Interpretation of the text

Exercise 1. Match the definitions with the terms:

1) Polysemy	a) words identical in pronunciation and spelling
2) Homonymy	b) words identical only in sound
3) Perfect homonyms	c) natural consequence of sense-shift, undergone by the words in different contexts
4) Homographs	d) method that can be applied to the distinction between the homonymy and polysemy and is based on purely synchronic data
5) Homophones	e)implies that the difference between polysemy and homonymy is actually reduced to the differentiation be­tween related and unrelated meaning.
6)Transformational analysis	f) words identical only in spelling
7) Semantic criterion	g) when different meanings of words are mutually independent,

Keys:

1 – c 3 – a 5 – b 7 – e 2 – g 4 – f 6 – d

Exercise 2. Match the terms with the definitions:

1) It serves to differentiate meanings but is of little help in distributing between homonymy and polysemy.	a)semantic criterion
2) Criterion which is helpful mainly in cases of lexico-grammatical and grammatical homonymy	b)context
3) This criterion observes that different meanings of one word have certain stable relationships which are not to be found between the meanings of two homonymous words.	c)explanatory analysis
4) Method based on the assumption that if different senses, rendered by the same phonetic complex, can be defined with the help of an identical kernel word-group, they may be considered sufficiently near to be regarded as variants of the same word, if not, they are homonyms.	d) homophones
5) They are easily perceived to be two different lexical units.	e)formal criterion

Keys:

1 – b 4 – c 2 – e 5 – d 3 – a

Exercise 3. Write weather the following statements are true or false:

1. Homophones are words identical in spelling.

2. In case of polysemy different meanings of one and the same word proceed from the primary signification.

3. Perfect homonyms have the same pronunciation and spelling.

4. Diachronically the differentiation between homonymy and polysemy is based on the semantic criterion.

5. It is observed that different meanings of one word have certain stable relationships which are not to be found between the meanings of two homonymous words.

6. When homonymic words belong to different parts of speech they differ only in their semantic structure.

7. Transformational analysis can also be called explanatory analysis.

Keys: 1 – False 5 – True 2 – True 6 – False 3 – True 7 – True 4 – False

Exercise 4. Insert the words missing in the text:

Dependent spelling differentiation sense-shift languages semantic criterion independent sound meanings sign

In a simple code each sign has only one meaning, and each meaning is associated with only one 1)_______. This one-to-one relationship is not realised in natural 2)_________. According to N. Rayevska, a single word can be made to express the whole variety of 3)________. This is polysemy, in which different meanings of one and the same word are mutually 4)_________and proceed from the primary signification. Polysemy is the natural consequence of 5)_______, undergone by the words in different contexts. In case of homonymy the different meanings of words are mutually 6)________, there is no connection between such words, and they have only the same pronunciation and spelling (perfect homonyms) or are identical only in 7)_________ (homographs) or 8)__________ (homophones).

Synchronically the differentiation between homonymy and polysemy is based on the 9)_________. It implies that the difference between polysemy and homonymy is actually reduced to the 10)_______ be­tween related and unrelated meaning.

Keys:

1. Sign

2. Languages

3. Meanings

4. Dependent

5. Sense-shift

6. Spelling

7. Sound

8. Semantic criterion

10) Differentiation

Exercise 3. Answer the questions: 1)What is polysemy? 2)Which words do we call homonyms?

3)What is the traditional classification of homonyms? Illustrate your answer with examples.

4)Which words are muturally dependent?

5)Which words are muturally intependent?

6)What can you tell about the differentiation between homonymy and polysemy ?

7)What is transformational analysis?