeachofthefivemaynotbethesame,yettheyareallrelatedtothecentralmeaning.Meaning(2)isaninstanceoftransfer,(3)aninstanceofspecialization,and(4)and(5)areinstancesofextension.1.4.2Concatenation（连结型）:Catena—chaininLatinIt'saprocesswhereeachofthelatermeaningisrelatedonlytothepreceding(领先)onelikechains.Itisanothersemanticprocessinwhichthemeaningofawordmovesgraduallyawayfromitsfirstsense,tillthereisnoconnectionbetweenthemeaningsdevelopedanditsprimarysense.Unlikeradiationwhereeachofthederivedmeaningsisdirectlyconnectedtotheprimarymeaning,concatenationdescribesaprocesswhereeachofthelatermeaningisrelatedonlytotheprecedingonelikechains.Thoughthelatestsensecanbetracedbacktotheoriginal,thereisnodirectconnectioninbetween.Theword“candidate”inLatinmeans“apersondressedinwhite”(A),“aseekerforofficewhodressedinwhite”(A+B),“aseekerforoffice”(B)AA+BBTheword“treacle”inGreekmeans“ofawildbeast”(A)Aremedyforthebiteofawildbeast(A+B)Aremedyingeneral(B)Aremedyintheformofsyrup(B+C)Asyrupingeneral(C)AA+BBB+CC1.5thesenserelationswithinthepolysemy(1)primary(original)meaning&secondary(derived)meaningWhenthewordwasfirstcoined,thatm