What is polysemy and homonymy?

A word is polysemous if it can be used to express different meanings. The difference between the meanings can be obvious or subtle. • Two or more words are homonyms if they either sound the same (homophones), have the same spelling (homographs), or both, but do not have related meanings.

What is homonymy and polysemy explain them and give some examples of them?

Homonymy obtains when two words accidentally have the same form, such as bank ‘land bordering on a river’ and bank ‘financial institution. ‘ Polysemy obtains where one word has several similar meanings, such as may indicating ‘permission’ (e.g., May I go now?) and may indicating possibility (e.g., It may never happen).

What is polysemy example?

Polysemy refers to a single word with more than one meaning. The multiple meanings are listed under one entry in a dictionary. For example, the word dish has multiple meanings, but they’re all under one entry (as a noun) in a dictionary: Dish (noun) It’s your turn to wash the dishes = a kind of plate.

What is the difference between synonymy homonymy and polysemy?

Main Difference – Polysemy vs Homonymy Both of them refer to words having multiple meanings. Polysemy refers to the coexistence of many possible meanings for a word or phrase. Homonymy refers to the existence of two or more words having the same spelling or pronunciation but different meanings and origins.

What is the meaning of homonymy?

Homonymy is the relationship between words that are homonyms—words that have different meanings but are pronounced the same or spelled the same or both. It can also refer to the state of being homonyms.

What are the polysemy words?

A polysemous word is a word that has different meanings that derive from a common origin; a homograph is a word that has different meanings with unrelated origins. Polysemous words and homographs constitute a known problem for language learners.

What is the meaning of Homonymy?

What are the types of polysemy?

Linear polysemy accounts for a specialization-generalization relation between senses and, in turn, is divided into four types: autohyponymy, automeronymy, autosuperordination and autoholonymy.