Journal of Humanities JOH (2:1) 140 POLYSEMY IN IKWERRE LANGUAGE NAOMI C. CHIMENE -WALI & BRIGHT CHIDOKPE WIGWE Abstract The study focused on the various meanings attributed to some words in Ikwerre linguistic repertoire. Before looking at the meanings, a review was carried out on basic related literatures such as language, polysemy, semantics, pragmatics, and indigenous languages. Polysemic words are words with several meanings, while semantics has to do with the study of meanings of words and constructions. Pragmatics on the other hand, deals on contextual applications of words as used by the speaker. The study took into cognizance 15 Ikwerre words that were adjudged to be polysemous in nature such ohna, wiri, ruhwu, njo amongst others. The research found out that our indigenous languages also have cases of polysemy with close reference to Ikwerre language. Keywords: Polysemy, Semantics, Pragmatics, Indigenous languages; olliui, wiri, ruhwu. Introduction Language is a tool for communication. When pressure of communication fell on humans, they had to seek a way out. Communication could be by various means such as signs, gestures, etc but the introduction of language eased the pressure on humans. Humans interact freely with one another through language. Any language that does not aid interaction is not supposed to be classified as such. Scholars have researched on language severally yet it still baffles them how people from different background, culture and experiences could communicate freely just because they speak the same language. It is given that language is a code and for this code to make any meaningful representation, it has got to operate only in relation to where the sender and the receiver of the code know about objects and events around them. This common knowledge about objects, events or relationships is needed for communication to take place. Language is also said to be a system because the combination of sounds to form words, and the combination of words to form meaningful sentences for idea representation is determined by a system of rules which all speakers or users of the language must adhere to if communication is to be attained. It is one thing to make sounds and another to make meaningful sounds. It is not every sound made that amounts to language, meaning is another important factor here. When we use words we expect the hearer to understand it the way we have used it because we put all the factors that will aid communication under consideration including meaning. The difference between a sane person and an insane person is meaning. The former will communicate meaningfully than the later because his (insane person) brain has been distorted and is no longer able to obey the tenets of communication. No matter how learned a person is before any case of mental ill- health the person will default in semantic rules. The correction that should be in place between what he says and reality will be lacking. I consider semantics (meaning) the rope that runs through the various levels of language study-morphology-phonology- syntax-semantics. This is simply because you must consider meaning at every level or else you go offtrack.