Homonyms: examples of use in Russian

Homonyms are words that are identical in sound composition, but not related in meaning: lezginka (dance) - lezginka (woman); Rook (chess figure) - rook (ship); Ambassador (way of preparing food) - ambassador (diplomat). The same external sound-letter and grammatical form of homonyms makes communication difficult, since the discernment of their meaning is possible only in context, in combination with other words. Homonyms, examples of which it shows, can not be understood without context: a profitable proposal is an impersonal proposal; Kidneys blossom - heal the kidneys; The right hand is right (innocent).

Types and examples of homonyms in Russian

Complete lexical homonymy is the coincidence of words related to the same part of speech in all forms: month (calendar) - month (luminary), car assembly (from the verb to collect) - assembly on the fabric (fold), motif (musical) - the motive (behavior), to read (the book) - to esteem (adults, parents), attire (order) - attire (clothes), note (diplomatic) - note (musical). Incomplete lexical homonymy implies the coincidence in writing and sounding of words belonging to the same part of speech, not in all forms: skate (wheel, inanimate) - ramp (to river, inanimate) - ramp (fish, animated); Bury a pit (perfect view - bury) - bury the medicine (perfect view - to drip); Cancer (river animal) - cancer (disease, only a single number).

There are homonyms, examples of which can be seen further, related to the grammatical and sound change: mouth - genus (pronounced [mouth]); Three (from the verb to rub) - three (number); Pair (boots) - (clubs) pair; Oven (patties) - (Russian) oven.

Homonyms: examples and types by structure

1. Root. They have non-productive basis: marriage (factory) and marriage (happy), peace (reigns in the family and the state) and the world (the universe).
2. Derivative homonyms - the result of word formation: drill (the song is a drill) and the battle forest.

Phonetic, grammatical and graphic homonyms: examples of use

Homophones (phonetic homonyms) are words that are the same in sound composition, but they differ in spelling (alphabetic composition): mushroom and flu, code and cat, fort and Ford, illuminate and consecrate, people and lyut.

Homographs (alphabetic, graphic homonyms) - words that have the same alphabetic composition, but differ in pronunciation: shelves - shelves, horns - horns, satin - atlas, soar - soar (the stresses in these words fall on different syllables).

Omoforms - coincidence of grammatical forms of one word or different words: glass window (noun) - glass on the floor (verb in the past tense), it's time to go - summer time; Hunting (for predators) and hunting (desire); Ice cream ice cream (noun and adjective); Return in spring - enjoy the spring (adverb and noun); Flow on the floor - stop the leak (verb and noun).

Pun and homonyms: examples of words and mishandling

One must be careful in the use of homonyms, since in some situations homonymy can distort the meaning of the utterance and lead to a comic. For example, the words of the football match commentator: "In today's match the players left the football field without goals" - one can understand in two ways. And even such writers are not immune from such speech incidents:

• "Did you hear?"
• "You can not be indifferent to evil."