What are the homonyms? How to distinguish homonyms

According to linguists, the Russian language has more than 150,000 words, and this number is constantly growing. However, despite the richness of our language, there are often cases in which one lexical unit can denote several different concepts. Such words are classified as homonymous. We will talk about what homonyms are in the Russian language, what their types and varieties are.

The term “homonymy” is also known from Ancient Greece, formed from the connection of two Greek words homos and onyma, which literally translates as “same name, title.” Consequently, scientists became interested in this problem many centuries ago. Homonyms are words that are identical in pronunciation and writing, but have different, unrelated meanings. In speech, the meanings of these words are usually easily determined from the context due to the conversational situation.

Below are sentences with homonyms, in which the meaning of homonymous words will be clear from the context:

In our club Today admission is free for everyone. – High rises rose from behind the houses clubs smoke.
The boat moored to cool riverbank. – My grandmother always made tea cool boiling water
Vanya under any pretext drove to the neighboring village. - Telegrams are written without prepositions and alliances to save money.

Emergence

Scientists name many reasons for the emergence of homonymy. As a rule, this is due to the development and change of language.

Let's look at the main ones:

In the process of diverging meanings of one polysemantic word. Example: belly is part of the body or life.
Random consonance of a Russian word with a borrowed one or two borrowed words (from different languages or one language, but in different time). Examples: Goal- from English "a ball scored into a goal" or from Holland. "ship hull"; water pump- from fr. XIX century - “pump” or from French. XX century - “pomp.”
Accidental identity in the sound of a dialect word with a literary one. Example: stitch- liter. quilt or dial. path.
The same sound is a consequence of phonetic and orthographic transformations occurring in the language. Example: " onion" as a vegetable and "onion" like weapons came from different words that were once written differently: one with the combination “ou” in place of the “u”, and the other with an “o” nasal.
As a result of the emergence of new words through word formation. Example: the word " key" in the meaning of an unlocking instrument, comes from noun. stick, and the word “ key" as a title water source- from Ch. bubble.

Onions as a vegetable and onions as a weapon

Types

There are 2 main types of homonymous words:

Complete, having a coincidence throughout the entire paradigm grammatical forms. For example, the words “chapter” (books) and “chapter” (states) are the same in all cases and numbers.
Incomplete (partial), having discrepancies in one or more grammatical forms. For example, the word “baika” (story) is declined in all cases and numbers, but “baika” (fabric) does not have plural forms. h.

Remember! Full and partial homonyms are always expressed by one part of speech.

Useful video: homonyms

Phenomena of homonymy

There are phenomena that have a close resemblance to homonymy. However, such words are not homonymous in the full sense of the term. They reflect random matches of words on various levels language.

The following types are distinguished:

homoforms,
homographs.

Types of homonyms

Homoforms are a type of homonyms in which there is a coincidence in only one (sometimes several) grammatical forms. They usually refer to different parts of speech.

pigeons(noun in R.p. or V.p.) drive - the sky becomes pigeons(adj. comparative degree);
division (noun) of property - division (verb in the past tense) of the property.

Homophones are a type of homonyms that differ in meaning and spelling, but are identical in sound.

The following words can be homophones:

expressed by one part of speech: rinse - caress; mushroom - flu; lick - climb;
belonging to different parts of speech: climb - flattery; young - hammer; old-timer - guarded;
phrases that have a sound match: by kalach - I will beat you; with fire - we will bend, to grow to a hundred - to old age.

Homographs- words that differ in meaning and pronunciation (mainly due to stress), but have the same spelling.

Example: mugs – mugs; fall asleep - fall asleep; Iris - iris.

Ambiguous words

One of the difficult tasks is the distinction between homonymy and polysemy. The table below will help you distinguish homonyms from polysemantic words.

