Every word has a lexical meaning. This is what we imagine in our imagination when we hear or read it.
For example, concepts such as "autumn, leaf fall".
Some words have one lexical meaning. For example, “falling leaves” is an unambiguous lexeme. But "autumn" is a two-valued concept. One of which is the season itself, and the other is the period of a person’s life when he begins to age. Such words are called polysemantic.
Polysemy words
This is a lexical concept, which means the ability of a word to denote various phenomena that exist in the world. The following are examples:
- Shore - part of the land in contact with water (sea coast); land, mainland (written off to the shore); loss of self-control (“you can’t see the shores” - figurative meaning).
- Height - the length of something from the bottom up (from the height of its growth); vertical length from one point to another (ceiling height); a place above the surroundingsspace, hill (to occupy a height); skill level (height of achievements); sound quality (voice pitch); meeting the most stringent requirements (“turned out to be on top in this situation” - figurative).
- Hero - a person who showed selflessness for the sake of saving others (war hero); one who causes admiration and the desire to imitate (the hero of our time); the main character of the work of fiction (the heroes of the novel).
Soul - an entity that lives in the body of a material being (transmigration of souls); the inner world of a person (“strives with all his soul”); character of a person (simple or broad soul); the inspirer of the cause (the soul of our struggle); everyone's favorite (the soul of the company); people whose number is counted (children six souls); serf (dowry - thirty souls); appeal to the interlocutor (“tell me, my soul”); excitement (“takes for the soul”); bureaucrat ("paper soul"); subconscious (in the depths of the soul); inspiration, revival or boredom, melancholy (does without soul, sings with soul)
The polysemy of the word implies the development of the language. The use of the same name in different situations and circumstances leads to the formation of additional lexical meanings.
This ability of the word, on the one hand, leads to the economy of lexical means, and on the other hand, testifies to such a human property as generalized thinking.
The polysemy of a word (polysemy) is the unity of several meanings in one sound.
The figurative meaning of polysemantic words
Some meanings of the word are figurative. Unlike the direct meaning, they are secondary and are formed on the basis of some similarity with the original concept. For example, the word "brush" has a direct meaning - a part of the hand, branching into its constituent elements. This semantics transfers to other objects that are something whole, consisting of separate fragments: a paint brush, a grape brush.
The polysemy of a word is connected with other lexical language concepts. For example, with synonymy:
- bloody sunset (red);
- ice water (cold);
- fire temperament (hot);
- grass color (green);
- pearl clouds (white with a hint of gray);
- pure honesty (impeccable);
- light breakfast (no calories);
- unrestrained drunkenness (continuous).
Anthonymy (the phenomenon when words have the opposite meaning) is also associated with a concept called "word ambiguity". The words below are examples of this:
- wingless - spiritualized personality;
- callous is a kind person;
- facelessness of the masses - bright individuality;
- limited opportunities - breadth of choice;
- chronic depression is a fleeting low spirits.
Transfer value in form
The transfer of meaning, as a result of which the ambiguity of the word appears, the language forms on the basis of similarity, for example, in the form:
- rooster's comb - mountain's crest;
- telegraphicpillar – pillar of dust;
- baby legs - table legs;
- heap of hay - a shock of hair;
- harvesting sickle - moon sickle;
- burning bonfire - autumn foliage bonfire;
- night darkness - darkness in the minds;
- ring on the finger – Garden Ring;
- royal crown - a crown of braids on the head;
- light of stars - light of eyes;
- the Far Far Away Kingdom is the realm of ignorance.
Transfer value by color
Watching a variety of phenomena, people notice the similarity of objects in color. Such a process also leads to the emergence of portable meanings.
| word | meaning | polysemy of the word |
| gold | straight. - made of gold; trans. - similar to gold; |
|
| silver |
straight. – made of silver; trans. – similar to silver; |
|
| coral |
straight. – consisting of coral formations, made of coral; trans. – similar to coral; |
coral island,coral sponges |
| ruby |
straight. – carved from ruby; trans. – ruby-like; |
|
| fiery |
straight. – appeared from the fire; trans. – similar to fire; |
|
Metaphor
The polysemy of the Russian word enriches the language with the possibility of using the means of artistic expression. Metaphor, metonymy and synecdoche differ depending on how the meaning is transferred.
