Polysemy and Homonymy.

1. The notion of Homonymic types in Modern English.

2. Homonymy and Polysemy.

3. Sources of Homonymy in Modern English.

1.As it has been mentioned the problem of meaning viewed synchronically includes the study of Polysemy, Homonymy and Synonymy. Closely connected with the problem of Polysemy in the problem of Homonymy, which deals with Homonyms. Greek “homos” means the same, and “onima”- name.

Homonyms are the words different in meaning, but identical either in their sound form, or in their graphical form or spelling: temple – храм, висок, прижимная планка, and tent – палатка, красное испанское вино.

Homonymy occurs in many languages, and it’s practically frequent in English vocabulary.

According to the statistics data, the number of Homonyms in Oxford English Dictionary in 18-19 thousand = 16-18%, and this number increases with the development of English.

Homonyms are especially frequent in monosyllabic words (roughly 4 times as in monosyllabic than polysyllabic). The analysis of the bulk of the English Homonyms shows that they may be classified into different groups on a different criterion.

According to this sound form and spelling Homonyms may be divided into: homographs, homophones and perfect homonyms.

Homophones are words having the same sounding but which may coincide or differ in spelling. To send-sent-scent; one-won, coarse-course, place-plaice.

Homographs are words that have the same spelling but differ in pronunciation. To tear-tear, lead-lead, bow-bow, row-row.

Homographs Homophones or Perfect Homonyms are words identical both in spelling and sound form: pole (полюс, поляк), fair (светлый, опрометчивый, ярмарка, посредственный, вежливый).

There exists one more classification of Homonyms. Smirnitsky suggests:

1. Lexical homonyms are words which belong to the same part of speech but differ in their lexical meaning: to blow – дуть, увести; mole - родинка, крот, мол, дамба, хим. – моль, грамм, молекула.

Paradigms are identical homonymous. The paradigms are identical as well as in the next: light – светлый, легкий; too – слишком, также, действительно.

1. Lexical homonyms fall into full and partial homonymy of words and homonymy of individual word forms. The bulk of full homonymy is to be found within the same parts of speech: Seal n – seal – n тюлень, печать.

Partial homonymy as a rule is observed in word forms belonging to different parts of speech: seal – n, seal – v. This is not to say that the partial homonymy is impossible within one part of speech. Ex. To lie – to be in horizontal or resting position (lies – lay - lain). To lie – to make an untrue statement (lies – lied - lied). Cases of full homonymy may be found in different parts of speech as e.g. for – preposition, for – conjunction, four – numeral as these parts of speech have no other word forms. To can – can (консервировать - мочь).

2. Lexico – grammatical homonyms differ not only in lexical meaning but in their grammatical meanings as well as they belong to different parts of speech: hour (n) our (pron), which (pron) – witch (n) – колдунья, to sell (v) – cell (n). Lexico-grammatical homonyms may be subdivided into 2 groups:

   1. Identical in sound form but different in their lexical and grammatical meaning: seal (n) – seal (v);

   2. Identical in sound firm but different in their grammatical meaning and partly different in their lexical meaning that is different in their semantic structure: wine (n) - вино, to wine (v) – пить вино, угощать вином.

3) Some linguists single out one more type of homonyms – Grammatical Homonyms. Grammatical homonymy is the homonymy of different word forms that is the homonyms within the paradigm of one and the same word. To find (found), to found (founded). The two classifications: full and partial homonymy and lexical – lexico-grammatical homonymy are not mutually exclusive.

2 . One should distinguish between Homonymy and Polysemy. Polysemy is used to describe cases where different meanings of the same word are mutually dependent and proceed from primary meaning in every direction. With Homonymy the different meanings of the words are mutually independent. There is no connection between the meaning of the words, they are identical only in sound form or spelling. The soviet linguist Abayev presents graphically Polysemy as

and homonymy as

but it is not easy to establish the demarcation line between Homonymy and Polysemy. If Homonymy is viewed diachronically we regard as Homonyms only those words, which can be traced, back to semantically different words: tale – tail, veil(вуаль) – vale(уступать), wait – weight, weak – week. It is not always easy so that in some cases the so – called process of semantic divergence takes place. In such cases happens the transition from Polysemy to Homonymy that is one meaning of a polysemantic word separates from the primary meaning all kinship. The transition from Polysemy to Homonymy is a very long gradual process, co it is hardly ever possible to establish when that separated meaning becomes a new word. This new word very often acquires a new graphic form, which makes it difficult to trace it back to the ethnologically related word. Story – storey both come from the Middle English word “story” – in the 13 century it had the meaning история, предание, сказка, рисунок, скульптура, историческое значение. In the middle ages there was a custom to decorate houses with the sculptures (stories). At the beginning of the 19 century it changed it’s spelling into “storey”. And the two Homonymous words appeared. Sometimes the graphical forms remain unchanged: china – china – фарфор.

