Nominal polysemy is a ubiquitous phenomenon in natural languages. How to eliminate the ambiguity caused by polysemous nominals is one of the major concerns in semantics. Drawing on Generative Lexicon Theory, this pape...Nominal polysemy is a ubiquitous phenomenon in natural languages. How to eliminate the ambiguity caused by polysemous nominals is one of the major concerns in semantics. Drawing on Generative Lexicon Theory, this paper addresses the interpretation of nominal polysemy and attempts to reveal the different meanings of a polysemous nominal from four aspects of its qualia structure, namely, constitutive, formal, telic, and agentive. It is argued that a qualia structure analysis of a noun helps specify its precise meaning in a certain context, hence eliminating the ambiguity it may probably give rise to展开更多
文摘Nominal polysemy is a ubiquitous phenomenon in natural languages. How to eliminate the ambiguity caused by polysemous nominals is one of the major concerns in semantics. Drawing on Generative Lexicon Theory, this paper addresses the interpretation of nominal polysemy and attempts to reveal the different meanings of a polysemous nominal from four aspects of its qualia structure, namely, constitutive, formal, telic, and agentive. It is argued that a qualia structure analysis of a noun helps specify its precise meaning in a certain context, hence eliminating the ambiguity it may probably give rise to
