Card 1

1. Homonymy of words and word-forms. Classification of homonyms. Sources of homonymy. Two or more words identical in sound and spelling but different in meaning, distribution and in many cases origin are called homonyms. They are words which have the same sounding, spelling or both, but not related to each other. The term is derived from Greek “homonymous” (homos - “the same” and onoma - “name”). We should distinguish homonyms from polysemantic words, because polysemantic words are related to each other in their meaninds (actually, it is one word that has many meanings).

The most widely accepted classification is that recognizing homonyms proper, homophones and homographs. Arnold.

Homonyms proper are words, identical in pronunciation and spelling. Other examples are: back n `part of the body' - back adv `away from the front' - back v `go back'; ball n `a gathering of people for dancing' - ball n `round object used in games'; bark n `the noise made by dog' - bark v `to utter sharp explosive cries' - bark n `the skin of a tree' - bark n.

Homophones are words of the same sound but of different spelling and meaning: air - hair; arms - alms; buy - by; him - hymn; knight - night; not - knot; or - oar; piece - peace; rain - reign; scent - cent; steel - steal; storey - story; write - right and many others. On the other hand, whole sentences may be homophonic: The sons raise meat - The sun's rays meet.

Homographs are words different in sound and in meaning but accidentally identical in spelling: bow [bou] - bow [bau]; lead [li:d] - lead [led]; row [rou] - row [rau]; sewer [`soue] - sewer [sjue]; tear [tie] - tear [te]; wind [wind] - wind [waind] and many more.

Classification.

Accordingly, Professor A.I. Smirnitsky classifieds homonyms into two large classes: a) full homonyms b) partial homonyms. Full homonyms are words, which represent the same category of parts of speech and have the same paradigm. E.g.: Match n - a game, a contest - Match n - a short piece of wood used for producing fire. Partial homonyms are subdivided into three subgroups: A. Simple lexico-grammatical partial homonyms are words, which belong to the same category of parts of speech. Their paradigms have only one identical form, but it is never the same form, as will be soon from the examples: (to) found v - found v (past indef., past part. of to find); (to) lay v - lay v (past indef. of to lie); (to) bound v - bound v (past indef., past part. of to bind). B. Complex lexico-grammatical partial homonyms are words of different categories of parts of speech, which have identical form in their paradigms. Rose n - Rose v (past indef. of to rise); Maid n - Made v (past indef., past part. of to make); Left adj - Left v (past indef., past part. of to leave). C. Partial lexical homonyms are words of the same category of parts of speech which are identical only in their corresponding forms. to lie (lay, lain) v - to lie (lied, lied) v; to hang (hung, hung) v - to hang (hanged, hanged) v; to can (canned, canned) - (I) can (could).

There is no universal criterion to distinguish homonyms and polysemantic words. Abayev proposed to distinguish the words from the viewpoint of etymology. There is another way – to distinguish them synchronically – according their meaning.

Sources.

One source of homonyms is phonetic changes, which words undergo in the coarse of their historical development. As a result of such changes, two or more words, which were formally pronounced differently, may develop identical sound forms and thus become homonyms. Night and knight, for instance, were not homonyms in Old English as the initial k in the second word was pronounced, and not dropped as it is in its modern sound form: O.E. kniht (cf. O.E. niht). A more complicated change of form brought together another pair of homonyms: to knead (O.E. cneadan) and to need (O.E. neodian). In Old English the verb to write had the form writan, and the adjective right had the forms reht, riht.

Borrowing is another source of homonyms. A borrowed word may, in the final stage of its phonetic adaptation, duplicate in form either a native word or another borrowing. So, in the group of homonyms rite, n - to write, v - right, adj the second and the third words are of native origin whereas rite is a Latin borrowing (<Lat. ritus). In the pair piece, n - peace, n, the first originates from Old French pais, and the second from O.F. (<Gaulish) pettia. Bank, n `a shore' is a native word, and bank, n `a financial institution' is an Italian borrowing.

Word building also contributes significantly to the growth of homonymy, and the most important type in this respect is undoubtedly conversion. Such pairs of words as comb, n - to comb, v; pale, adj - to pale, v; to make, v - make, n are numerous in the vocabulary. 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.

Shortening is a further type of word building, which increases the number of homonyms. Fan, n in the sense of `enthusiastic admirer of some kind of sport or of an actor, singer, etc.' is a shortening produced from fanatic. Its homonym is a Latin borrowing fan, n which denotes an implement for waving lightly to produce a cool current of air. The noun rep, n denoting a kind of fabric (cf. with the Rus. penc) has three homonyms made by shortening: rep, n (< repertory), rep, n (< representative), rep, n (< reputation); all the three are informal words.

