Monosemy

{{Short description|Characteristic where a sign has a single meaning}} {{Distinguish|Monosomy}} '''Monosemy''' means 'one-meaning' and is a methodology primarily for lexical semantic analysis, but which has widespread applicability throughout the various strata of language.

== Originator == Despite several precursors,<ref name=":0">{{Citation|last=Reid|first=Wallis|chapter=Monosemy, homonymy and polysemy|date=2004|pages=93–129|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|isbn=9789027215604|doi=10.1075/sfsl.51.06rei|title=Cognitive and Communicative Approaches to Linguistic Analysis|volume=51|series=Studies in Functional and Structural Linguistics}}</ref> monosemy as a theoretical model was developed most prominently by the transformational-generative linguist, Charles Ruhl.<ref>{{Cite book|title=On monosemy : a study in linguistic semantics|author=Ruhl, Charles|date=1999|publisher=NetLibrary, Inc.|isbn=058506492X|oclc=1053022622}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Ruhl|first=Charles|chapter=Data, Comprehensiveness, Monosemy|date=2002|pages=171–189|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|isbn=9789027215574|doi=10.1075/sfsl.48.11ruh|title=Signal, Meaning, and Message|volume=48|series=Studies in Functional and Structural Linguistics}}</ref>

== Principles ==

Monosemy as a methodology for analysis is based on the recognition that almost all cases of polysemy (where a word is understood to have multiple meanings) require context in order to differentiate these supposed meanings.

Since context is an indispensable part of any polysemous meaning, Ruhl argues that it is better to locate the variation in meaning where it actually resides: in the context and not in the word itself.<ref>{{Cite book|title=On monosemy : a study in linguistic semantics|author=Ruhl, Charles|date=1999|publisher=NetLibrary, Inc.|isbn=058506492X|location=|pages=xii|oclc=1053022622}}</ref> Wallis Reid has demonstrated that a polysemous definition does not actually add any additional information that is not already located in the context, such that a polysemous definition is exactly as informative as a monosemous definition when the effects of context are "controlled" for (i.e. systematically factored out of a definition).<ref name=":0" />

A monosemous analysis assumes that any sign in a sign system signals one value within its paradigm, with a substance that arises out of its diachronic history.<ref name=":1">Wishart, Ryder A. “Monosemy: A Theoretical Sketch for Biblical Studies.” ''BAGL''7 (2018) 107–39. https://bagl.org/files/volume7/BAGL_7-4_Wishart.pdf</ref>

There are some cases where a word genuinely has two meanings that cannot be brought under a singular, more abstract sense, but these are better understood as instances of homonymy.{{Citation needed|date=September 2025}}

== Recent applications ==

Monosemy has been used in work by the Columbia School of Linguistics,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Signal, meaning, and message perspectives on sign-based linguistics|last=Reid, Wallis; Otheguy, Ricardo; Stern, Nancy.|date=2002|publisher=John Benjamins Pub. Co|isbn=9027282234|oclc=1109375613}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Cognitive and communicative approaches to linguistic analysis|last=International Columbia School Conference on Linguistics (6th : 1999 : Rutgers University)|date=2004|publisher=J. Benjamins|isbn=1588115666|oclc=56318193}}</ref> in areas of cognitive linguistics,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Pragmatics and the flexibility of word meaning|author1-first=Enikő|author1-last=Németh T.|author2-first=Károly|author2-last=Bibok|author1-link=Enikő Németh T.|date=2001|publisher=Elsevier Science, Ltd|isbn=0080439713|oclc=464060189}}</ref> and in linguistic research into Ancient Greek.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Creation language in Romans 8 : a study in monosemy|last=Fewster, Gregory P.|date=2013|publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004246485|oclc=907619236}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Modeling Biblical Language : selected papers from the McMaster Divinity College Linguistics Circle|editor-last1=Porter|editor-first1=Stanley E.|editor-last2=Fewster|editor-first2=Gregory P.|editor-last3=Land|editor-first3=Christopher D.|isbn=9789004309265|oclc=928615102|year = 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Linguistic analysis of the Greek New Testament : studies in tools, methods, and practice|last=Porter |first=Stanley E.|isbn=978-0801049989|oclc=1105263328|date = 2015-03-17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Paul's Language of Zēlos : monosemy and the rhetoric of identity and practice|last=Lappenga|first=Benjamin J.|isbn=9789004302457|oclc=1024095071|date = 2015-10-08}}</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref>Wishart, Ryder A. “Monosemy in Biblical Studies: A Critical Analysis of Recent Work.” ''BAGL''6 (2017) 99–126. https://bagl.org/files/volume6/BAGL_6-5_Wishart.pdf</ref>

== Other understandings ==

'''Monosemy''' can also be understood as an attribute of a language (though this is not precisely what Charles Ruhl's theory articulates), namely the absence of semantic ambiguity in language. The artificial language Lojban and its predecessor Loglan represent attempts at creating monosemous languages. Monosemy is important for translation and semantic computing.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wishart|first=Ryder A|date=2018-08-10|title=Hierarchical and Distributional Lexical Field Theory: A Critical and Empirical Development of Louw and Nida's Semantic Domain Model|journal=International Journal of Lexicography|volume=31|issue=4|pages=394–419|doi=10.1093/ijl/ecy015|issn=0950-3846|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

== External links ==

* {{wiktionary-inline|monosemy}} *A theoretical sketch of [https://ryderwishart.com/monosemy-a-theoretical-sketch-for-biblical-studies/ monosemy]

Category:Lexical semantics