A Study of Difference and Identification between Homonymy and Polysemy

Jing Zheng

doi:10.54254/2753-7080/9/2024106

Research Article

Open access

Published on 14 October 2024

Download pdf

Zheng,J. (2024). A Study of Difference and Identification between Homonymy and Polysemy. Advances in Humanities Research,9,13-17.

Export citation

A Study of Difference and Identification between Homonymy and Polysemy

Jing Zheng *^,1,

¹ Guangdong University of Foreign Studies

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

https://doi.org/10.54254/2753-7080/9/2024106

Abstract

Lexical ambiguity is an essential problem in practical and applied language processing, but a few relatively information is available about what causes and effect the problem of lexical ambiguity. After many linguistic and professional researched lexical relations for a long time, people found that homonymy and polysemy are two well-known semantic problems. This paper mainly discusses the homonymy and polysemy from the definition, cause of formation, the principles of distinction and semantic ambiguity. At the same time, some methods of distinguishing homonymous and polysemous words are offered in one part of thesis. It is valuable reference for English learning, English teaching and cross-cultural communication.

Keywords

homonymy, polysemy, semantic ambiguity, difference, method

View pdf

References

[1]. John, I. (2003). Semantics (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell.

[2]. Robert, K. (1997). Homonymy and polysemy in information retrieval. NEC Research Institute.

[3]. Cruse, D. A. (1995). Polysemy and related phenomena from a cognitive linguistic viewpoint. Cambridge University Press.

[4]. Pierre, F. Polysemy, homonymy and reference. Département d'anglais of Université Marc Bloch.

[5]. John. (2007). Multiple meanings: Homonymy vs polysemy. Retrieved November 8, 2008, from http://linguisticszone.blogspot.com/2007/05/multiple-meanings-homonymy-vs-polysemy.html

[6]. The Free Dictionary. (n.d.). Homonymy. Retrieved November 8, 2008, from http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/homonymy

[7]. Dean, E. (n.d.). Polysemy and polysemous. Retrieved November 9, 2008, from http://www.wordinfo.info/words/index/info/view_unit/3039

[8]. Wikipedia. (2008). Polysemy. Retrieved November 9, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polysemy

[9]. Homonymy and polysemy. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2008, from http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:gUCkvpxWKyIJ:www-users.york.ac.uk/~ez506/downloads/L140%2520Handout%2520-%2520homonyms.pdf+polysemy+and+homonymy&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=46&gl=au

[10]. Homonymy and polysemy in information retrieval. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://aclanthology.org/P97-1010.pdf

[11]. Qiao, L. Q. (2004). A study on the status of vocabulary acquisition among non-English major students in China: Based on empirical investigation (Master’s thesis, Dalian Maritime University). CNKI.

[12]. Liu, Q. Y. (2005). On word meaning relationships and vocabulary associations of second language learners (Master’s thesis, Southwest Normal University). CNKI.

[13]. Xu, M. D. (2013). A cognitive explanation of the construction "degree adverb + noun" in modern Chinese (Master’s thesis, Southwest University). CNKI.

Cite this article

Zheng,J. (2024). A Study of Difference and Identification between Homonymy and Polysemy. Advances in Humanities Research,9,13-17.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

Disclaimer/Publisher's Note

The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.

About volume

Journal：Advances in Humanities Research

Volume number: Vol.9

ISSN：2753-7080(Print) / 2753-7099(Online)

© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See Open access policy for details).