Hi Karl,
And your suggestion that only "0.1 percent of total vocabulary" constitues the number of exceptions seems to me be an incredibly low estimate. Indeed, the very phenomenon that a language can have literally thousand and thousands of puns belies this suggestion.
Furthermore, it is the most common words in a language that can have the widest range of meanings, and are prime candidates for having completely opposite meanings. Indeed, notice how the examples Ruth used were very common words: draw, strike, class.
You simply argue for way too much when you argue that lexemes "generally have one meaning at any one point in time." This can only be argued by a rather severe distortion of the word "meaning."
Even in your reply you used a word that demonstrates the tenuousness of your thesis. That was the word "word." Your use of the word "word" was very different than the usage in the common phrase, "I'd like to have word with you." As opposed to a single word, the last usage refers to an entire conversation. The "Word of God" refers not to a single word, but to an entire collection of books. In "he preached the word." "word" refers to a sermon. Are these usages related? Most certainly. Do they have the same meaning? Not at all.
And none of these meanings are unique, as easily demonstrated by the fact that other words in the language can be subsituted for them and the same meaning can still be derived.
So, I simply can't see how your thesis that words generally have only one meaning and are also unique at any one point in time either corresponds to reality or has any real value in linguistic discussion. This is true for English, and it's also true for Biblical Hebrew (note the very wide range of meanings for the commonest Hebrew words).
Blessings,
Jerry
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