A Br ief V ie w on P olyse m y and H o m ony m y
李欣(四川师范大学外国语学院四川成都)
A b stract Pol yse m y and ho m o ny m y,as i m portan t co n cep ts in l ex i cal se m an t i cs,ex p l ore the rel atio n bet ween d ifferent senses. They are e m p l oy ed t o ach iev e hu m o r,iro ny and d ra m atic po wer.
K ey word s Po l yse m y;H o m o ny m y;D istincti on;St y li st ic val ue
1In tr oduc ti on
The st udy of polyse m y and ho m ony my has a l ong hist ory o n the philosophy of l anguage,li ng u istics,psychol ogy,and literat u re.The co mp l ex re l a ti on bet ween m ean i ngs and words we re first noted by Sto ics.They observed tha t one word could carry d ifferen t m ean i ngs. Throug h t he subsequent research i n t o the issue of pol yse m y and ho m ony m y,it i s found t hat there exi sts an extens i ve grey area bet ween them.H o w to d i sti ng u ish the t w o is an i m portant i ss ue lyi ng i n front of the researchers.The paper here will analyze th i s pro b l em fro m four angles.
Polyse m y and ho mony m y are rare l y a pro b le m i n l anguage use because of the adoption of co n text ua l cues.They are so m eti m es used as a source of puns t o achieve styli sti c va l ue such as hu mor and irony and to he i ghtened drama ti c po wer,wh ich e m body the r i chness and coi nc i dence of language.
2A Br ief E lucida ti on of P olyse m y and H o m ony m y
Defin ition of P olyse m y and H on o m y m y
The coex i stence of seve ra lm eani ngs i n a word i s ca lled polyse m y.The word pol yse m y co m es fro m N eo-La ti n polysem ia(poly-m any,sema-si gn),tha t is,havi ng or cha racte rized by m anym ean i ngs for a single word or ph rase.Pol yse m y see m s to be moti vated by m etaphoric tho ught,that is,t he relatio n be t w een t wo pol yse m es seem to be the resu lt of a ce rtai n unde rl ying m etaphor for shape,s i ze,po siti on,out w ard appea rance,functi on and so on.Part of the lex i ca l entry for head i n English is used to ill ustrate t h i s:!part of t he body conta i n i ng the bra i n.t he top of anyt h i ng(litera ll y or m etaphor i ca lly)that rese m bles the head in shape#t he person who is the ch i ef or leader.C l ear l y,(2)ism oti vated by shape and(3)by functi on.
H o m ony my i s us ua lly vie wed to hold bet ween word-for m s whose senses are co mp l e tely unre l a ted.A word w ith at least t wo en tire l y d isti nct m ean i ngs yet sha ri ng a lexical for m is sa i d to be ho m o n y mous.One of the m ost co mmon l y cited exa m ples of ho m ony m o us words i s bank,wh ich has a fi nanc i a l i nstituti on sense and an edge of T y,f y f y
y z y y,
ho m opho ne and ho mograph.In the fi rst type,lexem es w ill be abso lute l y ho mony m o us if t hey are for m a lly i dentical i n both the pho n ic and graph i c m ediu m such as the verb lie(t o be in or take a flat posi ti on)and li e(m ake a false state m ent w it h i ntenti on of deceivi ng t o say so m ethi ng untrue).The second type is ho m o phone.H o mophones are partial ones by shar i ng phonologi ca lly features,such as fl our and fl o wer.The t h ird type is ho m o graphs wh ich exp l ore t he meaning of
d iff
e rent words t hat loo k a like,e.g.l ead(gui de or d i rect to go in a
certa i n d irec tion)and lead(a soft,heavy,b l u i sh-grey m e tal)are ho m ographs.
D ist i nc ti on B et w een P ol yse m y and H o m ony m y
In fact,pol ysemy i s very si m ilar to ho mony m y.Two words can be pol yse m o us when their senses are so m eho w related,as l ong as they are not equa,l whil e ho m ony m y is usuall y vie wed to hol d bet ween word for m s whose senses are co mp l e tely unre lated.G i ven tha t we have a written for m w it h different m eani ngs,are we t o say it i s one word w it h different m ean i ngs(pol ysemy)or t wo different words with the sa m e shape(ho m o ny m y)?What a re t he crite ria tha t enab le us t o
d isti nguish b
e t w een pol ysemy and ho mony m y?There are so m e possi
b l e ways of ans wering t hese questio ns.F irstl y,dicti onary usua ll y ba
ses the ir dec isi on upon ety molog y.If it is kno wn that i denti ca l for m s have one ori gin,even if they have d iffe rent meanings,t hey are trea ted as polyse m ic and given a si ngle entry i n a dicti onary.If it is kno w that they have different or i gi ns,they are treated as ho mony m o us and given separate entr i es.Thus,on t he gro und of a shared e t y m ol ogi ca l kno wledge,table(f urniture)and tab le(arrangem ent of da ta)are pol yse m i c,whil e pup il(student)and pup il(the round open i ng i n the m i ddle of eye)are ho m o ny m ous.Secondl y,it is reasonab l e t o suggest that where t he diff e rences are reg u lar and to so m e degree pre
d ictab l e,w
e have pol yse m y rather t han ho m ony m y.One o
f t he m ost
fa m iliar k i nds of regular relati onship bet ween m ean i ngs i s tha t ofm et aphor where a word appears to have both a litera lm ean i ng and trans ferred m ean i ng.A goo d exa m ple is the words f or part of body,such
f f f f T,f
y y
f T y,ff y f
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语言比较双语学习2007年11月
a river sense.hese senses see m c l ea rl unre lated and the act t hat the a re assoc i ated w it h t he sa m e word or m seem s pure l acc i den ta.l H o m on m s can be categor i ed i nto three t pes:t ota l ho m on m s as oot i n h i s o ot and t he oot o t he m o unta i n.hus o ot i s m ore li ke l to be regarded as a pol se m ic word with litera l m ean i ng and trans erred m eani ng.hird l another di erent wa o atte m pti ng t o
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