MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, SCIENCE, YOUTH AND SPORT OF UKRAINE
IVAN FRANCO NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF LVIV
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
THE PROBLEM OF POLYSEMY IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Bachelor paper
presented by
a 4th — year student
Galyna Tsvyk
Supervised by
Drofyak N.I.
Teacher of English
Lviv - 2011
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter I. Words as Meaningful Units
1.1 Polysemy as the Source of Ambiguities in a Language
1.2 Historical Development of the Polysemy
1.2.1 The Diachronic Approach to Studying Polysemy
1.2.2 The Synchronic Approach to Studying Polysemy
1.3 Polysemy and its Connection with the Context
Chapter II. Practical Usage of Polysemy in Teaching English
2.1 Polysemy in Teaching English on Intermediate Level
2.2 Polysemy in Teaching English on Advanced Level
2.3 Lesson Plan
Conclusions
List of References
Introduction
Language is defined as a human system of communication that uses arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols. But frankly speaking, language is far too complicated, intriguing, and mysterious to be adequately explained by a brief definition. The organic function of the language is to carry meaning. Most of the problems in linguistic science are intimately bound to question of semasiology and call for scientific analysis of communication in words. The study of words is not exclusively a study of roots and stems, of prefixes or suffixes. The mysterious world of words is an object of scientific investigation [ 13; 25 ].
Theoretical problems of linguistic form and meaning as relevant to the progressive development of language have attracted the attention of scholars, philosophers and grammarians since the times of Plato and Aristotle. From those times sameness of meaning was not very easy to deal with but there seemed nothing inherently difficult about difference of meaning. The situation is the same nowadays. Not only different words have different meanings; it’s also the case that the same word may have a set of meanings. This phenomenon is called polysemy.
Polysemy is the coexistence of many possible meanings for a word or phrase. Most words of the English language are polysemantic. Highly developed polysemy is one of the characteristic features of the English language. The system of meanings of any polysemantic word develops gradually, mostly over the centuries, as more and more new meanings are either added to old ones, or out some of them. We say that the word is polysemantic when it has many meanings. In the word the main and the secondary meanings are distinguished. Thus, the word is polysemantic in the language but in actual speech it is always monosemantic, that is, it has only one meaning. It is in the context that makes the polysemantic word monosemantic. The researches of polysemy are also significant in grammar, as most grammatical forms are polysemantic. Even a single grammatical form can be made to express a whole variety of structural meanings.
The semantic structure of a polysemantic word is treated as a system of meanings. Some semantic structures are arranged on a different principle. In the following list of meaning of the adjective dull one can hardly hope to find a generalized meaning covering and holding together the rest of the semantic structure.
The researches of the multiplicity of meanings began in eighteenth century and were continued in the nineteenth century. The most important investment in this century was made by Bréal whose research into polysemy marked a new starting point: he shifted the study of polysemy away from lexicography and etymology and investigated polysemy as the always synchronic pattern of meaning surrounding a word is itself he ever changing result of semantic change [ 6; 154 ].
The important researches in the sphere of polysemy were made by Lyon who considers polysemy and homonymy as two types of lexical ambiguity and introduce some criteria for deciding when it is polysemy and when it is homonymy. One criterion is etymological information about the lexical item in question. Lexical items with the same origin are considered as polysemantic, whereas if they have evolved from distinct lexemes in some earlier stage of the language then they are regarded as homonymous [ 15; 123-124 ].
Lexical meaning of every word depends upon the part of speech to which the word belongs. Every word may be used in a limiting set of syntactical functions, and with the definite valency. It has a definite set of grammatical meanings, and a definite set of forms.
Every lexico-grammatical group of words or class is characterized by its own lexico-grammatical meaning, forming, as it were, the common denominator of all the meanings of the words which belongs to this group. The lexico-grammatical meaning may be also regarded as a feature according to which these words are grouped together. Many recent investigations are devoted to establishing word classes on the basis of similarity of distribution.
In the lexical meaning of every separate word the lexico-grammatical meaning common to all the words of the class to which this word belongs is enriched by additional features and becomes particularized [ 6; 205-206 ].
In summing up this point, we note that the complexity of the notion is determined by the relationships of the extra-linguistic reality reflected in human consciousness. The structure of every separate meaning depends on the linguistic syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships because meaning is an inherent component of language. The complexity of every word meaning is due to the fact that it combines lexical meaning with lexico-grammatical meaning and sometimes with emotional coloring, stylistic peculiarities and connotations born from previous usage.
