Playing With Polysemy

Polysemy differs from homonymy because polysemes are etymologically related words. Homonyms are words that have unrelated meanings.

The very talented Christian Yoder has had a lot of fun playing with polysemy.

ORDER IN THE COURT - When you are ready, here are some examples from his tumblr blog:

WORDPLAY

Polyseme “Order”

ORDER #2
A Soldier
orders in
orders out
orders with
orders without
orders for
orders from
and through
when ordering
from a composite order
of all orders.

ORDER #3
A judge abided by
his order stating that
with order and
for order are
under order
within order and
amid order
according to order.



ORDER #4
The orderly sergeant
calls to order
the order of battle
or the order of arms.

ORDER #5
The ordained order
take holy orders
in the order of worship
which is orderly ordered.
from the ordered mass.

ORDER #6
The order losers
buy order ware
from the order board
or order bill.

ORDER #7
The ordered class
keep order
in ordering orders
by the order paper.

Order numbers 2 -3 Copyright © 9/10/1983 by Christian M. Yoder

Order numbers 4 -7 Copyright © 7/22/1983 by Christian M. Yoder

Just out of curiosity, did anyone else notice that ORDER #1 is missing and that the copyright dates are not in order? I wonder if his blog is out of order.

What is Polysemy and How Does it Differ From Homonymy?

There are numerous word types that by semantic definition are hard to define without context. Included in this category are polysemes and homonyms. Traditionally, polysemes and homonyms are similar in that they each have variations of meaning for phonologically identical words.

Homonyms can be further broken down into homophones; words that are pronounced identically though spelled differently, and homographs; words that are pronounced and spelled identically. In both instances of homonymy the requirement is for the common words to have unrelated meanings.

Homophones:

bare - to uncover

bear - the mammal

Homographs:

bank - the financial institute

bank - the side of a river

In the case of polysemy, the reference is to a single word with different senses of the same basic meaning. Polysemes are also distinguished from homonyms because they are etymologically related.

Polysemes:

crawl - to move slowly on hands and knees
crawl - to move slowly in traffic
crawl - to be covered with moving things
crawl - to swim the crawl

Polysemy Want a Cracker

As mentioned in a previous post about polysemy, the reference is to a single word with different senses of the same basic meaning. Polysemes are also distinguished from homonyms because they are etymologically related.

Following is a list of senses for the definition of the word "cracker" from the Oxford English Dictionary (see 8. a. and 9. a.):

One who or that which cracks (in any of the senses of the vb.).
1. gen.
2. esp. A boaster, braggart; hence, a liar.
3. familiar or colloq. A lie.
4. U.S. a. A contemptuous name given in southern States of N. America to the ‘poor whites’; whence, familiarly, to the native whites of Georgia and Florida. Also attrib. According to some, short for CORN CRACKER; but early quots. leave this doubtful.
b. attrib.; the Cracker State, Georgia.
5. A local name for the Pintail Duck (Dafila acuta), and the Corn-crake (Crex pratensis).
6. a. A kind of firework which explodes with a sharp report or a succession of sharp reports.
b. (In full cracker bon-bon.) A bon-bon, or small parcel of sweets, etc., containing a fulminant, which explodes when pulled sharply at both ends. attrib., as cracker-motto, -paper, -poetry, -rhyme.
c. An attachment to the end of a whip-lash by which a cracking sound can be produced. U.S., Austral. and N.Z.
7. A pistol. Obs. slang. (Cf. BARKER 4.)
8. a. An instrument for cracking or crushing something; a crusher; spec. in pl. nut-crackers.
b. humorously (in pl.). The teeth.
c. A cracking plant (see CRACK v. 23).
9. a. A thin hard biscuit. (Now chiefly in U.S.)
b. attrib. and Comb., as cracker-bag, -peddler; cracker-hash, a sailors' hash of biscuits and meat; so cracker-stew.
10. pl. (S. Africa). (See quot.)
11. slang. a. A ‘cracking’ or ‘rattling’ pace.
b. A break-down, a smash: cf. CRACK v. 15.
c. A pound(-note). Austral. and N.Z. slang.
Hence (nonce-wds.) cracker v. trans., to pelt with crackers. crackeress, a female cracker. crackery, crackers collectively.

Image from A Way with Words

Crossword Puzzle Clues and Semantics

I have always been a huge fan of crossword puzzles and, in a round-about way, my love of crossword puzzles was partly responsible for my decision to study linguistics in graduate school. So naturally, I tend to semantically analyze crossword puzzle clues while working a puzzle. As a result, I believe that the relationship between crossword puzzles and semantics should be seen as reciprocal because working a puzzle not only calls on semantic knowledge, it also reinforces and adds to a person's semantic knowledge, whether consciously or not.

The role semantic knowledge plays in solving a crossword should become clear by looking at some of the common crossword puzzle clue categories and the semantic concepts with which they can be compared.

Traditional dictionary definitions = reference
Thesaurus = synonymy
Encyclopedic = reference
Names = reference
Opposites = antonymy
Puns and wordplay = vagueness and ambiguity, polysemy
“A kind of” = hyponymy
Indirect = vagueness and ambiguity

Random Linguistics Definitions Beginning with the Letter "E"

E = Protosinaitic Script

Script = Jubilation

enantiosemy A case of polysemy in which one sense is in some respect the opposite of another. E.g. that of dust in I dusted the mantelpiece, meaning that something is removed, vs. I dusted the cake with sugar, meaning that something is added.

ethnolect Variety of a language spoken by a so-called 'ethnic group'.

eventive Referring to an event as opposed to a state: e.g. fell is eventive in I fell over. Opp. stative.

Definitions from: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics, Second edition, 2007

Image credits: Panel of Thoughts