9. Homonymy

1. Causes and sources of homonymy

2. Classification of homonyms

3. Homonyms treated diachronically

4. Homonyms treated synchronically

The term is derived from Greek (homos “similar” and onoma “name”)

“fast” – 1) run fast “quickly”; 2) stand fast “firmly”.

Causes and sources of homonymy

1. split polisemy: spring ₁, n – a leap; spring ₂, n – a place where a stream of water comes up out of the earth; spring ₃, n – a season of the year.

2. leveling of grammar inflexions: care > OE caru; care > OE carian.

3. conversion: slim – to slim; water – to water.

4. formed with the same suffix from the same stem: reader ₁; reader ₂.

5. lexical abbreviation: bio₁; bio ₂.

6. two words coincide in their development: to bear (beran) - bear (bera); race (Old Norwegian “ras”) – race (Fr. “race”); fair (Latin “feria”) – fair (native: “fager”); base (Fr: “base”, Latin “basis”) – base (Latin “bas”).

7. shortening: COD (Concise Oxford Dictionary, cash on delivery); cab.

8. sound-imitation: bang ₁; bang ₂.

Classification of homonyms.

1. Homonyms proper: bat – bat; school – school.

2. Homophones: flower – flour, sole – soul, rain – reign.

3. Homographs: tear [iə] – tear [εə], lead [i:] – lead [e].

A.I. Smirnitsky. Full homonyms: match₁, match₂. Partial homonyms: 1) simple lexico-grammatical partial homonyms: to found, v – found (Past Ind, Past Part of to find); 2) complex lexico-grammatical partial homonyms: rose, n – rose (Past Ind of to rise); left, adj – left (Past Ind, Past Part of to leave); 3) partial lexical homonyms: to lie (lay, lain) – to lie (lied, lied).

I.V. Arnold: 1) board, board; 2) to lie – lied – lied and to lie – lay – lain; 3) light (lights) – light (lighter, lightest); 4) a bit – bit (from to bite); 5) warm – to warm; 6) unchangeable patterned homonyms: «before» an adverb, a conjunction, a preposition; 7) «for» – preposition; «for» – conjunction.

Homonyms treated diachronically. 1) sound development. Old English: gesund “healthy” and sund “swimming”. OE sund > ModE sound “strait”; OE gesund > ModE sound “healthy”; sound “what is may be heard” with the corresponding verb (form French and ultimately from the Latin word sonus).

2) homonymy developed from polysemy: “box” (from the Latin buxus): box ₁, n, “a kind of small evergreen shrub”; box ₂, n, “receptacle made of wood, cardboard, metal, and usually provided with a lid”; box ₃, v, “to put into a box”; box ₄, n, “slap with the hand on the ear”; box ₅, v – “to fight with fists in padded gloves”.

Homonymy treated synchronically. Match – in safety matches, match “to suit”. But: match, as in football match, and match in meet one’s match.

Is a lexicographer justified in placing the verb to voice into the same entry with the noun? act n – act v, drive n – drive v.

Is it the same word? Hair, an uncountable noun; hair, a countable countable.

Set up – to establish: a) the derivative meaning: to arrange (We need to set up emergency procedures to deal with this problem); to equip (The next band was already setting up on the other stage); to build (The army has set up roads round the city); b) the nominative meanings: to cause, to begin (The reactor car set up a chain reaction); to make smb seem guilty, to deceive smb (We sent our money but it turned out that the company didn’t exist and we were just set up); to make smb healthy, full of energy (Full breakfast will set you up for the day).

To distinguish between polysemy & homonymy several factors should be taken into account.

1. The etymological criterion

2. The semantic proximity: sour; juicy: The media were delighted to have a juicy news story.

3. The derivation capacity: custom: 1. custom – customary: It is customary for the most important person to sit at the end of the table. 2. We don’t want to lose our customers. 3. Customs officer, customs shed.

4. The range of collocability: charge 1. price (free of charge, of no extra charge, extra charge); 2. (when smb is guilty) – responsibility (to bring charges, to press charges, to drop the charges).

Teaching of English as a foreign language: act n, v; besides prep, adv.

The procedure of distributional analysis.

Typical structural patterns for a verb are: N + V + N, N + V + prep + N, N + V + A, N + V + adv, N + V + to + V. “A taste of honey” by Shelagh Delaney: “I can’t stand people who laugh at other people. They’d get a bigger laugh, if they laughed at themselves”.