The Varieties of Homonymy
The aims of this chapter are, firstly, to understand homonymy, or multivocity; secondly, to reveal the theoretical foundations of homonymy; and thirdly, to reflect on the cogency of the general framework of Aristotle's approach to homonymy. Shields discusses Aristotle's introduction of homonymy in the Categories and how it contrasts with synonymy; this distinction is exhaustive, in that every definable term is either homonymous or synonymous. Shields argues that Aristotle implicitly relies upon different conceptions of homonymy in different contexts. Aristotle recognizes discrete homonyms and associated homonyms, and, of the latter, he reserves a special philosophical role for core‐dependent homonymy among the latter. Shields argues that Aristotle appeals to functional determination to establish homonymy or non‐univocity; however, functional determination cannot show that distinct homonyms are associated.
Keywords: associated homonyms, Categories, core‐dependent homonymy, discrete homonyms, functional determination, homonymy, multivocity, non‐univocity, synonymy
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