pokok

In an earlier blog (here), I mentioned pokok ('tree') in the phrase gaji pokok ('basic wage') and suggested that the logic of this phrase is hard to work out. One possibility is that pokok in fact has two distinct meanings: 'tree' and 'basic'. Evidence in support of this comes from the existence of the word pokoknya ('basically').

If this is the case, we might further ask if pokok is a polyseme (a word with distinct but related meanings) or two homonyms (words that are pronounced and written the same even though there is no link between them).

For example, in English foot is a polyseme, as it can refer to part of the body (its core meaning) and also to the lowest part of a mountain (a metaphorical extension of the core meaning). These two meanings are obviously linked. In contrast, bank represents two homonyms, as there is no link between the place to keep money and the side of a river. They are two different words that just happen to be pronounced identically.

So, which is pokok? Is the meaning 'basic' a metaphorical extension of the core meaning 'tree'? My dictionary appears to believe this, as pokoknya ('basically') is listed under pokok ('tree'). In contrast, a word such as pasang has two distinct meanings, 'pair' and 'tide', but they are treated as two homonyms because there is no link between the two meanings. For homonyms such as pasang, the dictionary shows them as separate entries.