Polysemy, homonymy and hyponymy in Xhosa bilingual dictionaries

Abstract

Polysemy, homonymy and hyponymy produce problems in meaning discrimination in dictionaries. In this article I seek to study the three lexical relationships, firstly, from the point of view of ‘pure’ semantics, by defining them in terms of governing criteria and semantic combinations of words in Xhosa and by analysing the devices used to present polysemy, homonymy and hyponymy in Xhosa dictionaries. Lastly, lexicographic problems such as the inconsistency in the use of meaning discriminating punctuation marks and discrepancy in entering polysemous. homonymous and hyponymous words in dictionaries are discussed.