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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings

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  • From: Oun Kwon <kwonbbl AT gmail.com>
  • To: John Leake <jesleake AT yahoo.co.uk>
  • Cc: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings
  • Date: Tue, 7 May 2013 18:31:39 -0400

On Mon, May 6, 2013 at 7:00 PM, John Leake <jesleake AT yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Karl, why do you keep repeating that multiple meanings to a word are
> uncommon. It doesn't become truer in the repetition. In fact, common verbs
> (nouns are more likely to have stable meanings) regularly exhibit polysemy,
> multiple meanings, in modern languages. In fact it's hard to think of common
> verbs that don't. Look at your monoglot English dictionary. How many common
> verbs have a single entry, a single lexical meaning in terms of their own
> language? Few. Now, if you were to say 'in a given context words generally
> have a single meaning' I might well agree with you. Words with contradictory
> meanings - the Biblical 'let', for example, or a word I used a lot when
> young, 'billion' (which could mean either 'million million' or 'milliard'),
> soon settle for one meaning or other in a given context (so 'without let or
> hinder' is as unambiguous as 'I let you eat' or, indeed, 'to let blood').
> Similarly 'billion' now almost exclusively means 'milliard' and the latter
> word is forgotten. Incidentally the same goes for etymologically different
> words that coincide through phonological change (words like 'let', indeed).
>
> Now, there is still ambiguity even in context - in far more than 0.1% of
> the lexis - and we depend on it somewhat for irony, but once you take
> context into account your statement is much closer to the truth than the
> converse. <clipped>
>
> John Leake
>

Hi John,

One of the problem I face is about the meaning of 'meaning'. When
there are multitudes listed under a word in a lexicon/dictionary, are
they all what we call 'meaning'? Lot's of them I see as not 'meaning'
as such, but a certain usage. Someone argued one time on a different
list that 'evening' (also) means 'afternoon' or 'late afternoon', I
don't recall clearly. Lo, there is a such in any decent English
dictionary. But, looking carefully, it is a Southern dialect. It's
usage; hardly a meaning of a word.

Oun Kwon




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