Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics
polysemy [Grk 
‘sign’]
Term coined by Bréal (1897). One speaks of ‘polysemy’ when an expression has two or more definitions with some common features that are usually derived from a single basic meaning. A distinction is traditionally drawn between polysemy and homonymy. The different meanings of homonyms can be traced to different etymological roots (thus different words are involved), whereas the semantic variants of polysemic expressions go back to a single root (see Heger 1963). However, the etymological criterion is vague and, if applied consistently, leads to conclusions which run counter to intuition. The distinction between polysemy and homonymy cannot be drawn precisely. This is abundantly clear in the way the same word may be listed as a polysemic expression in one dictionary, but as a homonym in another. The distinction frequently involves the question of ambiguity (see Fries 1980).
References
Bartsch, R. 1984. The structure of word meanings: polysemy, metaphor, metonymy. In F.Landman and F.Veltman (eds), Varieties of formal semantics. Dordrecht. 25–54.
Bréal, M. 1897. Essai de sémantique: science des significations. Paris.
Heger, K. 1963. Homographie, Homonymie und Polysemie.
ZRPh 79. 471–91.
Lakoff, G. 1982. Categories and cognitive models. Trier.
Lyons, J. 1977. Semantics, 2 vols. Cambridge.
Ruhl, C. 1975. Polysemy or monosemy: discrete meanings or continuum? In R.W.Fasold and R.W. Shuy (eds), Analyzing variation in language. Washington, DC. 184–202.
Ullmann, S. 1962. Semantics: an introduction to the science of meaning. Oxford.
Bibliography
Fries, N. 1980. Ambiguität und Vagheit: Enführung und kommentierte Bibliographie. (Annotated bibliography.) Tübingen.
semantics
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