Diachronic and synchronic approaches to the study of polysemy

The word as the basic unit of the language.

The term “word” denotes the main lexical unit of a language resulting from association of a group of sounds with a meaning. This unit is used in grammatical functions characteristic of it. It is the smallest unit of a language which can stand alone as a complete utterance.

Word is a basic unit of a language, which associates with a particular group of sounds, particular meaning and has particular character. The word is the largest structural and semantic unit within the system. It is the smallest on syntactic and the largest on morphological level of analysis. The word is a two-facet unit (form\m-g). The word is a part of speech, they are synt. organized in the speech. The set of feat-s distinguishing: 1) the sense and significance of the word 2) its phonetic and graphic unity 3) lex-gr reference. The smallest significant unit of a given language capable of funct. Alone and char-ed be sem interprity, morph uninteruption and positional mobility between the sentence

Diachronic and synchronic approaches to the study of polysemy.

Polysemy. The word «polysemy» means «plurality of meanings» it exists only in the language, not in speech. A word which has more than one meaning is called polysemantic. Different meanings of a polysemantic word may come together due to the proximity of notions which they express. There are some words in the language which are monosemantic, such as most terms, /synonym, molecule, bronchites/, some pronouns /this, my, both/, numerals.

There are two processes of the semantic development of a word: radiation and concatination. In cases of radiation the primary meaning stands in the centre and the secondary meanings proceed out of it like rays. Each secondary meaning can be traced to the primmary meaning. E.g. in the word «face» the primary meaning denotes «the front part of the human head» Connected with the front position the meanings: the front part of a watch, the front part of a building, the front part of a playing card were formed.

Connected with the word «face» itself the meanings: expression of the face, outward appearance are formed. In cases of concatination secondary meanings of a word develop like a chain. In such cases it is difficult to trace some meanings to the primary one. E.g. in the word «crust» the primary meaning «hard outer part of bread» developed a secondary meaning «hard part of anything /a pie, a cake/», then the meaning»harder layer over soft snow» was developed, then «a sullen gloomy person», then «impudence» were developed. Here the last meanings have nothing to do with the primary ones. In such cases homonyms appear in the language. It is called the split of polysemy.

Different meanings of 1 and same word are closely interrelated. Polysemy is a result of: 1. Shifts in application (adj. red); 2. Specialization (partner - basic meaning; type of relationship btw 2 or more people (business partner, partner in crime); 3. Metaphorical extension (fundamental feature of any l-ge) (hands of person ~ hands of clock). Polysemy has been complicated by tendency of words to pick up meanings from other dialects, l-ges and slang. New and old meanings become interrelated, form hierarchy. They have some common semantic features which preserve integrity of word.

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