Method of differentiation	Polysemantic words, examples	Homonyms, examples
1. Lexical (carried out by selecting synonyms)	Form identical rows of synonyms. Copy(paintings) - copy(father). Common synonyms: double, dubbing.	They form various synonymous series. Escape (from home) – leaving, flight. Shoot (of a plant) – stem, branch.
2. Morphological (by form of education)	One form of education.	Various forms of education. The word “thin” (about a person’s physique) forms the comparative form of “thinner,” and the word “thin” (bad) has another form of the comparative degree, “worse.”
3. Word formation (according to methods of forming new words)	New words form identical word-formation chains. Mask (overlay that hides the face) and mask ( cosmetic product) have the following chain: mask - disguise - disguise - disguise.	Different word-formation series. Escape (from home) is derived from the word run or run; Escape (about a plant) has no word formation options.
4. Semantic (according to the degree of homogeneity of meanings)	All meanings of a polysemantic word are united in meaning and have common features. Word house(building): it is assumed that people live in it; Word house(family): implies that some community of people lives in the same building.	The values are not related to each other. Checker as a "figure for board game"is in no way related in meaning to the word checker meaning "cold weapon".
5. Dictionary (according to the article in the explanatory dictionary)	They have one dictionary entry. Dictatorship – 1) government, based on the political dominance of one group of people; 2) unlimited power based on violence.	Divided into separate dictionary entries. Shah1- title of the monarch in Iran. Shah2- a position in chess when there is a direct attack on the opponent's king.

Attention! There are special dictionaries in which you can find full list homonyms, for example, “Dictionary of Homonyms of the Russian Language” by N.P. Kolesnikova. You can also use online dictionaries to search for them, the most complete is Homonyms.

Areas of use

Homonymy is special linguistic phenomenon, and therefore the question arises: what are homonyms for? They are widely used in speech and often become a tool for playing on words, especially when both of their variants are present in one statement. By combining words that are different in meaning and sound the same, the speaker achieves the desired effect - contrast or comedy.

The use of homonyms is one of the favorite techniques of writers and poets. Most often these words are played out in puns or jokes. Here interesting example epigrams to the teacher: “Loved the students fall asleep he, apparently, because they loved fall asleep at his lectures."

Often homonyms “rhyme” in poetic lines:

Breaking away from Earth

On a big rocket

They took a handful land

In memory of the planet.

Some proverbs and sayings are also built on the basis of the contrast in the meanings of homonyms: “Mow with a scythe, if you yourself are not a scythe,” “Whatever you are, you want to eat.”

It is usually clear from the context which word from a homonymous pair (group) is used, but often the inept use of these words leads to a change in meaning and unwanted comedy. For example: The player's absent-mindedness led to the loss of points. Similar ambiguity can be found in the works famous writers: “With the fire of Prometheus” (shall we bend?); “Beautiful impulses of the soul” (from the word choke?).

Advice! It is necessary to use homonyms in speech with caution, avoiding ambiguity and unnecessary comedy. To be sure, say the statement out loud.

Useful video: grammatical homonyms of the Russian language

conclusions

Homonymy is one of these phenomena that makes our language richer and more interesting. Familiarity with these words helps you avoid mistakes in your own speech and better understand someone else’s. This knowledge will be especially useful for those who work in advertising or want to become a good writer.

There are many words in the Russian language that sound the same, but have nothing in common in meaning. For example: a bow is a plant and a bow is a weapon for throwing arrows.

This phenomenon is called homonymy. Let us give several definitions of this phenomenon according to different authors.

Homonymy is:

Similarity of words in terms of sound but different meanings.
Sound coincidence of words with different meanings.
Coincidence in sound of words that have different meanings.

The phenomenon of homonymy is found in many languages; in the Russian language it was studied most deeply by Abaev V.I., Vinogradov V.V., Shvedova N.Yu.

Homonyms are called:

The science that studies the phenomenon of homonymy
A set of homonyms of a language.
The branch of lexicology that studies homonyms.
Sound coincidence of words with different meanings.

The connection between different lexical-semantic variants of the same word, synonymy, antonymy - all these are types of semantic connections between lexical units based on the commonality, coincidence or opposition of meanings of lexical units. But there is another type of connection between them, which is based not on the similarity or opposition of the meanings of different words, but on the coincidence of their external form. This type of connection is homonymy, and words connected by such a connection are called homonyms.

The term homonym goes back to the Greek elements: “omos” - identical, and “onima” - name. There are many homonyms in the Russian language, for example: a scythe is an agricultural tool, a braid is hair woven into one strand, a braid is a narrow strip of land running from the shore, a sandbank; a spring gushing from the earth, a source and a spring - metal rod, which is used to lock and unlock the lock.

Let's consider various definitions homonyms.

Homonym in linguistics:

1. A word that is similar to another, but different in meaning. For example: “edge” - fur trim and “edge” - edge of the forest.

2. A word that has the same sound as another word, but different in meaning. For example: “tank” is the bow of a ship’s deck and “tank” is a vessel.

3. A word that coincides with another word in sound and spelling, but diverges in meaning and system of forms. For example: “course” is the direction of movement of the ship and “course” is a completed training cycle.

