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一语言学研究ISSN1009-5039OverseasEnglish海外英语hwsy@Tel:+86-551-6569081165690812
本栏目责任编辑:谢媛媛1IntroductionHomonymyandpolysemyareverycommoninEnglish,butthesetwoconceptsareeasilytobeconfused,notonlybringingtrou⁃blestothelexicographerinwordclassification,butalsotomanyEnglishlearnersinunderstandingtheexactwords.Thedistinctionbetweenpolysemyandhomonymyisadifficultprobleminsemanticresearch.Somebooksandmanualsonlinguistictermsjustgiveasimpleexplanationofpolysemyandhomonymyrespectivelywithoutadetaileddescriptionofthem.Therefore,thetwoarealwaysbeingconfusedtobecalledPolysemy.Despitethecloserelationshipbe⁃tweenthetwoterms,itisstilldifficulttodistinguishthemfromeachother.However,theyaretwodifferentconcepts.Polysemyisdefined:whentherearetwoormorethantwomeaningsofaword,andsomeinternalrelationexistsbetweenthemeanings,thewordispolysemous.SomeEnglishdictionariesalsomadetheexplanationofpolysemy.2Definition2.1HomonymyHomonymsaretraditionallydefinedthatthedifferentwordshavethesameform.(Lyons,1995:55)Homonymsareunrelatedsensesofthesamephonologicalword.(Saeed,2004:63)Homonymsaredifferentwordswhichhavesimilaritiesinspell⁃ingandpronunciation,buthavedifferencesinmeaning.(Gove,1976:1085)Asamatteroffact,nowadaysHomonymscanbedividedintocompletehomonym,homophoneandhomograph.Thefirstcompletehomonymreferstothewordswhicharetotallysameinpronuncia⁃tionandspelling,butdifferentinmeanings.Whenthiskindofwordsappearinasinglesentence,itisdifficulttofindoutthemeaning,whichbecomesaproblemintheprocessofEnglishlearn⁃ing.Forexample,airhasthemeaningof“amixtureofgases(espe⁃ciallyoxygen)requiredforbreathing“,andthemeaningof"tune";ballhasthemeaningof“roundobjectthatishitorthrownorkickedingames",andthemeaningof“dancingparty";datehasthemeaningof“theparticulardayspecifiedasthetimesomethinghappens"and“sweetediblefruitofjujubetree”.Secondly,homo⁃phonesarethewordshavingsamephoneticformbutnoapparentconnectioninwordmeaningandspelling.Forexample,beandbeearehomophones,theformer’smeaningis“havethequalityofbe⁃ing",thelatteris“akindofinsects";cellis“anysmallcompart⁃ment”andsellis“exchangeordeliverformoney".Thirdly,homo⁃graphbelongstothewordswhicharespelledinasameformbutarepronounceddifferently,sodoesitmean.Forinstance,themeaningofleadisnotonlyanoun"Pb"butalsoaverb“guide”.Ifthemean⁃ingofthewordisnotthesame,thepronunciationisnotthesame.2.2PolysemySincethereareexistingmanysimilaritiesbetweenpolysemyandhomonymy,manyexpertsdefinepolysemybyacomparisonwithhomonymy."Thesetwokindsofwordsrefertothewordswiththesamepronunciationbutdifferentmeanings,whilethemeaningsofpolysemouswordsarerelated"(Saeed,2004)."Homonymy(com⁃pleteorpartial)referstotherelationshipbetweentwoormorethantwodifferentwords,whilepolysemyreferstoasinglewordwithcharacteristics"(Lyons,2000).Similarly,polysemycanbeclassi⁃fiedintotwocategories.AccordingtotheclassificationofPierreFrath,akindisreferentialpolysemy,andtheotherislexicalpolyse⁃my.“Piano"asaexampleofreferentialpolysemymeansdifferent⁃lyindifferentcontexts:the“piano”of“Shecouldhearthepiano."referstothesoundofpiano,butof"Shepolishedthepiano."referstoamusicalinstrument.Inaddition,“break”asaverbislexicalpol⁃ysemy,havingthemeaningof“interrupt,separate,fallapart,termi⁃nate,splitup,comepart,etc."3DiscriminationPrinciples1)EtymologicalPrinciple.Distinguishingbetweenpolysemy收稿日期:2017-01-05修回日期:2017-01-16作者简介:张希希(1994—),女,湖北荆门人,硕士,研究方向为外国语言文学(外语教学研究)。AnAnalysisofHomonymyandPolysemyZHANGXi-xi(GuangxiUniversity,Nanning540004,China)Abstract:Vocabularyisveryimportantforlanguagelearning,anditisanimportantpartofhumancommunication,thusmasteringvocabu⁃laryisessentialforlanguageacquisition.Toexplorethesimilaritiesanddifferencesofwordmeaning,todistinguishthedifferencesbe⁃tweenpolysemyandhomonymyandtoenlargestudents’vocabulary,arethesignificantpartofclassteaching.Itmainlydiscussesthehomonymyandpolysemyfromthedefinition,theprinciplesofdistinctionandsemanticambiguity,furtherclarifyingthedifferencesbe⁃tweenthetwoaswellasleavingsomeimplicationsforthefutureapplicationoflearning.Keywords:homonymy;polysemy;semanticambiguity;difference中图分类号:H043文献标识码:A文章编号:1009-5039(2017)06-0196-02