Synchronically the differentiation between Homonymy and Polysemy is based on the semantic criteria. If there is a semantic relation between the two words they are considered to be meanings of a polysemantic word, if not, than it is a case of Homonymy. But it is not always easy to find the semantic relation or it’s absence. E.g. to run – бегать, управлять. These words are considered to be the meanings of a polysemantic word.

Cases of metonymy and metaphors also present a debatable problem – are meanings of one word different words?

Run – по функциям сходство, suit - (прошение, сватовство, иск, костюм) each is treated as polysemantic word. Dictionaries are not of the same opinion of this problem. English dictionaries treated this as polysemy, Muller – as Homonyms.

3) One source of Homonyms is phonetic changes, which words undergo in the cource of their historical development. As a result of such changes two or more words, which were formerly pronounced differently may develop identical sound forms and thus become Homonyms.

Borrowing is another source of Homonyms. The borrowed word may in its final stage of its phonetic adaptation duplicate in form either a native word or another borrowing. Bank n a shore is a native word, bank n (a financial institution) is an Italian borrowing. Match n (a game, a contest of shill, strength) is native and match n (a slender that piece of wood used for producing fire) is a French borrowing.

Word building also contributes to the growth of Homonymy and the most important type in this respect is conversion. Such pairs of words comb n – to comb and pale adj – to pale v 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 type of word-bulding which increases the number of Homonyms. Fan n – “an 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 – “an implement for waving lightly to produce a cool current of air”.

Words made by sound imitation can also form pairs of Homonyms with other words.

Mew – a sound a cat makes,

Mew - a sea gull,

Mew - a pen in which poultry is fattened,

Mews – small terraced houses in central London.

In all the mentioned cases the Homonyms developed from 2 or more different words and their similarity is purely accidental, but conversion certainly presents an exception for in pair of Homonyms is formed by contersion one word of the pair is produced from the other. A find – to find.

Further source of Homonyms differs from all the above cases. Two or more Homonyms can originate from different meanings of the same word when, for some reason, the semantic structure of the words breaks into several parts. This type of formation Homonyms is called split Polysemy. The semantic structure of a polysemantic word presents a system, within which logical associations hold all its constituent meanings together. In most cases the function of the arrangement and unity is determined by one of the meanings.

Let’s consider the history of 3 homonyms:

Board n – a long and thin piece of timber;

Board n – daily meals, especially as provided for pay, e.g. room and board;

Board n – an official group of persons who direct or supervise one activity, e.g. a board of directors.

At first sight these meanings of 3 words are in no way associated with one another, yet most larger dictionaries still enter a meaning of board that ones held together all these other meanings “A TABLE” It developed from the meaning “a piece of timber” by transference based on contiguity (association of an object and a material of which it is made). The meanings “meals” and “official group of persons” developed from the meaning “table” also by transference based on contiguity: meals are easily associated with the table on which they are served, an official group of people in authority are also likely to discuss their businesses round the table. Now a piece of timber is denoted by a French Norman borrowing Table, though board in that meaning is registered in some dictionaries, it is no longer used in common speech in this sense, with borrowing the word table, the word board lost it’s corresponding meaning. Consequently the semantic structure of board was split into 3 units.

From the diachronic point of view there are several sources of Homonymy.

• Diverging meaning development of one polysemantic word – split of polysemy.

• Convergened sound development is the most powerful factor in the creation of Homonyms. In the course of its development the English language has undergone great changes especially phonetic ones. A great number of Homonyms appeared due to the great vowel shift in the 15-16 century: week-weak, meet-meat, row-row, home-Holm, no-know, air-hair. An old English knight was pronounced differently – “k” was pronounced.

• Borrowed words acquired the same pronunciation with native words. Latin word fair (exhibition) and fais derived from Anglo-Saxon fagger.

• A number of Homonyms are created by abbreviation

1. One word is abbreviated, the other is not:

Flue (influenza) дымоход, рыбная снасть, tick (ticket) - тиканье, нервный тик, чехол.

2. Both Homonyms are abbreviations:

Gin (engine) Geneva – можжевельная настойка, подъемная лебедка. Speck (speculation).