POLYSEMY. When analyzing the semantic structure of the word we observe those words as a rule are not units of single meaning

When analyzing the semantic structure of the word we observe those words as a rule are not units of single meaning. A word may have several meanings. Then it is called a polysemantic word. Words having only one meaning are called monosemantic. Monosemantic words are comparatively few in number. These are mainly scientific terms such as hydrogen, molecule.

Polysemy is a phenomenon which has an exceptional importance for the description of a language system and for the solution of practical tasks connected with an adequate understanding of the meaning of a word and its use.

The reason why any word may potentially have more than one meaning (be polysemantic) is obvious: the reality of the world is infinite, while the resources of even the richest language are limited. Thus, language keeps stretching out its lexical units to cover new phenomena of objective reality. The speaker observes certain similarities between objects and acquires the habit of using words metaphorically. When the metaphor becomes habitual it is included as a lexical-semantic variant in the word's semantic structure.

This, however, is not merely a theoretical question, but one that is of the greatest practical significance to the compiler of dictionaries. How do we know that this or that word is polysemantic and what are the criteria used to arrive at the final decision? And how does a lexicographer know that he is dealing with different meanings of the same word and not different words (homonyms)?

A great contribution to the development of the problem of polysemy was made by the Russian linguist V.V.Vinogradov. The scientist admitted the importance of differentiating the meaning from the usage (a contemial variant). Meanings are fixed and common to all people, who know the language system. The usage is only a possible application of one of the meanings of a polysemantic word, sometimes very individual, sometimes more or less familiar. Meaning is not identical with usage. Of special importance is the fact that polysemy exists only in language, not in speech.

The meaning of a word in speech is contextual.

Polysemy does not interfere with the communicative function of a
language because in every particular case the situation or context, i.e.
the environment of the word, cancels all the unnecessary meanings and
makes speech unambiguous. A further development of V.V.Vinogradov's theory was A.I.Smirnitsky's work in the linguistic field under consideration. According to this scholar all the meanings of the word form identity (тождество) supported by the form of the word. A.I.Smirnitsky introduced the term 'a lexico-semantic variant' (LSV). A lexico-semantic variant is a two-facet unit (двусторонняя единица), the formal facet of which is the sound-form of a word, white the content facet is one of the meanings of the given word, i.e. the designation (обозначение) of a certain class of objects. Words with one meaning are represented in the languag system by one LSV, polysemantic words — by a number of LSVs. All lexico-semantic variants of a word form a homogenous semantic structure ensuring the semantic unity of the given word. All LSVs are united together by a certain meaning — the semantic pivot of the word called the semantic center of the word. Thus, the semantic center of the word is the part of meaning which remains constant in all the lexico-semantic variants of the word

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