IS THIS "NEGOCIO" POLYSEMY OR HOMONYMY?

This article analyzes the item "negocio" from a semantic point of view. This expression is used in different contexts - formal and informal ones - in Brazilian Portuguese. "negocio" is discussed using the concept of ambiguity, which is the multiple capacity of signification of a word in certain contexts. More specifically, this study investigates if the lexical ambiguity of "negocio" is generated by Polysemy or/and by Homonymy, two different types of ambiguities. The main concepts came from the following works: Ilari and Geraldi (1987), Ilari (2002), Cambrussi and Poll (2015), Ferraz (2014), Pustejovsky, (1995) and Lyons (1977). We conclude that "negocio" is able to establish a semantic relation of ambiguity either by polysemy or by homonymy, depending on the linguistic context.