4. A word that has the same pronunciation as another, but a different meaning. For example: “nose” is a part of the body, part of a ship, a geographical term.

Types of homonyms

Homonyms, homophones, homographs, homoforms - all these are different manifestations of homonymy in language. We bring

1. Lexical homonyms are two or more words with different meanings that coincide in spelling, pronunciation and grammatical format. For example, “bloc” is an alliance, an agreement of states, and “bloc” is the simplest machine for lifting weights.

In lexicology, two types of homonym words are distinguished - complete and incomplete.

Full lexical homonyms include those words of the same part of speech in which the entire system of forms coincides.

Incomplete lexical homonyms include words of the same part of speech, which do not have the same entire system of forms. For example, the word plant - industrial enterprise and plant - a device for driving a mechanism; peace - the totality of all forms of matter in earthly and outer space and peace - concordant relations, tranquility, absence of hostility, war, quarrels.

2. Homophones, – ov; pl. ling. Words that are different in meaning and spelling but have the same pronunciation. For example, fruit and raft.

3. Omoforms. Among homophones there are many pairs that do not coincide in all their forms. Really; As soon as you start changing the words pond and rod according to cases and numbers, the difference in their sound will immediately become apparent: at the pond, to the pond - two rods, hit with a rod.

If you say: “Three!”, then this can be understood both as a numeral and as a verb. But not all forms of these words coincide: rub, rub - three, three. Identical forms of different words are called homoforms.

Homoforms, – forms; pl. ling. words that have the same sound in individual forms.

4. Homographs, - ov; pl. ; words of different meaning and pronunciation, identical in spelling... For example, flour is a product and flour is torment, depending on the emphasis.

Most often, homonyms are found among nouns. But there are many of them among the verbs, for example, to drown - to maintain a fire in something, to drown - by heating, to melt and drown - to make one drown. There are homonyms among adjectives, for example, glorious - worthy of fame and glorious - good.

The emergence of homonyms

Homonyms arise in a language for various reasons. Sometimes a borrowed word and a native Russian word have the same sound. Thus, the word club in the meaning of “organization, society” came to us from in English, coincided in sound with the old Russian word club.

In other cases, two words come from different languages with different meanings but the same sound. This is how the words raid - raid and raid - water space appeared in the Russian language; trick and trick - trick and others. In some cases, both words come from the same language: mina and mina are both words from French.

Many homonyms arose in the Russian language as a result of disintegration, splitting of a polysemantic word. If two meanings of one word diverge in meaning so much that they become different words, homonyms arise. For example, dashing is bad, causing grief, dashing is brave, brave. There are other ways in which homonyms arise.

So, homonyms in the language appear as a result of:

borrowing words from other languages;
transforming one of the lexical meanings of a polysemantic word into an independent word;
word formation.

The difference between homonyms and other types of words

Homonyms should be distinguished from other types of words. The main thing is not to confuse them with ambiguous words.

Polysemous words are words that have several lexical meanings. In a polysemantic word, one meaning is related to another in meaning.

The word satellite in modern Russian has several meanings related to each other:

A person who travels with someone else
Something that accompanies something
Celestial body orbiting a planet

Polysemantic words occur among all independent parts of speech, except numerals.

Homonyms should also be distinguished from polysemantic words that are used in their figurative meaning.

Girl's hat, nail head.

Golden rye and golden hands.

The figurative meaning is one of the meanings of a polysemantic word. When transferring the name of one object as a name for another object, a new word is formed lexical meaning, which is called portable. The transfer of names occurs on the basis of the similarity of objects in some way.

Determining where there are different meanings of the same word and where are homonyms is sometimes difficult even for scientists. Therefore, in doubtful cases, you should consult a dictionary.

Use of homonyms

Use of homonyms different types can enhance the effectiveness of speech, since the collision of “identical but different words” attracts special attention to them.

Homonyms give special poignancy to both proverbs and aphorisms. Homonymy lies at the heart of many mysteries. For example: Which bulls have neither tails nor horns? . What cats don't catch mice? They cut down in battle, and after the battle they entertain. Weapons, fruits, gemstones, one name - various items. I drive everyone away from the road if I run away. And I’m stuck on the roof, not moving. I cut the ice on the river lengthwise and crosswise, but at the bottom of the sea I’m tiny... Who?

Some riddles play on homophones: The old man ate dry bread... Where did the fish bones come from? .

The phenomenon of homonymy is used in jokes and anecdotes to create paradoxical meaning.

