Polysemic Relationships in Terminology and Their Lexicographic Treatment

Polysemy & homonymy are distinguished as the two basic types of semantic relationship between linguistic sign & denotatation such that the one-to-one correlation is violated. Specialized terminology is most effective as designation when a monosemic relationship is maintained, however, metaphorization & borrowing frequently lead to the same term denoting different concepts in various disciplines (eg, valence in chemistry & linguistics) or in the same specialty (eg, instinct in psychology). Terminological polysemy can be avoided by a rendition of the loanword with native-language equivalents, & usage confusion & errors remedied with more straightforward lexicographic explanations. The treatment of polysemic terms in Croatian general & special language dictionaries are surveyed, & suggestions are made for better lemma articles. 27 References. Adapted from the source document