[[[ Words made by sound-imitation can also form pairs of homonyms with other words: bang, n ‘a loud, sudden, explosive noise’ – bang, n ‘a fringe of hair combed over the forehead’. Also: mew, n ‘the sound the cat makes’ – mew, n ‘a sea gull’ – mew, n ‘a pen in which poultry is fattened’ – mews ‘small terraced houses in Central London’. [[[The above-described sources of homonyms have one important feature common. In all the mentioned cases the homonyms developed from two or more different words, and their similarity is purely accidental. (In this respect, conversion certainly presents an exception for in pairs of homonyms formed by conversion one word of the pair is produced from the other: a find < to find.)

To distinguish between polysemy & homonymy 3 factors should be taken into account:

1. The semantic proximity of them 2. The derivation capacity 3. The range of collocability

1. The semantic proximity.

The 1st way to establish polysemy or homonymy is to look for a central core meaning.

It’s easier when we have examples of metaphor or transfer meanings.

(adj-s are particularly interesting in this respect because they often develop polysemy by adding new nominative-derivative meanings to their semantic structure).

Ex.: sour – кислый

- disagreeable (new meaning)

juicy – сочный

- scandalous

The media were delighted to have a juicy news story.

Board – a piece of wool

- a company or council (комиссия)

- meals (пансион)

Practical task Task I . Find homonymous words in the following sentences and comment on their types.

1. a)“Mine is a long and sad tale!(a story about imaginary events or people)” said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing.

b) “It is a long tail(a part at the back of an animal’s body that can move), certainly,” said Alice, looking down with wonder at the mouse’s tail; “but why do you call it sad?” (they are homophones)

2. a) Our Institute football team got a challenge to a match (a game in which players or teams compete against each other esp.in sport) from the University team and we accepted it.

b) Somebody struck a match ( a small stick that produces a flame when rubbed against a rough surface, used for for lighting a fire, sigarette, etc) so that we could see each other.(homonyms proper and acc.to Smirnitsky they are full homonyms))

3. a) Do you always forget to wind (to make a clock or watch to operate by turning a part of it around and around) up your watch?

b) Crane had an old Ford without a top and it rattled so much and the wind (a natural current of air that moves fast enough for u to fill it)xexee))) made so much noise. (they are homonyms proper and acc.to Smirnitsky partial)

4. a) He was growing progressively deafer in the left ( on the side of ur body that is to the west if u r facing the north) ear.

b) I saw that I was looking down into another cove similar to the one I had left. (the 3 rd form of the verb leave)

2. Give homophones to the underlined words.

1. Two heads are better than one.(two-to, too; one-won)

2. After rain comes fine weather. (reign, whether)

3. It was a difficult task. Not all candidates got through.(threw)

4. Make hay while the sun shines.(son)

5. I was out when you called me.(eye)

Card 9

1.Conversion its productivity.Typical semantic relations within conversional pairs.

