Polysemy multiple meanings in rhetorical criticism books

Homonymy and polysemy both involve one lexical form that is associated with multiple senses and as such both are possible sources of lexical ambiguity. Her publications include shaping science with rhetoric. The routledge reader in rhetorical criticism 1st edition. Mar 25, 2012 these categories are radial polysemy and chain polysemy.

Ceccarelli argued eloquently for differentiating polysemy from more extreme concepts of indeterminate meaning. A textbook for students of linguistics and translation albashir alhaj, ali on. Rhetorical criticism s function bryant explained rhetorical criticism as discovering the elements and form of particular discourse, generalizing particular discourses into wider phenomena of rhetorical especially public address, show how particular discourse participate in families of didactic and suasory discourse to which they may be. A polysemous textual construction is a passage that can be read that is, interpreted in. Polysemy is a 8 letter word, used as a noun, and has the letters elmopsyy elmopsy. Starts with p, ends with y, six consonants, two vowels and four syllables. For example, a word like man would qualify as being polysemous because the meanings are related. The adjective forms of the word include polysemous or polysemic. Both metonymy and metaphor involve the substitution of one term for another. These can be compared to homonyms, which are words that have several completely different meanings. Polysemous definition of polysemous by merriamwebster.

The cognitive approach is supplemented and supported by diachronic, psycholinguistic, developmental. Polysemy and homonymy the language phenomenon im interested in linguistic study the word polysemy is defined as having or characterized by many meanings. When the meanings of basic vocabulary are calculated in this paper, all the discussions are based on the 297 words with minor changes. Mar 04, 2020 polysemy is derived from greek roots that mean multiple signs. The opening chapters develop a novel theoretical orientation for the study of polysemy via a close. I propose that the linguistic mechanism of transfer of meaning nunberg. Most notable is the work on television, novels, and female audiences by janice radway. All ads are open to different interpretations advertasing polysemy the occurence of multiple meanings for the same advertising message 2. The notion of metonymic tokens extends our understanding of polysemy by offering tools to deal with not only multiple meanings that exist in a metaphoric artifact like justitia but also the microlevel meanings that exist with that artifact i. In radial polysemy, you have one specific definition of the term at the center of a whole group of other meanings. This is a rather common point of contrast in theory.

View all notes the more specific concept of strategic polysemy occurs when a calculating rhetor attempts to bring different audiences, through different paths, to a point of convergence in the acceptance of a. For instance, a basic word with multiple meanings which belong to different categories, will be listed once only. This meaning connects all the other ones to eachother. That message is then passed through a medium radio, books, phone, interpreter etc to. A textbook for students of linguistics and translation. Some selected polysemous words in the holy quran have been analyzed in term of how far the translators of the holy quran succeed to render the intended meaning according to the context of the original text. This book aims to casting new light on the problems of translating polysemy as one of areas of difficulty in rendering the holy quran.

The book deals with the topic from a wide variety of viewpoints. Although textual features make some ironic texts relatively more open to. Some words, such as run or set have more than thirty different meanings. Jeppeson, and enrico puccis rhetorical study of the vietnam veterans memorial illustrates the utility of doing rhetorical criticism with this goal in mind. This essay originally was published in the journal of communication, 58 december, 2008, 629640, as part of a symposium about how different methods of inquiry can enrich and benefit from one another. Vernacular dialogue and the rhetoricality of public opinion, gerard a. For many examples of different kinds of polysemy and a wellknown theoretical account, see pustejovsky. Research in social sciences and technology ressat eissn. Wright seeks to avoid the criticism that his strategy cuts both ways by.

This essay contends that a more nuanced approach to readers 1 the term reader is chosen for simplicity, but it includes all who attend to a symbolic act, whether by reading, viewing, or hearing. With polysemy, distinct meanings exist for a text, and they are identifiable by the critic, the rhetor, or the audience. The goal of rhetorical criticism is not to find the meaning of a text, but rather to unpack the multiple meanings in a text. Different people experience the same text and come away with different statements of fact about that texts meaning. It should therefore hold an important place on the shelves of any researcher in the fields of lexical semantics and word sense disambiguation, and will certainly be valued by many of our graduate students. The book award was deleted and later reinstated as the diamond anniversary book award. Lopatina, it can be found that approximately 300 words with the letter a 230 75% are singlevalued, and 70 25% are multivalued. Recent examples on the web in one of the more extreme polysemous developments, a word can take on an opposite meaning, as dust v. Unlike existing readers and textbooks, which rely on cookiecutter approaches to rhetorical criticism, the rhetorical criticism reader organizes the.

