On Monosemy: A Study in Linguistics Semantics

In this book, Charles Ruhl argues that words should be presumed initially to be monosemic: having a single, highly abstract meaning.
Semantic research should first seek a unitary meaning, resorting to polysemy, homonymy or idiomaticity only when an extended attempt fails. Using a large database, Ruhl shows that some supposed "lexical" semantic meaning is actually pragmatic or extralinguistic. Included are extensive treatments of the verbs bear, hit, kick, and slap, the phrase take off, and the noun ice.