The role of metonymy and polysemy in academic and popular science literature

Alla Gabidullina

Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University, Dnipro, Ukraine

Alla Gabidullina is a Professor, Researcher at the Department of Linguistics and Russian Language, Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University. Her research interest is the influence of metonymy and polysemy on reader comprehension in popular science texts.


https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4271-4103

Anastasiia Sokolova

Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University, Dnipro, Ukraine

Anastasiia Sokolova is a Lecturer at the Department of English Philology and Translation, Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University. Her scientific interests include stylistic constraints on metonymy usage in formal academic genres and the impact of polysemous terms on terminological precision.


https://orcid.org/0009-0002-2306-590X

Olena Kolesnichenko

Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University, Dnipro, Ukraine

Olena Kolesnichenko is an Associate Professor, Researcher at the Department of Linguistics and Russian Language, Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University. Her research interests are the cognitive mechanisms underlying the use of polysemy in scientific discourse and the role of text structure in facilitating or obstructing metonymic interpretation.


https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7426-8577

Maryna Zharykova

Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University, Dnipro, Ukraine

Maryna Zharykova is an Associate Professor, Researcher at the Department of Linguistics and Russian Language, Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University. Her scientific interests include stylistic figures, scientific terminology, and functions of metonymy and polysemy in conveying information.


https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8421-8178

Oleh Shlapakov

Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University, Dnipro, Ukraine

Oleh Shlapakov is an Associate Professor, Researcher at the Department of Linguistics and Russian Language, Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University. His research interest is polysemy as a cognitive-linguistic resource in the development of scientific terminology. Also, he is interested in the intersemiotic translation of metonymy and polysemy in scientific communication.


https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2514-509X


Abstract

Metonymy and polysemy in academic and popular science texts are useful linguistic phenomena that aid in interpreting complex specialised terms by capturing various meanings in scientific terminology. The relevance of the study is determined by the necessity to clarify the functions and contextual motivation behind the use of metonymy and polysemy in conveying scientific information. The research aims to analyse theories related to metonymy and polysemy, different types of these stylistic figures, and determine which ones are most productive for scientific style. The results of the study revealed that metonymic expressions can be used to condense narratives and convey precise terms and definitions. On the other hand, polysemy assists in selecting the most appropriate among multiple meanings of the same term. The findings of this paper can be beneficial to linguists, teachers, and researchers from various scientific fields who seek to enhance the accuracy and comprehensibility of their scientific work.

Keywords:

transmission of information, function, variant meanings, association, term

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Published
2025-05-11


Gabidullina, A., Sokolova, A., Kolesnichenko, O., Zharykova, M. and Shlapakov, O. (2025) “The role of metonymy and polysemy in academic and popular science literature”, Crossroads. A Journal of English Studies, (48), pp. 112–126. doi: 10.15290/CR.2025.48.1.06.

Alla Gabidullina 
Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University, Dnipro, Ukraine

Alla Gabidullina is a Professor, Researcher at the Department of Linguistics and Russian Language, Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University. Her research interest is the influence of metonymy and polysemy on reader comprehension in popular science texts.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4271-4103
Anastasiia Sokolova 
Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University, Dnipro, Ukraine

Anastasiia Sokolova is a Lecturer at the Department of English Philology and Translation, Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University. Her scientific interests include stylistic constraints on metonymy usage in formal academic genres and the impact of polysemous terms on terminological precision.

https://orcid.org/0009-0002-2306-590X
Olena Kolesnichenko 
Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University, Dnipro, Ukraine

Olena Kolesnichenko is an Associate Professor, Researcher at the Department of Linguistics and Russian Language, Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University. Her research interests are the cognitive mechanisms underlying the use of polysemy in scientific discourse and the role of text structure in facilitating or obstructing metonymic interpretation.

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7426-8577
Maryna Zharykova 
Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University, Dnipro, Ukraine

Maryna Zharykova is an Associate Professor, Researcher at the Department of Linguistics and Russian Language, Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University. Her scientific interests include stylistic figures, scientific terminology, and functions of metonymy and polysemy in conveying information.

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8421-8178
Oleh Shlapakov 
Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University, Dnipro, Ukraine

Oleh Shlapakov is an Associate Professor, Researcher at the Department of Linguistics and Russian Language, Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University. His research interest is polysemy as a cognitive-linguistic resource in the development of scientific terminology. Also, he is interested in the intersemiotic translation of metonymy and polysemy in scientific communication.

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2514-509X