Talk:Polysemy

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Contents 1 Bank 2 Hebdige 3 Pronunciation 4 the second paragraph in the intro is a bit strange 5 Words with Multiple Meanings

[edit] Bank

Isn't the 'security' definition of bank related to the river bank origins? The bank is the thing that stops the river spilling out?

[edit] Hebdige

Why is there a reference to Hebdige 1979, 117) and no listing of what this might be referring to at the bottom? There is also no list of Hebdige articles or publications at his main page either. Euthydemos 17:48, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

It is cited in Middleton. Hyacinth 11:24, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Pronunciation

How do you pronounce this word? If anyone knows, that would be great. --74.104.225.38 23:11, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

m-w.com "polysemy".--Loodog 02:22, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. --74.104.224.144 01:54, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Oh, my IP address changed. Same person. --74.104.224.144 01:55, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] the second paragraph in the intro is a bit strange

The sentence paragraph in the intro, discussing an interpretation whereby polysemy creates infinite meanings and "'position[s] subjects' within a process of semiosis" seems like a rather specific application of the term. Polysemy itself simply means words (or other such things) with multiple meanings, while this seems to be a particular interpretation of what that implies that's current in some areas, but not others. Linguists, for example, would generally not recognize Hebdige and Middleton's description of polysemy as applicable to the sense in which they use the term. And indeed the rest of the article is about the linguistic sense, making this thing at the top rather out of place. --Delirium 00:32, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

I fully agree. I'm not sure even whether such a specific (and not very widespread, it seems) conception of polysemy should be mentioned here at all; see WP:Undue weight. — mark ✎ 10:07, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

I do think the concept of polysemy has currency in literary theory with some sort of meaning along those lines, so I don't object to mentioning it, so long as it's not implied that this is what everyone uses the word to mean, rather than specifically literary theorists (and maybe some semioticians?). I don't know enough about its use there to know whether the two people quoted are particularly notable or representative, though. --Delirium 17:40, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Words with Multiple Meanings

I work in reading education, and the phrase "words with multiple meanings" often pops up alongise "homographs." While your average linguist might know to look up the work "polysemy," I doubt the average school board member or reading teacher knows this word. When searching for "words with multiple meanings" or "multiple meaning words," the page for Polysemy did not even appear in search results.

Is it possible to make the identity of this page more easily searchable to the lay-person? I had to use a Google plug-in to find this article.

Thank you for working to make Wikipedia the resource that it is. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.45.18.38 (talk) 15:08, 11 March 2008 (UTC)