The importance of studying the phenomenon of polysemy is obvious because it is the object of confusion and in order to provide a quantitative and qualitative growth of the language’s expressive resources it is extremely important to investigate the semantic changes in the system of meanings in the English language. To understand a text, learners need to know words and knowing a word involves knowing: its spoken and written contexts of use its patterns with words of related meaning. When teaching vocabulary it is then necessary to consider aspects like denotation, polysemy, connotation and sociocultural aspects when teaching a second or foreign language so that learners are able to get meaning from texts.
The aim of research is to make an analysis of the main principles of word meaning and its problems in teaching English.
The objective of this research is the investigation of polysemy in diachronic and synchronic dimensions. According to the objective there are following tasks:
1) to show historical background of the polysemy;
2) to describe semantic structure of polysemantic words;
3) to discover the impact of the context on the meaning of polysemantic words;
4) to describe the practical usage of the polysemy.
To solve all these tasks my diploma paper was designed.
Chapter I. Words as Meaningful Units
1.1 Polysemy as the Source of Ambiguities in a Language
Polysemy is a semantic inherent in the fundamental structure of the language. All languages have polysemy on several levels. A wide-spread polysemy in English is rightly considered as one of its characteristic features conditioned by the peculiarities of its structure.
The main source of the development of regular polysemy is the metaphoric and metonymic transference, which is commonplace and appears to be fundamental in living language.
Polysemic words make up a considerable part of the English vocabulary. Potential polysemy of words is the most fertile source of ambiguities in language.
In a limited number of cases two meanings of the same English words are differentiated by certain formal means, as, for instance, by spelling: born — borne, draft — draught; by word-order: ambassador extraordinary — extraordinary ambassador; by inflexion: hanged — hang. The distinctions between thing-words (countables) and mass-words (uncountables) is easy enough if we look at the idea that is expressed in each single instance. But in practical language the distinction is not carried through in such a way that one and the same word stands always for one and the same idea [ 9; 112 ].
On the contrary, a great many words may in one connection stand for something countable and in the other for something uncountable. Compare:
1) Have an ice.
2) There is no ice on the pond.
In the first example ice — any frozen dessert, especially one containing cream, as a water ice, sherbet or frappé. In the second example ice — water frozen icing frosting, any substance looking like ice.
In the vast majority of cases the context, linguistic or situational will narrow down all irrelevant senses [ 11; 97-98 ].
Words often signs not of one but of several things. The linguistic mechanism works naturally in many waysto prevent ambiguity and provide the clue to distinguish the necessary meaning. It’s also important to take into consideration the significance of the context, linguistic or non-linguistic; many ambiguities are never noticed because the various possible meanings are excluded by the situation. Important observations in this area of the vocabulary have been made by contextual, distributional and transformational analysis [16; 185 ].
The problem of polysemy, in other words, the use of the same word in two or more distinct meanings in relevant to a number of other important questions. These are: the development of different types of synonyms, as a result of semantic transpositions of lexical units and homonymy.
Defining polysemy as a linguistic development, Charles Bally made distinction between its two aspects: first, when one linguistic sign has several meanings, and then, when meaning is expressed by several linguistic signs.
Words may grow in connotative power in accordance with the nature with the meanings connected with them. In the power of connotation lies the reserve force of language. Without this language would lose much of its expressivity and flexibility.
The frequency of polysemy in different languages is a variable depending on various factors. Languages where derivation and composition are sparingly used tend to fill the gaps in vocabulary by adding new meaning to existing terms.
Polysemy more often occurs in generic words than in specific terms whose meanings are less subject to variation [ 3; 214-215 ].
It is extremely important not to lose sights of the fact that few words have simple meanings. Practically most words have, besides their direct meaning, a fringe of associated meanings. As a matter of fact, language owes very much of its expressive power to the ideas and emotions associated with words. There are usually a variety of associated meanings which appear in varying degrees of prominence determined by the context.
The course followed by words used in different context and the shifts of meaning presents a major interest in contrastive lexicology and typological study of languages.
In analyzing the semantic structure of words we have already seen that some meanings invariably come to the fore when we hear the word in actual speech or see in written. Other meanings make themselves evident only when the word is used in certain contexts. The context makes the meaning explicit, in other words, brings them out. This is not to say that polysemic words have meanings only in context. As has already been emphatically stressed the semantic structure of the word is a dialectic entity and involves dialectical permanency and invariability [14; 126-127 ].
