3. Homonyms: words of the same form.

Homonyms are words which are identical in sound and spelling or, at least at one of these aspects, but different in their meaning and distribution.

e.g. bank, n – a shore / bank, n – an institution for receiving, lending, exchanging, and safe guarding money.// fit, n – perfectly fitting clothes / fit, n – a nervous spasm

There are several classifications of homonyms. The traditional formal classification of homonyms is as follows:

1. Homonyms proper (Absolute homonyms) are words identical in pronunciation and spelling,

e. g. Ball (м’яч) – ball (бал), to bore (свердлити) – bore (нудна людина), to bark (гавкати) – bark (кора)

2. Partial homonyms subdivided into:

1. homographs - words different in sound and in meaning but accidentally identical in spelling, e.g. bow (лук) – bow (ніс корабля), lead (свинець) – to lead (вести), row (ряд) – row (прогулянка на лодці), tear (розрив) – tear (сльоза).

2. homophones – words of the same sound but of different spelling and meaning, e.g. night (ніч) – knight (лицар), piece (шматочок) – peace (мир), rite (звичай, обряд) – to write (писати) – right (правильно), sea (море) – see (бачити) – C (літера алфавіту), steel (сталь) – steal (красти).

The play-wright on my right thinks it right that some conventional rite should symbolize the right of every man to write as he pleases. In this sentence the sound complex [rait] is noun, adjective, adverb and verb, has four different spellings and six different meanings.

According to professor A.I. Smirnitsky’s classification homonyms may be classified into two large classes: full (- words which represent the same category of parts of speech and have the same paradigm; - have the same spelling an pronunciation) and partial homonyms (simple lexico-grammatical, complex lexico-grammatical, partial lexical homonyms). Simple lexico-grammatical

belong to the same part of speech, their paradigms have only one identical form, it is never the same form ; to found, verb / found, verb (Past Ind., Past. Part. of to find). Complex lexico-grammatical

belong to different parts of speech and have one identical form in their paradigms: rose, noun / rose, verb (Pat Ind. of to rise). Partial lexical homonyms belong to the same part of speech but identical only

in corresponding forms of their paradigms: to lie (lay, lain), verb / to lie (lied, lied), verb

3. Sources of homonyms.

Sources of Homonyms are:

1. Phonetic changes which words- undergo in the course of their historical development. Night and knight,

2. Borrowing. A borrowed word may, in the final stage of its phonetic adaptation, duplicate in form either a native word or another borrowing. rite, n. – to write, v.- right, adj. the second and third words are of native origin whereas rite is a Latin borrowing (< Lat. ritus).

3. Conversion – comb, n.- to comb, v., pale, adj.- to pale, v., to make, v,- make, n. Homonyms of this type, which are the same in sound and spelling but refer to different categories of parts of speech, are called lexico-grammatical homonyms.

4. Shortening. E.g. fan, n. in the sense of “an enthusiastic admirer of some kind of sport or of an actor, singer, etc.” is a shortening produced from fanatic.

5. Words made by sound-imitation can also form pairs of homonyms with other words: e, g. bang, n. (“a loud, sudden, explosive noise”) – bang, n. (“a fringe of hair combed over . the forehead”).

6. Two or more homonyms can “originate from different meanings of the same word when, for some reason, the semantic structure of the word breaks into several parts. This type of formation of homonyms is called split polysemy: Board – a long and thin piece of timber / Board – daily meals especially provided for pay / Board – an official group of persons who direct or supervise some activity. A board of directors. All the meanings developed from the meaning ” a table”.