How Polysemy Has Been Created In the Age of Technology- Sophie Compton
Introduction
As mentioned in chapter three of Understanding Semantics by Sebastian Lobner, a polysemy is a group of words that sound the same and are spelled the same with different, but related meanings (Lobner, 2013). Since technology has developed very quickly in the past 50 years, people have needed new words to describe the brand new ideas of technology. This has created some new polysemic words, since some of these technological advancements related to things that already exist or have qualities in common with them. When doing my research, I wondered which words were new technological examples of polysemy, how the new words got their definitions, what makes them polysemous, and why words become polysemous instead of creating brand new words. Based on this research, I will be discussing the polysemic definitions of the words “mouse” and “cloud”.
Methods
In order to compare meanings for the two, I started by brainstorming words having to do with technology to see if I could find any polysemous words. After I narrowed my search to a few words, I looked them up on the Oxford English Dictionary to learn more about their meanings and to see the histories of when they were first used, as well as how the words are used today, and how their meanings have changed over time. After that, I went to Google’s Ngrams to see how the frequency of use of the words has changed over time. Then I started to analyze the meanings and how they were related. Once I did that, I searched SIUE’s Lovejoy Library database to find some articles to help me understand why words are polysemic. I also did some research on the history of the computer mouse and how “the cloud” works, in order to better analyze and relate these words to the original definitions.
Definitions
Cloud: A visible mass of condensed watery vapor floating in the air at some considerable height above the general surface of the ground.
Cloud (computing): The use of networked facilities for the storage and processing of data rather than a user’s local computer, access to data or services typically being via the internet
Mouse: Any of numerous small rodents of the family Muridae (which also includes rats, voles, gerbils, etc.), which usually have a pointed snout, relatively large eyes and ears, and a long tail, and typically feed on seeds and fruit.
Mouse (computing): A small hand-held device which is moved over a flat surface to produce a corresponding movement of a pointer on a monitor screen or to delimit an area of the screen, and which usually has fingertip controls to select or initiate a computer function, or to place a cursor at the pointer’s position.
Analysis
Cloud: When analyzing definitions of “cloud”, I found out that the way we think of a cloud (like in the sky) is a polysemy itself! The original meaning for cloud, coming from old English, means a large mass of rock or a hill. Then in the 1300’s it changed to mean a mass of condensed water vapor, which is what we typically mean today. In 2012, it was added to the OED to mean a network of data storage, which was a brand new definition. The reason that the networking definition is a polysemy to the water vapor definition is because not only was the original symbol for the data storage system a cloud, but also because when we send our data into the “cloud”, it travels through the air over the internet to somewhere far away, since data servers can be kept anywhere (Griffith, 2020). Because of this, it is easier for companies to market to their customers to say their data is “in the cloud”, rather than stored in a server very far away.
Mouse: The word mouse comes from the Germanic word “mus” meaning a small mammal with a tail. This was first documented to be used in English in the 1200’s. In 1965 however, it came to refer to the small device used to operate a computer. The original version of the mouse was officially patented by Douglas Engelbart in 1970 (Computer History Museum). The reason the computer mouse is called a mouse is because they are roughly the same size and shape as the animal, as well as having a wire coming out of it that resembles a tail. Since the animal and the computer operator both have similar qualities, this means that their definitions are connected, so they are in fact polysemic.
The word “cloud” had a drastic upturn of usage around 2005, the same time when the cloud technology was starting to be created. As for the word “mouse”, it has a sharp uptick around 1965, which is when they were first being invented. Because it is so clear, we can see exactly when these polysemic words started being used. This is interesting because even though the words sound the same and are spelled the same, you can tell when the words started to take on new meanings.
In an article by Ingrid Lossius Falkum, it discusses why we use polysemy in our language. Some of the reasons listed were that it is convenient to abbreviate a word, even if it sounds the same as another word, and that even though it can cause ambiguity, one of our linguistic powers in human language is to determine the speaker-intended meaning of a word through context (Falkum, 2015). Since we have the ability to make pragmatic inferences, and the fact that it is more convenient to use an ambiguous word than to fully describe what we are trying to encode, polysemy has become extremely popular. This article also suggests that because of how language works in our brain, it is easier for someone to extend the meaning of one word to include something else than to create a completely new word (Falkum, 2015).
Since the boom of technology created many new objects and ideas that needed naming, and it is in our nature to just extend the meaning of words we currently know to include new definitions instead of coming up with completely new words, this is probably why so many technological objects and ideas are polysemic. In the case of “mouse” and “cloud”, polysemy was used as a convenient abbreviation than to actually fully map out the concept of what they are each time we are talking about them. For something with a somewhat complicated concept, like “the cloud”, I can see why polysemy occurred. Even though now in 2021 we think of a mouse as a simple thing to explain, back in 1965, it is possible that it was also very complex to explain, which would explain why a polysemy was chosen.
Conclusion
To conclude, the reason that words like “mouse” and “cloud” are considered polysemic is because of how their definitions relate to the original meaning of the word. In the case of both of these words, their polysemic qualities are symbolic, because of how a computer mouse resembles an animal and because of how cloud computing sends information seemingly “through the clouds”, as well as having the symbol for it be a cloud. The reason that these words were extended definitions of the original ones is because of the convenience of extending out the original definitions instead of coming up with many brand new words. Because technology created so many new things to be named, many of them are polysemic.
Bibliography
“Ambiguity.” Understanding Semantics, by Sebastian Lobner, 2nd ed., Routledge, 2013, pgs. 44–46
“Cloud, n.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, March 2021, www.oed.com/view/Entry/34689. Accessed 29 April 2021.
“Computer History Museum.” The Mouse, www.computerhistory.org/revolution/input-output/14/350.
Falkum, Ingrid Lossius. “The How and Why of Polysemy: A Pragmatic Account.” Lingua, vol. 157, Elsevier B.V, 2015, pp. 83–99, doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2014.11.004.
Griffith, Eric. “What Is Cloud Computing?” PCMAG, PCMag, 29 June 2020, www.pcmag.com/news/what-is-cloud-computing.
“Mouse, n.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, March 2021, www.oed.com/view/Entry/122954. Accessed 29 April 2021.