Polysemy

3. 1. The notion of polysemy

A couple of New Jersey hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn't seem to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head. The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator: “My friend is dead! What can I do?” The operator, in a calm soothing voice says: “Just take it easy. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead.” There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy's voice comes back on the line. He says: “OK, now what?"

It seems make sure has (at least) two different senses. The first is: to find out if something is true or to check if something has been done, and the second one is: to do something so that you can be certain of the result. These two rather contradictory meanings are played upon in the joke above, creating a humorous effect.

Polysemy refers to a situation where the same word has two or more different meanings. According to Wikipedia, it is the capacity for a sign (e.g. a word, phrase, etc.) or signs to have multiple meanings. If we look at the noun line, we’ll see that it has got over 10 different meanings (a mark on a piece of paper; a row of people; wrinkles; a telephone connection; railroad track; opinion/attitude; words you say; a particular way of doing s/th, rope/wire, etc.) The senses of the word may be more or less distant from one another: walk (action, street) are relatively close, while case (box/container) and case (situation /example /criminal case) are much further apart.

Many words have more than one meaning and multiple meanings are surely a normal state for most common words in English. Monosemantic words, i.e. words having only one meaning are comparatively few in number; these are mainly pronouns and numerals. The greatest number of monosemantic words can be found among terms, the very nature of which requires precision. But even here we must mention that terms are monosemantic only within one branch of science.

e.g.: to dress – to bandage a wound (medical terminology);

to dress – to prepare the soil for planting seeds (terminology of agriculture);

to dress – to decorate with flags (naval terminology).

Words belonging to the most active, vitally important and widely used part of the English vocabulary are generally polysemantic.

The older a word is, the better developed is its semantic structure. The normal pattern of this development is from monosemy to a simple semantic structure of 2 or 3 meanings with a further movement to an increasingly more complex semantic structure. The average number of meanings of the commonly used words ranges from five to about a few dozen. In fact, the older and the more common the word is, the more meanings it has. A dictionary in its descriptive function will have to give a list of definitions for each of the different ‘meanings’. But the language is an infinite combination of meanings and it is a pointless exercise to pick a word and give its ‘true meaning’, since new meanings are constantly generated in speech.

Thus, according to LDOC, the noun mind in Modern English has 13 meanings:

1) brain, thinking process, I don’t know what’s going on in her mind.

2) decide (to make up ones mind, to change one’s mind, to be in too mind) I just couldn’t make up my mind, so in the end I bought both.

3) thinking about smth. (to come to mind, to cross/enter one’s mind; turn one’s mind to) Let’s now turn our minds to tomorrow’s meeting.

4) worry/stop worrying (on one’s mind). You look worried, Sarah. Is there something in your mind?; to be out of one’s mind with grief/worry etc.

5) crazy, mentally ill (to be out one’s mind, to lose one’s mind, to be in one’s right mind). I feel like I’m going rut out of my mind.

6) forget (to put smth. out one’s mind, out of sight, out of mind, to slip one’s mind).

7) remember (to bring to one’s mind, to keep smth. in mind, to bear smth., at the back of one’s mind).

8) opinion; To my mind this is the best drawing of his. (to speak one’s mind; to have an open mind /close mind; to be of the same mind (We’re all of the same mind on this issue)).

9) strong/ determined (to have a mind of one’s own.) Even at the age of three John had a mind of his own. (to put one’s mind to smth.) It won’t take you Jody to do it if you put your mind to it.

10) attention (to keep ones mind on smth.) It was difficult to keep my mind on polysemy with spring emotions overloading you.

11) imagine it’s all in your mind. (in one’s mind’s eye) She could see in her mind’s eye the whitewashed cottage of her childhood.

12) intend/want (to have smth. in mind; to have a good mind to do smth./ to have half a mind to do smth.)

13) intelligence He is one the finest political minds in the country. He was a bright child with an enquiring mind. Great minds think alike.

