cours 2 word senses and vhhhhgpolysemy .pptx

1. Word senses and polysemy

2. In lexical semantics, words often have multiple meanings or senses, and this
phenomenon is referred to as polysemy. Polysemy is a common feature of natural
language and plays a significant role in how we understand and communicate with
words. Here are some key concepts related to words, senses, and polysemy in lexical
semantics:

3. Sense:
*A sense is a specific meaning or interpretation associated with a word.
*Words can have multiple senses, each representing a distinct meaning or usage of the
word.
*Senses are context-dependent and can change based on the context in which a word is
used.

4. Polysemy:
“Lexical semantics is the theoretical study of word meaning, one aspect of which is lexical
ambiguity, or polysemy. Word meaning is in principle infinitely variable and context sensitive.
It does not divide up easily into distinct or discrete submeanings. Lexicographers frequently
discover in corpus data loose and overlapping word meanings and standard or conventional
meanings extended, modulated, and exploited in a bewildering variety of ways. The result is
that most sense distinctions are not as clear as the distinction between bank as ‘a money
lender’and bank as ‘a riverside’.”(Edmonds,2006)

5. For example, the former bank has several closely related meanings including:
1.the company or institution
2.the building itself
3.the counter where money is exchanged
4.a money box (piggy bank)
5.the funds in a gambling house
6.the dealer in a gambling house
7.a supply of something held in reserve
8.a place where the supply is held (blood bank).

6. Polysemy is the phenomenon in which a single word has multiple related senses or meanings
that are linked by a common semantic thread.
These senses are often related in some way, and they may share a core concept or have
evolved from a common origin.
Polysemy can be thought of as a form of semantic extension, where a word's meaning
broadens to encompass related concepts.

7. Homonymy vs. Polysemy:
Homonymy is another phenomenon where words with the same form (spelling and
pronunciation) have entirely unrelated meanings. In contrast, polysemy involves related
meanings.
For example, "bank" can be a place where you keep your money (bank as a financial
institution) or the side of a river (bank as a geographical feature). These are polysemous
senses of the word.
In contrast, "bank" as a financial institution and "bank" as a weapon (e.g., a bank shot in
billiards) would be an example of homonymy because the meanings are unrelated.

8. Prototypes and Polysemy:
Prototype :
“In semantics, a prototype is a category that allows listeners to understand a concept. For example, a
prototype might be "dogs," within which listeners would categorize "Great Dane," "Poodle," "Dalmatian,"
etc. This is a verbal rather than a visual category, useful only in parsing and understanding
speech.”(study.com)
“According to the prototype theory in cognitive linguistics, the meanings of a word are a prototype
category. Every word has its basic meaning and extended meaning. Polysemy is the result of human's
cognitive categorization and conceptualization, and of the extension process from basic meaning to
extended meaning. Polysemous category is a structure of extension based on the meaning of prototype.”
(Ding,2021)

9. Some senses of polysemous words may be more central or prototypical than others.
(ex: Bank) These central senses are often more commonly used and better represent
the core meaning of the word.
Peripheral senses may be less frequent or less intuitive but still related to the central
sense.

10. Prototypes examples:
Prototypes are central or typical examples of a category that embody the core characteristics of
that category. They help us understand the degree of membership of various words within a
category. Here are examples of prototypes:
a. Bird:
Prototypical bird: Sparrow
Less prototypical bird: Penguin
Sparrow is often considered a prototypical bird because it possesses many of the typical
characteristics associated with birds, such as flight, feathers, and beaks. Penguins, while still
birds, deviate from the prototype because they cannot fly and have adapted to an aquatic
lifestyle.

11. b. Fruit:
Prototypical fruit: Apple
Less prototypical fruit: Avocado
Apple is often used as the prototypical fruit because it shares many common characteristics with fruits,
such as sweetness and the presence of seeds. Avocado, while still a fruit, is less prototypical because it has
some atypical characteristics like its high fat content.
Ito conclude, polysemy involves words having multiple related meanings, while prototypes help us
understand the central, typical examples within a category and how other members of that category
relate to the prototype. These concepts are essential in understanding how language conveys meaning and
how words are organized semantically.

12. Context and Disambiguation:
“lexical disambiguation usually happens by constraining the interpretation by the
context in which the ambiguous word occurs.” (Hobbs,2004)

13. Disambiguation in lexical semantics refers to the process of clarifying the intended meaning
of a word or phrase when it has multiple possible meanings or senses. Words in natural
language often have multiple meanings, and context plays a crucial role in determining
which specific sense is relevant in a given situation.
Context plays a crucial role in disambiguating polysemous words. The meaning of a word
can often be determined by the words and phrases surrounding it.

14. Ex:
Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD): This is the most common form of
disambiguation in lexical semantics, where a word has multiple senses, and context is
used to determine the intended meaning. For example:
Bat
 "I saw a bat in the cave." (referring to the animal)
 "He used a bat to hit the ball." (referring to a sports equipment)
 In this case, WSD would differentiate between the sense related to sports
equipment and the sense related to the flying mammal.
Book:
"I need to return this library book." (Physical object)
,"I'll book a table for two at the restaurant." (Reservation)
In this example, WSD is needed to determine whether "book" refers to a physical
object (a library book) or an action (making a reservation).