Polysemantic Phraseology in English

Abstract

The article deals with the initial considerations on polysemy in phraseology as part of a large research project on polysemy. To investigate the interrelationship between polysemy and its constituent parts and the influence of context and style on the rise of polysemy is viewed as a context-based network of semantic variants. Phraseological units are word-groups which are not made in the process speech. They exist in the language as ready-made units. American and British lexicographers call them «idioms». Phraseological units consist of words and they are different words. As the majority of words phraseological units can be polysemantic as well. Most studies of polysemy focus on the polysemy of individual words.