Understanding the meaning of words is essential to understand the functioning of the Portuguese language. In our language, the science that deals with unraveling meanings and interpreting words and expressions is the Semantics. When we know the words well and have a reasonable vocabulary, writing a text is much easier because we have at our disposal a variety of words that can be selected according to the relevance of the time.
In Portuguese, the meaning of words takes into account:
synonymy: Relationship between two or more words that have the same or similar meanings;
Antonímia: Relationship between two or more words that have different meanings, that is, opposites;
Homonymy: Relationship between two or more words that have the same phonological structure, but have different meanings.
Among the linguistic phenomena related to homonymy is the polysemy, a curious occurrence that proves to us how peculiar our language is. But you know what it is polysemy?
The word "polysemy" from the Greek polysemos (
poly = many, week = meanings), means “something that has many meanings”. Thus, polysemy is the property that a word has to have several meanings. Look at the examples:1- The composer wrote the letter of the song for your child.
2- THE letter “H” is the octave in our alphabet.
3- Your letter is very beautiful!
Did you notice that in the three sentences the word “letter” is present? In each of them the word is used with different meanings: in the first sentence, letter refers to the text that accompanies a song; in the second sentence, letter refers to the graphic sign of the alphabet; and, in the third sentence, letter it refers to the form given to the written letter. The word “letter” has different meanings, but it refers to the same concept: that of writing.
Semantics is the area of Linguistics that studies the meaning of words. In polysemy, they can be multiple
Look at another example of polysemy:
1- The mother candle by the sleep of the sick child.
2- the boat to candle was moved by the wind.
3- When the light went out, the girl turned on a candle.
The word “candle” is polysemic because it can have several meanings depending on the context in which it is used. In the first sentence, the word candle it is a conjugation of the verb velar, that is, to remain awake or sentinel; in the second sentence, candle it refers to the resistant cloth that is attached to the ships' masts to make them move; and, in the third sentence, candle refers to the piece of wax with a wick in the center that serves to give light.
It is important to emphasize that polysemy should not be confused with homonymy, a semantic phenomenon that studies two or more words with different origins and meanings, but which have the same spelling and the same phonology.
By Luana Castro
Graduated in Letters
