Polysemy

Claudia Brugman
Table of contents

Michel Bréal and Stephen Ullmann, both pioneers in the modern scientific study of semantics, believed that polysemy is an emblem of civilized societies (Bréal 1900; Ullmann 1963), because in such societies, developments of culture and technology prompt the extension of meaning of existing lexemes to fill the denotational gap presented by real-world invention or innovation. The study of polysemy has expanded considerably from this point in the last two decades or so, as language scholars examine the very nature of lexical meaning by trying to determine which modulations of meaning can be ascribed to the existing context alone, and which can be meaningfully identified as sense variation which is context-independent. The recent increase in interest in polysemy results naturally from the resurgence of interest in lexical semantic study in general; this in turn results from lexicalizing the study of syntax and the syntax/semantics interface. The growth in the study of natural language processing has prompted an interest among computer scientists in addition to the longer-term interest of linguists, philosophers, and psychologists. Moreover, linguistic theorists have moved to reconceptualize the lexicon as a structured inventory of generalizations (of semantics, as well as phonology and morphology) and not just a compendium of idiosyncrasies: this contrasts with the earlier generative-grammar distinction between ‘grammar’ and lexicon. So as in other types of lexical principles, one topic in polysemy research has concerned the question of whether relationships between senses can be stated in terms of general principles, rather than the observation of idiosyncratic, generally culturally-based developments characteristic of the links between senses studied in the previous century and the early part of this one.

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price.

