Random associativity, rated above-average positively
Texts to »Polysemy«
Jean-Claude Choul wrote on Mar 11th 2002, 09:59:32 about
Polysemy
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Polysemy is, according to Webster's Collegiate, the multiplicity of meanings. It is the opposite of monosemy. The word was coined by Michel Bréal, founder of historical semantics, preoccupied, as was his contemporary Antoine Darmesteter, with the evolution of meaning in words. American linguists, often working with utterances, generally speak of lexical ambiguity. But polysemy is a reality, as witnessed by subsenses (usually numbered) in a dictionary entry. Cf. cause, rebellion, rebel (n.& adj.). The vast majority of words are polysemous and, generally speaking, only technical or scientific words are monosemic, at least immediately after being coined or derived. The most abstruse the science or field, the longer monosemy will prevail. Some linguists even suggested that polysemy was paradoxically a sign of meaning depletion, due to frequent uses. Polysemy is especially exploited in poetry and puns.
Jean-Claude Choul wrote on Mar 11th 2002, 10:26:34 about
Polysemy
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Some words have more potential than others for polysemy or polysemic development. »Etiolate« as compared to »Uxorious«, for instance. This is due in part to their combinatorial possibility with other words in creative sentences (as opposed to standard or cliché uses). But even »uxorious« is bisemic, although the dictionary fails to mark the difference between »being excessively fond of« and »being excessively submissive to« (a wife). The test, as always in semantics and linguistics, is substitution. None of the four senses or »fond« can be construed as equivalent to »submissive«. Polysemic potential can be assimilated with the contextual capacity of a word, and can be seen as the application of a given context to the word in question, in a relationship similar to that of argument and predicate.
paxer9999 wrote on Oct 7th 2002, 22:15:33 about
Polysemy
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The Polysemy nature of words and/or signs is rooted in the ambiguous and perhaps arbitrary inherent meaning of words and/or signs.
Some random keywords |
longevity
Created on Apr 19th 2003, 06:41:12 by venus, contains 5 texts
Inquiry
Created on Oct 19th 2000, 00:48:42 by Eli, contains 11 texts
lyrical
Created on Apr 21st 2001, 09:46:44 by Bob Dill, contains 4 texts
unfair
Created on Mar 9th 2003, 14:12:17 by this isn't fair, contains 3 texts
ready
Created on Jul 30th 2003, 15:37:43 by champ, contains 3 texts
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Some random keywords in the german Blaster |
der
Created on May 19th 1999, 13:52:03 by Kamille, contains 395 texts
obrigkeitshörig
Created on Dec 22nd 2002, 19:20:28 by toschibar, contains 6 texts
DELENDA
Created on Mar 12th 2016, 22:19:45 by Cato der Ältere, contains 12 texts
Hagebuttenlaterne
Created on May 4th 2002, 21:44:54 by KIA, contains 15 texts
Die-FDP-fordert-Neuwahlen
Created on Mar 15th 2012, 18:58:20 by baumhaus, contains 5 texts
Großkopfeter
Created on Nov 26th 2013, 19:09:04 by Elektronik-Mieze, contains 1 texts
augenzwinkernd
Created on Mar 23rd 2011, 23:07:39 by Baumhaus, contains 5 texts
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