Polysemy

Activity 1

Explain that the word polysemy refers to the idea that words can have more than one meaning.

Ask the learners to think of more than one meaning for the words football and mouse and discuss with a partner or small group. Show the next slide to reveal some possible answers.

As an extension, see if learners can come up with any other words with multiple meanings. 

Activity 2

Show the learners the list of adjectives. First, ask them to come up with a concrete noun that each adjective could describe in a literal sense.

Next, do the same exercise, but this time apply the adjectives to describing people in a metaphorical sense. Ask learners to discuss how the level of temperature relates to the description of emotions (i.e. hotter = 'angry'/'enthusiastic', cold = 'indifferent', 'cruel'). 

To check learner understanding, try the next exercise. For each of the sentences, learners decide whether the adjective is being used to describe emotion or temperature. Ask learners to try individually, then share answers in pairs, before completeing the task as a whole class.

Activity 3

Show the learners the list of adjectives. In the same way as the previous activity, ask learners to discuss how these words describe literal size and also human characteristics. The next slide has a useful explanation of how words can be used in literal and metaphorical senses. 

Next, learners identify which of the sentences are using the adjectives in each way. 

To finish the lesson, ask learners to choose five (or more!) adjectives from the lesson and to write new pairs of sentences in both the literal and metaphorical sense. Learner could also think of other adjectives to try. 

This lesson is adapted (with permission) from Words and Meanings: A Systematic Guide for the Teaching of English Vocabulary, by Gabriele Stein.

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