Words take different meanings

A single word like „dog” or „trunk” in English reveals vast complexity. One dictionary lists no less than four distinct words „dog.” It has only one entry for „trunk,” but six distinct senses listed under it. 1 How do we decide among these senses?

Native speakers of English usually decide instantly and without effort which sense of a word is right. They use hints deriving from (i) the grammar (is the word a noun, a verb, a direct object, etc.? And what grammatical construction does it fit into?), (ii) the relationship to the larger context — that is, the other words, sentences, paragraphs, and the whole communication („discourse”) and (iii) the situation (about what circumstances is the speaker talking, and what does he expect us to do in response?). These three factors can be called the grammatical context, the discourse context, and the situational context. They reveal which of several senses of a word the speaker is using.