{"id":70,"date":"2021-02-01T21:38:10","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T21:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/eng405-2021\/?page_id=70"},"modified":"2021-05-09T20:16:33","modified_gmt":"2021-05-09T20:16:33","slug":"slagona","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/eng405-2021\/slagona\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephanie Lagona – Got Milk to Drink?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Milk for the baby. Mother’s milk. The land of milk and honey. Milking the cow. Milk him dry. Drink milk. Drink beer. Don’t drink and drive. Soft drinks. No drinks allowed. What are all these words? They’re polysemes. Polysemous language is everywhere! Poly- what, you say? A polyseme is a word that has more than one interrelated meaning (Lobner, 2013). English does this a ton. Wood and mouse are examples of polysemy (puh-LISS-uh-me). Wood comes from trees, which collectively are referred to as the woods. A mouse is a tiny mammal or a device used to navigate on a computer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On this page, I will show the history of the words “milk” and “drink” and why they’re so versatile in the English language. I will also show which part of speech (POS) came first, the noun or the verb. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Methods<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this project, I used a variety of websites to collect data. I used Wikipedia to search for polysemes. Once I identified my terms, I then used the SIUE Lovejoy Library version of the Oxford English Dictionary to find the etymologies of my chosen words. I had a list of several polysemous words and had to pare down to just the two I chose. I decided on \u201cmilk\u201d and \u201cdrink\u201d because of their long histories, their interconnectedness, and because their meanings can greatly change based on the context of utterance (CoU).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data analysis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Milk<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
  • \"\"<\/figure><\/li>
  • \"\"<\/figure><\/li>
  • \"\"<\/figure><\/li>
  • \"\"<\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Intro<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    According to the Oxford English dictionary, milk<\/em> derives from the Old English meolc<\/em>, which was spoken from around 450 CE to 1150 CE, and is of proto-Germanic origin. Producing milk is common to all mammals on Earth. We as humans understand its meaning in infancy, regardless of the delivery method of the substance. What we come to understand as we get older and more linguistically savvy is the vast subtleties in meaning depending on the part of speech, the placement in a sentence, the era it was used, and the CoU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As a noun<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Milk is defined as a whitish protein and fat rich liquid substance produced for the nourishment of infant animals (oed.com). Pregnant humans and animals are typically able to produce milk to feed their offspring. It\u2019s produced in udders\/breasts and in humans or human-raised animals, it can be served from a bottle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    An old meaning of milk was phrased as \u201con the milk\u201d, meaning to lactate or an infant who was breastfeeding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As a verb<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The transitive verb \u201cto milk\u201d means to express liquid nourishment for infants from a mammary gland. To \u201cmilk a cow\u201d means to place a machine or hands upon the udders of a cow and to manually\/mechanically draw out the milk for human consumption. The original form, \u201c meolcode\u201d, has been around since before the 1300s in the era of Old English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As an idiom<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    American English is a very idiomatic language. For example, the phrase, \u201cI\u2019m gonna milk this for all it\u2019s worth\u201d, means the person is dragging out an experience for personal gain or benefit or to postpone something negative. Milk is an intransitive verb is this instance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As early as 1628, milk could mean to extort or draw out (money, advantage, information) from a person or entity (oed.com). Milk can be used as a transitive verb to \u201cmilk the market\/street\u201d as in to control aspects of the stock market as to gain financially. This idiom was coined in the late 19th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The definitions of milk as an idiom and milk as a verb make them polysemous because removing\/draining the milk from an animal for benefit and milking an illness or system means to remove or drain something for personal gain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n