There are 2 groups of word formation: main (affixation, conversion and compounding) and minor (back-formation, abbreviation, sound interchange, stress interchange). Conversion is a characteristic feature of the English word-building system. It is also called affixless derivation or zero-suffixation. The term "conversion" first appeared in the book by Henry Sweet "New English Grammar" in 1891. Conversion is treated differently by different scientists, e.g. prof. A.I. Smirntitsky treats conversion as a morphological way of forming words when one part of speech is formed from another part of speech by changing its paradigm, e.g. to form the verb "to dial" from the noun "dial" we change the paradigm of the noun (a dial,dials) for the paradigm of a regular verb (I dial, he dials, dialed, dialing). A. Marchand treats conversion as a morphological-syntactical word-building because we have not only the change of the paradigm, but also the change of the syntactic function, e.g. I need some good paper for my room. (The noun "paper" is an object in the sentence). I paper my room every year. (The verb "paper" is the predicate in the sentence). CRITERIA OF SEMANTIC DERIVATION In cases of conversion the problem of criteria of semantic derivation arises : which of the converted pair is primary and which is converted from it. The problem was first analized by prof. A.I. Smirnitsky. Later on P.A. Soboleva developed his idea and worked out the following criteria: 1. If the lexical meaning of the root morpheme and the lexico-grammatical meaning of the stem coincide the word is primary, e.g. in cases pen - to pen, father - to father the nouns are names of an object and a living being. Therefore in the nouns "pen" and "father" the lexical meaning of the root and the lexico-grammatical meaning of the stem coincide. The verbs "to pen" and " to father" denote an action, a process therefore the lexico-grammatical meanings of the stems do not coincide with the lexical meanings of the roots. The verbs have a complex semantic structure and they were converted from nouns. 2. If we compare a converted pair with a synonymic word pair which was formed by means of suffixation we can find out which of the pair is primary. This criterion can be applied only to nouns converted from verbs, e.g. "chat" n. and "chat" v. can be compared with "conversation" - "converse". 3. The criterion based on derivational relations is of more universal character. In this case we must take a word-cluster of relative words to which the converted pair belongs. If the root stem of the word-cluster has suffixes added to a noun stem the noun is primary in the converted pair and vica versa, e.g. in the word-cluster : hand n., hand v., handy, handful the derived words have suffixes added to a noun stem, that is why the noun is primary and the verb is converted from it. In the word-cluster: dance n., dance v., dancer, dancing we see that the primary word is a verb and the noun is converted from it. SUBSTANTIVIZATION OF ADJECTIVES Some scientists (Yespersen, Kruisinga ) refer substantivization of adjectives to conversion. But most scientists disagree with them because in cases of substantivization of adjectives we have quite different changes in the language. Substantivization is the result of ellipsis (syntactical shortening ) when a word combination with a semantically strong attribute loses its semantically weak noun (man, person etc), e.g. "a grown-up person" is shortened to "a grown-up". In cases of perfect substantivization the attribute takes the paradigm of a countable noun , e.g. a criminal, criminals, a criminals (mistake) , criminals (mistakes). Such words are used in a sentence in the same function as nouns, e.g. I am fond of musicals. (musical comedies). There are also two types of partly substantivized adjectives: those which have only the plural form and have the meaning of collective nouns, such as: sweets, news, empties, finals, greens, those which have only the singular form and are used with the definite article. They also have the meaning of collective nouns and denote a class, a nationality, a group of people, e.g. the rich, the English, the dead . "STONE WALL" COMBINATIONS. The problem whether adjectives can be formed by means of conversion from nouns is the subject of many discussions. In Modern English there are a lot of word combinations of the type , e.g. price rise, wage freeze, steel helmet, sand castle etc. If the first component of such units is an adjective converted from a noun, combinations of this type are free word-groups typical of English (adjective + noun). This point of view is proved by O. Yespersen by the following facts: 1. "Stone" denotes some quality of the noun "wall". 2. "Stone" stands before the word it modifies, as adjectives in the function of an attribute do in English. 3. "Stone" is used in the Singular though its meaning in most cases is plural,and adjectives in English have no plural form. 4. There are some cases when the first component is used in the Comparative or the Superlative degree, e.g. the bottomest end of the scale. 5. The first component can have an adverb which characterizes it, and adjectives are characterized by adverbs, e.g. a purely family gathering. 6. The first component can be used in the same syntactical function with a proper adjective to characterize the same noun, e.g. lonely bare stone houses. 7. After the first component the pronoun "one" can be used instead of a noun, e.g. I shall not put on a silk dress, I shall put on a cotton one. However Henry Sweet and some other scientists say that these criteria are not characterisitc of the majority of such units. They consider the first component of such units to be a noun in the function of an attribute because in Modern English almost all parts of speech and even word-groups and sentences can be used in the function of an attribute, e.g. the then president (an adverb), out-of-the-way vilages (a word-group), a devil-may-care speed (a sentence). There are different semantic relations between the components of "stone wall" combinations. E.I. Chapnik classified them into the following groups: 1. time relations, e.g. evening paper, 2. space relations, e.g. top floor, 3. relations between the object and the material of which it is made, e.g. steel helmet, 4. cause relations, e.g. war orphan, 5. relations between a part and the whole, e.g. a crew member, 6. relations between the object and an action, e.g. arms production, 7. relations between the agent and an action e.g. government threat, price rise, 8. relations between the object and its designation, e.g. reception hall, 9. the first component denotes the head, organizer of the characterized object, e.g. Clinton government, Forsyte family, 10. the first component denotes the field of activity of the second component, e.g. language teacher, psychiatry doctor, 11. comparative relations, e.g. moon face, 12. qualitative relations, e.g. winter apples. Conversion is the main way of forming verbs in Modern English. Verbs can be formed from nouns of different semantic groups and have different meanings because of that, e.g.

