33) French affixes in the English language

There are certain structural features (suffixes, prefixes, endings), which make it possible to identify some words as borrowings, for ex. The initial “Sk” indicates Scandinavian origin. There are some examples of French affixes: The suffix -ance arrogance, endurance, hindrance, etc. The suffix -ence consequence, intelligence, patience, etc. The suffix -ment appointment, development, experiment, etc. The suffix -age courage, marriage, passage, village, etc. The suffix -ess tigress, lioness, actress, adventuress, etc. The suffix -ous curious, dangerous, joyous, serious, etc. he prefix en- enable, endear, enact, enfold, enslave, etc.

34) Sources of homonyms

There are several sources of homonyms – phonetic changes, borrowing process, conversion, shortenings and split homonymy.

1) Phonetic changes. As a result of such changes 2 or more words which were formerly pronounced differently developed identical sound forms and became homonyms. For example – night (which means рыцарь) and night ( which means ночь). Earlier the letter ‘K’ in the second word was pronounced. Latter it was dropped. Other examples are the verb “to write” and an adjective ‘right’. In old English the first word had the form ‘writan’, while the second had the forms ‘recht’ or ‘richt’.

2) Borrowing process. A borrowed word in the final stage of its phonetic adaptation duplicates in form either a native word or another borrowing. For example – rite (in the meaning of ритуал), the verb ‘to write’ (in the meaning of писать) and an adjective ‘right’ (in the meaning of правильный, правый). These 3 words are homophones. In this group the second and the third words are of native origin, whereas ‘rite’ is a Latin borrowing (from the word ‘ritus’).

3) Conversion contributes greatly to the growth of homonymy. Homonyms which are the same in sound and spelling but refer to different categories of parts of speech are called lexico-grammatical homonyms. For example – to brush (as a verb чистить щеткой) and a noun brush (which means щетка ). Other examples are to comb (расчесывать) and a comb (расческа). 4) Shortenings can be considered to be another source of homonyms. For example a word ‘fan’ (from a word ‘fanatic’). But the word ‘fan’ in its turn has another homonym, a Latin borrowing ‘fan’, which means веер. The noun ‘rep’ denoting a kind of fabric (in Russian ‘репс’) has 3 homonyms, made by shortening – rep (from repertory), rep (from ‘representative’), rep (from ‘reputation’). 5) Words made by sound imitation can also form pairs of homonyms with other words. For example – a noun ‘bang’ (which means a sudden loud explosive noise), and a noun ‘bang’ (in the meaning of hair, comb over the forehead). As we see homonyms developed from 2 or more different words and their similarity is purely accidental, while in conversion pairs of homonyms are formed differently: one is produced from the other (paper – to paper).

6) There is one more way of forming homonyms – it’s split homonymy, when 2 or more homonyms originate from different meanings of the same word. Such words are called polysemantic. The semantic structure of polysemantic words represents a system within which all its constituent meanings are held together by logical associations. In most cases the unity is determined by one of the meanings. If this meaning happens to disappear from the word’s semantic structure, associations between the rest of the meanings may not be clearly established, the semantic structure loses its unity and falls into 2 or more parts which then become accepted as independent lexical units. Let’s consider the history of 3 homonyms; board (in the meaning of a long thin piece of timber), board (in the meaning of daily meals, especially as provided for pay) and board ( in the meaning of an official group of persons, who direct or supervise some activity). It\s clear that the meaning of these 3 words are not associated with one another. The meaning which held all these different meanings together is ‘table’. The meanings ‘meals’ and ‘an official group of persons’ developed from the meaning ‘table’ by transference based on contiguity: meals are easily associated with a table on which they are served, na official group of people in authority are also likely to discuss their business round a table. The meaning ‘a piece of timber’ was transferred on the basis of contiguity (association of an object and the material from which it’s made). Nowadays however the item of furniture on which meals are served is no longer denoted by the word ‘board’, but by the French Norman borrowing ‘table’. ‘Board’ in this meaning can be regarded as archaic, because it’s no longer used in common speech. As we see, the semantic structure of the word ‘board’ was split into 3 units.