Our language is multifaceted and rich. Sometimes, using one or another word, we do not think about the boundaries of its meaning. We know that the Earth is the name of our planet, and the earth is a part of its surface, land, soil. Everyone also knows that the world is the whole system that surrounds us, and at the same time, the world is the absence of hostility, life without war. We express some different interpretations in the semantic sense by the same lexical units, which are words with several meanings. Let's find out why this happens.
Why are there words in the language that have several meanings?
Even the linguist A. A. Potebnya, who lived in the 19th century, in his monograph “Thought and Language” wrote that the development of human speech goes in the direction of greater abstraction.
When our distant ancestors learned to express their desires and emotions using sounds, they still did not know what geometry and the periodic table were, they did not distinguish between the concepts of “bad” and “terrible”, “good” and “excellent”. The first words called objects, phenomena and feelings, the ability to identify and express which was necessary in everyday life. Similarly, children who are just learning to speak first use simple words, such as “mom,” “dad,” “home,” “table,” and only then they understand what kindness, joy, hatred, and anger mean.
In the course of the development of the ability of an ancient person to figurative and analytical thinking, it became necessary to come up with new notation for newly emerging concepts. Sometimes, words that already existed in the language were used as such designations, which, however, were given a new meaning. But at the same time, the original meaning of these words was preserved. So many words with several meanings appeared.
How to correctly name tokens with multiple values
In linguistics, a word with several meanings is called ambiguous. This is the term of Russian linguistics, and in foreign science such words carry polysemic names (from the Greek. Polis - “a lot”, and semanticos - “denoting”).
The Russian academician V.V. Vinogradov called the ability of one word to transmit various information about objects and phenomena of extralinguistic reality to be ambiguous. It should be said that the meaning inherent in the word, its material-semantic shell is called the lexical meaning. Above are examples of the interpretation of words that have several lexical meanings. However, few people know that the word "world" has not two, but seven whole meanings! You can check this on the explanatory dictionary Ozhegova.
Ambiguity and homonymy
In linguistics, as in any other science, there are concepts that are among the debatable. So, for example, A. A. Potebnya and R. Jacobson believed that words with several meanings do not exist, because if a lexeme under some circumstances began to designate another object or phenomenon, then it completely changed its semantic core.
However, in traditional grammar, the concepts of polysemy and homonymy still differ, although they are often confused in Internet resources.
It is believed that words that have several meanings, nevertheless, retain in each interpretation their own semantic center, a certain idea that lies at the very root of the structure of the lexical unit. It is assumed that polysemic words have a continuity of meanings, while homonyms do not. For example, a crane and a crane in the kitchen, the note “salt” and kitchen salt are homonyms, not ambiguous words, because there is no semantic connection between them.
How does the ambiguity of words arise
It is believed that polysemy occurs in three main ways:
- Using metaphorical transference. Under the metaphor is understood the displacement of the meaning of the word, based on the similarity of several objects. For example: wheat grain - the grain of truth.
- Using metonymy. By metonymy is meant the transfer of the meaning of one word to another according to the principle of the presence of semantic connections between two concepts. For example: a dish of expensive porcelain - a delicious dish of French cuisine.
- With the help of a synecdoha. Many linguists believe that the synecdoch is a special case of metonymy. This term refers to the transfer of the name of the part to the whole. For example: “home hearth” instead of “home” and “returning home from America” instead of “returning to Russia” (if you mean coming to your own country, and not specifically to your home from someone else's home).
Meaningful Words Examples
It can be assumed that the name of our planet - Earth - appeared a second time from the name of land, soil. After all, humans and mammals exist precisely on land, it is it that is their real habitat. And the name of our planet was formed using metonymic transfer, that is, the designation of a part of the surface was transferred to the whole. We also say, for example, that the class listens carefully to the teacher, meaning by this not the room, but the students in it.
We call raspberries berries, as well as the bush on which they grow. The ambiguity here developed according to the principle of synecdoha. But the vernacular meaning of the word "raspberry" - "thieves' den" is, rather, a homonym to the other two examples of its use.
What does the word prefix mean?
Can you say right away - one or more of the meanings of the word "prefix"? Everyone knows from the school course of the Russian language that this is the name of the part of the word that precedes the root and serves to change the meaning of the lexical unit. This noun is formed from the verb "molest" and actually calls everything that is "molested" that stands next to something.
In the explanatory dictionary of the Russian language, two meanings of this word are noted:
- a tape recorder enhancing the power of sound;
- morpheme, prefix;
- also a prefix 10-15 years ago called a special installation for virtual games.
Linguistic puns based on ambiguity and homonymy
In each developed language, there are words that match in form, but differ in meaning. The combination of such lexical units in one text is used to create a comic effect, a pun - a pun. Try to explain what the comic effect of the following phrases is based on:
- Squinted oblique oblique.
- He stoked the stove all night. By the morning she drowned.
- Parrot us, parrot.
- He learned verse and verse.
In the above phrases, the comic effect is based on the homonymity of certain forms of words. But at the same time, the vocabulary forms of these lexical units are different. So, in the first example, the words “mow”, “oblique”, “braid” are used. “Oblique” as an adjective means “uneven,” “crooked,” and “oblique” as a noun is the colloquial naming of a hare. In the second example, the polysemy of the word “stoke” is used: to kindle a fire, immerse deep in water. In the third example, homonyms are used: a parrot as a noun - the name of a bird, a parrot as an imperative from the verb "scare". And finally, in the fourth example, the pun is based on the coincidence of the past tense of the verb “subside” and the noun in the nominative case “verse” (line in poetry).
It is not always easy to understand if one or more meanings have words. Token root and contextual analysis can help determine if the units in question are ambiguous or homonymous.
Interpretation Exercise for Meaningful Words
Assignment: look at the list below and try to determine for yourself if one or more of the meanings has the highlighted words: wardrobe, fox, car, path, hand, core . Explain your choice. How many meanings did you get for each word?
All of these words have several lexical meanings:
- A wardrobe is called a piece of clothing, as well as the room where they are stored.
- A fox is an animal and at the same time a cunning person. The ambiguity developed due to the fact that in ancient times (and in villages - even now) foxes at night, when no one sees them, penetrated people's homes and barns to steal food.
- A machine is both a vehicle and technical equipment.
- The path is the road on earth, and air communication, and metaphorically human life.
- The hand is part of the body and handwriting.
- The core is both the central part of something, and the basis of any movement, for example, the army.
Several logic tasks
Take a look at the phrases below. Can you guess what unites:
- position of diplomat and pickle;
- radiation from the sun and the estate of aristocrats;
- marital relations and poorly made products;
- a strip of land in the sea and the pride of a Russian beauty;
- river fish and dishwashing brush.
Answers: ambassador; shine; marriage; braid; ruff.
In your opinion, which of these examples relate to homonymy, and which relate to ambiguity? Words with several meanings differ from homonyms by the presence of some logical-semantic connection between different concepts. In example No. 2, the relationship is based on a metaphor: as the sun illuminates the earth, so aristocrats, by virtue of their education and development, were the decoration of society. And in example No. 5, the connection between the fish and the brush is based on metonymy, because the external shape of the brush resembles a fish. Examples numbered 1, 3, 4 are based on homonymy.
Thus, we found out that a word with several meanings is called polysemantic, or polysemic. But at the same time, it is desirable to be able to distinguish polysemy from homonymy. If there is any semantic connection between words with several meanings, then it is not between homonyms.