Abstract
It has always been a problem in linguistic theory to decide when two or more similar signs are polysemous or homonymous. A red flag, for instance; can mean danger or nonsale of gasoline. A ring can signify wedding, engagement, graduation, reward, etc. In these cases is it the same sign that stands for several things “polysemy”, or is it just an accident that signs which stand for these things happen to look like “homonymy”? In the English dictionary, there is one lexical entry, bachelor with four different meanings: (1) unmarried person, (2) somebody with a college degree, (3) young knight serving another knight, (4) young fur seal without a mate during the breeding time. But there are two lexical entries, bank l and bank 2: meaning bank of the river, and where the money is deposited, respectively. This paper shows that within a semiotic theory as outlined by Peirce the problem doesn’t arise, because the theory offers devices that can help the lexicographer to tell when the linguistic sign would be listed in the dictionary as polysemous or homonymous. Before this approach is outlined, we shall first discuss problems that are related to the polysemy/homonymy issue.
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References
Harris, R., 1973, “Synonymy and Linguistic Analysis,” University of Toronto Press, Toronto.
Hartshorne, Charles, and Weiss, Paul, eds., 1965, “Collected Papers of Charles S. Peirce I–II: Principles of Philosophy and Elements of Logic,” Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
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© 1982 Plenum Press, New York
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Kimenyi, A. (1982). A Semiotic Account of Polysemy and Homonymy. In: Semiotics 1980. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-9137-1_25
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-9137-1_25
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-9139-5
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