UC San Diego

Words contain multitudes. This multiplicity of meanings raises two key questions, both of which this thesis attempts to address. First, are word meanings categorical or continuous? The results of Chapters 2-4 support a hybrid model, in which word meanings occupy a continuous state-space (Elman, 2009), which is further discretized along the boundaries of distinct senses. And second, does the amount and distribution of homophony in real lexica reflect a pressure to concentrate meanings in the most efficient, optimal wordforms? The results in Chapters 5-7 suggest that homophony can emerge without a direct pressure for efficiency––and further, that real lexica might select against homophones, particularly among the most frequent wordforms of a lexicon. This pressure could even explain other properties of human lexica, such as their large phonological neighborhoods.