What is the main difference between polysemy and Homonymy?

Polysemy refers to the coexistence of many possible meanings for a word or phrase. Homonymy refers to the existence of two or more words having the same spelling or pronunciation but different meanings and origins. This is the main difference between polysemy and homonymy.

What is polysemy with example?

polysemy Add to list Share. When a symbol, word, or phrase means many different things, that’s called polysemy. The verb “get” is a good example of polysemy — it can mean “procure,” “become,” or “understand.”

What is an example of a ambiguity?

Ambiguity, or fallacy of ambiguity, is a word, phrase, or statement which contains more than one meaning. For instance, it is ambiguous to say “I rode a black horse in red pajamas,” because it may lead us to think the horse was wearing red pajamas.

What is the difference between polysemy and synonymy?

Synonymy is about similar meanings of different words. Polysemy is about related (and therefore somehow similar) meanings of a word. (DEFAULT) Polysemy is about different (related) meanings of a word.

What is the difference between polysemy and Homonymy give examples?

Homonymy obtains when two words accidentally have the same form, such as bank ‘land bordering on a river’ and bank ‘financial institution. ‘ Polysemy obtains where one word has several similar meanings, such as may indicating ‘permission’ (e.g., May I go now?) and may indicating possibility (e.g., It may never happen).

What is the difference between polysemy and Hyponymy?

As nouns the difference between polysemy and hyponymy is that polysemy is (semantics) the ability of words, signs and symbols to have multiple meanings while hyponymy is (semantics) the semantic relation between hyponyms; the quality of being hyponymous.

What are the types of polysemy?

Types of polysemy Linear polysemy accounts for a specialization-generalization relation between senses and, in turn, is divided into four types: autohyponymy, automeronymy, autosuperordination and autoholonymy.

What does ambiguity mean?

noun, plural am·bi·gu·i·ties. doubtfulness or uncertainty of meaning or intention: to speak with ambiguity; an ambiguity of manner. an unclear, indefinite, or equivocal word, expression, meaning, etc.: a contract free of ambiguities; the ambiguities of modern poetry.

What is polysemy in language?

Polysemy is characterized as the phenomenon whereby a single word form is associated with two or several related senses. It is distinguished from monosemy, where one word form is associated with a single meaning, and homonymy, where a single word form is associated with two or several unrelated meanings.

What is synonymy in linguistics?

Synonymy is a relation between individual senses of words, so that a single word typically has different sets of synonyms for each of its senses. Like its converse, polysemy, lexical synonymy undermines linguistic economy—having more than one form to express a single meaning is inefficient.

What are ambiguity polysemy and vagueness?

Ambiguity, Polysemy and Vagueness. Ambiguity, polysemy and vagueness are terms used in cognitive semantics referring to different instances of plurality of meaning. According to Deane (1988) these three phenomena “form a gradient between total semantic identity” (vagueness) “and total semantic distinctness” (p. 327) (ambiguity).

What is the difference between polysemy and homonymy?

This is the main difference between polysemy and homonymy. Polysemy refers to words or phrases with different, but related meanings. A word becomes polysemous if it can be used to express different meanings. The difference between these meanings can be obvious or subtle.

What is polysemy in English grammar?

What is Polysemy. Polysemy refers to words or phrases with different, but related meanings. A word becomes polysemous if it can be used to express different meanings. The difference between these meanings can be obvious or subtle.

How do you know if a word is polysemous?

A word becomes polysemous if it can be used to express different meanings. The difference between these meanings can be obvious or subtle. It is sometimes difficult to determine whether a word is polysemous or not because the relations between words can be vague and unclear.