However, homonyms can not only delight and entertain us, giving speech bright expressive colors. IN special cases homonymy is the cause of annoying misunderstandings, speech errors. Homonyms require us to be careful when handling words. We cannot ignore the possibility of erroneous or ambiguous understanding of what we are talking about. For example, the meaning of the sentence: “Able students are transferred” is unclear, because the verb here can mean transfer to the next grade, and can be perceived as meaning “disappearing, there are fewer and fewer of them.” How to interpret the remark of a woman who holds a frightened boy by the hand and excitedly says: “He’s not mine, I don’t know anything about him...”

Accidental homonymy can lead to inappropriate comedy. For example, a sports observer writes: “The football players left the field today without goals,” “The goalkeeper couldn’t hold the ball, but there was no one to finish it off...”.

Homonym dictionaries

Homonymy is quite fully represented in modern explanatory dictionaries. However, not all cases of homonymization of words are given equally consistently and clearly, which is explained by the lack of development of many theoretical issues homonymy and the lack of generally accepted criteria for distinguishing between homonymy and polysemy.

In 1974, the first in Russian lexicographic practice, “Dictionary of Homonyms of the Russian Language,” compiled by O. S. Akhmanova, was published. The dictionary includes over 2000 dictionary entries containing pairs of homonyms. Each article contains:

an indication of one of the three main types of formation and its types: derived homonymy of words with a pronounced morphological structure, originally different words, divergent polysemy;
grammatical information about words;
stylistic characteristics;
etymological data;
translation of each homonymous word into three languages: English, French, German;
examples of the use of homonyms in phrases or sentences.

The dictionary contains a large interesting material, for the first time a translation of homonymous words into other languages was given, an attempt was made to distinguish between the phenomena of homonymy proper and functional homonymy, etc. It is supplemented by the “Index of the attribution of homonyms to various types homonymy" and two appendices. The first appendix provides a dictionary of so-called functional homonymy, i.e., words whose homonymization occurs during their functioning in speech. The second appendix provides a dictionary of homographs.

In 1976, the “Dictionary of Homonyms of the Russian Language” was published in Tbilisi, compiled by N.P. Kolesnikon, containing four thousand homonym words. N.P. Kolesnikov understands the phenomenon of homonymy somewhat more broadly and includes as homonymous all words “with different lexical and/or grammatical meanings, but with the same spelling and/or pronunciation”, i.e. lexical homonyms, homoforms, homophones and homographs. Highlighted in the dictionary various groups absolute and relative homonyms, which take into account the homonymy of significant and functional words. All given words are provided with an interpretation of the meaning, etymological marks, and stresses. There are no examples of their use in the text or phrases. There are also no stylistic marks.

In 1978, the 2nd edition of this dictionary was published, which differs significantly from the previous one. Homoforms like oblique and oblique have been excluded from the dictionary, but many new homonym words have been introduced. Interpretations of the meanings of words are clarified, emphasis is placed in homographs, and stylistic notes are given. The new edition of the dictionary will be very useful to everyone who is actively mastering and creatively using the lexical riches of the Russian language.

Words that match in form but have nothing in common in meaning are called homonyms(from Greek homos-"same", entanglement-"Name"). Examples of homonyms: bow 1- plant and bow 2 -"arrow throwing weapon" club 1- "a clot of smoke or dust" and club 2- "cultural institution".
Types of homonyms. Distinguish full and partial homonymy.

