Izvestiya of Saratov University.
ISSN 1817-7115 (Print)
ISSN 2541-898X (Online)


free associations

Polysemy vs. Homonymy: Associative Field Structure and Polysemy Structure

The article deals with the problem of distinguishing between polysemy and homonymy from the point of view of systemic (lexicographical) and psycholinguistic approaches to meaning. The existing methods of interpretation of verbal associations are revised in the light of different views on the representation of polysemy in the mental lexicon. The
author proposes the associative fields analysis method which aims to reveal the semantic structure of a polysemous word in language consciousness.