In the Russian language, unambiguous and polysemantic words are distinguished by the number of lexical meanings. Monosemantic, or unambiguous, are words that have only one lexical meaning: appendicitis, healing, bandage, birch, satin, felt-tip pen, smell, and others like that.
There are several types of monosemantic words.
1. Proper names, which are called single objects. Examples: Moscow, Petrov, Vasily, Seine, Europe, Great Britain, Baikal.
2. New (recent) words: foam rubber, pizza, briefing, dederon, lavsan.
3. Words with a narrowly specific meaning: trolley, binoculars, suitcase, can, turquoise, beads, ship, analgin.
4. Myoma, allergy, gastritis, tonsillitis, noun, verb - all these terms are unambiguous.
And polysemantic polysemantic words are often found in Russian. Among the meanings that they possess, one is accepted as the main, main, and the rest as derivatives of the main, original value. In explanatory dictionaries, the primary meaning is always indicated first, followed by numbered derived meanings.
Vocabulary: single and multiple words in context
The polysemy of a word is realized in a context (speech), which clarifies one of the meanings of a polysemantic word. Usually, even a narrow context (for example, phrases) is enough to clarify the meanings of ambiguous words. For example, a quiet exclamation - a quiet, quiet disposition - calm, quiet riding - slow, quiet weather - calm, quiet breathing - even, etc. A word taken out of context is perceived in the main meaning, in which it is most often used in speech .
Unambiguous and ambiguous words: examples of use in context
Derived meanings come to light in speech, that is, in combination with other words. For example, the word “go” is perceived in the main meaning - “to move, stepping feet” (Petya walked alone for a long time). But context helps to distinguish the different meanings of the word. "The clock goes, the days go by" (go - go, flow (about time)). "The path went through the forest" (to go - to have a direction, to stretch). “Steam comes from the mouth” (go - “flow from somewhere”). "The blue color goes to your eyes" (go - "be to your face"). "The letter went exactly 20 days" (go - "be, be on the road"). "With faith, hope, go to all" (go - "show readiness for something"). "There are rumors about you" (go - "spread"). "Goes to war in Russia" (to go - "to speak out, go against anyone").
Unambiguous and ambiguous words as a way of developing vocabulary
Words acquire ambiguity in the process of the history of the language, which reflects changes in nature and society, their cognition by people. As a result, human thinking is enriched with new terms and concepts. The volume of the dictionary in any language is limited, therefore vocabulary develops not only as a result of the birth of new words, but also due to the appearance of other meanings from previously known ones. Unambiguous and ambiguous words, as well as examples of their use in the context can be found in the explanatory dictionaries.