20. Polysemy.

Monosemantic words are words which have only 1 meaning. They are comparatively few in number, mostly – scientific terms. The bulk of English words are polysemantic – they possess more than 1 meaning. The actual number ranges from 5 to 11. The commoner the word is the more meaning it has. The problem of polysemy is mainly the problem interrelation and interdependence of the various meanings of the same word. If polysemy is viewed diachronically it is understood as the growth and development or change in the semantic structure of the word. Polysemy is diachronic terms implies that a word may retain its previous meaning(s) and at the same time acquire 1 or several new ones. The main source of polysemy is a change in the semantic structure of the word, result as a rule in new meanings being added to the existing meanings in the semantic structure of the word. Some of the old meanings may become obsolete or disappear. But the bulk of English words tend to increase in number of meanings. Synchronically polysemy is understood as the co-existence of various meanings of the same word at a certain historical perioud of time. The concepts of central or basic meaning and marginal or minor meanings may be interpreted in terms of their relative frequency and speech. It means that the meaning with the highest frequency value is synchronically its basic meaning. There is an approach of formal/logical relations among the meanings. According to this approach there are 2 types of possible relations: radial and chain relation. Radial relation implies that any 2 meanings have a common part. The common part is called an invariant/common meaning. Chain relation is where the 1^st and the 3^rd components have nothing in common but they are connected only through the 2^nd. Both types of relations are possible simultaneously – it is called the semantic network of meanings.

21. Hyponymy as types of paradigmatic relationships in Lexis. Sources of homonymy, types of homonyms.

Linguistic science belongs to a semiotic system. Any semiotic system has paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations. Paradigmatic relations bind the sciences in the structure of the language. Paradigm is a group of elements, having a common component but different in a certain part. Paradigmatic relations include synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy and incompatibility. Syntagmatic relations show how the linguistic system functions and in particular how lexical meanings are united in groups. Syntagmatic relations exist only into larger units. For the whole meaning of groups which is composed of the meanings of single words and sometimes has little references to the individual meanings or idioms. Syntagmatic relations deal with semantic redundancy; semantic and grammatical agreement; valency etc. Hyponymy is the semantic relationship of inclusion. The hyponymic relationship may be viewed as the hierarchical relationship between the meaning of the general and individual terms. The general term is sometimes called the classifier or hypernym. It serves to describe the lexico-semantic group, individual terms or hyponyms contain the meaning of the general term in addition to their individual meanings which distinguish them from each other. e.g.: to move (hypernym) = walk, run, crawl (hyponyms). The principle is widely spread in botany, geology etc. hyponymic relations may be viewed as objectively reflecting the structure of vocabulary and is considered one of the most important principles for the description of meaning. 2 most important features: hyponymy is transitive; hyponymy is asymmetrical. A hyponym inherits all the features of the more generic concepts and adds at least 1 feature that distinguishes it from its hypernym and from any other hyponym of that group. The hyponym transfers some its characteristics to the hyponyms – transitivity. The hyponymic relation is asymmetric because 1 hypernym can have many hyponyms and not visa versa. Also in speech a hypernym may be used instead of its hyponym and never visa versa. e.g.: He owed a canary but the bird didn’t sing. (‘canary’ may be placed at the beginning of the sentence). The bird – an anaphoric noun; a canary – its antecedent. There exist different hierarchical relations within different parts of speech. Within nouns there is meronymy. These are the part and whole relations. A meronym is a part and a holonym is the whole. e.g.: ‘finger’ is a meronym to a ‘hand’; ‘hand’ is a holonym to a ‘finger’. Within verbs the relations are of more complicated characters. The different relations can be cast in terms of lexical entailment or strict implication. e.g. ‘snore’ lexically entails – sleep. Homonyms are 2 or more words identical in sound and spelling but different in meaning, distribution and in some cases origin. e.g.: well – adv., n. Traditionally in dictionaries lexico-semantic variants are grouped in one entry and numbered. Homonyms are put in different entries. In speech as a rule only one of all the possible values is determined by the context so that no ambiguity may normally arise. Combinations when 2 or more meanings are possible are either deliberate puns or result from carelessness. e.g.: I life worth living? It depends upon the liver. Homonymy is universal. It exists in many languages but in English it is particularly frequent group among monosyllabic words. From the view point of the morphological structure homonyms are mostly 1-morpheme words. Classification. 1) Homonyms proper are words identical in pronunciation and spelling. e.g.: ball. The important point is that homonyms are distinct words – not different meanings within 1 word. homonyms proper are further subdivided into: partial homonymy (know, know, knew: no, nose, new); patterned homonymy (the invariant lexical meaning present in homonyms that have developed from 1 common source and belong to various parts of speech): e.g.: eye n., v. 2) Homophones are words of the same sound but of different spelling and meaning: e.g.: air, hair. 3) Homographs are words different in sounds and meaning but accidentally identical in meaning: e.g.: row [#u] – ряд; [au] – ссора. Homonyms may be also classified by the type of meaning into: 1) Lexical homonyms differ in lexical meaning only: e.g.: seal – морской котик, печать. 2) Lexico-grammatical homonyms differ in both: grammatical and lexical meaning: e.g.: seal – морской котик, запечатать. 3) Grammatical homonymy is the homonymy of different word-forms of one and the same words. In the paradigms of the majority of verbs the form of the past tense is homonymous with the form of Participle II. And also in the paradigm of nouns we may find homonymous forms of the possessive case singular and the common case plural: e.g.: It’s my brother’s house. – I have 2 brothers. Split of polysemy is one of the sources of the homonyms. Polysemantic words develop meanings which in the course of time may deviate very far from the central one, when the intermediate links fall out some of these new meanings lose all connections with the rest of the structure and start their separate existence. Another cause by which homonymy may be brought about is through convergent sound homonymy. When 2 or 3 words of different origin coincide in sound.