Seminar 7 Polysemy and Homonymy. Context.

I. 1. Homonyms. Classification of homonyms. W. Skeat (perfect homonyms; homographs; homophones); A.I Smirnitsky (grammatical meaning). I.V. Arnold (homonyms identical in their grammatical meanings, basic forms and paradigms and different in their lexical meanings; homonyms identical in their grammatical meanings and basic forms, different in their lexical meanings and paradigms; homonyms different in their lexical meanings, grammatical meanings, paradigms, but coinciding in their basic forms; homonyms different in their lexical meanings, grammatical meanings, in their basic forms and paradigms, but coinciding in one of the forms of their paradigms). Sources of homonymy.

2. Context: different interpretations. The role of context in the discrimination of the individual meaning of polysemantic words. Extralinguistic and linguistic context. Lexical, syntactical and mixed context. Lexical context of the first and second degree. Connection between a dependent and the indicator.

II. Exercises to Seminar 7

1. Give words homonymous with the following and say what they mean:

fare, flour, rite, soul, horse, beat, which, plane, gate, break

2. The following are homographs. How are they pronounced and what do they mean?

Bow – bow, desert – desert, lead – lead, minute – minute, row – row, rear – tear, wind – wind.

3. Provide proper contexts for the following pairs of homonyms:

found – found, lay – lay, saw – saw, pen – pen, temple – temple, bill – bill, spring – spring, air – heir, team – teem, sew – sow.

4. Find the homophones to the following words and say what they mean:

rain, dye, cent, tale, sea, week, peace, seen, meat, steel, knight, sum, coarse, sight, hare, sail, sell, blue, beach, led.

5. Are the following underlined words homonyms or meanings of polysemantic words? Motivate your answers.

1. 26 letters of the ABC; to receive letters regularly

2. to propose a toast; an underdone toast

3. a hand of the clock; to hold a pen in one’s hand

4. to date back to year 1870; to have a date with sb

5. to make a fire; to sit at the fire (place)

6. the capital of the country; to have a big capital

6. Determine the meaning of the underlined words, analyse the contextual indication, define the type of context.

He accepted the order with the benevolent air.

2. A few minutes later Hyman asked to go up on deck where he said there might be some more air.

3. She arrived by air on Monday afternoon.

4. I move that Mr Last addressed the meeting.

5. David took a step towards him and Adrian could see that he was intensely moved.

6. She’s making some sandwiches and they smell a fair treat.

7. Mrs Hicks probably made him put it in his bath water.

8. Then she started making towards the door.

7. The following sentences have 2 different meanings, due to the ambiguity of the underlined words. Explain the two meanings of each sentence.

1. She was driving on the right side of the road.

2. He is very fair.

3. She was a very funny girl.

4. Half the workers in the factory are idle.

5. They did not recognise the new president.

6. She is a very curious person.

7. It is a very cheap newspaper.

8. They are expected to arrive at seven.

9. My grandfather was a very powerful man.

10. I thought he was rather suspicious.

11. She was very jealous of her husband’s reputation.

12. She likes to entertain people.

13. John should know the answer.

14. He didn’t appeal to me.

15. The Morning News is a popular newspaper.

16. He might have phoned.

17. I’m afraid I am not prepared to leave yet.

18. The teacher insisted that his pupils did their homework regularly.

19. He took advantage of his friend’s knowledge.

Recommended Literature:

I.V. Arnold. The English Word. М., 1986, pp. 164–176.

R.S.Ginzburg. A course in Modern English Lexicology. М., 1979, pp. 39–50.

G.B.Antrushina English lexicology. М., 1999, pp. 168–173.

Seminar 8 English vocabulary as a system

I. 1. The notion of lexical system. A set. V.V.Vinogradov (A lexico-semantic system). Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations. The theory of oppositions

2. Classification of the vocabulary:

• Thematic groups. Minor types of semantic relations. Hyponymy, paradigmatic relation of inclusion. Hyponyms, hyperonyms, equonyms.

• The theory of semantic fields. J.Trier. Common semantic denominator. Thematic or ideographic groups. Common contextual associations.

• Definition of the term "synonyms"'. A synonymic group and its dominant member. Problems of classification of synonyms: different principles of classification: according to difference in denotational component of meaning or in connotational component (ideographic or stylistic synonyms); according to the criterion of interchangeability in linguistic context (relative, total and contextual synonyms). Characteristic pattern of English synonyms. The sources of synonymy.

• The concept of polarity of meaning. Antonyms. Morphological classification of antonyms: absolute or root antonyms and derivational antonyms. Semantic classification of antonyms: antonyms proper, complementaries, conversives.

II. Exercises to Seminar 8

1. Name classifiers for the following groups of hyponyms:

a) lettuce, peas, onion, paprika, cucumber, leek

b) Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

2. Find five hyponyms for each of the words below:

a) building; b) profession; c) drink

3. Find the three versions of each word from different language origins and put them together

massacre, agriculture, pay, intrepid, beautiful, lethal/fatal, chest/box, romance, earnings, treasure/money, wealth, courageous, mortal, attractive, summit, connoisseur, funds/currency, execute, amorous (adj), apex, love, tip, bold, expert, lovely, case/coffer, wise man, farming, receptacle, kill/slay, deadly, husbandry, salary

Old English	French (but may have Latin origin)	Latin/Greek

4. Distinguish between gradable and non-gradable antonyms among the following adjectival pairs:

wide – narrow; beautiful – ugly; male – female; sink – float; closed – opened

5. State as many words as you can that are in antonymous groups with the following words:

a) sweet; b) morning; c) novel

Recommended Literature:

I.V. Arnold. The English Word. М., 1986, pp. 21–25, 182–206, 209–215, 226–229.

R.S.Ginzburg. A course in Modern English Lexicology. М., 1979, pp. 39–46, 51–61, 21–23.

G.B.Antrushina English lexicology. М., 1999, pp. 184–197, 209–218.