The problems of polysemy

Borg, E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2725-9568 (2025) The problems of polysemy. In: Lepore, E. and Stojnić, U. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy of Language. Oxford University Press, pp. 287-311. ISBN 9780192856852 doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192856852.013.31

Abstract/Summary

A polysemous word has multiple, related senses; for example ‘lamb’ meaning the animal and the meat, ‘door’ meaning the aperture and the physical entity blocking the aperture, and so on. Polysemy is widespread throughout natural language—indeed for any term, if it is not already polysemous, it seems we can imagine it becoming so. Yet, despite its apparent ubiquity, polysemy is hard to define and hard to theoretically model. These difficulties, however, have not stopped polysemy from playing a central role in arguments for so-called ‘semantic internalism’ (the idea that linguistic meaning should be specified in non-world-involving terms). This chapter investigates the phenomenon of polysemy and the extent to which it provides an argument for semantic internalism. I individuate four different kinds of approach to polysemy and conclude by suggesting that it is perhaps harder to get an argument for semantic internalism from polysemy than is sometimes supposed.