从语境诠释汉语多义词之研究 = Chinese Polysemy: A Contextual Perspective

Abstract

This thesis aims to analyse Chinese polysemy from a contextual perspective, so as to deal with the inadequacy of dictionaries in explaining the semantic uses of polysemy as they are. Polysemy is highly context-dependent, and it is through context that the distinct meanings are demonstrated. Such phenomenon is correlated with the characteristics of Chinese language. A monosyllable, jiang, and a disyllable, biaoshi, will be exemplified by using a corpus-based discourse analysis. It is found that once a sentence is separated from its discourse, it will be difficult to use simple terms to explain the actual meaning of the polysemy in the sentence. Furthermore, the meanings of the polysemous words which are excluded from the dictionaries can be identified by our suggested framework (a corpus-based discourse analysis). Ultimately, this research exemplifies that word meanings of polysemy are determined by its discourse, rather than by its sentence.