Transcript Homonyms

Homonyms
 Definition
of Homonymy
 Diachronic Study of Homonymy
and Sources of Homonyms
 Homonyms treated synchronically
 Classification of homonyms
Definition of Homonymy
homonymous – homos “the same”
and onoma “name”
 Two or more words identical in sound form
and spelling, or, at least, in one of these
aspects, but different in meaning,
distribution and (in many cases) in origin
are called homonyms
 Greek
Reasons for intense
development of homonyms in
English
 monosyllabic character of the
language
 analytic structure of English
 predominance of free forms in
English
 high-developed polysemy
Sources of Homonymy
1.
2.
Convergent development of
sound form
Divergent meaning
development
Convergent development of
sound form (phonetic changes)
 two
or more words which were
pronounced differently at an earlier date
develop identical sound forms
 e.g. OE зemane
“common”
mean
OE manen
“think”
Divergent semantic development
(split polysemy)
 different meanings of the same
word move so far away from each
other that they come to be
regarded as two separate units
chest “large box”
e.g. OE cest
chest “part of human
body”
Other Sources of Homonymy
 shortening
e.g. fan – “an implement for waving lightly to
produce a cool current of air”
fan
fanatic
 sound-imitation
e.g. bang – “a loud, sudden, explosive sound
bang – “a fringe of hair combed over the
forehead”
Other Sources of Homonymy
 borrowings
e.g. bank – “a shore” – a native word
bank – “a financial institution” - an
Italian borrowing
Synchronic Approach to
Homonymy
1.
2.
the criteria distinguishing homonymy
from polysemy
the formulation of rules for
recognizing different meanings of
homonyms in terms of their
distribution
Homonymy and Polysemy
 Semantic
criterion of related
and unrelated meanings –
connections between the various
meanings are apprehended by
speakers or not apprehended
Homonymy and Polysemy
 radiation
- primary meaning stands
in the center, secondary meanings
proceed out of it like rays
polysemy
Homonymy and Polysemy
– secondary
meanings develop like a chain. It
is difficult to trace some meanings
to the primary one.
 concatenation
homonymy
Distribution Criterion
 homonyms
differ in their syntactic
function
e.g. I think that this “that” is a
conjunction but that that “that”
that that man used was a
pronoun.
Professor A. I. Smirnitsky’s
Classification of Homonyms
1.
full homonyms
2.
partial homonyms
Full homonyms
 words
which represent the same
category of parts of speech and have
the same paradigm
 have the same spelling an
pronunciation
 e.g. match – a game, a contest
match – a short piece of wood for
producing fire
Partial homonyms
simple lexico-grammatical partial
homonyms
 belong to the same part of speech
 their paradigms have only one
identical form
 it is never the same form
1.
Simple lexico-grammatical
partial homonyms
 e.g.
to found, verb
found, verb (Past Ind., Past. Part. of
to find)
 e.g. to lay, verb
lay, verb (Past Ind. of to lie)
Partial homonyms
2. Complex
lexico-grammatical
partial homonyms
 belong
to different parts of speech
 have one identical form in their paradigms
e.g. rose, noun
rose, verb (Pat Ind. of to rise)
e.g. one, numeral
won, verb (Past Ind., Past Part. of to win)
Partial homonyms
3. Partial lexical homonyms
 belong to the same part of speech
 identical only in corresponding forms
of their paradigms
e.g. to lie (lay, lain), verb
to lie (lied, lied), verb
e.g. to can (canned, canned)
(I) can (could)
Walter Skeat’s classification
of Homonyms
 homonyms
proper – words identical in
pronunciation and spelling
e.g. a ball (a sphere) – a ball (a dancing
party)
 homophones – words of the same
sound form but different in spelling
e.g. sent (Past Inf., Past Part. of to send) –
scent - cent
Walter Skeat’s classification
of Homonyms
 homographes – words have the
same spelling but different sound
form
e.g. to bow [bаu], verb – bow [bəu],
noun
to tear [teə], verb – tear [tiə], noun
Classification of Homonyms
by R.S. Ginzburg
1. full homonyms – words belonging to the
same part of speech and having the
same paradigms
e.g. a seal (тюлень) – a seal (печать)
2. partial homonyms – word-forms
belonging to different parts of speech
e.g. a seal – to seal
Classification of homonyms
according to their meaning
homonyms – words that differ in
their lexical meaning but identical in their
grammatical meaning
e.g. a seal (тюлень) – a seal (печать)
 lexical
Classification of homonyms
according to their meaning
lexico-grammatical
homonyms – belong to
different parts of speech and
have different lexical and
grammatical meanings
e.g. a seal - to seal
Classification of homonyms
according to their meaning
homonyms –
different word-forms of one
and the same word are
identical
e.g. a seal – seals – seal’s –
seals’
grammatical