Lexical

Ambiguity
Lecture 3

Polysemy and Homophony

homophony - two words accidentally have the
same phonological form;
polysemy - one and the same word acquires
different, though obviously related, meanings,
often with respect to particular contexts.

Homonymy

Mary walked along the bank of the river.

Harborbank is the richest bank in the city.
Drop me a line when you are in Boston.
We built a fence along the property line.
The pilot taxied the plane to the end of the runway.
John saw the taxi down the street.
My dog would always bark at mailmen.
The tree's bark was a rusty brown.

Homonymy

The discussion turned on the feasibility of the scheme.

The bull turned on the matador.
The judge asked the defendant to approach the bar.
The defendant was in the pub at the bar.
He bought a bar of soap.
Sarah climbed down the ladder.
b. Sarah bought a down blanket.

Polysemy

Polysemy

The newspaper got wet in the rain.

The newspaper fired some of its editing staff.
The bank raised its interest rates yesterday.
The store is next to the newly constructed bank.
The bank appeared first in Italy in the Renaissance.
The farm will fail unless the drought ends soon.
It is difficult to farm this land.

Polysemy

John crawled through the window.

The window is closed.
The window is made of security glass.
The university changed its admission policy last year.
The university is close to the thieves.
c. The university became established in the early
medieval times.

Homophony and polysemy in dictionaries

bank
1. an organization that provides various financial services, for
example keeping or lending money;
2. (in gambling) a supply of money or things that are used as money
in some games, especially those in which gambling is involved;
3. an amount of something that is collected; a place where
something is stored ready for use (a bank of knowledge)
4. the side of a river,canal, etc. and the land near it.
5. (slope) a raised area of ground that slopes at the sides, often at
the edge of something or dividing something.

Frequent types of polysemy

The lamb is running in the field. (animal)

John ate lamb for breakfast. (meat)
There is an apple on the table. (object)
There is apple in the salad. (stuff)
There was cheese on the table. (stuff)
Three cheeses were served. (kind)
The restaurant served beer, and so we ordered three beers.
(stuff; portions)

Frequent types of polysemy

Mary watered the fig in the garden. (plant)

Mary ate the fig. (food)
Mary broke the bottle. (container)
b. The baby finished the bottle. (stuff contained)
The companys merger with Honda will begin next fall.
(process)
The merger will lead to the production of more cars.
(result)

Frequent types of polysemy

John traveled to New York. (place)

New York kicked the Mayer out of office. (people)
Washington is the capital of the USA. (capital)
Washington accused Havana not to do enough for the
victims. (government)

Define the meaning of the polysemantic

word in the following contexts:
1. Grace made her way slowly across the rough ground. uneven, not

smooth_____
2. The sea was rough and no swimming allowed.
3. Rugby's a rough game at the best of times.
4. It was quite a rough part of our town.
5. All women have a rough time in our society.
6. The virus won't go away and the lad is still feeling a bit rough.
7. We were only able to make a rough estimate of how much fuel
would be required.
8. I've got a rough idea of what he looks like.
9. The bench had a rough wooden table in front of it.