What is the polysemy of a word? Value

Each word has a lexical meaning. This is what we imagine in our imagination when we hear or read it.

For example, concepts such as "autumn, leaf fall."

Some words have one lexical meaning . For example, "leaf fall" is an unambiguous token. But “autumn” is a two-digit concept. One of which is the time of year itself, and the other is the period of a person’s life when he begins to age. Such words are called ambiguous.

Polysemy of the word

This is a lexical concept, which means the ability of a word to denote various phenomena that exist in the world. The following are examples:

• Shore - a part of land in contact with water (sea shores); land, mainland (written off ashore); loss of self-control (“you can’t see the banks” - figurative meaning).
• Height - the extent of something from bottom to top (from the height of its growth); vertical extent from any point to another (ceiling height); a place above the surrounding space, a hill (to occupy a height); skill level (height of achievement); sound quality (pitch); satisfaction of the most stringent requirements (“turned out to be on top in this situation” - figurative).
• Hero - a person who has shown selflessness for the salvation of others (war hero); one who causes admiration and the desire to imitate (a hero of our time); the main character of the work of art (heroes of the novel).

• Soul - an entity living in the body of a material being (transmigration of souls) ; man’s inner world (“striving with his whole soul”); character of a person (simple or wide soul); mastermind of the cause (the soul of our struggle); universal favorite (the soul of the company); people counted (children six souls); serf peasant (dowry - thirty souls); appeal to the interlocutor (“say, my soul”); excitement ("takes the soul"); bureaucrat (“paper soul”); subconscious mind (deep down); inspiration, animation or boredom, longing (doing without a soul, singing with a soul).

The polysemy of a word implies the development of a language. The use of the same name in different situations and circumstances leads to the formation of additional lexical meanings.

This ability of a word, on the one hand, leads to the saving of lexical means, and on the other hand, testifies to such a human property as generalized thinking.

The polysemy of a word (polysemy) is the unity of several meanings in one sound.

The figurative meaning of polysemantic words

Some meanings of the word are figurative. Unlike the direct meaning, they are secondary and are formed on the basis of any similarity with the original concept. For example, the word “brush” has a direct meaning - a part of a hand branching into constituent elements. This semantics moves on to other objects, which are something whole, consisting of separate fragments: a paint brush, a grape brush.

The polysemy of a word is associated with other lexical linguistic concepts. For example, with synonymy:

• bloody sunset (red);
• ice water (cold);
• fiery temperament (hot);
• grass color (green);
• pearl clouds (white with a shade of gray);
• crystal honesty (impeccable);
• light breakfast (non-nutritious);
• hard drinking (uninterrupted).

Antonymy (the phenomenon when words have the opposite meaning) is also associated with a concept called "polysemy of the word." The words given below can serve as examples:

• wingless - a spiritualized person;
• stale - a good person;
• facelessness of the masses - a bright personality;
• limited opportunities - the breadth of choice;
• chronic depression - a fleeting breakdown.

Shape transfer

The transfer of meaning, as a result of which the polysemy of a word appears, the language forms on the basis of similarity, for example, in form:

• the crest of a rooster - the crest of a mountain;
• telegraph pole - a pillar of dust;
• child's legs - table legs;
• a pile of hay - a pile of hair;
• sickle for harvesting - moon sickle;
• burning fire - a fire of autumn foliage;
• night darkness - darkness in the minds;
• finger ring - Garden Ring;
• royal crown - crown of braids on the head;
• the light of stars is the light of the eyes;
• the distant kingdom is the kingdom of ignorance.

Color transfer

Watching a variety of phenomena, people notice the similarity of objects in color. Such a process also leads to the emergence of figurative values.

Metaphor

The polysemy of the Russian word enriches the language with the possibility of using means of artistic expression. Depending on how the transfer of meaning is accomplished, metaphor, metonymy and synecdoch are distinguished.

A metaphor is a means of expressing a language, which is characterized by a transfer of meaning according to the similarity of form, color, or other characteristic features:

• in color - golden autumn;
• at the location - the tail of the aircraft;
• by function - car wipers;
• in shape - the peaks of the mountains;
• by the nature of the action - the storm cries.

Let us analyze a poem based on the painting by V. Perov “Unequal Marriage”.

Dewdrops of tears from your sad eyes

Shine on the atlas.

And the lights of wedding candles

Burying happiness in your chest.

This sad picture will help us in the study of metaphor as a means of expression.

In the first line of the poem there is a metaphor - “dewdrops”. This word means "droplets of water on the grass and leaves." But there is no grass or leaves in the picture, and droplets are the tears of the unhappy bride. In this case, we are dealing with a hidden comparison - a metaphor.

In the second sentence, the metaphor is the word "petals", which, again, are not on this canvas. There is a girl-bride, whose Lanites (cheeks) are compared with a delicate flower.

In addition to metaphor, this sentence has the epithet “satin”. This figurative definition also contains figurative meaning, that is, it refers to what is not. The word has the direct meaning "made of smooth and delicate fabric." And in relation to the "petals lanit" it is used in a figurative sense.

Epithets, so similar to metaphors in their function, differ from them in that they are adjectives and answer the questions “what?” what kind? which one? which ones? which one? which ones? ” etc.

Metaphors are nouns or verbs. In the last sentence, this remedy is expressed by the word "bury", which has a direct meaning - "the process of burial of a deceased person." But this picture depicts the moment of the wedding. So, the word calls what is not, therefore, has a figurative meaning. Thus, the author forever says goodbye to his hope of being happy, that is, marrying his girlfriend. Probably, the state of the young man pictured to the right of the bride is metaphorically expressed.

Metonymy

A figurative meaning can be formed by the adjacency of objects, which means that the word has the ability to denote not only “your” object or phenomenon, but also somehow associated with it. The following are examples of the occurrence of metonymy when a value transfer occurs:

• From the premises on the people in it: "The whole audience gasped."
• From the dishes to the contents: "I ate the whole plate."

• From material to product: "My silver has darkened."
• From a voice on his bearer: "Tenor performed his aria impeccably."

Thus, metonymy contributes to the process as a result of which a polysemy is formed (a synonym for the word polysemy).

Synecdoche

The method of transferring meaning from one word to another by naming a part instead of the whole or in the opposite direction is called a synecdoch. For example, the word "mouth" has a direct meaning - "an organ that is a cavity between the upper and lower jaws of a living creature." His figurative value is the number of eaters in the family (“I feed seven mouths”).

The synecdoch occurs in the following cases of the transfer of value:

• From clothes, parts of clothes, from an object to a person: "Hey hat, come here."
• From singular to plural: "The German broke off near Stalingrad."
• From the plural to the singular: "We are not proud people, I'll sit here at the doorstep."

Narrowing and expanding meaning

The polysemy of the Russian word has evolved over the centuries. In the course of development, new realities in the world appear. Not necessarily they acquire their own names. For example, it happens that they are called words that already existed in the language. Previously, only large steamboats floating in the ocean were called liners. Aircraft appeared and the word began to mean them as well (air liner). Such a process is an extension of meaning. There is also the opposite phenomenon - the loss of a word of some of its meanings - narrowing.

For example, once the word “partisans” had not only one meaning - “a member of an armed detachment behind enemy lines”, he also had a different meaning - “supporter of some movement”. Over time, it completely lost, there was a narrowing of semantics.