a) verbs have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns denoting parts of a human body e.g. to eye, to finger, to elbow, to shoulder etc. They have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns denoting tools, machines, instruments, weapons, e.g. to hammer, to machine-gun, to rifle, to nail,

b) verbs can denote an action characteristic of the living being denoted by the noun from which they have been converted, e.g. to crowd, to wolf, to ape,

c) verbs can denote acquisition, addition or deprivation if they are formed from nouns denoting an object, e.g. to fish, to dust, to peel, to paper,

d) verbs can denote an action performed at the place denoted by the noun from which they have been converted, e.g. to park, to garage, to bottle, to corner, to pocket,

e) verbs can denote an action performed at the time denoted by the noun from which they have been converted e.g. to winter, to week-end .

Verbs can be also converted from adjectives, in such cases they denote the change of the state, e.g. to tame (to become or make tame) , to clean, to slim etc.

Nouns can also be formed by means of conversion from verbs. Converted nouns can denote:

a) instant of an action e.g. a jump, a move,

b) process or state e.g. sleep, walk,

c) agent of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been converted, e.g. a help, a flirt, a scold ,

d) object or result of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been converted, e.g. a burn, a find, a purchase,

e) place of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been converted, e.g. a drive, a stop, a walk.

Many nouns converted from verbs can be used only in the Singular form and denote momentaneous actions. In such cases we have partial conversion. Such deverbal nouns are often used with such verbs as : to have, to get, to take etc., e.g. to have a try, to give a push, to take a swim .

Typical semantic relations.

1. Verbs converted from nouns

1.a typical agent – an action characteristic of this agent e.g. ape-to ape, doctor-to doctor, butcher-to butcher, a nurse-to nurse.

2.An object-an action typically performed with it fish-to fish, coat’a layer of paint’-to coat’ to put a layer of paint on sth, skin-to skin, dust-to dust.

3.An instrument-an action typically performed by means of it,e.g.:screw-to screw ‘to fasten with a screw’, whip-to whip’to beat with a whip’,a saw-to saw.

2. Nouns converted from verbs (deverbal nouns).

1.An activity-an instance of this activity,to jump-a jump, to drink-a drink

2.A localized activity-a locality:to drive (along the road)- a drive’a path or road along which one drives’,to walk-a walk’a place fro walking.

3.An action-its agent,e.g.to bore-a bore,to cheat-a cheat,etc.

4.An action affecting a physical object-its result:to find-a find, to peel-a peel.

Criteria.

1.The relationship between the lexical meaning of a root-morpheme and the part-of-speech meaning of the stem:a pen-to pen, father-to father, to answer-an answer.

2.A comparison of a conversion pair with an analogous word-pairs of the same synonymic set,e.g.: a chat-to chat&converse-conversation, to show-a show&exhibit-exhibition.

3The derivational criterion hand n.-hand v.-handful-handy-(left)handed, float-floatable-floater-floatation-floating.

4The criterion of semantic derivation (typical semantic relations within conversation pairs) a crowd-to crowd, a pen-to pen.

5.The frequency criterion.

6.The transformational criterion (the transfrormation of nominalisation): the committee elected John

-john’s election by the committee, Robert loves painting-Robert’s love of painting.

John visited his friend-John’s visit of his friend

She promised help-her promise of help.

I skinned the rabbit-my skin of the rabbit.

She bossed the family-her boss of the family.,etc.

Diachronic approach to conversion. Results of disappearance of inflections: love n(OE lufu)-love v(OE luvian), work(OE weork)-work v.(OE wyrcan), answer(OE andswaru)-answer(OEandswarian), mould n-mould v mouldable, moulding.

Productivity. To girl the boat, when his guest had been washed, brandied,etc.

Dubious cases. Present-to present (a change in stress position). Cf sing-song: a house-to house.

Practical Task: Find cases of conversion in the sentences below and comment on their form and meaning:

1. Use the big hammer ( a tool used for hiting things or forcing nails into wood, consisting of a handle and a heavy metal top with one flat side) for those nails and hammer (to hit smth with a hammer)them in well. ( there is “hammer” is a verb converted from the noun, it has an instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns denoting tools, machines,etc.))

2. They met at the pump (a room at a spa where u can drink natural drink)quite accidentally, after they had made half a dozen trips (an occasion when u go somewhere and come back again) for a drink (an amount of liquid that someone drinks)(G.C). (nouns converted from verbs=> an activity, an instance of this activity)