polysemen

Polysemen is a term encountered in linguistic literature that refers to multiple senses associated with a single lexical item. In contemporary usage, the standard plural form is polysemes; polysemen appears primarily in older texts or as an alternative used by a minority of authors.

Etymology and scope: The root polyseme combines poly- meaning many with seme meaning sense or sign. While most scholars form the plural as polysemes, some historical or cross-linguistic works use polysemen. In these contexts, polysemen may denote either the set of related senses tied to a polysemous word or, less commonly, several polysemes as distinct units.

Usage and distinctions: Polyseme denotes one sense within a polysemous word, while polysemy is the broader phenomenon. When used as a plural, polysemen can refer to multiple sense units or to the collection of senses associated with a word, depending on the author’s convention. This contrasts with homonymy, where meanings are unrelated, and with monosemy, where a word has a single meaning.

Example: The word bank has at least two polysemes: a financial institution and the side of a river. These senses are related through historical metaphor and broad semantic extension, illustrating polysemy. If one follows the plural usage polysemen, these would be cited as multiple polysemes or as a group of related senses within a polysemous lexeme.

In practice: Modern linguistics generally favors polysemes as the standard plural. Polysemen may be found in older glossaries, some cross-linguistic studies, or discussions that preserve historical pluralization. For clarity, many authors prefer polysemes when describing multiple senses of a word.