اصول و روش ترجمه  Mildred L. Larson

Chapter 10

Multiple Senses of Lexical Items

  The primary sense is the meaning which a word has in isolation and is likely to have reference to a physical situation. Secondary senses are dependent on the context in which the word is used.

   Persons learning a second language often have a great deal of trouble learning to use a word in its many secondary senses. It is usually much easier to translate the primary sense of a lexical item than a secondary sense.

  Ambiguity results from the lack of context to clarify the appropriate sense of a text. For example, the phrase this suit is lighter is ambiguous because of the two senses, and the lack of context to make it unambiguous.