Most words in a language have more than one meaning. Yet, few studies have explicitly examined the acquisition of secondary meanings of L2 words and the extent to which polysemy and homonymy affect vocabulary learning. This study explores the effect of polysemy and homonymy on the deliberate acquisition of the form–meaning connections of L2 words. Thirty-six EFL learners (compared with a control group of 30) learned secondary polysemous and homonymous meanings of familiar words and primary meanings of unfamiliar words using flashcards. Knowledge of target words was measured using meaning–recall and meaning–recognition tests immediately after the treatment and again one week later. The findings indicated that learning another meaning for a familiar word was just as difficult as learning the primary meaning of an unfamiliar word, suggesting that the type of meaning (primary, secondary polysemous, or secondary homonymous) might not be an influencing factor in the deliberate acquisition of L2 words.

一种语言中的大多数单词都有不止一种含义。然而，很少有研究明确检查二语词的次要含义的习得以及多义词和同音异义影响词汇学习的程度。本研究探讨了多义词和同音异义词对有意获得 L2 词的形式-意义连接的影响。36 名 EFL 学习者（对照组为 30 人）使用抽认卡学习了熟悉单词的次要多义和同音异义以及不熟悉单词的主要含义。治疗后立即使用意义-回忆和意义-识别测试来测量目标词的知识，并在一周后再次测量。研究结果表明，学习熟悉单词的另一种含义与学习不熟悉单词的主要含义一样困难，这表明含义类型（主要、次要多义或次要同音异义）可能不是有意习得 L2 单词的影响因素。