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1. Lexical ambiguity due to polysemy
2. Structural ambiguity arising from the grammatical analysis of a sentence or a phrase.
B. Conveying emotional overtones(感情色彩)
C. Indicating referents and the range of the meaning of a word （3）
1）I don't agree with this remark.A word‘s use is just a part of its meaning. Context is of great importance for the understanding of word meaning, especially for the understanding of the meanings of polysemic words. No matter how many denotative meanings a word may have, generally there will be no risk of misunderstanding the meaning, when it occurs in a particular context. 2）Every word has a meaning or meanings of its own, independent of the context. When we say context determines the word sense , we do not mean that it gives a sense to the word, but that it selects one out of all possible meanings already there.
Chapter IX Changes in word meaning
1、Explain why change of word-meaning is fundamental in a living language ?
Changing of mesning can be illustrated with words from any page of Shakespeare. (Eg: in Shakespeare‘s days, admiration meant astonishment; season meant moderate .so ―season your admiration for a while…‖ meant ―to moderate his astonishment‖.)
The change of meaning in English words would of themselves provide enough material for a large volume.
Changing of mesning is a commonplace , and indeed it would appear to be fundamental in meaning …almost every word we use today has a slightly different meaning from the one it had a century ago ;and a century ago it had a slightly different meaning from the one it had a century before that.
2、 how do the historical and social causes account for changes in the meaning of words？
Historical causes: 1、It often happens that language is more conservative than civilization, material as well as moral . Objects, institutions, ideas scientific concepts change in the course of time; yet in many cases the name is retained and thus helps to ensure a
sense of tradition and continuity. (P169 第三段)
2、There are also many scientific concepts whice have retained their original form , although their meanings have changed as a result of new scientific discoveries and increased knowledge. (P170 第二段) 3、changes of meaning because of increased knowledge of the object described are common in the history of science. (P170 第二段) Social causes：
1、change in word meaning resulting from a constant traffic between common words and various technical words is referred to as social cause of semantic change. Because of this constant change, some technical words have lost their specialized meanings and have come to be used in more general meanings. (P170 第三、四段)
e.g: Feedback (electr.电子扬声器的噪音)– in common use, it means ― response‖(信息反馈), as in ― Companies are sensitive to the feedback from costumers.‖
2、A number of sports terms , too, have contributed to the speech of everyday conversation , eg: ―get to first base ‖from ―baseball‖; ―follow the scent ‖ from ―hunting‖. (P171 第四段)
3、the reverse process , in which a popular word is given a special meaning in a specialized vocabulary is just as common. A specific environment may add a fresh and highly technical sense to a word of general use. (P171 第五段) Eg:
energy : (Phys.) ability of matter or radiation to do work.
Product ：（Math.）quality obtained by multiplying quantities together.
3、How are changes of meaning frequently brought about by linguistic causes?
According to some linguists, linguistic cause in changing the meaning of word lies in two respects: ellipsis(省略) and analogy. 1、Ellipsis as a cause of semantic change often occurs in habitual collocations, such as adj.+ n., attributive n.+ n., in which the noun is often deleted and only the first word( the attributive) is left, but still means the sense of the whole phrase. (P172第三、四段) e.g. private soldier---- private(列兵)
daily newspaper--- daily
gold medal---- gold( as in the Olympic Games) a general officer---- a general
2、Analogy is also constantly at work in the change of word meaning. New meanings developed in one kind of word class are passed on to other word classes. e.g. Diplomatic originally meant only ―skillful in dealing with international relations,‖ later developed the sense of ―tactful in the managing of relations of any kind; artful management in dealing with others.‖ This new meaning had been passed on to the noun form diplomacy. (P173 第四段)
P189 4、Why have many words changed their meaning as a result of being used euphemistically （委婉地）? 见p173-174（173最后一行到174最上面一段）
People have a tendency to use mild, agreeable language when speaking of an unpleasant or embarrassing fact, and taboo（禁忌的）subjects as sex and the excretive（分泌的；排泄的；促进排泄的） processes of the body. This tendency leads to euphemisms（委婉语） . It is a general human tendency to avoid using ―dirty words‖ which usually refer to taboo subjects as sex and the excretion（排泄，排泄物；分泌，分泌物）in polite society .
5、How have the following words become specialized in meaning ?
Fowl , hound , deer , meat , to stink , to starve , pipe 见p176-178（176中间部分+177的表格+178最顶端的两端）
Original meaning meaning after extension
Fowl: bird; a farmyard bird
Hound ： dog ; kinds of dog used for hunting and racing Deer ： beast ; it‘s restricted to denote a particular kind of animal
Meat ： food ; the flesh （肉）of animals used as food ,
excluding （不包括）fish and birds