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In this book, the author argues that words should be presumed initially to be monosemic: having a single, highly abstract meaning. Semantic research should first seek a unitary meaning, resorting to polysemy, homonymy or idiomaticity only when an extended attempt fails. Utilizing a large data base, this book shows that some supposed "lexical" semantic meaning is actually pragmatic or extralinguistic. Included are extensive treatments of the verbs bear, hit, kick and slap, the phrase take off, and the noun ice.

Ruhl studies linguistic research methods and theory, most directly relevant to the fields of semantics and pragmatics, and also to lexicography, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence. The hypothesis of monosemy implies significant changes of perspective and application for all fields which deal in lexical definition.