Sense relations - polysemy and homonymy

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Actually, onomasiological research is rather concerned with sets of related concepts (expressed by sense relations such as synonymy and antonymy) than with a single semantic category (e.g. polysemy and homonymy); as such, it traditionally coincides with lexical field research.Geeraerts, Grondelaersand and Bakema (1994: 3) include semasiological and onomasiological variation among the four main kinds of lexical variation they identify: semasiological, onomasiological, formal and contextual. The first two types are placed under the general heading conceptual variation.

Semasiological variation involves the situation that one particular lexical item may refer to distinct types of referents. Onomasiological variation involves the situation that a referent or type of referent may be named by means of various conceptually distinct lexical categories. While the poststructuralist phase in the history of lexical semantics had a predominantly semasiological focus (concentrating as it did on the changes of meaning of individual words), the structuralist stage stressed the necessity of complementing the semasiological perspective with an onomasiological one.

Baldinger (1980: 307) discusses onomasiology and semasiology in terms of speaker's and hearer's points of view: "Onomasiology approaches problems form the viewpoint of the speaker, who has to choose between different names of expression. Semasiology approaches problems from the viewpoint of the listener, who has to determine the meaning of the words he hears, from all the possible meanings"

The complementarity of the onomasiological and semasiological perspectives is summarized in the last chapter, presenting the interdependence of the two structures: "Each linguistic evolution is produced on the one hand within the framework of a semasiological structure and on the other within the framework of an onomasiological structure." (Baldinger, 1980: 308) « mai multe referate din Engleza