polyphonic
1
8.6
- adjective
- /ˌpɒliˈfɒnɪk/
- Specialized
:
polifónico
- The polyphonic and fragmentary structure of John Fowles's A Maggot (1985), for instance, emphasizes the discrepancy between the real past and the remembered versions of that past, and between events and their written representations.
Examples
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The actual preoccupation of Sinclair's Albion novels is not with England's "real" past but with both problems of historical recuperation and a polyphonic cultural discourse made up of history and literature, of myth and legend.
Academic text (2004) -
Roa's relation to Carlyle is dialogical in a fuller sense than his relation to Chaves and the other historians, because Carlyle's text reveals itself as polyphonic and ambivalent, and is thus closer to Roa's own project.
Academic text (1990) -
It is a polyphonic text.
Academic text (1993) -
Such problems as the relationship between the polyphonic structure of novels and their challenge to dominant cultural discourses require narratological tools for their description and analysis.
Academic text (2004) -
Contacts can each be given a caller ID photo, grouped, or paired with any of the phone's 34 polyphonic ringtones.
Blog text (24) -
I could tell you the difference between an organ and a guitar, and possibly the difference between monophonic and polyphonic chants, but don't ask me to differentiate between hard rock and heavy metal.
Blog text (6) -
In any event, the polyphonic nature of the text is underscored here by using Mary Poppins's direct speech to deny, on the morning after, the deeply subversive message that she had been at such pains to expose the children to on the previous evening.
Academic text (2001) -
In linguistics, a polyphonic letter can be pronounced in different ways depending on the context.
-
The letter 'c' is polyphonic in English, as it can sound like 's' in 'cell' and 'k' in 'cat'.
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Understanding polyphonic symbols is crucial for mastering the intricacies of phonetics.
Synonyms
A letter that has two or more sounds in different words
A letter that has two different sounds in different words
Compounds
- Specialized
Music with two or more separate melody lines sounding at the same time
How Many
- Specialized
1
8.6
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
polyphonic = phonic (transparent) = poly + phon + ic
The word is built regularly from 'poly-' meaning many and a sound-related base, so the sense of multiple pronunciation values is directly recoverable.
Etymology
Polyphonic comes from the Greek parts poly- ('many') and -phonic ('sound'), so it literally means 'many sounds'. A helpful way to remember the linguistic sense is to link it to phonics: a polyphonic letter is one symbol that can make 'many sounds' depending on the word around it.