The Branches of Semantics "Polysemy, Homophones, Homographs, and Homonymy"

A.      POLYSEMY

Polysemy is the existence of several meanings for a single word or phrase. The word polysemy comes from the Greek words πολυ-, poly-, “many” and σήμα, sêma, “sign”. In other words it is the capacity for a word, phrase, or sign to have multiple meanings i.e., a large semantic field. Polysemy is a pivotal concept within the humanities, such as media studies and linguistics.

A word like walk is polysemous :

1.    I  went walking this morning

2.    We went for a walk last Sunday

3.    Do you walk the dog every day?

4.    I live near Meadow Walk Drive

5.    The wardrobe is too heavy to lift; we’ll have to walk it into the bedroom (move a large object by rocking).

6.    She walks the tower (to haunt a place as a ghost).

7.    The workers threatened to walk (to go on strike).

8.    Walk with God! (to live your life in a particular way)

B.   HOMOPHONES

Homophones are words that have exactly the same sound (pronunciation) but different meanings and (usually) spelling.

For example, the following two words have the same sound, but different meanings and spelling :

·   Hour
·   our

In the next example, the two words have the same sound and spelling, but different meanings :

·   bear (the animal)
·   bear (to carry)

Usually homophones are in groups of two (our, hour), but very occasionally they can be in groups of three (to, too, two) or even four. If we take our "bear" example, we can add another word to the group.

·    bare (naked)
·    bear (the animal)
·    bear (to tolerant)

C.      HOMOGRAPHS

Homographs are words with different pronunciation, meanings and origins but the same spelling. They are not to be confused with homonyms, homophones and heteronyms. In order to work out which pronunciation and which meaning is appropriate, you need to be aware of the context. Here are a few homographs and their meaning.

Examples :

·            agape - wide open/a Greek word meaning “love”

·            attribute - a characteristic or quality/to think of as belonging to ororiginating in some person,place or thing

·            axes - the plural of ax or axe/the plural of axis

·            bass - a deep voice or tone/a kind of fish

·            bat - a piece of sporting equipment used in baseball/a winged animal associated with vampires

·            bow - to bend at the waist/the front of a boat/a pair of tied loops

·            buffet - to hit, punch or slap/a self-serve food bar

·            bustier - an undergarment/more busty

D.      HOMONYMY

The word homonym comes from the Greek ὁμώνυμος (homonumos), meaning “having the same name”, which is the conjunction of ὁμός (homos), meaning “common” and ὄνομα (onoma) meaning “name”. In other words, homonymy refers to two or more distinct concepts sharing the “same name”.

Examples include the following nouns, verbs and adjectives :

1.    Fleet: all the ships of a nation’s navy, e.g., The Greek fleet disappeared behind the huge mountains.

2.    Fleet: a number of road vehicles, boats, or aircraft owned, working, or managed as a unit, usually by a commercial enterprise e.g., The new company has a large fleet of service vehicles.

3.    Plane, e.g., I like to travel by airplane.

4.    Plain, pronounced the same but spelt differently, means clearly visible, e.g., The wallet was in plain view.

5.    Sow, the verb, means to plant seeds, e.g., He sowed the seeds of revolution.

6.    Sow, the noun, refers to an adult female pig, e.g., Have you fed the sow?

7.    Bank, the noun, means a business offering financial services, e. g., He went to the bank to deposit some money.

8.    Bank, the noun, refers to the steep side of a river, stream, lake, or canal, e.g., We climbed the river bank safely.

9.    Bank, the noun, also refers row of similar things, e.g., There was a bank of switches on the wall.