5.1PolysemyPolysemymeansthatonesinglewordhastwoormoresensesatthesametime.ThebulkofEnglishwordsarepolysemantic;one–meaningwordsarerareandaremainlyscientifictermssuchashydrogen,molecule,andsoon.PolysemyPolysemyisacommonfeaturepeculiartoallnaturallanguages.ThisisparticularlytrueofhighlydevelopedlanguageslikeEnglish.InmodernEnglish,anoverwhelmingmajorityofwordsarepolysemous.Therearewordsthathavetwoorthreesenses,andthemostcommonlyusedonescanhaveasmanyasoverahundred.Polysemy

However,whenawordisfirstcoined,itisalwaysmonosemic.Butinthecourseofdevelopment,thesamesymbolmustbeusedtoexpressmoremeanings.Theresultispolysemy.Buthowdoesawordacquirenewmeanings?Inwhatwayarethemeaningsrelatedtooneanother?TwoApproachestoPolysemyTheproblemofinterrelationofthevariousmeaningsofthesamewordcanbedealtwithfromtwodifferentangles:diachronicapproachandsynchronicapproach.

1.TwoapproachestopolysemyDiachronicapproach歷時研究方法

Itisassumedtobetheresultofgrowthanddevelopmentofthesemanticstructureofoneandsameword。

Thefirstmeaningistheprimarymeaning.Latermeaningsarecalledderivedmeanings.

Synchronicapproach共時研究方法

Synchronically,polysemyisviewedasthecoexistenceofvariousmeaningsofthesamewordinahistoricalperiodoftime.從共時的角度看，在同一個歷史時期，同一個詞可以擁有許多不同的意義。

Thebasicmeaningofawordiscalledthecentralmeaning.Thederivedmeaningsaresecondaryincomparison.2.Twoprocessesofdevelopment

1)Radiation輻射型

2)Concatenation連鎖型1)Radiation輻射型Semantically,radiationistheprocesswhichtheprimaryorcentralmeaningstandsatthecenterwhilesecondarymeaningsradiatefromitineverydirectionlikerays.Allthemeaningsareindependentofoneanother,butcanallbetracedbacktothecentralmeaning.Takeheadforexample:theheadoftheschool,sixpenceperhead,theheadofapage,tocometoahead,toloseone’shead,sixheadofcattleThoughthesesenseshavelittleincommon,theyallderivefromspecialapplicationofthecentralideaofheadasapartofthebody.2)Concatenation連鎖型Concatenationisasemanticprocessinwhichthemeaningofawordmovesgraduallyawayfromitsfirstsensebysuccessiveshiftsuntilthereisnoconnectionbetweenthesensethatisfinallydevelopedandtheprimarymeaning.ConcatenationThewordtreacleisanillustrativeexample:(1)wildbeast;(2)remedyforbitesofvenomousbeasts;(3)antidoteforpoisonorremedyforpoison;(4)anyeffectiveremedy;(5)(BrE)molasses.例1：board：木板→餐桌→會議桌→董事會例2：candidate：穿白袍的人→身著白袍申請職位的人→候選人5.2HomonymyHomonymsaregenerallydefinedaswordsdifferentinmeaningbuteitheridenticalbothinsoundandspellingoridenticalonlyinsoundorspelling.1)TypesofhomonymsPerfect/absolutehomonyms完全同形同音異義詞Homographs同形異義詞Homophones同音異義詞

Ofthethreetypes,homophonesconstitutethelargestnumberandaremostcommon.

Perfecthomonyms

Perfecthomonymsarewordsidenticalbothinsoundandspelling,butdifferentinmeaning,e.g.bankntheedgeoftheriver,lake,etc.banknanestablishmentformoneybusinessbearnalargeheavyanimalbearvtoputupwithHomographIdenticalonlyinspellingbutdifferentinsoundandmeaning,e.g.bow/bau/nbendingtheheadasagreetingbow/bcu/nthedeviceusedforshootingarrowssaw/scu/vtoscatterseedssow/sau/nfemaleadultpigHomophone

Identicalonlyinsoundbutdifferentinspellingandmeaning,e.g.dear/dic/nalovedpersondeer/dic/nakindofanimalson/s?n/namalechildofsomeonesun/s?n/ntheheavenlybodyfromwhichtheearthgetswarmthandlight

2)OriginsofhomonymsChangeinsoundandspelling

讀音和拼寫演變的結果Borrowing借入外來詞的結果

Shortening詞語縮略的結果homonymsandpolysemants

Perfecthomonymsandpolysemantsarefullyidenticalwithregardtospellingandpronunciation.Thiscreatestheproblemofdifferentiation.DifferentiationofHomonymsfromPolysemants

Thefundamentaldifferencebetweenhomonymsandpolysemantsliesinthefactthattheformerreferstodifferentwordswhichhappentosharethesameformandthelatteristheoneandsamewordwhichhasseveraldistinguishablemeanings.importantcriterion

Oneimportantcriterionistoseetheiretymology,i.e.homonymsarefromdifferentsourceswhereasapolysemantisfromthesamesourcewhichhasacquireddifferentmeaningsinthecourseofdevelopment.

