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of its possible meanings is intended. The simplest contextual hint
may be a premodifying classifier attached to the noun term, such
as arrest warrant or share warrant instead of a sole warrant, or a
postmodifying qualifier, such as writ of execution or writ of
summons contextualizing the head term writ.
Polysemy is widespread within one terminology. For
example:
Disposition has three (main) separable meanings in common
law:
1) the act of transferring something to another´s possession
(e.g. testamentary disposition);
2) a final settlement of a case by court (in this sense it is
more widely used in the USA; in the UK this term is usually
confined to decisions of juvenile courts);
3) a provision in a statute (e.g. general dispositions).
Possibly the fourth meaning (although not very frequent) can
be mentioned:
4) personal temperament of traits of character.
All four meanings will require different target language
equivalents reflecting on the principles of target law; otherwise the
extent of ambiguity in the target text may rise. Linguuists speak of
contrastive polysemy (i.e. translational or bilingual) which should
be taken into account particularly by lexicographers compiling
bilingual dictionaries.
Example 1
Section 1. General Dispositions
Art. 1415. Regulation by agreement among coheirs or by
testamentary disposition
Meanings 3 and 1 outlined in Example 1 above are used in
the heading and subheading of one provision in the Louisiana Civil
Code 1996 respectively. Premodifiers will help the translator
correctly interpret (and disambiguate) the meaning of either one.
The meaning of the phrase general dispositions is contextualized
primarily by its formal location in the text – it is placed in the

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