Contextual Meaning of Polysemantic Words

 

The so-called contextual meaning is always individual, occasional and context-bound. It lives only in its context and disappears if the context is altered.

The contextual meaning of a word is usually semantically richer than the dictionary meaning because of the connections which it arouses.

 

In an atomic war women and children will be the first hostages.

Первыми жертвами в атомной войне будут женщины и дети.

 

The dictionary meaning of the word “hostage” is заложник, but in this context it is synonymous with “victim” as every hostage might become a victim and die. Thus the contextual meaning of a word is not arbitrary, it is inherent in its semantic structure and is brought out by the writer who is able to perceive its potentialities.

The vital role of context in bringing out different lexical-semantic variants and its importance in translation are well illustrated by the use of the noun and the verb “frustration, to frustrate”.

That there is a great deal of frustration in the land today is made evident by a proliferation of societies, leagues, committees, councils and crusades which propose to stop the clock or to turn its hands back.

О наличии в настоящее время глубокого разочарования в стране говорит множество всяких обществ, лиг, комитетов, советов и крестовых походов, которые стремятся остановить время или повернуть его вспять.

A second common denotation of the Rightist group is that they tend to attribute every frustration to betrayal by traitors.

Второй общей чертой всех правых групп является склонность приписывать все неудачи измене и предательству.

 

It is hard to escape a conclusion that the essential negativism of the “either - or” approach is designed to frustrate rather than forward any kind of agreement.

Нельзя не прийти к выводу, что крайний негативизм подхода «или – или» (все или ничего) рассчитан на срыв, а не на заключение любого соглашения.