Re: Polysemy

on 6/13/07 12:25 AM, Sai Emrys at sai@SAIZAI.COM wrote:

> A couplethree* questions for you all:
>
> 1. What are the most polysemous** words in English?
> 2. Where can I find a list of the average polysemy per word of the
> most common (i.e. non technical/jargon) words across many languages?
> 3. What is the average polysemy in YOUR languages? Any comments on why
> etc etc open question?
>
> Thanks!
>
> - Sai
>
> * Silly word ain't it? But I've heard it used 'in the wild' (SF Bay
> Area, CA) more than once.
> ** E.g.: spirit, bank, mole, fine - no pedantry on 'polysemy' vs
> 'homonym' vs whatever please. And I would prefer words that are
> divergently polysemous, like 'spirit', rather than just meaning
> multiple closely related things.
I really don't mean to be pedantic, but it's just not clear what you're
looking for, as I think you see from the various responses you've gotten so
far. Can you clarify? Polysemy itself has at least two meanings, a vague one
and a specific one. The specific goes against what you say about divergent
meanings, and the vague one is ... vague. Do you want words with one origin?
Multiple origins? Either? How divergent must the meanings be? Are you
interested in words like 'go' and 'run' which have many related but
significantly different meanings and constitute one dictionary entry? Are
words with similar meanings okay if they have different origins?

--
Josh Roth

http://www4.webng.com/eshjaz/index.html

"Farewell, farewell to my beloved language,
Once English, now a vile orangutanguage."
-Ogden Nash