Metaphor is a means of language expressiveness, which is characterized by the transfer of meaning by the similarity of shape, color or other characteristic features:
- by color - golden autumn;
- by location - the tail of the aircraft;
- by function - car wipers;
- shaped like mountain peaks;
- by the nature of the action - the storm is crying.
Let's analyze a poem written based on the painting by V. Perov "Unequal Marriage".
Dewdrops of tears from your sad eyes
Glitter on the satin of the cheeks.
And lights of wedding candles
Buried happiness in your chest.
This sad picture will help us in the study of metaphor as a means of expression.
In the first line of the poem there is a metaphor - "dewdrops". This word means "water droplets on grass and leaves." But there is no grass or leaves in the picture, and the droplets are the tears of the unfortunate bride. In this case, we are dealing with a hidden comparison - a metaphor.
The second sentence is a metaphor- this is the word "petals", which, again, are not on this canvas. There is a bride whose cheeks are compared to a delicate flower.
Besides the metaphor, this sentence contains the epithet "satin". This figurative definition also contains a figurative meaning, that is, it names something that does not exist. The word has a direct meaning "made of smooth and delicate fabric." And in relation to the "petals of the cheeks" it is used in a figurative sense.
Epithets, so similar to metaphors in their function, differ from them in that they are adjectives and answer the questions “what? which? which? what? what? what kind? etc.
Metaphors are nouns or verbs. In the last sentence, this means is expressed by the word "bury", which has a direct meaning - "the process of burying a dead person." But this picture depicts the moment of the wedding. This means that the word names something that does not exist, therefore, it has a figurative meaning. Thus, the author forever says goodbye to his hope to be happy, that is, to marry his beloved girl. Probably, the state of the young man depicted to the right of the bride is so metaphorically expressed.
Metonymy
The figurative meaning can be formed by the adjacency of objects, which means that the word has the ability to denote not only “its own” object or phenomenon, but also related to it in some way. The following are examples of the occurrence of metonymy when meaning is transferred:
- From putting it on the people in it: "The whole audience gasped."
- From dishes to contents: “I ate the whole plate.”
- From material to item: "My silver has darkened."
- From the voice to its carrier: "The tenor performed his aria flawlessly."
Thus, metonymy contributes to the process that results in the formation of polysemy (synonymous with polysemy).
Synecdoche
The method of transferring meaning from one word to another by naming a part instead of the whole or in the opposite direction is called synecdoche. For example, the word "mouth" has a direct meaning - "an organ, which is a cavity between the upper and lower jaws of a living being." Its figurative meaning is the number of eaters in the family (“I feed seven mouths”).
Synecdoche occurs in the following cases of meaning transfer:
- From clothing, piece of clothing, from item to person: "Hey, hat, come here."
- From the singular to the plural: “The German broke off near Stalingrad.”
- From the plural to the singular: “We are not proud people, I will sit here at the threshold.”
Narrowing and expanding meaning
The polysemy of the Russian word has evolved over the centuries. In the course of development, new realities appear in the world. They do not necessarily acquire their own names. For example, it happens that they are called words that already existed in the language. Previously, only large steamships sailing in the ocean were called liners. Airplanes appeared and this word began to denote them as well (air liner). Such a process is an expansion of meaning. There is also the opposite phenomenon - the loss of some of its meanings by the word -constriction.
For example, once the word "partisan" had not only one meaning - "a member of an armed detachment behind enemy lines", it also had another meaning - "a supporter of some movement." Over time, it was completely lost, there was a narrowing of semantics.