Although the specific focus is on rhetorical criticism, the essay applies to critical claims more generally. This seems like a sensible consequence of our relationship with the world. Oct 23, 2015 polysemy, according to leah ceccarelli, is the existence of determinate but nonsingular denotational meanings in a text 399. Polysemy polysemy is the ability of a lexical unit to have two or more meanings. As we just mentioned, the vocabulary in english meanings. Unidirectional polysemy unidirectional polysemy is polysemy that produces two meanings that face a single direction. Her book, shaping science with rhetoric, won the rhetoric society of americas book award and her essay polysemy. About fifty years ago, stephen ullmann wrote that polysemy is the pivot of semantic analysis. A term is polysemous if it has multiple meanings which are related to.

Example the word head is a polyseme because it has several related meanings. A word which has several related meanings is thus a polyseme. The rhetorical limits of polysemy, celeste michelle condit. What is the reason for the existence of polysemous words in a. Participant on panel about the 2020 special issue on rhetorical criticism of western journal of communication, sponsored by the president at western states communication association convention, denver, co, february 2020. In dictionaries and lexicons, all the polysemes are listed under one heading, while the homonyms are listed as separate words. Multiple meanings in rhetorical criticism, quarterly journal of speech, 84 4, 395415. The word polysemy can be defined by breaking it into its roots.

Knowledge claims in rhetorical criticism request pdf. But while homonyms are distinct lexemes that happen to share the same form, in polysemy a single lexeme is associated with multiple senses. Although such words present few difficulties in everyday communication, they do pose nearintractable problems for linguists and lexicographers. A bibliographic synthesis of rhetorical criticism jstor. Feb 15, 2017 polysemy is the capacity for a sign such as a word, phrase, or symbol to have multiple meanings that is, multiple semes or sememes and thus multiple senses, usually related by contiguity of. Words are singlevalued and polysemantic polysemantic. Several rhetoricians have recently called for an increased interest in the polysemy of the text, but ironically, they are not all talking about the. Edwin black, the second persona, in benson, landmarks. The golden anniversary monograph awards are presented to the most outstanding scholarly monographs published during the previous calendar year. In contrast, a onetoone match between a word and a meaning is called monosemy. For a commonplace example, consider the meaning of the adjective good in the following sentences. Originally, there were awards given to monographs and to books. And im not even talking about polysemy, which is the greedy habit some words have of taking more than one meaning for themselves erin mckean redefines the dictionary. Polysemy, according to leah ceccarelli, is the existence of determinate but nonsingular denotational meanings in a text 399.

Multiple meanings in rhetorical criticism, quarterly journal of speech. The word polysemy comes from the greek for many signs. What can polysemy tell us about theories of explanation. Polysemous definition, a condition in which a single word, phrase, or concept has more than one meaning or connotation. Polysemy is the association of one word with two or more distinct meanings, and a polyseme is a word or phrase with multiple meanings. On the polysemy of the basic vocabulary in the shang dynasty. Reflections on the role of rhetoric in public policy jstor. Winner of the national communication associations golden anniversary monograph award, 1999. Polysemy, multiple meanings of a single word or phrase, sometimes results from relations of metonymy. Fifty years on, polysemy has become one of the hottest topics in linguistics and in the cognitive sciences at large. Polysemy and consciousness theories and practices of. The spectacular consumption of true african america culture. The term is usually applied when the different senses, meanings, or interpretations are to some extent interrelated. Polysemy has always become a significant issue in interdisciplinary studies, mainly because particular words or phrases tend to have multiple meanings and the way to decide on the intended meanings involves cultural understanding that may be problematic for different groups of people.

A polysemic word has several meanings, each of them usually distinct and independent of each other. In the next section, i apply those definitions, along with established linguistic and philosophical polysemy tests, to an. Polysemy is a term used in semantic and lexical analysis to describe a word with multiple meanings. This article explains the basics of polysemes and polysemy. Polysemy is the capacity for a sign such as a word, phrase, or symbol to have multiple meanings that is, multiple semes or sememes and thus multiple senses, usually related by contiguity of. The routledge reader in rhetorical criticism, 2012. The word polysemes may not be used much, but there are many, many english words with multiple meanings, and this makes it a topic worth knowing about. Several rhetoricians have recently called for an increased interest in the polysemy of the text, but ironically, they are not all talking about the same thing. Polysemy, intertextuality, symbolism businessmarketing bibliographies in harvard style.