Words that coincide with each other in all their forms are called complete homonyms. The pairs of words above are pairs of complete homonyms. Words that have the same grammatical forms are called partial homonyms. Yes, words plant 1- "industrial enterprise" and plant 2- “device for actuating a mechanism” coincide in singular case forms; only has plural forms plant 1(cf.: plants and factories, metallurgical plants), A plant 2 in plural not used.
Other types of homonymy should be distinguished from lexical homonyms, complete and partial:
1) phonetic - words that match only by sound (pond - rod, carry - lead, code - cat, horn - rock, ball - point and so on.); such words are called homophones;
2) graphic - the coincidence of words only in spelling, but sounding differently: castle - castle, soar (linen, vegetables) - soar (in the clouds), satin(geographical) - atlas(type of fabric) etc.; such words are called homographs;
3) morphological - the coincidence of words belonging to different parts of speech in one or more forms: three(numeral) - three(imperative mood of the verb rub), oven(verb)- bake(noun), simple(adjective) - simple(noun), stern(rear part of the ship) - stern(plural number of words feed) and so on.; such words are called homoforms.
Homonymy of words and word forms is often classified as an obstacle in linguistic communication. In fact, having heard (or seen written) the words club And simple, we may not understand whether we are talking about a puff of smoke or a cultural institution, about the simplicity of something or about the idleness of carriages. However, in natural speech, words are rarely used in isolation - they are usually combined with others to form a context. From the context it is easy to guess what meaning is meant: This film is on clubs and cultural centers. - IN clubs the fire flashed from the smoke; This is completely simple example.- For simple wagons are subject to a fine.
Distinguishing between homonymy and polysemy. Homonymy differs from polysemy in that different meanings of one word retain some commonality, which is revealed in the interpretations of these meanings; Homonyms have meanings that have nothing in common.
Here, for example, is the interpretation of the different meanings of the verb start up(according to the “Dictionary of the Russian Language” by S. I. Ozhegov): 1. Leading (that is, forcing to move), delivering somewhere in passing, along the way. 3. children to school.2. Leading, directing somewhere very far away, not where it should be. 3. into the swamp. Such reasoning can lead far. 3. Pulling the end of something to the side, set it down. 3. seine.4. Arrange, organize. 3. new orders(that is, to make sure that new orders begin to take place). 5. To acquire, to acquire something (that is, to begin to have). 3. dog.6. To begin something (denoted by a noun). 3. talk. 3. acquaintance.7. To set in motion, to set in motion (a mechanism). 3. watch. 3. motor.
These different meanings reveal common semantic components: “movement” and “begin”. Nothing similar can be found in the interpretations of homonyms. Wed: Plant 1 - industrial enterprise with machining raw materials, as well as a large fishing enterprise. Metallurgical plant Oil mill Z.-av-mat.- Factory 2 - device for activating the mechanism. Hourly z. Wind-up toy(according to S.I. Ozhegov’s dictionary).
Ways of occurrence of homonyms. Lexical homonyms arise as a result of various processes occurring in the language:

1) as a result of the coincidence in form of the original word and the borrowed word: club (smoke)- primordial, related to words such as curl, ball, tuber; club- institution" borrowed from English (club);
2) as a result of the coincidence in form of words borrowed from different languages or from the same language, but with different meanings: raid- "raid" (from English) - raid- “a body of water in a harbor” (from Dutch), focus(optical - from Latin) - focus- "trick" (from German); note(musical) and note- “diplomatic document” - both homonyms are borrowed from the Latin language;

3) as a result of divergence in the meanings of a polysemantic word in the process of its historical development; yes, words plant 1 And plant 2 go back to a common source - the verb start (plant- “industrial enterprise” originally meant “that which is established, established”); word stomach in the Old Russian language it meant “life”, “part of the body”, and in the old meaning of “life” this word was preserved in the expression (fight) not to the stomach, but to death;
4) as a result of phonetic and morphological processes occurring in the language, or changes in the spelling of words: bow 1 -."plant" in Old Russian had the form louk, A bow 2- “weapon” - the form ronk (it is “yus big”); world"- "universe" was written through And, A world 2- “peace, silence” - through i (Mip; this is the second word world- in the title of L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”);
5) as a result of word-formation processes, in particular by adding affixes with different meanings to the same stem; compare: blow out 1- “start blowing” and blow out 2- "to repay" (The north wind blew out. - I blew out the candle), cover 1-"recoat" and block 2- "close to traffic" (block the roof - block the highway).

37. PARONYMS

Paronyms are words that are similar in sound and structure, but have different meanings (from the Greek. para- "about" and entanglement -"Name"). Typically, paronyms are words formed from the same root using different affixes. For example: put on - dress, present - provide, economical - economical - economical, satiated - satisfying and so on.

The similarity of paronymic words in sound and the common root in them is a source of errors in their use. Although paronyms mean different things, they are sometimes mixed up in speech. So, they say “put on a coat” instead put on his coat. Meanwhile verbs put on And dress differ in meaning as follows: they put on something, and they put on whom (put on a coat, hat - dressed a child, a sick person). This example shows that paronyms differ not only in meaning, but also in compatibility with other words. Based on the difference in compatibility, one can differentiate the meanings of paronymous words.

Paronyms can also be distinguished by the synonymous correspondences that each member of a paronymic pair or paronymic series has. These correspondences are usually not the same. For example, an adjective economical in combinations such as thrifty owner, corresponds close in meaning thrifty, adjective economical (economical casting method)- word profitable, adjective economic- word economic(cf.: economic life countries - the economic life of the country; economic crisis- economic crisis).

