In the course of historic development of the English language words have undergone many changes. When we analyse the semantic structure of the words we notice that they are not units of a single meaning.
Monosemantic words, i.e. words having only one meaning, are comparatively few in number; they are mainly scientific terms such as molecule, hydrogen and the like.
Most words convey several notions and thus have several meanings; they are called polysemantic words. A well-developed polysemy is a great advantage in a language.
Semantic Structure of a Word
The system of meaning of a word is called its semantic structure, and not only due to the sum of meaning: each separate meaning is subject to further subdivision and possesses an inner structure of its own.
Therefore, the semantic structure of a word should be investigated at both these levels:
1. of different meanings;
2. of semantic components within each separate meaning.
Let us treat the semantic structure of the polysemantic word fire on the first level:
flame - огонь
1) fire - пожар (a forest fire),
2) burning material in a stove - огонь, жар (a fire in the room),
3) орудийный огонь, стрельба (to open fire),
4) огонь, жар, страсть, энтузиазм (a speech lacking fire).
Meaning 1 holds a kind of dominance over other meanings conveying it in the most general way. Meanings 2-5, 2-4 in the words given below are associated with special circumstances, aspects and instances of the same phenomenon:
table: 1) плита, 2) стол, З) пища, стол, 4) таблица, 5) застолье;
bridge: 1) мост, мостик, 2) капитанский мостик, 3) переносица, 4) мост (для зубов).
Each separate meaning may be represented as a set of semantic components (semes). In terms of componental analysis the meaning of a word represents a set of elements of meaning which are rather theoretical elements.
Polysemy can be approached to diachronically and synchronically. By diachronic approach we see the change in the semantic structure of the word; the word may keep its previous meaning or meanings and at the same time it gets one or several new ones.
Then the problem or interrelation and interdependence of different meanings of a polysemantic word may be roughly formulated as follows: did the word always have all the meanings, or did some of them appear earlier than the others? Are the new meanings dependent on the meanings already existing? What is the nature of this dependence?