Dynamic construal and conventionality of word senses
What is it about?
This paper considers lexical items such as shoe, whose meaning can be construed more broadly or narrowly (i.e., as either including or excluding boots), and examines how this type of “vertical” meaning variation relates to the question of what makes a particular usage a distinct sense of a word. I argue that word senses are construed dynamically in usage contexts and that some senses may be more distinct than others. This contextual distinctness or autonomy is shown to be independent of how conventional or established the word senses are.
Why is it important?
This paper represents an important contribution to the debate around sense demarcation by showing that readings that are often treated as contextual variants of a single sense nevertheless exhibit significant potential for autonomy and conventionality.