[SEM] Polysemy can (but does not have to) be difficult: New findings and methodological challenges in understanding bilingual meaning comprehension of concrete and abstract concepts.

Natural languages benefit from the ability to encode two concepts within a single expression. Polysemous words, though ambiguous and potentially challenging to comprehend, impose a lesser burden on memory, and therefore, remain prevalent in language. Polysemy is typically generated in a similar way across different languages — via metaphorical or metonymic processes. Despite its central role in generating meaning across languages, polysemous meanings require significant effort for bilingual speakers. Polysemous words are especially challenging because they tend to convey at least one literal meaning along with one or more figurative meanings which are usually also more abstract. In this talk, I discuss some of my recent findings concerning polysemy comprehension in second language speakers from different first language backgrounds, as well as methodological challenges in studying polysemy comprehension in different populations of speakers using stimuli with different degrees of polysemy (e.g. many senses such as the word star, or one sense like the word wife). I will also discuss the role different variables, especially abstractness and specificity, might play in understanding polysemous words.