A course In Modern English Lexicology

1. предмет обстановки (сидеть за
столом)
2. the persons seated at a table

2. Ср. арх. застолица
3. the food put on a table, meals;
3. пища (подаваемая на стол), еда
cooking
Note. This meaning is rare in Mod-
Note. Commonly used, stylistically
ern English. Usually the word
neutral.
board (or cooking) is used.
(Cf. board and lodging, plain
(стол и квартира, простой,
cooking.)
сытный, вегетарианский стол).
4. a flat slab of stone or board 5.
4. Ср. плита 5. Ср.
slabs of stone (with words written
скрижали
on them or cut into them)
6. Bibl. Words cut into slabs of
6. Ср. заповеди
stone (the ten tables).
7. an orderly arrangement of facts,

7. Ср. таблица
figures, etc.
8. part of a machine-tool

8. Ср. планшайба
9. a level area, plateau

9. Ср. плато
As can be seen from the above, only one of the meanings and namely the central meaning ‘a piece of furniture’ may be described as identical.
The denotational meaning ‘the food put on the table’ although existing in the words of both languages has different connotational components in each of them. The whole of the semantic structure of these words is altogether different. The difference is still more pronounced if we consider all the meanings of the Russian word стол, e.g. ‘department, section, bureau’
(cf. адресный стол, стол заказов) not to be found in the semantic structure of the word table.
1. The problem of polysemy is mainly the

§ 31. Summary
and Conclusions problem of interrelation and interdependence of the various meanings of the same word. Polysemy viewed diachronically is a historical change in the semantic structure of the word resulting in disappearance of some meanings (or) and in new meanings being added to the ones already existing and also in the rearrangement of these meanings in its semantic structure. Polysemy viewed synchronically is understood as coexistence of the various meanings of the same word at a certain historical period and the arrangement of these meanings in the semantic structure of the word.
2. The concepts of central (basic) and marginal (minor) meanings may be interpreted in terms of their relative frequency in speech. The meaning having the highest frequency is usually the one representative of the 38
semantic structure of the word, i.e. synchronically its central (basic) meaning.
3. As the semantic structure is never static the relationship between the diachronic and synchronic evaluation of the individual meanings of the same word may be different in different periods of the historical development of language.
4. The semantic structure of polysemantic words is not homogeneous as far as the status of individual meanings is concerned. Some meaning (or meanings) is representative of the word in isolation, others are perceived only in certain contexts.
5. The whole of the semantic structure of correlated polysemantic words of different languages can never be identical. Words are felt as correlated if their basic (central) meanings coincide.
POLYSEMY AND HOMONYMY
Words identical in sound-form but different in meaning are traditionally termed homonyms.
Modern English is exceptionally rich in homonymous words and word-forms. It is held that languages where short words abound have more homonyms than those where longer words are prevalent. Therefore it is sometimes suggested that abundance of homonyms in Modern English is to be accounted for by the monosyllabic structure of the commonly used English words.1
When analysing different cases of ho-