References

Allan, K.
1986 Linguistic meaning. Vol. 1. Routledge and Kegan Paul. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Asher, N. & A. Lascarides
1996 Lexical disambiguation in a discourse context. In J. Pustejovsky & B. Boguraev (eds.): 69–108. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bréal, M.
1900 Semantics: studies in the science of meaning. Heinemann. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brugman, C.
1988 The story of OVER: polysemy, semantics, and the structure of the lexicon. Garland Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bussman, H.
1996 Routledge dictionary of language and linguistics. Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Copestake, A. & T. Briscoe
1995 Semi-productive polysemy and sense extension. Journal of semantics 12: 15–38.  MetBibGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cruse, D.A.
1986 Lexical semantics. Cambridge University Press.  MetBibGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1995 Polysemy and related phenomena from a cognitive linguistic viewpoint. In P. Saint-Dizier & E. Viegas (eds.) Computational Lexical Semantics: 33–49. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crystal, D.
1985 A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1992 An encyclopedic dictionary of language and linguistics. Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1997 The Cambridge encyclopedia of language. Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deane, P.
1988 Polysemy and cognition. Lingua 75: 321–361.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ducrot, O. & T. Todorov
1972 Encyclopedic dictionary of the sciences of language. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Durkin, K. & J. Manning
1989 Polysemy and the subjective lexicon: semantic relatedness and the salience of intraword senses. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 18: 577–612. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Emanatian, M.
1991 Grammatical polysemy: the systematicity of multiple meanings in grammar. Ph.D. Diss., University of California at Berkeley.  MetBibGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fillmore, C.
1986 Pragmatically controlled zero anaphora. In V. Nikiforidou et al. (eds.): 95–107. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Geeraerts, D.
1993 Vagueness’s puzzles, polysemy’s vagaries. Cognitive Linguistics4/223–272.  MetBibGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1994 Polysemy. In R. Asher (ed.) An encyclopedic dictionary of linguistics. Vol 6: 3227–3228. Pergamon Pressergamon Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gibbs, R., D. Beitel, M. Harrington & P. Sanders
1994 stand. Journal of Semantics 11: 231–251.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldberg, A.E.
1992 The inherent semantics of argument structure: the case of the English ditransitive construction. Cognitive Linguistics 3: 37–74.  MetBibGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1995 Constructions: A Construction Grammar approach to argument structure. University of Chicago Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hartmann, R.R. K.
1983 On theory and practice. In R. Hartmann (ed.) Lexicography: principles and practice: 3–11. Academic Presscademic Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hartmann, R.R.K. & F.C. Stork
1973 Dictionary of language and linguistics. Applied Science Publishers. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Herskovits, A.
1986 Language and spatial cognition: an interdisciplinary study of the prepositions in English. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Horn, L.A.
1985 Metalinguistic negation and pragmatic ambiguity. Language 61: 121–174. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Janda, L.
1990 The radial network of a grammatical category. Cognitive Linguistics 1: 269–288.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, W.
1973 The boundaries of words and their meanings. In C.-N. Bailey & R. Shuy (eds.) New Ways of Analyzing Variation in English: 340–373. Georgetown University Presseorgetown University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Langacker, R.W.
1987 Foundations of cognitive grammar: theoretical prerequisites. Stanford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lehrer, A.
1974 Semantic fields and lexical structure. North-Holland. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1990 Polysemy, conventionality, and the structure of the lexicon. Cognitive Linguistics 1: 207–246.  MetBibGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lichtenberk, F.
1991 Semantic change and heterosemy in grammaticalization. Language 67: 474–509. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lyons, J.
1977 Semantics. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nikiforidou, V.
1991 The meanings of the genitive: a case study in semantic structure and semantic change. Cognitive Linguistics 2: 149–205. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nikiforidou, V., M. Van Clay, M. Niepokuj, & D. Feder
(eds.) 1986 Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society. Berkeley Linguistics Society. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Norrick, N.
1981 Semiotic principles in semantic theory. John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nunberg, G.
1979 The non-uniqueness of semantic solutions: polysemy. Linguistics and Philosophy 2: 143–184.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pustejovsky, J.
1995 The generative lexicon. MIT Press.  MetBibGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pustejovsky, J. & B. Boguraev
1995 Lexical semantics in context Journal of semantics 1: 1–14. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(eds.) 1996 Lexical semantics: the problem of polysemy. Clarendon Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruhl, C.
1975 Polysemy or monosemy: discrete meanings or continuum?In R.W. Fasold & R.W. Shuy (eds.) Analyzing variation in language: 184–202. Georgetown University Presseorgetown University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1989 On monosemy: a study in lexical semantics. State University of New York Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Saeed, J.I.
1997 Semantics. Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sandra, D. & S. Rice
1996 Network analyses of prepositional meaning: mirroring whose mind – the linguist’s or the language user’s? Cognitive Linguistics 6: 89–130. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schneider, E.W.
1988 Variabilität, Polysemie und Unscharfe der Wortbedeutung. Max Niemeyer Verlag. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sweetser, E.
1986 Polysemy vs. abstraction: mutually exclusive or complementary?In V. Nikiforidou et al. (eds.): 528–538. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1990 From etymology to pragmatics: metaphorical and cultural aspects of semantic structure. Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Taylor, J.
1992 Old problems: adjectives in Cognitive Grammar. Cognitive Linguistics 3: 1–35. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Traugott, E.
1986 From polysemy to internal semantic reconstruction. In V. Nikiforidou et al. (eds.): 539–550. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tuggy, D.
1994 Ambiguity, polysemy, and vagueness. Cognitive Linguistics 4: 273–291. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ullmann, S.
1963 The principles of semantics. Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, A.
1979 Are grammatical categories vague or polysemous? The Japanese ‘adversative passive’ in a typological context. Papers in Linguistics 12: 111–162. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williams, J.
1992 Processing polysemous words in context: evidence for interrelated meanings. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 21: 193–218. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zawada, B.
1996 The representation of noun and verb polysemy. Sud Afrikaanische Tydskrift 30: 103–117. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhang, Q.
1996 Fuzziness – vagueness – generality – ambiguity. Journal of Pragmatics 29: 13–32. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zwicky, A. & J. Sadock
1975 Ambiguity tests and how to fail them. In: John Kimball (ed.) Syntax and semantics Vol. 4:1–36. Academic Presscademic Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
 
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold-dark jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold-light jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold prag Twitter_Logo_Blue