This list of ‘meanings’ may vary from dictionary to dictionary, which means that it is not exhaustive. Many words have more than one meaning and multiple meanings is surely a normal state for most common words in English. A dictionary in its descriptive function will have to give a list of definitions for each of the different ‘meanings’. In the light of that to pick on a word and give a ‘true meaning’ to it is a pointless exercise. Newly created words which this word is at the time of their creation may well remain chaste and pure for a time but they too will soon lose their purity and diversify.

Words with multiple meanings can sometimes cause ambiguity in speech and create a humorous effect, as in the following example:

Mind you, I don't mind minding the children if the children mind me.
1. Mind you is an expression used to qualify a previous statement suggesting: I must tell you on the other hand.

2. I don’t mind means: I have no objection.

3. Minding the children means: Looking after the children.

4. If the children mind me means: If the children keep out of my way.

A polyseme is a word or phrase with multiple, related meanings. A word is judged to be polysemous if the senses of the word are related. Since the concept of relatedness is the touchstone for polysemy, judgments of polysemy are not always straightforward. Obviously, delving into the words’ etymology is a helpful method in making judgments about polysemy. Since applying pre-existing words to new situations is a natural process of language change, tracing links between meanings will help determine polysemous relations between them. But attempts to go back to the roots of the word are not always possible, because word meanings drift and their origins become untraceable. What once might have been a useful distinction of meaning may no longer be so? Some apparently unrelated words share a common historical origin, however, so etymology is not an infallible test for polysemy, and dictionary writers also often defer to speakers' intuitions to judge polysemy in cases where it contradicts etymology.

There are several tests for polysemy, but one of them is zeugma. If one word seems to exhibit zeugma when applied in different contexts, it is likely that the contexts bring out different polysemes of the same word. If the two senses of the same word do not seem to fit, yet seem related, then it is likely that they are polysemous. The fact that this test again depends on speakers' judgments about relatedness, however, means that this test for polysemy is by no means foolproof, but rather merely a helpful, conceptual aid. “ Mr Jones took his coat and his leave ”.

“He [Mr. Finching] proposed seven times once in a hackney-coach once in a boat once in a pew once on a donkey at Tunbridge Wells and the rest on his knees.”
[Flora Finching] - (Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, Chapter 24)

• Oh, flowers are as common here, Miss Fairfax, as people are in London." Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (Cecily is making a catty remark to Miss Fairfax, a Londoner, by using "common" in two senses, namely "numerous" and "vulgar" as in the expression "common thief.")

• "The Russian grandees came to Elizabeth's court dropping pearls and vermin." Thomas Babington Macaulay

• "Are you getting fit or having one?" From the television program M*A*S*H

• "You held your breath and the door for me."
  (Alanis Morissette, "Head over Feet")

• "You are free to execute your laws, and your citizens, as you see fit." From the television program Star Trek: The Next Generation

In most cases, only one of the meanings of a polysemous word will fit into a given context. Occasionally, though, ambiguity may also arise. There are cases when the meaning of the word is ultimately determined not by linguistic factors but by the actual speech situation in used. The meaning of the phrase I’ve got it is determined not only by the grammatical or lexical context but by the actual speech situation. To get may mean to possess or to understand. It should be noted, however, that the less specific the context, the greater the possibility of ambiguity: if someone watching television comments What a case!, it may not be immediately clear to other people unaware of what the program is about whether the comment refers to a legal case or to a container. (Other examples: Look at that bat under the tree. Susan may go to the bank today). But in natural speech and writing, however, ambiguity happens rarely, since the context determines what meaning gets actualized. Unless, of course, the interplay of meanings is invoked deliberately, and that, as we have seen, is often done in jokes or for stylistic effect. This technique is often resorted to in the media, advertising and TV commercials. A polysemous effect, whereby two or more meanings of a word come into play, is most often placed in headlines, subheadings and captions.

' Chill out with Beaujolais' (TONY, 10-17.06.1999)

‘ How Not to Be All Wet’ (Esquire (04.1998)

A Whole Lotta Dough (TONY, 10-17.06.1999)

‘ We are Chicken,… but We Admit it’ (TV Commercial for a chicken restaurant)