英语专业词汇学.pptVIP

Chapter 5 1. Polysemy 2. Homonymy 5.1 Polysemy Polysemy means that one single word has two or more senses at the same time. The bulk of English words are polysemantic; one –meaning words are rare and are mainly scientific terms such as hydrogen, molecule, and so on. Polysemy Polysemy is a common feature peculiar to all natural languages. This is particularly true of highly developed languages like English. In modern English, an overwhelming majority of words are polysemous. There are words that have two or three senses, and the most commonly used o