Homonym and Polysemy in Translation

1. HOMONYM & POLYSEMY
By GroupII
Eka Hardiyanti Bugis
Siti Muslimah

2. WHAT IS HOMONYM?
Derived from the word
homo means the same and
nym means name
Words having the same
spelling and pronunciation,
but with two or more
meanings

3. WHAT IS POLYSEMY?
POLYSEMY
POLY SEMY
MANY MEANING
The same word which has many
RELATED meaning

4. Example Of Homonym
 Arm:
1. The portion of the upper human appendage, from the shoulder to
the wrist and sometimes including the hand.
“She stood with her right arm extended and her palm forward to
indicate “Stop!”.
2. A long, narrow, more or less rigid part of an object extending from
the main part or centre of the object, such as the arm of an
armchair, a crane, a pair of spectacles or a pair of compasses.
“The robot arm reached out and placed the part on the assembly
line”.
3. A branch of an organization.
“The cavalry arm of the military service”.
4. A bay or inlet off a main body of water.
“Shelburne Bay is an arm of Lake Champlain”.

5. Example Of Homonym
 Flat:
1. Having no variations in height.
“The land around here is flat”.
2. Uninteresting. “The party was a bit flat”.
3. Absolute.
“His claim was in flat contradiction to experimental
results”.
“I'm not going to the party and that's flat”.
4. (Music, note) Lowered by one semitone.

6. Example Of Homonym
 The word down in sentence (a) and the word down in
sentence (b). These are two words that happen to
share sound and spelling. There is no relation
between them:
a. Sarah climbed down the ladder.
b. Sarah bought a down blanket.
 The word bark in sentence (a) and the word Bark in
sentence (b).
a. My dog would always bark at mailmen.
b. The tree's bark was a rusty brown.

7. Example Of Polysemy
• The word Newspaper in the following sentences. The object
that got wet cannot fire people, and the company didn't get
wet. Still, it's obvious that the same word is used to refer to
them both.
a. The newspaper got wet in the rain.
b. The newspaper red some of its editing staf.
• The word Good in the following two examples. In one case it's
a moral judgement, in the other case it's a judgement of skill.
a. John was a good man. He donated a lot of money to
charity.
b. Bill was a good painter. His drawings
always were exciting to look at.

8. Example Of Polysemy
• Book
a. A bound collection of pages.
b. A text reproduced and distributed (thus, someone
who has read the same text on a computer has read
the same book as someone who had the actual
paper volume).
c. To make an action or event a matter of record (e.g.
"Unable to book a hotel room, a man sneaked into a
nearby private residence where police arrested him
and later booked him for unlawful entry.")
• Milk
The verb milk (e.g. "he's milking it for all he can get")
derives from the process of obtaining milk.

9. Difference Of Homonym & Polysemy
Meanings that exist in polysemy although
different but can be traced etymologically
and semantically, that the meanings that
they have a relationship. For example: the
word boyfriend "henna" and said girlfriend
"lover".

10. Difference Of Homonym & Polysemy
Meanings in two forms homonym has no
relationship at all. For example: "head" on
the letter head shape and meaning "head" at
the head of the needle can trace lexical
meaning of the word comes from the head.