Thesecondprincipalconsiderationissemanticrelatedness.Thevariousmeaningsofapolysemantarecorrelatedandconnectedtoonecentralmeaningtoagreaterorlesserdegree,e.g.head(See5.1Polysemy).

Ontheotherhand,meaningsofdifferenthomonymshavenothingtodowithoneanother.Indictionaries,apolysemanthasitsmeaningsalllistedunderoneheadwordwhereashomonymsarelistedasseparateentries.

3)Differentiationofhomonymsfrompolysemants

一般地說，多義詞是一詞多義，幾個意義之間有歷史的或現實的聯系，它們都是從一個基本意義派生出來的，有“同源、同族”的關系，而同形同音異義詞則是同一拼寫或同一發音，但在意義上大多沒有任何歷史的或現實的聯系，它們非同出一源，而只是讀音和拼寫上的偶合。在詞典中，同形同音詞通常以獨立項分立，而多義詞的各不同義項則全部列在同一詞項下。4)Rhetoricfeaturesofhomonyms（1）“Waiter”“Yes,sir”“what’sthis”“It’sbeansoap,sir.”“Nomatterwhatit’sbeen,whatisitnow?”(2)Whyshouldamannevertellhissecretsinacornfield?Becauseithassomanyears.(3)WhyistheMiddleAgesalsocalledtheDarkAges?BecausethereweresomanyKnights.Fromtheaboveexamples,wecanseethathomonymsareoftenemployedtocreatepunsfordesiredeffectofhumouorironyforstylisticpurposes.MeaningandContextAsmostwordshavemorethanonemeaning,itisoftenimpossibletotellthemeaningofawordbeforeitisusedincontext.Contextisveryimportantfortheunderstandingofword-meaningbecausethemeaningisinfluencedimmediatelybythelinguisticcontext,andinmanycasesbythewholespeechsituationaswell.

Whenawriterorspeakerusesaword,she/hemakesitmeanjustwhathechoosesittomean—neithermorenorless.Withoutcontext,thereisnowaytodeterminetheverysenseofthewordthatthespeakerintendedtoconvey;whereaswithcontextthereisgenerallynodangerofmisinterpretation,formeaninglivesincontextandthecontextdefinesmeaning.

TypesofcontextContextisveryimportantfortheunderstandingofword-meaningbecausethemeaningisinfluencedimmediatelybythelinguisticcontext,andinmanycasesbythewholespeechsituationaswell.TypesofcontextTherearetwotypesofcontexts:linguisticcontextandextra-linguistic(ornon-linguisticcontext).Extra-linguisticcontextreferstothosesituationsandfeatureswhicharenotdirectlyapartofthelanguageinusebutwhicheithercontributeinconveyingamessageorhaveaninfluenceonlanguageuse.Typesofcontext1.

Inanarrowsense,itreferstothewords,clauses,sentencesinwhichawordappears.Thisisknownaslinguisticcontextwithmaycoveraparagraph,awholechapterandeventheentirebook.Typesofcontext2.Inabroadsense,itincludesthephysicalsituationaswhole.thisiscalledextra-linguisticornon-linguisticcontext,whichembracethepeople,place,andeventhewholeculturebackground.Theextra-linguisticcontextmayextendtoembracetheentireculturebackground.tradeunioninwesterncountries/inChinaLandlordinChinese/inwesterncountry

Linguisticcontext

LinguisticorIntra-linguisticcontextisfurthersubdividedintolexicalcontextandgrammaticalcontext.LinguisticcontextBylexicalcontextwemeanthewordsthatoccurtogetherwiththewordinquestion.Bygrammaticalcontextwemeanthatthemeaningsofawordmaybeinfluencedbythestructureinwhichitoccurs.LexicalContextLexicalContext–referstothewordsoccurtogetherwiththewordinquestion.Themeaningofthewordisoftenaffectedanddefinedbytheneighboringwords.GrammaticalcontextGrammaticalcontext–Themeaningsofawordmaybeinflectedbythestructureinwhichitoccurs.Generallyspeaking,theimmediateverbalcontext,eitherlexicalorgrammatical,willsufficeforinterpretingmeaningofaword.LinguisticcontextAsindicated.however,therearecaseswherethemeaningofawordmayremainapuzzleuntilawholeparagraph,achapterorevenawholebookcovered.Threemajorfunctionsofcontext:T