polysemy ~ Minangkabau Boy

Polysemy

Polysemy is the existence of several meanings for a single word or phrase. The word polysemy comes from the Greek words πολυ-, poly-, “many” and σήμα, sêma, “sign”. In other words it is the capacity for a word, phrase, or sign to have multiple meanings i.e., a large semantic field. Polysemy is a pivotal concept within the humanities, such as media studies and linguistics.

Most words begin life with one sense or meaning. As time goes by, this sense may change, new senses may be added and old senses may be lost.

· Semantic shift involves a change of meaning - e.g. mail changed its meaning from ‘bag’ to ‘letters’ (and it no longer means ‘bag’)

· Semantic extension involves the addition of a new sense - e.g. mail came to mean ‘electronic messages’ as well as ‘letters’.

· Polysemy is the result of semantic shift and extension. It refers to the situation of a word having two or more senses. A word with two or more senses is a polysemous word.

Because polysemy is the outcome of historical processes, older words tend to have more senses than newer words. Because they have more senses, they also tend to be more frequently used than newer words.

The senses of polysemous words are usually related to each other. For example, the ‘core sense’ of foot is “the lowest part of the leg, below the ankle, on which a person or an animal stands” (OALD). But a foot can also be:

· a part of a sock

· a measurement

· the bottom of something: e.g. the foot of a mountain or ladder

· a measure of rhythm in a line of poetry

A word like walk is polysemous:

I went walking this morning
We went for a walk last Sunday
Do you walk the dog every day?
I live near Meadow Walk Drive
The wardrobe is too heavy to lift; we’ll have to walk it into the bedroom (move a large object by rocking).
She walks the tower (to haunt a place as a ghost).
The workers threatened to walk (to go on strike).
Walk with God! (to live your life in a particular way)