Types of homonyms (classification)

The learning objectives: after you have studied the lecture you should be able to speak on the following:

Homonyms (from Gr. “homos” means “the same”, “omona” means “name”) are the words, different in meaning and either identical both in sound and spelling or identical only in spelling or sound. The most widely accepted classification of them is following:

1. Homonyms proper (or perfect homonyms)

2. Homophones

3. Homographs

1. Homonyms proper are words identical in pronunciation and spelling:

a) “Ball” as a round object used in game, “ball” as a gathering of people for dancing;

b) “Bark” v to utter sharp explosive cries; “bark” n is a noise made by dog or a sailing ship, etc.

b) “Bay” v is to bark; “bay” n is a part of the sea or the lake filling wide mouth opening of the land, or the European laurel[1], or гнедая лошадь.

You should remember, that homonyms are distinct words – not different meanings within one word.

2. Homophones are words of the same sound, but of different meaning, for example:

“Air” – “heir”, “arms” – “alms”, “bye” – “buy” – “by”, “him” – “hymn”, “knight” – “night”, “rain” – “reign”, “not” – “knot”, “or” – “ore” – “oar”, “piece” – “peace”, “scent” – “cent”, “steal” – “steel” – “still”, “write” – “right”, “sea” – “see”, “son” – “sun”.

In the sentence: “The play-write on my right thinks it that some conventional rite[2] should symbolize the right of every man to write as he pleases” the sound complex [rait] is noun, adjective, adverb and verb, has 4 different spellings and 6 different meanings.

The difference may be confined to the use of a capital letter as in “bill” and “Bill”: “How much is my milk bill?” – “Excuse me, madam, but my name is John”. On the other hand, whole sentences may be homophonic: “The sons raise meat” - “The sun’s rays meet”. To understand this one needs a wide context.

3. Homographs are words different in sound and in meaning but accidentally identical in spelling:

Bow [bou] – лук / [bau] – поклон или нос корабля

Lead [li:d] – вести / [led] – свинец

Row [rou] – грести или ряд / [rau] – шум, скандал

Sever [sov ] – шея / [sjuv ] – сточная труба

Tear [tεe] – рвать / [ti ] – слеза

Wind [wind] – ветер / [waind] – заводить (часы)

7. Paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations in the language.

The meaning of the word is studied on two levels: paradigmatic and syntagmatic. on a paradigmatic level the word is studied in its relationships with other words in a vocabulary system. it may be studied with comparisons of other words of similar meaning (to look – to stare), of opposite meaning (antonomy – to except – to reject, busy – idle). words of different stylistic characteristics (man-fellow-guy). the main problems of paradigmatic studies are synonymy, antonimy and different functional styles. On the syntagmatic level the semantic structure of the word is analyzed through its lineal relationships with neighboutring words in the utterance (предложение, высказывание).

the modern approach to semantics is based on an assumption that the ino-form of the words presents a structure which is termed denotative(обозначающий) structure (denotational component) – to glare – to look – to glance. connotational (смысловой) component of the word is a motive or evaluative (оценочный) (emotive it can also be a cause). the denotational component makes communication possible, the connotational component comprises (вкл) the stylistic reference and emotive charge.

8) Historical development of British and American dictionaries.

A dictionary (also called a wordbook, lexicon or vocabulary) is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon.

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