Polysemy and Homonymy

When a word has several meanings it is not always an example of polysemy or homonymy. LSVs cease to be alternations of one and the same unit and become different words. Solving this problem we must turn to dictionaries where a polysemantic word will be treated as a single entry while a homonymous one has separate entry for each of the homonyms. Are there any serious criteria by means of which we can distinguish between polysemy and homonymy? There are three major factors taken into account:

1) the semantic proximity of the lexical-semantic variants;

2) their derivation capacity;

3) the range of collocability.

In case of polysemy it is easy to discover a central core of meaning which brings the LSVs under a single general notion. Usually they are metaphorically interrelated.

It is most difficult to distinguish between polysemy and homonymy when a word has a number of nominative (and not nominative-derivative) meanings. They are usually nominations of things or actions which developed independently of each other. This parallel polysemy is mostly characteristic of nouns and verbs.

If we take board 1) a piece of wood; 2) a company, council; 3) meals, at first sight their semantic proximity does not lie on the surface and it is not clear synchronically whether it’s a case of polysemy but a deeper insight on a diachronistic plane helps us to restore the fact that the original meaning “a piece of wood” through metonymic transfers served as the basis for development of additional meanings.

As it was already mentioned, one of the sources of homonymy in language is its development as the limit of polysemy. At a certain point new lexical-semantic variants become mutually incompatible. We observe the process of diverging meaning development of a polysemantic word. Various meanings of the same word move away from each other so far away:

Spring

1. the season between winter and summer; 2. a twisted piece of metal that will return to its previous shape after it has been pressed down; 3. a place where water comes up naturally from the ground; 4. a sudden quick movement or jump in a particular direction.

The semantic core of the word spring is no longer elastic, it cannot be stretched any further. Thus we receive four separate words which are homonymous. But how can we distinguish between polysemy and homonymy? We must bear in mind that the transition form polysemy to homonymy is a gradual process and it is not possible to point out the time when two separate words with identical form and sound shape appear in the language.

We must take into account the semantic proximity of the lexical-semantic variants; in polysemantic words we look for a central meaning; especially when we have examples of semantic transfer.

It is more difficult to distinguish between polysemy and homonymy when a word has a number of nominative meanings (concrete names referring to things and to actions which have developed independently of each other):

board₁ (a piece of wood)

board ­ ₂ (a company, council)

board₃ (meals)

Distinguishing polysemy from homonymy we also take into consideration the derivational capacity of the variants. Homonyms usually develop their own sets of derivative or derived words: deep – voice d, voic ing against the candidate, active voice of the verb.

One more criterion which differentiates homonymy, from polysemy is the range of the word’s collocability:

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