POLYSEMY
Polysemy is the association of one word
with two or more distinct meanings.
A polysemy
is a word or phrase with multiple meanings. This happens when a lexeme acquires
a wider range of meanings.
According
to some estimates, more than 40% of English words have more than one meaning. The
fact that so many words (or lexemes)
are polysemous "shows that semantic changes often add meanings to the language without
subtracting any" (M. Lynne Murphy, Lexical Meaning, 2010).
Example
:
1) a. The bank raised its interest rates
yesterday.
b. The store is next to the newly constructed bank.
c. The bank appeared first in Italy in the
Renaissance.
2) a. John crawled through the window.
b. The window is closed.
c. The window is made of security glass.
3) a. The farm will fail unless the
drought ends soon.
b. It is difficult to farm this land.
4) a. The store is open.
b. The thief tried to open the door.
5) Present
a.
right now, the current moment
b.
a gift
c.
to show or display (e.g. "Michael
was next to present")
d.
to be physically somewhere (e.g.
"Stephen was present at the meeting")
6) Wood
a.
a piece of a tree
b.
a geographical area with many trees
c.
an erection
7) Crane
a.
a bird
b.
a type of construction equipment
http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/polysemyterm.htm
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