Polylexic Relation

A Polylexic Relation is a Lexical Relation that determines tha whether two contextual variations of a word have separate entries in a lexicon.

• AKA: Polylexy.
• Example(s):
  • The contextual variations of the word "bank" in:
    • "We moored the boat to the bank.";
    • "I need to go to the bank to cash a check."
• Counter-Example(s):
  • a Monosemous Relation,
  • a Polysemous Relation such as the contextual variations of the word "omelette" in:
    • "Mary ordered and omelette."
    • "The omelette left without paying".
• See: Computational Lexical Semantics, Computational Linguistics.

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References

1995

• (Cruse, 1995) ⇒ Alan Cruse. (1995). “Polysemy and Related Phenomena from a Cognitive Linguistic Viewpoint”. In: Computational Lexical Semantics." Ed. Patrick St. Dizier and Evelyne Viegas, Cambridge University Press.
  • QUOTE: For instance, in the following examples the difference between 1 and 2 in respect of the interpretation of the word teacher (i.e., "male teacher" and "female teacher", respectively) can be accounted for entirely by differential contextual enrichment of a single lexical meaning for teacher (in other words, pragmatically):

1. The teacher stroked his beard.

2. Our maths teacher is on maternity leave.

(...) By contrast, the difference between 11 and 12 in respect of the interpretation of bank has an important semantic component. Associated with the word form bank are two pre-existing bundles of semantic properties; in addition to their usual role of enrichment (for instance, the bank in 12 is unlikely to be one of the so-called clearing banks), contextual factors must first select one of these bundles:

11. We moored the boat to the bank.

12. I need to go to the bank to cash a check.

It is necessary to distinguish two separate (although interrelated) notions that are often conflated in discussions of contextual variation of word meaning. The first is the degree of distinctness of two (or more) readings; the second is the extent to which separate entries in the lexicon are justified. The first type of distinctness will be referred to by the traditional term polysemy ; the second type will be called polylexy. It is assumed that until a certain degrees of polysemy has been demonstrated, questions of polylexy do not arise (i.e., polylexic variants are a sub-class of polysemic variants). In the examples 1 and 2, teacher displays neither polysemy nor, a fortiori, polylexy, merely contextual modulation; bank is 11 and 12 displays both polysemy and polylexy (in addition to contextual modulation); omelette in 13 and 14 is polysemic, but not polylexic:

13. Mary ordered and omelette.

14. The omelette left without paying.

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