45. Homonymy

Homonymy refers to a situation where we have two or more words with the same shape. Although they have the same shape, homonyms are considered to be distinct (ясн) lexemes, mainly because they have unrelated (несвязные) meanings and different etymologies. There is however some difficulty in the establishment of sameness and of shape, owing to the fact that we do not make the distinction (различие) in both speech and writing.

Ex.: Lead (metal) lead (dog’s lead); right, rite, write.

Thus “Lead” (metal) and “lead” (dog’s lead) are spelt the same but pronounced differently. And “right”, “rite”, “write” spelt differently but pronounced the same. For the first case “lead – lead” the term homograph should be used (same spelling). For the second – homophone is the appropriate term. In addition to the difference in meaning homonyms may also be kept apart by syntactic differences.

Tender (adj., n, v), bear (n, v), hail (n. v) hoarse (adj.) horse (n.)

When homonyms belong to different word classes as in the case of “tender”, which has different lexemes as adj., n., v., each homonym has got only a distinct meaning but also a different grammatical function. The same observation apply to pairs of words such as bear (n, v), hail (n. v), hoarse (adj.), horse (n.), brave (n., adj.)

The route was very long. The root was very long.

Helen didn’t see the bat (лет. мышь). - Helen didn’t see the bat (орудие).

46. Homonym clashes

Because of sameness of shape there is a danger of homonymy conflict in the sense that two homonyms with totally different meanings may both make sense in the same utterance (произнесение).

The route was very long – The root was very long

He didn’t see the bat (animal) (лет. мышь) - He didn’t seen the bat (wooden implement (орудие)).

However, there are at least two differences: the difference in the word-class and the difference in spelling. Besides the difference in the overall context. Many homonyms exist only in theory since in practice there is no risk of any confusion (путаницы), because they may belong to different word classes. Consider the pairs of homonyms “knows” as n. and “knows” as a v. Apart (отдельно) from difference in meaning it’s difficult to imagine a context in which both memories of a given pair might occur interchangeability (в-заменяемость).

47. Types of homonyms

“Lead” (metal) and “lead” (dog’s lead) are spelt the same but pronounced differently. And “right”, “rite”, “write” spelt differently but pronounced the same. For the first case “lead – lead” the term homograph should be used (same spelling). For the second – homophone is the appropriate term.

48. Hyponymy

Hypomomy is a relation btwn 2 words in which the meaning of one of the words includes the meaning of the other word.

Hyponym is a subordinate, specific term, whose referent is included in the referent of super ordinate term.

The relation of hyponymy serves to structure large parts of vocabulary. It is perhaps an all pervasive [pə′veɪsɪv] (распр-ся) structuring relation. It is almost evident in the taxonomies of natural phenomenon.

Plant

fungus (плесень) lichen (лишайник) tree

mushroom toadstool (поганка) conifer (хвойн.) deciduous (листв.)

pine spruce (ель)

Plant is a super ordinate term. Those immediately below it are directly “subordinate” (второстепенные) terms (fungus, lichen, shrub, etc.), (hyponyms). So, tree is a hyponym of plant, but is a super ordinate to its hyponyms: conifer, deciduous. Reading up from the bottom of the hierarchy, pine is a “kind of” conifer, which is a kind of tree, which is a kind of plant.

Hyponymy is not restricted to objects, abstract concepts or nouns. It can be identified in many other areas of the lexicon.