Lecture 4 semantic relations of words

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1. Homonymy. Classifications of homonyms.

2. Sources of homonymy.

3. Synonyms. Classification of synonyms. Euphemisms.

4. Antonyms. Their classification.

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1. Homonymy. Classifications of homonyms, their sources

Words and phrases can enter into a variety of semantic relations with each other. There may be different ways of grouping and classifying words.

Homonymy is the sameness of form combined with the difference in meaning.

Homonyms are words which are identical in sound and spelling, or, at least, in one of these aspects, but different in their meaning. For example, bank, n – a shore; bank, n – an institution for receiving, lending, exchanging, and safeguarding money; ball, n – a sphere, any spherical body; (It was a very good ball. It was red.) ball, n – a large dancing party (It was a very good ball. I danced till 3 in the morning.).

Modern English is exceptionally rich in homonymous words. It is held that languages where short words abound have more homonyms than those where longer words are prevalent. In etymological dictionary by W.W. Skeat we can find 783 homonymic groups. From these 620 have two homonyms, 127 have three homonyms.

Full (or complete) homonyms are two (or more) words which coincide in all their forms, e,g. blow, v – to send out a strong current of air; blow, v – to produce flowers. Their forms are identical: blow – blows – blowing – blew – blown.

Homonyms may be classified into proper (or perfect) and partial. Homonyms proper are words which are identical in sound and spelling but different in meaning, e.g. bit, n – a small piece or amount; bit, n – the smallest unit of information that can be used by a computer; bit, v – past simple of bite.

Partial homonyms are words which coincide only in some of their forms, e.g. lie, v – to have or put one’s body in a resting position on a horizontal surface (with its forms lie –lies – lying – lay – lain) and lie, v – to make a statement one knows to be untrue ( with its forms lie – lies – lying – lied – lied).

Homonyms may be also classified by the type of meaning into lexical, lexico-grammatical and grammatical homonyms.

Lexical homonyms are words which belong to the same part of speech but differ in lexical meaning, e.g. birth, n – the act or fact of being born; berth, n – a bed or bunk in a vessel or train usually narrow and fixed to a wall.

Lexico-grammatical homonyms are words which differ in their lexical and grammatical meanings, e.g. bear, v (to support or hold up) – bear, n (an animal); write, v – right, adj.

Grammatical homonyms are homonymous word-forms of one and the same word differing in grammatical meaning, e.g. brothers - brother’s – brothers’ are grammatical homonyms. The two classifications: proper and partial homonyms and lexical, lexico-grammatical and grammatical homonyms in their classification of homonyms all the three aspects: sound-form, graphic form and meaning are taken into account.

Homonyms are classified into homographs and homophones. Homographs are words identical in spelling, but different both in their sound-form and meaning, e.g. bow, n [bou] — a piece of wood curved by a string and used for shooting arrows, and bow, n [bau] — the bending of the head or body; tear, n [tia] — a drop of water that comes from the eye, and tear, v [tea] — to pull apart by force.

Homophones are words the same in sound but different both in spelling and in meaning, e.g. sea, n – see, v – C (the name of a letter); son, n – sun, n.

“Waiter” – “Yes, sir”.

“What’s this?” – “It’s bean soup, sir”

“Never mind what it has been. I want to know what it is now”.

(bean, n and been, past perfect of to be are homophones).