Lecture 8. Polysemy and Homonymy

The problem of polysemy is mainly the problem of interrelation and interdependence of the various meanings of the same word. Polysemy viewed diachronically is a historical change in the semantic structure of the word resulting in disappearance of some meanings (or) and in new meanings being added to the ones already existing and also in the rearrangement of these meanings in its semantic structure. Polysemy viewed synchronically is understood as coexistence of the various meanings of the same word at a certain historical period and the arrangement of these meanings in the semantic structure of the word.

Modern English is exceptionally rich in homonymous words and word-forms. It is held that languages where short words abound have more homonyms than those where longer words are prevalent. Therefore it is sometimes suggested that abundance of homonyms in Modern English is to be accounted for by the monosyllabic structure of the commonly used English words.

When analysing different cases of homonymy we find that some words are homonymous in all their forms, i.e. we observe full homonymy of the paradigms of two or more different words, e.g., in seal₁ — ‘a sea animal’ and seal₂ — ‘a design printed on paper by means of a stamp’.

Homonyms are words that sound alike but have different semantic structure. The problem of homonymy is mainly the problem of differentiation between two different semantic structures of identically sounding words.

Homonymy may be described as the sameness of form associated with the difference of meaning. Homonyms are words identical in sound and/or in spelling but different in meaning. The intense development of homonymy in English is due to the monosyllabic character of its vocabulary and the analytical structure of the English language. Different sources of homonymy in English may by subdivided into two main groups: 1) homonymy which developed due to convergent sound development (etymological, or heterogeneous homonyms); 2) homonymy which developed from polysemy through divergent sense development. In other terms this case is called disintegration or split of polysemy (semantic or homogeneous homonyms). The majority of homonyms in English are etymologically different.

The traditional classification of homonyms recognizes: perfect homonyms, or homonyms proper, homophones, homographs. Besides the traditional classification of homonyms there are other ways of classifying homonyms. 1. All the cases of homonymy may be divided into full homonymy, or the homonymy of words having identical paradigms, and partial homonymy, or the homonymy of word-forms. 2. According to Professor Smirnitsky’s classification all homonyms may be divided into lexical homonyms which differ only in lexical meaning; lexico-grammatical homonyms which differ both in lexical and in grammatical meanings; grammatical homonyms which differ only in grammatical meaning. 3. Homonyms belonging to one and the same part of speech are called simple. Complex homonyms are those belonging to different parts of speech.

One of the most debatable problems in Semasiology is the demarcation line between polysemy and homonymy, i.e. between different meanings of a polysemantic word and the meanings of different homonymous words.

To solve the problem a number of criteria may be applied: etymological and semantic criteria and the formal criteria of distribution, spelling and pronunciation. Sometimes only the combination of several criteria may solve the problem. Besides, linguists try to develop new more efficient criteria and methods of differentiating homonymy and polysemy.