Complicates assumptions about the critical judgment of polysemous texts and suggests that some types of polysemy are best identified through the adoption of a new critical approach. Polysemous words can cause difficulty in contexts where the meaning. Brown, stephen, lorna stevens and pauline maclaren 1999, i cant believe its not bakhtin literary theory, postmodern advertising, and the gender agenda, journal of advertising, 28 spring, 1124. Rhetorical criticism and the rhetoric of science, western journal of communication 2002. Ambiguity and polysemy in the english language are the two absolutely identical terms, which denote that the words of the english language, there are two or more interrelated and historically conditioned values. Mar 28, 2018 homonymy and polysemy both involve one lexical form that is associated with multiple senses and as such both are possible sources of lexical ambiguity. Polysemy is an aspect of semantic ambiguity that concerns the multiplicity of word meanings. Polysemy in and of the science fiction film arrival 2016. Polysemy is the existence of different senses andor meanings for a single word, expression, or phrase. This book gives a very good overall picture of current issues in polysemy and of the diverse ways of approaching the topic. Polyseme is a word with multiple meanings, but all the meanings come from the same etymology.

Rhetorical criticisms function bryant explained rhetorical criticism as discovering the elements and form of particular discourse, generalizing particular discourses into wider phenomena of rhetorical especially public address, show how particular discourse participate in families of didactic and suasory discourse to which they may be. Good and polysemy the good is spoken of in as many ways as being is 1 david conan wolfsdorf introduction polysemy is the property of a single word having multiple, but proximate meanings or senses. It is usually regarded as distinct from homonymy, in which the multiple meanings of a word may be unconnected or unrelated. One of its meanings financial institution can be seen to possess different polysemous senses. This book, addressed primarily to students and researchers in semantics, cognitive linguistics, english, and australian languages, is a comparative study of the polysemy patterns displayed by percussionimpact hitting verbs in english and warlpiri pamanyungan, central australia.

This bibliography was generated on cite this for me on friday, december 30, 2016. These are the sources and citations used to research advertising. Multiple meanings in rhetorical criticism, leah ceccareli. Polysemy is the state of being a word with multiple meanings. In the human condition, as in polysemy, we acknowledge diverse but finite meanings 398. One reason is that words change and when they change, there can be accidental convergence. Multiple meanings in rhetorical criticism, quarterly journal of speech 84 1998. Multiple meanings in rhetorical criticism, quarterly. Knowledge claims in rhetorical criticism springerlink. View all notes interpretations of irony is a needed supplement to existing scholarship. Polysemy article about polysemy by the free dictionary. Criticinduced polysemy alludes to the intellectual dexterity of the analyst, who discerns multiple meanings in a text to appreciate more fully its rhetorical dynamics. These categories are radial polysemy and chain polysemy. Interperting an ad isinherently different from liking it.

Then, i analyze highly circulated texts by representatives of the three major ideological positions on sex during the midtolate 19th century, a historical moment that constituted. What is the difference between polysemy and ambiguity. Multiple meanings in rhetorical criticism, quarterly journal of speech 1998. Policy polysemy crosses these categories, raising questions of authorship and temporality differently than single, discrete texts.

Polysemy is thus distinct from homonymyor homophonywhich is an accidental similarity between two words such as bear the. Although the notion of transfer of meaning can be taken to cover a large variety of rhetoric. Thus, the coexistence of several meanings in one, which is quite common, is found in polysemy. Polysemy refers to the quality of some words to have several related meanings. Homonyms are spelled the same, but have different meanings from totally separate etymologies. Multiple meanings in rhetorical criticism, which was published in the quarterly journal of speech in 1999, was recognized with a nca golden anniversary award. Myth and multiple readings in environmental rhetoric. Bringing together 50 key readings on rhetorical criticism in a single accessible format, the rhetorical criticism reader furnishes instructors with an ideal resource for teaching and practicing the art of rhetorical criticism.

The effects of homonymy and polysemy on lexical access. Synecdoche and metalepsis are considered specific types of metonymy. Polysemous words can cause difficulty in contexts where the meaning is other than the primary meaning of the word. Multiple meanings in rhetorical criticism 1998 quarterly journal of speech. Meaning, like in polysemous texts, is multiple, but not limitless 398. Metonymy and related figures of speech are common in everyday speech and writing. View all notes as a marginalized community, glbtq memories have long been devalued and erased in the dominant cultures reliance upon limited, heteronormative historical narratives.