Meaning should always be understood as involving the relation of language to the rest of the world and such meaningfulness is an essential part of the definition of language.
The distributional analysis of meaning makes it possible to reveal a great deal about the total functioning and use of words in a language. It gives sufficient evidence to recognize that part of the total meaning of many words in all languages is to be determined by their relations with other words in both the basic dimensions of linguistic analysis, syntagmatic and paradigmatic. Words as individual lexical items are structurally related to each other [14; 129 ].
A special interest is presented by the polysemic words whose meaning is based on a wide notional basis. Such lexical units can be used as function words revealing the tendence to partial or complete semantic depletion.
The first to be mentioned here are the verbs to be, to do, to get, to have, to make, to set, to take. The semantic value and functional use of these polysemic verbs offers difficulties in language learning and lexicography.
As it has been pointed out, componential analysis presupposes the revealing of differential and integral semantic features of lexical units and their variant meanings, in other words, semantic oppositions on the lexico-grammatical level.
Compare, for illustration, the semantic group of verbs which, besides the verb to be in its locative meaning ‘бути, знаходитись’, includes at least such verbs as: to live, to stay, to dwell, to reside.
The distinctive features of the members of the group observed in their meaning reveal themselves in the information which they carry about the duration of the action.
The verbs to live and to dwell, for instance, do not show any special contrast in this respect. In spoken English ‘dwell’ is now usually replaced by ‘live’.
But if we compare such verbs as to be, to stay and to live, we shall see that they differ essentially in expressing the durative character of the action and are not always interchangeable. For example,
She is in the house.
She stays in the house.
She lives in the house.
The verb to reside is stylistically marked member of the synonymic group characterized by its use in formal English.
It is of interest to note that transferred meanings of words in different languages do not always coincide. By the way of illustration:
1) back — спина;
2) the back of a chair — спинка стільця;
3) the back of a hand — титульна поверхня руки;
4) the back of a ship — кіль судна.
A variety of associated meanings which appear in varying degrees of prominence determined by the context may be illustrated by the semantic value of the adjective great which implies ‘being much above the average in size’, magnitude or intensity; in certain contexts of its use great comes to mean: eminent, important: great writers, great scholars, great musicians. In colloquial use great often suggests distinction of proficiency [11; 102-103 ].
The problem of polysemy in grammar is one of the most important, the one which is very complex and seems to be relevant to a number of aspects. Like words which is very complex and seems to be relevant to a number of aspects. Like words which are often signs not of one but of several things, a single grammatical form can also be made to express a whole variety of structural meanings. This appears to be natural and is a fairly common development in the structure of any language. This linguistics mechanism works naturally in many ways to prevent ambiguity in patterns of grammatical structure. Orientation towards the content will generally show which of the possible meanings is to be attached to polysemantic grammatical form [ 7; 236 ].
Most grammatical forms are polysemantic. On this level of linguistic analysis distinction should be made between synchronic and potential polysemy. Thus, for instance, the primary denotative meaning of the Present Continuous is characterized by three semantic elements:
1) present time;
2) something progressive;
3) contact with the moment of speech.
The three elements make up its synchronic polysemy. So thus, we can clearly see importance of researches of polysemy in grammar.
1.2 Historical Development of the Polysemy
The modern term polysemy was popularized by Bréal in 1887. Most modern linguistics dealing with the topic of polysemy refer to the crucial date , but they rarely look further back into the past.
The “roots” of the concept of polysemy lie in the Greek philosophy, that is, the debate surrounding the problem of naturalness or arbitrariness of signs as debated in Plato’s (429-347B.C.) Cratylus. In his account of Plato’s contribution to linguistics, Fred Householder points out that Democritus (460-mid-4th century B.C.) offered four arguments in favour of arbitrariness:
1) homonymy or polysemy — the same sequence of phonemes may be associated with two or more unrelated meanings;
2) polyonymy or isorrophy — the existence of synonyms;
3) metonymy — the fact that words and meaning change;
4) nonymy — the non-existence of single words for simple or familiar ideas.
Polysemy meant primarily what was later to be called “homonymy”, referring to the multiple, but unrelated meaning of a word. Bréal still subsumed homonymy under the heading of polysemy [ 18; 25 ].
The term polyonymy was also used by the Stoics studying how one and the same object may receive many different names, how it can become “manynamed” or polyonomous.