In speech, paronyms can be used for expressiveness, to emphasize a thought. For this purpose, paronymic words are used side by side, within a small context. This is especially typical for artistic speech, for poetry. For example: Serve I'd be glad- fawn on sickening!(A. S. Griboyedov); One thing- listen, A other- hear (M. I. Tsvetaeva).

SYNONYMS

Synonyms (from Greek. synonymos- “eponymous”) - words belonging to the same part of speech, which sound and are written differently, but are identical or very close in meaning.

Examples of synonyms: moment - moment, scold - scold, huge - enormous, in vain - in vain, near - about. Not only pairs of words, but also entire series can be synonymous, for example: blizzard, blizzard, blizzard, blizzard, blizzard; briefly, concisely, succinctly, succinctly, succinctly and so on.

Types of synonyms. Words that are identical in meaning are called complete synonyms. Examples of complete synonyms: throw - throw, look - look, stop - stop, strike - strike, original - original (manuscripts, paintings), identical - identical, everywhere - everywhere and so on.

Words that are close, but not identical in meaning, are called incomplete synonyms, or quasi-synonyms (from Lat. quasi- "almost, approximately"). Incomplete synonyms have basically the same meanings, but in particular they may differ . Between quasi-synonyms there can be relations of inclusion and intersection. If the meaning of one of the synonyms is completely

Ways of emergence of synonyms. Synonyms arise as a result of various processes occurring in the language.

1. As a result of the “splitting” of one lexical meaning into two or more, that is, as a result of the transformation of a single-valued word into a polysemantic new one, the developed meanings can be synonymized with the meanings of other words existing in a given language. So, in the post-revolutionary period, the word interlayer, besides the direct meaning" thin layer, a strip between layers of something" (a layer of cream in a cake), figurative has developed - " community group, part of society, organization, distinguished by some characteristics." In this new meaning, the word interlayer entered into synonymous relationships with words group, layer.

2. As a result of the fact that different meanings of one word diverged and lost contact with each other, each of the homonyms arising in this way appears its own synonymous series. Yes, words shop 1(= bench) and shop 2(variety trading enterprise) were once in one word. In modern language, each of these homonyms has its own synonymous connections: bench" - bench, bench, bench 2 - shop - stall - tent(in one of the meanings of this word).

3. As a result of borrowing foreign words close in meaning to the original ones, synonymous pairs and series of words may arise, especially in the first initial stage mastering a foreign word when it has not yet been fully defined semantically and has not been differentiated in meaning from words that already existed in the language. So, in the Russian language of the 18th-19th centuries. words fear And panic, comfort And comfort and some others made up synonymous pairs; V modern language such pairs are words region And sphere, universal And global, preliminary And preventive, prevail And prevail and etc.

4. As a result of word-formation processes, pairs and even whole series of synonyms with the same root can appear in a language. For example: digging - digging, freezing - freezing, piloting - aerobatics, timing - timing, cutting - cutting, equipment - equipment and so on.

5. As a result of attaching the console Not- to one of the members of an antonymous pair (see § 64), consisting of two qualitative adjectives or adverbs, this pair can be transformed into a pair of synonymous words: low - high > low, low; small - big > small, small; rough - smooth rough, unsmooth; rarely - often > rarely, infrequently etc. In pairs of antonyms belonging to other parts of speech, such a transformation is possible only occasionally, if there are ready-made words with the prefix Not-. Compare examples of nouns: enemy - friend > enemy, foe; illness - health > disease,

ill health; disorder - order > disorder, disorder; in verbs, such synonymy can be obtained by attaching a negative particle (not a prefix!) to one of the verbs. not: stay awake - sleep > stay awake, not sleep; miss - hit > miss, miss; violate - follow (rules) > violate, disobey (rules) and so on.

ANTONYMS

Words belonging to the same part of speech and having opposite meanings are called antonyms (from the Greek. anti- "against" and opupga- "Name"). For example: hot - cold, grief - joy, enemy - friend, few - many, always - never.

