Lecture 5 Homonymy in English
Plan: 1. Homonymy. Sources of homonyms. 2. Classifications of homonyms. 3. Homonymy and polysemy: etymological, semantic, distribution and spelling criteria.
Ø homonyms Ø perfect List of Terms homonyms Ø homographs Ø homophones Ø full homonyms Ø partial homonyms Ø lexical-grammatical homonyms Ø paronyms
1. Homonymy. Sources of homonyms.
Bank: Øa shore Øan institution for receiving, lending, exchanging and safeguarding money
Ball: Øa sphere, any spherical body Øa large dancing party
Homonyms: words which are identical in sound and spelling or at least in one of these aspects, but different in their meaning
English vocabulary is rich in homonyms. Their identical forms are almost accidental: the majority of homonyms coincided due to phonetic changes which they suffered during their development.
Homonyms are usually used in puns – jokes based upon the play on homonyms.
– Waiter! What is this? – It is bean soup, sir. – Never mind what it has been. I want to know what it is now.
Sources of Homonyms: 1. Phonetic changes (the words undergo them in the course of their historical development) night and knight – they were not homonyms in O. E. as the initial “k” was pronounced and not dropped as in M. E. 2. Borrowing (a borrowed word may in the final stage of its phonetic adaptation duplicate in form either a native word or another borrowing) rite (a Latin borrowing), to write, right (of native origin)
3. Word-building a) conversion comb, to comb Ø pale, to pale Ø b) shortening fan = fanatic Ø fan – an implement for waving lightly to produce a cold current of air Ø
4. Sound imitation bang: Ø a loud, sudden, explosive noise Ø a fringe of hair combed over the forehead
In all the mentioned cases the homonyms developed from two or more different words, and their similarity is purely accidental.
5. Split polysemy (2 or 3 homonyms originate from different meanings of the same word when the semantic structure of the word breaks into several parts).
The semantic structure of a polysemantic word presents a system within which all its constituent meanings are held together by logical associations.
If this meaning happens to disappear from the word’s semantic structure, associations between the rest of the meanings are lost and they become independent lexical units.
Board Øa long and thin piece of timbre Ødaily meals (e. g. room and board) Øan official group of people who direct some activity (e. g. a board of directors)
Board (development of meanings) A long, thin piece of timber A piece of furniture Meals provided for pay An official group of persons
Board (split polysemy) I. A long, thin piece of timber A piece of furniture II. Meals provided for pay III. An official group of persons
2. Classifications of homonyms.
Walter Skeat classified homonyms according to their spelling and sound forms: 1. Perfect homonyms (homonyms proper) – words which are the same in sound and spelling Ø school – 1) an institution at which children receive education; 2) a group of fish
2. Homophones – words identical in sound but different in spelling Ø night, knight Ø sea, see 3. Homographs – words identical in spelling but different in sound Ø to bow – to incline the head in salutation Ø a bow – a flexible strip of wood for propelling arrows
This classification is not precise as it doesn’t reflect important features of these words. Moreover, homonyms may belong to the same and to different parts of speech.
Thus Professor A. I. Smirnitsky added to Skeat’s classification one more criterion: grammatical meaning.
According to the type of meaning: 1. lexical (words of the same category of parts of speech which are identical in their grammatical meaning but different in lexical meaning) Ø seal (n) 'a sea animal' – seal (n) 'design on a piece of paper, stamp'
2. lexical-grammatical (belong to different parts of speech, differ both in lexical and grammatical meanings but coincide in a sound and/or written form) Ø seal (n) 'a sea animal' – seal (v) 'to close tightly' Ø sea (n) – see (v)
3. grammatical (words of the same category of parts of speech, different in grammatical meaning only. Here one speaks of homonymy of forms of the same word) Ø walked Past tense – walked Participle II Ø seals pl. of 'sea animal' – seal's Possessive Case of 'sea animal'
According to the degree of formal identity: 1) full homonyms – words of the same category of parts of speech which have the same paradigm. Ø match, n. – a game, a contest – a short piece of wood used for producing fire Paradigms coincide: match – matches – match's – matches'.
2) partial homonyms – words of different parts of speech which are identical in several word-forms. Ø seal – a sea animal; – to close tightly Though some forms are homonymous the whole paradigms are not identical: Ø seal – seals – seal's – seals' Ø seal – seals – sealed – sealing
A more detailed classification was worked out by I. V. Arnold. She classified only perfect homonyms (according to Skeat’s classification) and suggested 4 criteria of their classification: lexical meaning, grammatical meaning, basic forms and paradigms.
1. homonyms identical in their grammatical meaning, basic forms and paradigms and different in their lexical meanings Ø board in the meaning of a council and a piece of wood sawn thin 2. homonyms identical in their grammatical meanings and basic forms, but different in their lexical meanings and paradigms Ø to lie-lied- lied and to lie-lay-lain
3. homonyms different in their lexical, grammatical meanings, paradigms, but coinciding in their basic forms Ø light (lights) and light (lighter, lightest) 4. homonyms different in their lexical, grammatical meanings, in their paradigms, but coinciding in one of the forms of their paradigms Ø a bit and bit (from to bite)
Paronyms: words that are alike in form, but different in meaning and usage. Ø precede – proceed Ø preposition – proposition Ø economic – economical
3. Homonymy and polysemy: etymological, semantic, distribution and spelling criteria.
polysemy Ø different meanings of one and the same word are mutually dependent homonymy Ø different meanings of words are mutually independent, there is no connection between such words
The criteria to differentiate homonymy and polysemy: 1. etymological – if homonymy is viewed diachronically, then all cases of sound convergence of two or more words may be regarded as cases of homonymy. Ø race – гонка Ø race – племя, род They can be traced back to two etymologically different words
2. semantic – if the connection between the various meanings is apprehended by the speaker a case of polysemy; Otherwise a case of homonymy. Ø case – 1) smth. that has happened 2) a box, a container
3. criterion of spelling Øflower, flour: different lexical units as they differ in graphic form homonyms.
4. criterion of distribution The context in which the words are used (distribution) is sufficient to establish the borderline between homonyms. paper – (to) paper: Ø the noun may be preceded by the article and followed by a verb; Ø (to) paper can never be found in identical distribution.
So far no formal means have been found to differentiate between polysemy and homonymy. There are cases when none of the criteria is helpful.