解析英语中的一词多义
摘要
随着社会的发展，科技的突飞猛进以及电脑信息的普及，一词多义现象在英语语言中已经十分普遍。英语语言中许多新词新义层出不穷,意思在增加，用途也在扩大。而这些词语的意义有何特征，为何一个词会出现这么多意义？一词多义现象在英语使用中产生了怎样的影响？我们又该如何去做，才能更好地掌握一词多义呢？
本文首先简要概述一词多义现象的历史背景，然后分析一词多义的特征及其形成原因，并通过举例说明一词多义对英语学习和日常交际的影响。本文主要目的是帮助英语学习者了解更多关于一词多义的信息，更好地了解一词多义的形成并掌握一词多义的方法，以避免在与他人的交流中产生歧义。
关键字：一词多义，特征，原因，影响，方法
Analysis of Polysemy in English
Abstract
With the development of the society, science, technology and the popularization of internet information, polysemy has become more and more common in English. Apart from the special terms, even the words commonly used in our daily lives, most of which are polysemy. What is polysemy? What features does polysemy have? Why do these words have so many meanings? What influences are brought by polysemy? And what can we do to master Polysemy better? …
Keywords：polysemy, features, causes, impacts, methods
Introduction
Polysemy has a universal feature to all natural languages(1). This is particularly true of a highly developed language like English. Generally speaking, a word has only a single meaning at its first appearance. With the development of people’s needs of recognizing and explaining the world, the problem of shortage of already-existed words arises. And as a common phenomenon of language, it has always been attracting many linguists’ attention.
Polysemy, “ the association of two of more related senses with a single linguistic form” (Taylor 1995:99)，is one of the most important issues of present linguistic semantics, since the analysis of polysemy and polysemization processes is indispensable for accurate reading, language acquisition, computational linguistics and similar tasks. Although its importance was already recognized in many historical-philological traditions in the beginning of the twentieth century and was emphasized again by Ullmann（1951）, it is not until recently that polysemy has become a central issue again in linguistic semantics.
Notes: (1) Natural languages here refer to the languages different people use in daily life.
1. Features of Polysemy
Polysemy has been defined as “A term used in semantic analysis to refer to a lexical item which has a range of different meanings.” (Crystal, 1980:274) As we all know that polysemy is a common phenomenon in English, in which an overwhelming majority of words are polysemous.
Variety
According to different linguists, the meanings of a polysemous word can have varieties
of classifications and names. Cheng Yuming (1999), a Chinese linguist, points out that “To understanding the meanings of a word, we should not only pay attention to the specific meanings
Hierarchy
As far as Leech’s seven types of meaning are concerned, the relation between these types is not parallel, but there is hierarchy between them. Conceptual meaning is the primary meaning, which is the central meaning; while the other meanings, which are derived from the central
Changeability
The meanings of polysemous words are not unchanged. As the development of the society, the meanings are changing, which mainly performs as the sense shift and the emergence of a new meaning. Some original meanings may lose as the emergence of the new meaning or be placed by the other derived meanings or preserved with other meanings in the modern English. The
2. Causes of Polysemization
Ullmann(1951)⑧ states “polysemy is a fundamental feature of human speech, which can arise in multiplicity of ways” and puts forward five sources of polysemization, in which some sources can be illustrated as the main causes of polysemization.
2.1 Shifts in application
Shifts in application is the main cause of polysemization. Words have a number of different aspects according to the context in which they are used. Though some aspects are transitory, other aspects are conventionalized and develop into independent meanings of the same term. Further
2.2 Specialization in a social milieu
Word senses vary with social milieus, such as profession, region and age. For mathematicians, operation means ‘calculation’, while it is naturally understood as ‘military action’ for soldiers. And for zoologists, mouse means ‘a kind of animal’ but it is means ‘joystick’ for someone who learns
2.3 Usage of figurative language
The next cause is the usage of figurative language. Rhetorical use of a word (metaphor and metonymy) gives the word additional senses without losing the original meaning. Ullmann notes that “old sense will live on side by side as long as there is no possibility of confusion between
3. The Impacts of Polysemy in English
As a common phenomenon in English, polysemy has brought a lot of impacts to the English learners. They will definitely meet a lot of problems caused by polysemy no matter they are learning the English language or communicating with those who speak English as their native language.
3.1 Mistranslations in English-Chinese (EC) translation
Mistranslation in EC translation is mainly caused by polysemy. For new learners who learn the translation, when they encounter a polysemous word, it is very easy for them to take the word too literally and translate it without real understanding. Especially when they meet some
4. The Ways of Mastering Polysemy
Actually, no matter how many senses a word has, these senses always maintain a certain relationship. Kunihiro (1981) has listed eleven items as the relationship between multiple meanings of a polysemous word. In this chapter, some items listed by Kunihiro can be used to
4.1 Memorization of the meanings of polysemous word.
4.1.1 By inference
4.1.2 By metaphorical and metonymic transformation
Conclusion
This paper is divided into four parts: the introduction part firstly states a brief overview on the historical background of polysemy. As a common phenomenon in English, the study of polysemy has been attracted by lots of linguists home and abroad for a long history. From the complex relations between meanings and words were first noted by the Stoics, to a new starting
Acknowledgements
There are a great number of people who need to be acknowledged for their efforts in bringing this project to completion. First, I would like to acknowledge the college and all the
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