Polysemy as a Subjective Characteristic of a Word

The purpose of this study is to identify the subjectivity of perceiving the same lexeme as monosemantic or polysemantic. The authors suggest that it is impossible to reliably determine whether a specific word is polysemantic due to the fact that in the mental lexicon of different native speakers, lexemes can be represented as either an invariant or a plurality of meanings. This was tested using German lexemes by analyzing their lexical-semantic variants in the Duden, DWDS, and Wahrig dictionaries, compiling their semantic invariants, and interviewing native German speakers. The results of all stages of the study allow us to conclude that the semantic invariant is a possible way for native speakers to interpret word meaning, alongside the polysemantic model. The semantic invariant offers a practical solution for lexicography and language teaching by simplifying the acquisition of meanings through the demonstration of their common core.