「多義性」(polysemy)現象在語言中是普遍存在的。這是因為通過一個詞形對應數個詞義的手段，符合語言的經濟性原則，大量減輕人類記憶詞彙的負擔。「多義性」產生的機制之一是認知語言學中的「轉喻」(metonymy)及「隱喻」(metaphor)手法，本文的主旨在於以閩南語動詞性「食」字在實際語料中的分布，來了解多義性是如何透過轉喻及隱喻的途徑，體現在真實語言中。另一方面也針對「食」字語義的歷時變化、發展模式、非典型受事賓語及慣用用法等相關議題做一個全面性的探討，希望透過實例的研究了解到人類對客觀世界進行範疇化與概念化的一些語言認知手段，另一方面也同時替詞彙多義性的發展途徑找到可能的合理解釋。

The existence of polysemies, or word forms that encompass a set of related meanings, lessens the burden language places on our memory. Metonymies and metaphors, two mechanisms in cognitive linguistics, can be used to account for, in some instances, the generation of polysemies. The purpose of this paper is two-fold: first, to examine in detail the distribution of the verb ciah^8 in this Taiwanese Southern Min dialect, in order to understand how polysemies materialize in actual language use through the operation of metonymies and metaphors, and second, to make a thorough investigation of the issues relating to the diachronic changes, developmental patterns, and the idiomatic usage of the word in question.