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Polysemy (from the Greek πολυσημεία = multiple meaning) is the state of being a polyseme; i.e. a word or phrase with multiple meanings, such as "The child started to walk." and "My mother used to dance the Lambeth Walk."
Although closely related in meaning to homonym, lexicographers distinguish between polysemes, different uses of the same word, as walk the dog, take a walk, Lambeth Walk, going walking, which they define in a single dictionary entry, and homonyms such as fluke, which have multiple meanings and different etymologies, and are therefore separate definitions.
There is clearly a gray area between the two ideas, but homonyms are much better known to average speakers, while polysemes are a matter for specialists.
According to Dick Hebdige (1979, p.117) polysemy means, "each text is seen to generate a potentially infinite range of meanings," making, according to Richard Middleton (1990, p.165), "any homology, out of the most heterogeneous materials, possible. The idea of signifying practice - texts not as communicating or expressing a pre-existing meaning but as 'positioning subjects' within a process of semiosis - changes the whole basis of creating social meaning."
Source
- Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0335152759.
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