6. Homonymy

Words identical in their sound form and/or graphic form (spelling) but different in meaning are traditionally called homonyms, (Gk. homos ‘similar’ and onoma ‘name’). Cf.: bank1 ‘land along each side of a river or canal’ and bank 2 ‘establishment for keeping money and valuables’, write ‘make letters or other symbols on a surface’ and right ‘just, morally good’. Homonymy exists in many languages but Mоdern English is exceptionally rich in homonyms. It is presumed that languages where short words prevail have more homonyms than those with longer words. O.Jespersen calculated that there are approximately four times as many monosyllabic as polysyllabic homonyms. It might be inferred that the abundance of homonyms in Modern English is accounted for by the monosyllabic structure of English words.

The similarity of form in majority of cases is occasional. Homonyms may hinder understanding the sense of the utterance. It is the lexical context that discloses meanings of homonymous words. In the following example several homonyms are used: I could not bear the sight of the poor bear in the bare forest near the construction site ‘Я не мог вынести вида бедного медведя в оголенном лесу возле строительной площадки’ (the еxample is borrowed from [Харитончик, p.72]). Homоnyms are: bear 1 ‘endure, tolerate’, bear 2 ‘large, heavy animal with thick fur’, bare ‘without clothing, covering, protection, decoration’, sight 1 ‘sth. seen’, site 2 ‘place where a building is or going to be’. However, the cоntеxt does not always help determine the word meaning. Тhe example light blue summer dress can be translated either as ‘легкое голубое летнее платье’ or ‘светло-голубое летнее платье’ because of homonyms light 1 ‘not heavy’ and light 2 ‘opposite of darkness’.

Homonyms are often used in jokes and puns which are based on play on words. In the example: “Mine is a long and a sad tale!” said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing. “It is a long tail, certainly,” said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse’s tail; but why do you call it sad?”(L.Carrol. Alice in Wonderland) the play on words is based on homonymous nouns: tale ‘story’ and tail ‘movable part of an animal at the rear of its body’. Also: “What do you do with the fruit? - “We eat what we can, and what we can’t we can”, the pun is based on homonymous verbs can1 ‘be able to’ and can 2 ‘preserve food by putting in a tin-plated airtight container’.

Clаssificаtion of Homonyms

The traditional classification of homonyms is based on the formal criterion of the sound/graphic form. Accordingly homonyms are classified into:

1. Homophones – words identical in sound form but different in spelling (graphic form) and meaning. Examples: son :: sun, see :: sea, piece :: peace, knight :: night, write :: right, I :: eye, two :: too :: to.

2. Homographs – words identical in spelling but different in sound form and meaning. Examples: bow, v., n. [bau] ‘bending of head or body’, bow, n. [bou] ‘a weapon for shooting arrows’, lead, v. [li:d] ‘guide’, lead, n. [led] ‘soft, heavy, easily melted metal, Rus. свинец, tear, v. [teə] ‘pull apart by force’, tear, n. [tiə] ‘drop of salty water coming from the eye’, row, n. [rou] ‘line of benches, people, etc., row, n. [rau] ‘noisy quarrel’.

3. Proper homonyms (full, absolute) - words identical in sound and graphic form but different meaning. Besides the above examples bank 1, bank 2 there are a lot of others: ball 1 ‘dancing party’, ball 2 ‘round sphere used in games, pupil 1 ‘child at a school’, pupil 2 ‘hole in the central part of the eye, through which the light passes, seal 1 ‘sea animal’, seal 2, n. ‘design printed on paper by means of a stamp’ seal 3, v. ‘close tightly’, case 1 ‘box, container’, case 2 ‘something that happens’, etc.

1. By the type of meaning homonyms are classified into lexical, lexico-grammatical and grammatical:

1. Lexical homonyms are words of the same part of speech, differing in their lexical meanings: bank 1:: bank 2, ball 1:: ball 2; piece :: peace, knight :: night, air :: heir and many others.

2. Lexico-grammatical homonyms differ in lexical and part-of-speech meanings, i.e. they belong to different parts of speech: sea, n. :: see, v., red, a. :: read, v., mean, a. :: mean, v., paw, n. :: pour, v. etc.

3. Grammatical homonyms are word-forms belonging to the same paradigm, differing in their grammatical meanings. For example, in the paradigm of the noun: brothers, pl. - brother's, sing. possessive case - brothers', pl. possess. or in the verb paradigm: to cut, infinitive - cut, past indefinite - cut, past participle.

1. А.I.Smirnitsky singled out two big classes of homonyms: I. full and II. partial homonyms [1956]. To full homonyms refer words coinciding in all grammar forms, i.e. having identical paradigms. It implies that full homonyms either belong to the same part of speech as, for instance, pupil1 and pupil 2: pupil - pupil’s - pupils - pupils’, or have no paradigms: too :: too :: to.

1. Partial homonyms fall into three subgroups:

1. А. Simple lexico-grammatical partial homonyms are words of the same part of speech. Their paradigms have words with identical sound and/or graphic forms (differing in meanings). Examples:

(to) found, v. (Infinitive) :: found , v. (Past Indef., Past Part. of to find);

(to) lay, v. (Infinitive) :: lay, v. (Past Indef. of to lie);

(to) bound, v. (Infinitive) :: bound, v. (Past Indef., Past Part.of to bind).

Б. Complex lexico-grammatical partial homonyms are words of different parts of speech, having identical sound and/or graphic forms, differing in meanings:

rose, n. :: rose, v. (Past Indef., Past Part. 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);

one, num. :: won, v. (Past Indef., Past Part. of to leave).

В. Partial lexical homonyms are words of the same part of speech, identical in sound and/or graphic form used in the same grammar form, differing in lexical meanings:

to lie (lay, lain), v. ‘лежать’ :: to lie (lied, lied), v., ‘лгать, обманывать’;

to hang (hung, hung), v., ‘висеть’ :: to hang (hanged, hanged), v., ‘вешать’;

to can (canned, canned), v., ‘консервировать’ :: (I) can (could), v., ‘мочь, быть в состоянии’.

One should not confuse homonymy and polysemy. In homonyms unlike polysemantic words there are no sematic links between various lexemes.