The brand new semantic advice that’s from the goods neighbor into the the latest lexicon doesn’t, to put it differently, consist of a requirements of gender; next-door neighbor try unclear (otherwise general, or unspecified) about what dimensions of sex
Polysemy 's the popular title into the condition in which a good lexical item provides several meaning, such as whenever late can mean ‘pursuing the common, questioned, otherwise conformed time’ (I’m later once more), ‘advanced during the big date otherwise night’ (a late eating), otherwise ‘no more alive’ (my personal later aunt Polly). Terminologically speaking, polysemy has to be compared which have homonymy and you will, furthermore, vagueness. When a couple of (or higher) terms have the same figure, such as for instance lender (‘slope, level from inside the sea otherwise lake bed’) and lender (‘financial institution’), he or she is homonyms; while polysemy describes multiplicity off definition contained in this one word, new multiplicity is sent more individuals terminology when it comes to homonymy. Therefore, and also make a difference between polysemy and homonymy relates to choosing whether or not the audience is dealing with you to definitely additionally the exact same word otherwise having several different ones. The new difference between vagueness and you may polysemy involves the case of if or not a particular bit of semantic info is an element of the fundamental semantic construction of goods or perhaps is the result of a beneficial contextual (thus practical) specification. For example, neighbors isn’t polysemous involving the readings ‘male dweller 2nd door’ and you can ‘ladies dweller nearby,’ in the same way your utterance my neighbors are a municipal servant will never be recognized as demanding disambiguation in the method in which she is wise you are going to (Do you imply ‘bright’ otherwise ‘stylish’?).
To determine anywhere between polysemy and you can vagueness, plenty of assessment should be invoked. The 3 fundamental of them are the after the. Earliest, away from a fact-theoretical attitude, a lexical items is actually polysemous in the event it can also be concurrently end up being demonstrably genuine and you can demonstrably not true of the same referent. As a result of the readings ‘harbor’ and ‘strengthened sweet wines from Portugal’ from port, the polysemy of the product is established of the sentences like Sandeman try an interface (from inside the a bottle), however a port (having vessels). Which standards basically captures an excellent semantic intuition: are two perceptions off confirmed phrase naturally well enough different therefore that one can be said to implement together with other maybe not?
Especially, he’s based on acceptability judgments from the sentences that contain two relevant situations of the goods in question (one of and this matical relationships between both situations demands the semantic label, the newest ensuing phrase can be an indicator to your polysemy away from the thing
Next, linguistic tests involve syntactic rather than semantic intuitions. As an instance, the so-entitled name try relates to ‘identity-of-sense anaphora.’ For this reason, at nighttime the latest boat enacted this new port, thereby performed the newest bartender is uncomfortable whether your a few lexical significance of vent reaches risk. Ignoring puns, it can only indicate that the new ship together with bartender similar passed the latest harbor, otherwise having said that one to one another gone pÅ™ipojenà mature dating a specific style of wine of that place to other. A blended studying, the spot where the very first thickness from vent refers to the harbor while the second so you’re able to drink, is normally omitted. In comparison, that the latest notions ‘vintage sweet wines away from Portugal’ and ‘blended nice wines out of Portugal’ can be mutual inside the Vintage Noval is actually an interface, and so try blended Sandeman demonstrates port is actually unclear instead than simply polysemous with regard to the latest distinction between mixed and you can antique wines.
Third, this new definitional expectations determine that an item has actually several lexical meaning if you have zero minimally specific definition since the extension of one’s item as a whole, and this doesn’t have more lexical significance than there are maximally general meanings must establish their extension. Significance off lexical issues are maximally general in the same way which they will be safeguards because the large a great subset of your extension regarding an item that you could. Hence, separate meanings to possess ‘mixed sweet strengthened wines out-of Portugal’ and ‘antique sweet strengthened wine off Portugal’ couldn’t meet the requirements meanings regarding lexical definitions, as they can feel lead with her according to the meaning ‘nice strengthened wine of Portugal.’ While doing so, definitions should be minimally particular in the same way which they is to be sufficient to identify the item off their nonsynonymous facts. An effective maximally general meaning layer both port ‘harbor’ and you can port ‘type of wine’ according to the definition ‘matter, entity’ is excluded as it will not bring the specificity off port since different from other words.