Лексикологія / Lecture5

Lecture 5.

HOMONYMS. SYNONYMS. ANTONYMS.

1. Homonyms. Sources of homonyms.

2. Classification of homonyms.

3. Synonyms. Synonymic group. Dominant synonym.

4. Classification of synonyms.

5. Antonyms. Classification of antonyms.

BASIC NOTIONS OF THE LECTURE.

Homonyms – words identical in sound and spelling or in one of these aspects but different in their meaning, distribution and, in many cases, origin.

E.g.: bank – берег

банк

ball – бал

м’яч

There are 3 sources of homonyms:

1. Phonetic changes.

2. Borrowings.

3. The result of split polysemy.

1. Words undergo to phonetic changes in the course of their historical development. As a result of such changes 2 or more words which were pronounced differently may develop identical sound forms and become homonyms.

E.g.: night – knight (were not homonyms in Old English).

2. Borrowed words may in the final stage of the phonetic adaptation duplicate in form wither a native word or another borrowing.

E.g.: match – матч (native)

сірник (Latin).

3. Split polysemy – 2 or more homonyms can originate from different meanings of the same word when for some reason the semantic structure of the word brakes into several parts.

E.g.: board – дошка

пансіон, інтернат

рада директорів.

The meanings of these words are in no way associated with one another. The semantic structure of the word was split in 3 units.

Homonyms are classified into the following classes:

1. Full lexical homonyms – represent the same category of part of speech and have the same paradigm.

E.g.: box – коробка; удар; самшит

fan – вентилятор, фанат

ball – м’яч; бал; очко

match – пара; сірник; матч.

2. Partial homonyms are subdivided into:

1. simple lexico-grammatical partial homonyms – which belong to the same part of speech. Their paradigms have one identical form, but it is never the same form.

E.g.: to found – found (Past Indefinite “to find”).

b) complex lexico-grammatical partial homonyms – different parts of speech, which have one identical form in their paradigms.

E.g.: rose (flower) – rose (Past Indefinite of “to rise”)

maid (girl) – made (Past Indefinite of “to make”)

one – won (Past Indefinite of “to win”).

c) partial lexical homonyms – words of the same part of speech, which are identical only in their corresponding forms.

E.g.: to lie – to lie to can - can

lay – lied canned - could

lain – lied canned - -------

Taking into consideration sound form, spelling and meaning, homonyms are classified into:

1. Perfect homonyms – words, identical both in spelling and sound form, but different in meaning.

E.g.: case – чемодан; причина, випадок

fair – ярмарок; чесний

2. Homophones – words, identical in sound form but different in spelling and meaning.

E.g.: to see – sea; sun – son; die – dye; fair – fare; sail – sale; cite – sight; flower – flour; hair – hare; peace – piece; rain – reign.

3. Homographs – words, identical in spelling, but different in sound form and meaning.

E.g.: lead – lead; tear – tear; Polish – polish; bow – bow.

SYNONYMS

Synonyms – 2 or more words belonging to the same part of speech and possessing one or more identical or nearly identical denotational meanings, interchangeable in some contexts.

These words are distinguished by different shades of meaning, connotations and stylistic features.

Several words, belonging to the same part of speech, constitute the synonymic group.

E.g.: beautiful – pleasant, charming, wonderful

hope – expectation, anticipation.

Among synonyms there is a word, which is called dominant member, which possesses the highest frequency in use and plays important role in communication. It is a center of the group of synonyms. Its meaning is equal to denotation common to all synonymic group. This dominant is the most general term, containing the specific features, rendered by all the other members of the group.

The dominant synonym expresses thee notion common to all synonyms of the group in the most general way without contributing any additional information as to the manner, intensity, duration or any attending feature of the referent.

Any dominant member is a typical basic vocabulary word. Its meaning, which is broad and generalized, covers the meanings of the rest of the synonyms, so that it may be a substitution for any of them.

The characteristic features of dominant synonym are:

1. High frequency of usage.

2. Broad combinability.

3. Broad general meaning.

4. Lack of connotations.

According to the difference of denotational and connotational components of meaning synonyms are classified into:

1. Ideographic synonyms, which differ in denotational component, between which semantic difference can be observed.

E.g.: courage – bravery – fearlessness – daring.

fame – glory – repute

Among ideographic synonyms we distinguish:

1. very close in meaning.

E.g.: horrible – terrible.

2. differ in meaning considerably.

E.g.: translator – interpreter.

3. differ in manner of the action.

E.g.: to look – to eye – to peep – to glance – to gaze.

4. differ in degree of a given quality, in the intensity of the action performed, intensity of emotions.

E.g.: to want – to desire

to work – to toil – to slave.

5. denote the same thing but differ in emotional colouring.

E.g.: small – little, boy – lad, big – great.

6. differ in the volume of the concept they express.

E.g.: illness – ailment – disease – malady – indisposition.

7. pairs of synonyms when one expresses continuity of action or state, the other – elementary action.

E.g.: to speak – to say, to remember – to memorize, to hear – to listen.

2. Stylistic synonyms – differ in connotational component, in all kinds of emotional, expressive and evaluative overtones.

E.g.: doctor – doc, it is – it’s, professor – prof, parent – father – Dad - papa.

According to criterion of interchangeability in linguistic context we distinguish:

1. Relative synonyms – which can substitute one another only in some contexts.

E.g.: to ask – to beg – to pray; to love – to adore.

2. Total synonyms – which can replace each other in any given context without alteration in denotation or connotation.

E.g.: noun – substantive; flexion – inflexion – ending; physician – doctor; basement – foundation.

According to criterion of context synonyms are classified into:

1. Synonyms proper.

2. Contextual synonyms – similar in meaning only under some specific conditions.

E.g.: I have bought a ticket.

I have got a ticket.

ANTONYMS

Antonyms – words which are different in sound form and characterized by semantic polarity of their denotational meaning.

E.g.: hot – cold; good – bad; healthy – ill; alive – dead.

Antonyms are classified into:

1. Absolute (root).

2. Derivational.

1. Absolute antonyms are diametrically opposite in meaning and remain antonyms in any word combinations.

E.g.: active – passive; alike – different; hot – cold; white – black; advance – retreat.

2. Derivational antonyms are formed with the help of negative affixes:

a) prefixes: un- healthy – unhealthy; happy - unhappy

in- (ir-, il-, im-) material – immaterial; legal – illegal; regular – irregular.

b) suffixes, which give to the word the meaning of the presence or absence of quality or feature, indicated by a root: -ful, -less

E.g.: helpful – helpless; tactful – tactless.

Antonyms may be:

1. Proper.

2. Complementaries.

3. Conversives.

1. Antonyms proper – the semantic polarity is relative, the opposition is gradual, it may include several elements characterized by different degree of the same property. They always imply comparison.

E.g.: large – little, small; high – low, short, small.

2. Complementaries – are words characterized only by a binary opposition, which may have only 2 members. The denial of one member is stating of the other.

E.g.: male – female; prose – poetry.

3. Conversives – are words, which denote one and the same referent as viewed from different points of view – that of the subject and that of the object. Their interchangeability and contextual behaviour are specific.

E.g.: He gave her flowers. – She received flowers from him.