Page 71 - 4805

LECTURE 6
LEXICO-SEMANTIC PROCESSES
1. Polysemy
2. Homonymy
3. Synonymy
4. Antonymy
5. Euphemism

Key words: radiation, concatenation, split of polysemy,
transference based on resemblance, transference based on
contiguity, broadening, narrowing, degeneration, elevation,
homonym, homonyms proper, homophone, homograph,
homoform, paronym, synonym, synonymic dominant, antonym,
euphemism.

1. Polysemy.
The semantic structure of the word does not present an
indissoluble unity (that is, actually, why it is referred to as
"structure"), nor does it necessarily stand for one concept. It is
generally known that most words convey several concepts and thus
possess the corresponding number of meanings. A word having
several meanings is called polysemantic, and the ability of words
to have more than one meaning is described by the term polysemy.
1. Is polysemy an anomaly or a general rule in English
vocabulary?
2. Is polysemy an advantage or a disadvantage so far as the
process of communication is concerned?
Polysemy is certainly not an anomaly. Most English words
are polysemantic. It should be noted that the wealth of expressive
resources of a language largely depends on the degree to which
polysemy has developed in the language. if each word is found to
be capable of conveying, let us say, at least two concepts instead
of one, the expressive potential of the whole vocabulary increases

70