Antonyms can only be those words that denote the degree of a characteristic (for example, quiet - loud, heavy - light), opposite actions (rise - fall, exit - enter), points of space and time located, as it were, at different poles of the spatial and time scale (up - down, late - early). Words that denote specific objects do not have antonyms (cabinet, paper, jam).
The basis for the opposition of antonym words are the common semantic components in their meanings. In other words, only those meanings that are not just different, but correlatively opposite to each other can be recognized as antonymous. Yes, the signs heavy And easy characterize objects by weight. This semantic component - “weight” - is common to the meanings of both adjectives: to a first approximation heavy can be interpreted as "large in weight", and easy - as "light in weight". Wed: heavy - green, light - dry, where there is no such common component, therefore there is no basis for antonymy. Signs hot And cold characterize objects by temperature; the semantic component “temperature” is common to the meanings of these two adjectives.

^ Types of antonyms. Based on the nature of the opposition of their meanings, antonyms are divided into several types.

1. Antonyms, one of which denotes the presence of a characteristic, and the second - its absence. For example: presence - absence, movement - rest.
2. Antonyms, one of which denotes the beginning of an action or state, and the other - the termination of an action or state. For example: enter - exit, fly in - fly out, turn on - turn off, fall asleep - wake up, bloom - bloom.
3. Antonyms, one of which denotes a large value of a characteristic, and the other - a small value of it. For example: big - small, high - low, deep - shallow, long - short, thick - thin, hot - cold, heavy - light, often - rarely, fast - slow, light - dark and so on.

^ Intraword antonymy (enantiosemy). A peculiar type of antonymy is enantiosemy (literally: “opposite of meanings within a word”) - the combination of opposite meanings of a word . For example, priceless -1) "having a very high price" (priceless treasures) and 2) "without any value" (priceless goods; this meaning is now somewhat outdated, but remains in the word priceless: bought for nothing, i.e. very cheap); blissful-1) "extremely happy" (in a blissful state) and 2) “stupid” (from the earlier “foolish, unfortunate”).

^ Antonyms and polysemy of the word. Polysemantic words can maintain antonymic relationships and, in their different meanings, be opposed to the same, also polysemantic, word. For example, adjective high V direct meaning“more than the norm in height” is antonymous with the adjective short ( high fence- low fence); Some (not all) figurative meanings of these words are also antonymous, cf.: heat - low temperature, high quality- low quality, high voice- low voice, high syllable - low syllable. Words hot And cold retain their antonymic relationships in figurative meanings, while having slightly different compatibility with the defined nouns; compare: hot heart - cold mind, hot desire - cold calculation(used figuratively, hot usually refers to emotional sphere person, and cold- rather to the intellectual).

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Homonymy is a fairly common phenomenon in almost every language. It is characterized by the presence of identical words, which, however, have different meanings. Lexical data deserve special attention; they show that this type is the most common and active. This phenomenon enriches the language, making it more artistic and figurative.

Concept

Homonyms are understood as identical morphemes, words and other lexical units that have different meanings. Such a term is often confused with polysemantic words or paronyms, but in terms of their functions and characteristics these are completely different categories.

The term has Greek origin and was introduced by Aristotle. Literally, the concept means “same” and “name”. Homonyms can either be present within some parts of speech or appear in different ones.

Homonymy and polysymy

In linguistics, in relation to identical words of the same part of speech, there are two different concepts. We are talking about polysemy and homonymy. The first concept implies the presence of identical words that have different meanings, however, which have a common historical origin. For example, if we consider the word “ether” in its two meanings. The first is organic matter, and the second is television or television broadcasting. The meaning of the words is different, but it was formed from one common lexical unit, namely from the Greek term, which literally means “mountain air”.

As for homonymy, here we are also talking about different meanings of words, but there is no historical connection, and the identical spelling is a coincidence. For example, the word “boron”, which has two meanings: chemical element and There is no connection between these words, and even the lexical units themselves came into the Russian language in different ways. The first is Persian, and the second is Slavic.

Some linguists, however, look at it differently. In accordance with this, polysymy is when two words have a common semantic connotation and lexical meaning. Homonyms have no such meaning. It does not matter the historical origin of the word. For example, the word “braid”. The connecting element is that the two lexical items describe something long and thin.

Classification

Taking into account vocabulary, morphology and phonetics, homonymy can be as follows:

Lexical homonyms. Examples of words: key (as a spring and as a tool for opening doors), peace (absence of war and the whole planet), etc.
Homonyms are of morphological or grammatical type, which are also known as homoforms.
Phonetic or homophones.
Graphic, or homographs.

There are also full and incomplete homonyms. In the first case, the words coincide in all their forms, and in the second - only in some.

