Homonyms: words of the same form

 

(1) Homonyms are words which are identical in sound and spelling, or, at least, in one of these aspects, but different in their meaning.←◄ due to phonetic changes which they suffered during their development. Have no particular value for communication ← accidental creations.

e. g. bank, n. — a shore

bank, n.— an institution for receiving, lending, exchanging, and safeguarding money

ball, n. — a sphere; any spherical body

ball, n. — a large dancing party

 

(2) In communication often lead to misunderstanding => one of the most important sources of popular humour → pun is a joke based upon the play upon words of similar form but different meaning (i. e. on homonyms):

"A tailor guarantees to give each of his customers a perfect fit."

(The joke is based on the homonyms: I. fit, n. — perfectly fitting clothes; II. fit, n. — a nervous spasm)

 

(3) Homonyms which are the same in sound and spelling are traditionally termed homonyms proper.

Homonyms which are the same in sound but different in spelling are termed phones (= homophones):

1) "Waiter!" "Yes, sir." "What's this?" "It's bean soup, sir."

"Never mind what it has been. I want to know what it is now."

Bean, n. and been, Past Part, of to be are phones.

2) night, n. — knight, n.; piece, n. — peace, n.; scent, n. — cent, n. — sent, v. (Past Indef., Past Part, of to send); rite, n. — to write, v. — right, adj.; sea, n. — to see, v. — С [si:] (the name of a letter).

Homonyms which are the same in spelling but different in sound are termed homographs:

e.g. to bow [bau], v. - to incline the head or body in salutation

bow [bəu], n. - a flexible strip of wood for propelling arrows

to lead [li:d], v. - to conduct on the way, go before to show the way

to lead [li:d] ,v.

lead [led], n. - a heavy, rather soft metal

to tear [teə], v. - to pull apart or in pieces by force

tear [tiə], n. - a drop of the fluid secreted by the lacrimal glands of the eye

 

Sources of Homonyms

(4) 1) phonetic changes which words undergo in the course of their historical development => two or more words which were formerly pronounced differently may develop identical sound forms → homonyms:

e.g. OE kniht → Mod.E. knight

niht → night

ОЕ cnēdan → Mod.E. to knead

nēodian → to need

ОЕ writan → Mod.E. to write

reht, riht → right

ОЕ s æ → Mod.E. sea

sēon → to see

ОЕ wyrkean → Mod.E. work

weork → to work

(5) 2) Borrowing which in the final stage of its phonetic adaptation, duplicate in form either a native word or another borrowing:

e.g. rite, n. — to write, v. — right, adj.

↑ ↑ ↑

Lat. ritus native native

piece, n. — peace, n.

↑ ↑

O.F. pais O.F. pettia ← Gaulish

bank, n. ("shore") - bank, n. ("a financial institution")

↑ ↑

native Italian borrowing

fair, adj. (as in a fair deal, it's not fair) - fair, n. ("a gathering of buyers and sellers")

↑ ↑

native French borrowing

match, n. - match, n.

("a game; a contest of skill, strength") ("a slender short piece of wood used for producing fire")

↑ ↑

native French borrowing

 

(6) 3) Word-building:

3.1.) Conversion -the most important type => lexico-grammatical homonyms -the same in sound and spelling but refer to different categories of parts of speech:

e.g. comb, n. — to comb, v., pale, adj. — to pale, v., to make, v. — make

 

(7) 3.2.) Shortening

e.g. fanatic → fan, n. - fan, n.

("an enthusiastic admirer of some kind (“an implement for waving lightly to

of sport or of an actor, singer, etc."). produce a cool current of air”)

↑

Latin borrowing

rep, n. - repertory → rep, n. - representative → rep, n. - reputation→ rep, n.

↑

(“a kind of fabric”)

(cf. with the R. репс) informal words

 

Wrens - wren, n.

↑ ↑

neologistic formation made by shortening; jokingly, informal; "a small bird with dark brown plumage

girls serving in the Women's Royal Naval Service barred with black" (R. крапивник)

(an auxiliary of the British Royal Navy)

 

(8) 3.3.) Sound-imitation

e. g. bang, n. — bang, n.

("a loud, sudden, explosive noise") ("a fringe of hair combed over the forehead").

mew, n. - mew, n. - mew, n. - mews

"the sound a cat makes" "a sea gull" "a pen with fattened poultry" "small terraced houses in

Central London"

 

(9) Sources important feature in common

1)

2)

3) homonyms developed from 2 or more different words & their similarity is purely accidental

3.2.)

