Polisemia czy pozory polisemii? Między znaczeniem a użyciem wyrażenia
Polysemy or a pretence of polysemy? Between the meaning and the usage of an expression

Summary/Abstract: The analysis focuses on the phenomenon of polysemy in the description of language. The article was inspired by the theses of Magdalena Danielewicz presented in Wieloznaczność – skaza na języku czy na jego opisie? [Polysemy – a flaw of language or its description?] (2011). The author postulates caution when determining polysemy. This is the perspective also assumed in this article, yet the problem seems to be even more complex than Danielewicz propounds. The proposed description considers eight Polish expressions, which are interesting in the discussed aspect, six nouns: kazanie, najazd, wojna, tornado, kaloryfer, akcja, and two adjectives: regularny and rasowy. The basic question is whether the possibility of at least two interpretations of these words is actually related to their meaning, that is their semantic properties, or to their usage, which means their pragmatic properties. In order to address the question the article references solutions embraced in three selected dictionaries of the Polish language (Słownik języka polskiego ed. by M. Szymczak, Inny słownik języka polskiego ed. by. M. Bańko, and Wielki słownik języka polskiego ed. by. P. Żmigrodzki), analysing authentic contexts with the examined expressions (excerpted from the National Corpus of Polish). Additionally, works which undertook similar problems are mentioned (among others, by A. Bogusławski). The scrutinised issue can be looked at from the perspective of both lexicology and lexicography.

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