Solomon Aunga

The Nature of Homonumous and Polysemous Relations in Ekegusii: Ekegusii Lexical Semantics-homonymy and Polysemy Solomon Aunga

This text examines homonymy and polysemy in Ekegusii, a Bantu language in Kenya. The text is based on a research carried out at the master?s level at Kenyatta University in Kenya. The purpose of the study was to identify and analyze homonymous and polysemous sense relations in Ekegusii, an African Bantu language spoken in Kenya. The two sense relations are problematic and confusing as seen from the studies conducted in the Indo-European family of languages like English. The study is based on the premise that the two sense relations are also problematic in Ekegusii. This text identifies and explains Ekegusii words that have more than one meaning, determines the extent to which polysemous words can be distinguished from homonymous ones in Ekegusii and lastly, establishes the extent to which polysemy and homonymy in Ekegusii can be accounted for within the Sense Relations Theory. The literature review provided insights from related studies on meaning, sense relations and in particular on homonymy and polysemy. Drawing a distinction between homonymous and polysemous words, sometimes, can be very difficult. The study, therefore, concluded that the two terms are confusing and ambiguous.