Polysemy in natural language : case studies on the structural description of polysemous lexemes in English, German and Turkish
Meaning seems at once the most obvious and the most obscure aspect of language to be studied. Since most lexical items have several meanings the rules which combine them into sentences will frequently yield several possibilities for interpretation. Potential ambiguity is usually resolved unconsciously in speakers' minds, but may occasionally cause an obstacle in communication, and has therefore been considered a deficiency of language. One of the goals of linguistic research is to illuminate the processes which occur in speakers' minds by studying the organisational structure of concepts and the interrelations between them. The aim of this study is to describe the structural properties of lexical items with multiple meanings, in particular polysemous lexemes, by means of three case studies in English, German and Turkish. The first case study explores paradigmatic sense relations of identity and inclusion (vertical relations). The study involves structural comparison between the nets of each of the senses of a polysemous lexeme in English in contrast with its corresponding forms and senses in German and Turkish. Findings suggest that communicative problems can arise due to intra-domain specific ambiguity. The
Karaman, Burcu Ilkay
Polysemy in natural language : case studies on the structural description of polysemous lexemes in English, German and Turkish. Meaning seems at once the most obvious and the most obscure aspect of language to be studied. Since most lexical items have several meanings the rules which combine them into sentences will frequently yield several possibilities for interpretation. Potential ambiguity is usually resolved unconsciously in speakers' minds, but may occasionally cause an obstacle in communication, and has therefore been considered a deficiency of language. One of the goals of linguistic research is to illuminate the processes which occur in speakers' minds by studying the organisational structure of concepts and the interrelations between them. The aim of this study is to describe the structural properties of lexical items with multiple meanings, in particular polysemous lexemes, by means of three case studies in English, German and Turkish. The first case study explores paradigmatic sense relations of identity and inclusion (vertical relations). The study involves structural comparison between the nets of each of the senses of a polysemous lexeme in English in contrast with its corresponding forms and senses in German and Turkish. Findings suggest that communicative problems can arise due to intra-domain specific ambiguity. The
polysemy natural_language case_study structural description polysemous lexeme english_german turkish meaning seem obvious obscure aspect language study since lexical_item several meaning rule combine sentence frequently yield several possibility interpretation potential ambiguity usually resolve unconsciously speaker mind may occasionally cause obstacle communication therefore_consider deficiency language goal linguistic illuminate process occur speaker mind study organisational_structure concept interrelation them aim_study describe structural_property lexical_item multiple meaning particular polysemous lexeme mean three_case_study english_german turkish first case_study explore paradigmatic sense relation identity inclusion vertical relation study involve structural comparison net sense polysemous lexeme english contrast correspond form german turkish findings suggest communicative problem_arise due intra domain_specific ambiguity