3.3.)

3.1.) – exception; one word of the pair is produced from the other: to find → a find

(10) 4) Split polysemy - two or more homonyms can originate from different meanings of the same word when, for some reason, the SSW breaks into several parts; differs essentially from other sources.

(11) The SSW of a polysemantic word = a system within which all its constituent meanings are held together by logical associations. In most cases, the function of the arrangement and the unity is determined by one of the meanings (e. g. the meaning "flame" in the noun fire). If this meaning happens to disappear from the SSW, associations b/w the rest of the meanings may be severed, the SSW loses its unity and falls into two or more parts which then become accepted as independent lexical units:

e.g. board, n. — a long and thin piece of timber

board, n. — daily meals, esp. as provided for pay

(room and board) no association

board, n. — an official group of persons who direct b/w the meanings

or supervise some activity

(a board of directors)

 

"meals" "an official group of persons"

↑ ↑ ← by transference based on contiguity

Some dictionaries: board - "table" ← "a piece of timber"

↑ ↑

served as a link to hold together by transference based on contiguity

the rest of the constituent parts (association of an object and the material from which it is made)

of the SSW; ousted by French

Norman borrowing table

↓

diminished role as an element of communication => role in SSW weakened

↓

speakers don’t associate it with furniture ormeals or a responsible committee

↓

the SSW was split into 3 units

 

(12) Board, n. (development of meanings)

A long, thin piece → A piece → Meals provided

of timber of furniture for pay

↓

An official group

of persons

Board I, II, III, n. (split polysemy)

I. A long, thin piece A piece II. Meals provided

of timber of furniture for pay

↑

Seldom used; III. An official group

ousted by the of persons

Fr. borr. table

(13) A different case of split polysemy:

spring, n. — the act of springing, a leap ← the oldest

spring, n. — a place where a stream based on

ОЕ springan → of water comes up out metaphor

"to jump, to leap" of the earth typical of OE

(R. родник, источник) & Mid.E., but

spring, n. — a season of the year. not Mod.E.

 

(14) some scholars: split polysemy ≠ source of homonyms

↑

difficult to decide: a word has or has not been subjected to the split of the SSW & whether we are dealing with different meanings of the same word or with homonyms <= the criteria are subjective & imprecise

↑

different dictionaries contradict each other:

	Professor V. K. Muller's dictionary	Hornby's dictionary	Professor V. D. Arakin's dictionary
board	2 homonyms	one and the same word	3 homonyms
spring	2 homonyms: I. a season of the year, П. a) the act of springing, a leap, b) a place where a stream of water comes up out of the earth; and some other meanings	3 homonyms: I. the act of springing, a leap; II. a place where a stream of water comes up out of the earth; III. a season of the year

 

Classification of Homonyms

(15) homonyms

homonyms proper homophones homographs

Disadvantages of this classification:

-is not precise

- does not reflect certain important features of these words

- does not reflect their status as parts of speech (they may belong both to the same & to different categories of parts of speech);

- the paradigm of each word should be considered (the paradigms of some homonyms coincide completely, and of others only partially)

 

(16) Professor A. I. Smirnitsky’s classification:

homonyms

full homonymspartial homonyms

represent the same category of parts 1) Simple lexico-grammatical - belong

of speech and have the same paradigm to the same category of parts of speech

match, n. — a game, a contest their paradigms have 1 identical form

match, n. — a short piece of wood but it is never the same form:

used for producing fire (to) found, v.

wren, n. — a member of the Women's found, v. (Past Ind., Past Part of to find)

Royal Naval Service to lay, v.

wren, n. — a bird lay, v. (Past Ind. of to lie)

to bound, v.

bound, v. (Past Ind, Past Part.of to bind)

2) Complex lexico-grammatical – belong

to different categories of parts of speech

have 1 identical form in their paradigms

rose, n.

rose, v. (Past Indef. of to rise)

maid, n.

made, v. (Past Indef., Past Part, of to make)

left, adj.

left, v. (Past Indef., Past Part, of to leave)

bean, n.

been, v. (Past Part, of to be)

one, num.

won, v. (Past Indef., Past Part, of to win)

3) Partial lexical homonyms – belong to

the same category of parts of speech

identical only in their corresponding forms

to lie (lay, lain), v. to lie (lied, lied), v.

to hang (hung, hung), v.

to hang (hanged, hanged), v.

to can (canned, canned)

can (could)