1、POLYSEMY AND HOMONYMY,Chapter VI,1,A man who was involved in a serious motorcycle accident was unable to speak when he first regained consciousness. Wishing to know how long he had been unconscious, he took a piece of paper and a pencil from the bedside and, after writing “date”? on it, gave it to h

2、is nurse. She handed it back to him after she had written the word “Married” on it.,2,As most words are arbitrary and conventional symbols without any intrinsic connection with what they refer to, it may sometimes happen that more than one meaning is attached to a word, or two or more words may have

3、 the same form but be different in meaning. The former is known as polysemy, and the latter, homonymy.,3,Polysemy,A lexical item has a range of different meanings, that is, one single word has two or more senses at the same time. blanket: 羊毛毯；給蓋羊毛毯 get: 150 meanings cut: 120 meanings A sign of the s

4、uperiority of that language. “The more meanings a word has accumulated, the more diverse aspects of intellectual and social activity it is likely to represent.”,4,In order to express new ideas, new processes, new products, and so forth, language can do three things: form a new word, borrow a word fr

5、om other languages, or add new meanings to established words. Of the three ways, the simplest one is to have old words take on additional meaning. That is why polysemic words of long standing are signs of an advanced culture.,5,Two approaches,1) Diachronic approach(歷時(shí)的) From the diachronic point of

6、view, polysemy is thought to be the result of growth and development of the semantic structure of a word. This first meaning is the primary meaning(原始意義). These later meanings are called derived meanings(派生意義).,6,An Example Face: 12 meanings (1)the front of the head (2)a surface of a thing (3)the ap

7、pearance (4)the functional surface (5)effrontery (6)the topography,(1) is the primary meaning and all the rest are derived later on from the primary meaning. All derived meanings (2-12) are related to the primary one in one way or another.,7,2020/8/8,2) synchronic approach(共時(shí)的) Synchronically, polys

8、emy is thought as the coexistence of various meanings of the same word in a historical period of time. The basic meaning of a word is considered to be the core of word meaning, called the central meaning (中心意義). The derived meanings, no matter how numerous, are secondary meanings (次要意義). The interre

9、lation or comparison between the central meaning and secondary meanings.,8,In some cases, the primary meaning (diachronically) and the central meaning (synchronically) coincide. However, in some cases, a meaning that appeared after the original meaning can become the central meaning. The two approac

10、hes are supplementary to each other in the analysis of a polysemous word.,9,Two processes of (leading to) polysemy,radiation,concantenation,10,Radiation (語(yǔ)義輻射) Semantically, radiation is the process in which the primary or central meaning stands at the center while secondary meanings radiate from it

11、 in every direction like ray. All the meanings are independent of one another, but can all be traced back to the central meaning.,11,head,the head of the school,six pence per head,the head of a page,to lose ones head,six head of cattle,a head of cabbage,at the head of a list,Two heads are better tha

12、n one.,to discuss a question under five heads,use you head,12,Concantenation (連鎖型) Concatenation, “l(fā)inking together” is a semantic process in which the meaning of a word moves gradually away from its first sense by successive shifts, like the links of a chain, until there is no connection between th

13、e sense that is finally developed and the primary meaning.,board木板餐桌會(huì)議桌董事會(huì),13,Concatenation describes a process where each of the later meaning is related only to the preceding one like chains. 12345 Radiation describes a process where each of the derived meanings is directly connected to the primar

14、y meaning.,14,2020/8/8,Homonymy,Greek homonumos (homo: the same, onoma:name) refer to two or more words, which have the same form, but differ in meaning. They are pronounced alike, or spelled alike, or both. E.g.: light（光）light（輕的） bark（吠） bark（樹(shù)皮） tear（眼淚）tear（撕） lead（率領(lǐng)）lead（鉛）,15,Types of homonym

15、s Perfect/absolute homonyms（完全同音同形異義詞） Words identical in sound and spelling but different in meaning bear/be/（熊） bear/be/ （忍耐） Dont trouble trouble until trouble troubles you. Homophones（同音異義詞） Words identical in sound but different in spelling and meaning meet/mi:t/（遇見(jiàn)）mete/mi:t/（邊界）meat/mi:t/（肉）

16、Homographs(同形異義詞) Words identical in spelling but different in sound and meaning tear/t/（眼淚）tear/te/（撕裂） Of the three types, homophones constitute the largest number and are most common.,16,Sources of homonyms A. Phonetic convergence: sea/seesteal/steel B. Semantic divergence: When two or more meani

17、ngs of the same word drift apart to such an extent that there will be no obvious connection between them, polysemy will give place to homonymy C. Foreign influence D. Shortening,17,Differentiation of homonym from polysemys,Polysemy: one word having several meanings that derive from the same historic

18、al source and between which there is a historical or realistic relation. In dictionary, all meanings are listed under the same single polysemy.,Homonym: words only identical in sound or spelling or both but having no connection in meaning and not deriving from the same historical source. In dictionary, Homonyms are listed independently.,18,The Stylistic Value of Polysemy and Homonymy,Achieving humour, irony and heightened dramatic power 1) “waiter!”“Yes, sir.” “Whats this?”“Its bean soup, sir” “No matter what its been. What is it now?” 2) Why is the Middle Ages als