Examined familiarity and relatedness among homograph meanings, particularly subordinate meanings, for 110 common English words. 160 undergraduates completed a meaning collection task, and the number of meanings provided for words varied widely. In a familiarity rating task, 42 Ss rated each meaning on its familiarity. Familiarity ratings were more sensitive than meaning collection to knowledge of subordinate meanings. In a comparison task, 125 Ss made relatedness judgments for all meaning pairs within each word. Results provide a database of complex relationships among word meanings that can be used to investigate the effects of relatedness and other semantic variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2000 APA, all rights reserved)
In a meaning collection task, subjects listed all possible meanings for each word. In a familiarity rating task, other subjects rated each meaning on its familiarity.