Teaching lexical ambiguity: the role of the dictionary

Abstract

This paper focuses on the role of the dictionary in teaching lexical ambiguity phenomena connected to polysemy, homonymy, and part-of-speech trans­categorization. It aims to show the peculiarities of the way lexical ambiguity is treated by lexicography, and how these peculiarities can be exploited as useful tools to reflect on the lexicon and increase lexical awareness. In the final part of the paper, some ideas for activities on lexical ambiguity using dictionaries are presented.