Differences between lexical homonyms and other types

Lexical homonyms are often confused with other types of this category, but they have distinctive characteristics and its specifics:

As for homoforms, they have the same spelling or sound in only a few certain forms. For example, the word “dear”, which denotes a masculine and feminine adjective: “dear textbook” and “give flowers to a dear woman.”
Homophones have identical pronunciation, but different spellings lexical units, which lexical homonyms do not have. Examples: eye - voice, wet - could, etc.
Differences are also typical for homographs. This refers to words that have the same spelling but different pronunciation. Lexical homonyms do not have this. Examples of sentences with the word “lock”: 1. She opens door lock. 2. The king and queen went to their castle.

These phenomena in language are used for a variety of lexical purposes, from expressiveness and richness of artistic speech to puns.

Features of lexical homonyms

This type of homonymy is characterized by coincidence in all their forms. In addition, belonging to one part of speech is a mandatory attribute that lexical homonyms have. Examples: graphic - as a plan and as an artist.

There are two types of such lexical homonyms:

Complete or absolute. They are characterized by the coincidence of all morphological and grammatical forms. For example, a cage (bird and nervous), a shop (trading and bench), etc.
Partial or incomplete lexical homonyms. Examples: tact (as a sense of proportion and as a musical unit).

Regardless of the type, this phenomenon appears due to certain reasons.

Appearance methods

Lexical homonyms arise in a language for various reasons:

The divergence of meanings of one lexical unit is so far that it is no longer perceived as one word. For example, a month (part of a year and a celestial body).
Coincidences of national vocabulary and borrowings. For example, a club (in Russian - a mass of dust or smoke; in English - a public organization or meeting of people).
Coincidence of words that were borrowed from different languages. For example, a tap (from Dutch - a tube that allows you to pour liquid; from German - a special mechanism for lifting loads).

Homonyms do not appear in the language immediately. Most often, this requires a lot of time, as well as certain historical conditions. At the initial stage, words may be slightly similar in sound or spelling, but due to changes in the structure of the language, in particular its morphology and phonetics, lexical units may become homonyms. The same applies to splitting the meanings of one word. In the process of historical development, the connecting semantic element between interpretations of the word disappears. Because of this, homonyms are formed from polysemantic lexical units.

Homonymy is an active phenomenon in almost any language in the world. It is characterized by the presence of words with the same spelling or sound, but with different meaning. Homonyms, in particular their lexical types, change the language, making it more figurative and artistic. This phenomenon occurs due to various reasons, most often historical or structural, and has its own characteristics and characteristic features in each specific language.

HOMONYMY

This is the phenomenon of formal identity of words.

Homonyms

To the most ancient

Origin paths:

3. As a result of borrowing. Take place here 2 situations:

For example,

2. To rule the country (to have power) – to edit the text (to make amendments): homonymy.

3. Indigenous (permanent) – molar (primordial): polysemy.

4. Look out the window (look, see) - look after the children (keep an eye): polysemy.

5. Suffers from cholera (disease) - cholera woman (bitch): homonymy.

Homonymy- this is the phenomenon of the formal identity of a word.

Homonyms- these are words of one part of speech, identical in form, but different in meaning.

To the most ancient Homonyms include homonyms-nouns. For example, gender (female) and gender (at the house), key (from the door) and key (spring),

Origin paths:

Homonyms occurred for a number of reasons:

4. As a result of the decay of an ambiguous word. Thus, homonymy is the limit of polysemy. For example, the edge of a forest and the edge of a cap, light (energy) and light (earth).

5. As a result of the processes of Russian word formation. It is formed due to homonymy of words and homonymy of aphexes. For example, a raincoat mushroom and a raincoat, a door key and a spring key.

6. As a result of borrowing. Take place here 2 situations:

A) The foreign language word coincided in sound with the Russian one.

B) Words that came from different languages coincided in sound.

For example,

When distinguishing between the phenomena of homonymy and polysemy, one should rely on the formal characteristics of words.

6. To rule the country (to have power) – to edit the text (to make amendments): homonymy.

7. Indigenous (permanent) – molar (primordial): polysemy.

8. Look out the window (look, see) - look after the children (keep an eye): polysemy.

9. Suffers from cholera (disease) – cholera woman (bitch): homonymy.

KINDS:

1. Lexical homonyms: 1. complete - coincide with each other in all forms and 2. incomplete - coincide only in certain forms.

2. Homoforms – words that coincide in some form (three - three, know - know).

3. Homophones – have the same sound (onion - meadow).

4. homographs – have the same spelling