Lexical homonyms. Examples of lexical homonyms

Homonymy - this is a fairly common phenomenon in almost every language. It is characterized by the presence of identical words, which, however, have different meanings. Special attention should be given to lexical homonyms. Examples show that this type is the most common and active. This phenomenon enriches the language, making it more artistic and imaginative.

The concept of

Under homonyms understand the same morphemes, words and other lexical units, which 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 is of Greek origin and was introduced by Aristotle. Literally the term "identical" and "name". Homonyms can both be present within some parts of speech, and may manifest themselves in different parts.

Homonymy and polysimy

In linguistics in relation to the same words of one part of speech there are two different concepts. It's about polysemy and homonymy. The first concept implies the existence of identical words having 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. The meaning of the words is different, however it was formed from one common lexical unit, namely from the Greek term, which literally means "mountain air".

As for homonymy, here we are talking about different meanings of words, but at the same time there is no historical connection between them, and identical writing is an accidental coincidence. For example, the word "boron", which has two meanings: a chemical element and a pine forest. Between these words there is no connection, and even the lexical units themselves have come into Russian in different ways. The first is Persian, and the second is Slavic.

Some linguists, however, look at it differently. In accordance with this, polysemy is if 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 binding element is that two lexical units describe something long and subtle.

Classification

Taking into account vocabulary, morphology and phonetics, homonymy can be the following:

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

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

Differences of lexical homonyms from other types

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

• As for omoforms, they have a coincidence of writing or sounding in only a few definite forms. For example, the word "dear", which means the adjective of the male and female kind: "expensive textbook" and "give flowers to the dear woman."
• Homophones are distinguished by identical pronunciation, but different spelling of lexical units, which lexical homonyms do not have. Examples: the eye - the voice, the mokley - could it, and others.
• The differences are also characteristic for homographs. This means words that have the same spelling, but different pronunciation. This does not have lexical homonyms. Examples of sentences with the word "lock": 1. It opens the door lock. 2. The king and the queen went to their castle.

These phenomena in the language are used for a variety of lexical purposes, beginning with the expressiveness and richness of artistic speech and ending with puns.

Features of lexical homonyms

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

There are two types of similar lexical homonyms:

• Full or absolute. Characterized by the coincidence of all morphological and grammatical forms. For example, a cage (bird and nervous), a bench (a trading and a 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 for certain reasons.

Ways of appearance

Lexical homonyms arise in the language for various reasons:

• The discrepancy between the values of one lexical unit is so far away that it is no longer perceived as one word. For example, the month (part of the year and the heavenly body).
• Coincidence of national vocabulary and borrowings. For example, a club (in Russian - a mass of dust or smoke, in English - a public organization or a collection of people).
• Coincidence of words that were borrowed from different languages. For example, a tap (from the Dutch language - a tube that allows you to fill the liquid, from the German - a special mechanism for lifting loads).

Homonyms in the language do not appear 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 writing, but due to changes in the structure of the language, in particular its morphology and phonetics, lexical units can become homonyms. The same applies to the splitting of the values of one word. In the process of historical development, the linking semantic element disappears between the interpretations of the word. By virtue of this, multi-valued lexical units form homonyms.

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