homonymy

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.

The article studies the semiotic character of an IT-term and sheds the light on its binary structure. The relationship between the signifier and the signified helps understand the correlation between the form and content of a term. The ideal term is supposed to possess one-to-one correspondence between the signifier and the signified. When this correspondence is violated and becomes asymmetric, polysemy and homonymy may occur.