Polysemy

Abstract

Summary 40 years ago Stephen Ullmann wrote that polysemy was the pivot of semantics. He was referring then to traditional synchronic and diachronic semantics. Nowadays, some 40 years later, polysemy has again become a central topic in cognitive semantics. This article traces the history of this important concept, from Antiquity to the first half of the 20th century. Bréal’s treatment of polysemy is the pivot around which the article itself turns, as it was Bréal who invented the term ‘polysemy’ a century ago.