One of the sources is its development from polysemy.

At a certain point, variation within a word may bring to a stage when its semantic core is no longer elastic. It can’t be stretched any further & as a result a new word comes into being.

Homonymy differs from polysemy because there is no semantic bond (связь) between homonyms; it has been lost & doesn’t exist.

Homonyms appear as a result of:

1. The phonetic convergence of 2 words of different pronunciation & meaning.

Ex.: race → a) people derives from Old Norwegian “ras”

b) running, from French “race”

The semantic divergence or loss of semantic bond between 2 words polysemantically related before.

Ex.: pupil→ a) scholar

B) apple of an eye (зрачок)

To distinguish between polysemy & homonymy 3 factors should be taken into account:

The semantic proximity of them

The derivation capacity

The range of collocability

The semantic proximity.

The 1st way to establish polysemy or homonymy is to look for a central core meaning.

It’s easier when we have examples of metaphor or transfer meanings.

(adj-s are particularly interesting in this respect because they often develop polysemy by adding new nominative-derivative meanings to their semantic structure).

Ex.: sour – кислый

- disagreeable (new meaning)

juicy – сочный

- scandalous