Балаева А.М.
HOMONYMY IN MODERN ENGLISH *
Аннотация:
Modern English is exceptionally rich in homonymous words and word forms. It is believed that in languages where short words abound, there are more homonyms than in those where long words predominate. Therefore, it is sometimes suggested that the abundance of homonyms in modern English is explained by the monosyllabic structure of widely used English words
Ключевые слова:
homonymy, classify, word forms, lexical-semantic similarity
Homonymous can be not only words, but also other linguistic units. Here, however, we deal only with the homonymy of words and word forms, so we will not deal with the problem of homonymous affixes or homonymic phrases. When analyzing various cases of homonymy, we find that some words are homonymous in all their forms, homonymy paradigms of two or more different words, as, for example, in print – "sea animal" and seal – "drawing printed on paper with a stamp"[1, p. 55]. Homonymous can be not only words, but also other linguistic units. Here, however, we are only concerned with the homonymy of words and word forms, so we won't deal with the problem of homonymous affixes or homonymous phrases when analyzing different cases of homonymy we find that some words are homonymous in all their forms, i.e. we observe full homonymy of the paradigms of two or more different words as, for example, the seal sea animal and seal-a drawing printed on paper using a "stamp". The paradigm of "seal, seal's, seals, seals" is identical for both of them and does not give any indication whether it is seal (1) or seal (2) that we are analyzing. In other cases, such as seal-a sea animal and (to) seal (3) - to close tightly, we see that although some individual word forms are homonymous, the entire paradigm is not identical. Compare, for example, paradigms: 1. (to)seal-seal-seal's-seals-seals' 2. seal-seals-sealed-sealing, etc. Modern English has a very extensive vocabulary; the number of words according to the dictionary is not less than 400 000. Naturally, the question arises whether this huge vocabulary consists of separate independent lexical units or it can be considered as a kind of structured system consisting of numerous interdependent and interrelated subsystems or groups of words. This problem can be considered in terms of possible ways of classifying words. Words can be classified in different ways. Here, however, we are dealing only with semantic word classification, which gives us a better understanding of some aspects of modern English vocabulary. Attempts to study the internal structure of the dictionary showed that, despite its heterogeneity, the English word-stock can be analyzed on numerous subsystems, members of which have some common features, thereby distinguishing them from members of other lexical subsystems. The classification into monosemantic and polysemantic words is based on the number of meanings the word possesses. More detailed semantic classifications are generally based on the semantic similarity (or polarity) of words or their component morphemes. Below we give a brief overview of some of these lexical groups currently used, both in theoretical studies and in practical classes. Now we analyze the semantic similarity of morphemes. Lexical groups consisting of words with semantically and phonemically identical root morphemes are usually described as collocations or collocations. The term itself implies close ties between the members of the group. These are phrases type: a leading, leader, leadership; dark, dark, gloom; form of, formality of, and other. It should be noted that the members of the word family, as a rule, belong to different parts of speech and are United only by the identity of root morphemes. In the above families of words root morphemes are identical not only in meaning but also in sound form [1, c. 14]. However, there are times when the sound-form of root morphemes can be different, such as in: sun, solar; mouth, oral, oral; brother, fraternal, fraternal, and so on. further. Their semantic similarity allows us to include them in the phrase-family. Synonymy, polysemy and homonymy in the language hierarchy are usually perceived as correlative concepts: first, because the criterion of synonymy is semantic similarity, which is in exact contradiction with the criterion of antonymy - semantic polarity. Second, because synonyms and polysemantic words seem to overlap in a number of cases. For example, when we speak of the words "father" and "parent" as synonyms, we do so because of the similarity of their denotational meaning and the polarity of their stylistic reference (father-colloquial, parent-book). The problem of synonymy is treated differently by different linguists. The most controversial issue is the definition of synonyms. Synonyms are traditionally described as words, different in sound form, but identical or similar in meaning. This definition has been seriously criticized on many points. First, it seems impossible to speak of an identical or similar meaning of words as such, since this part of the definition cannot be applied to polysemous words. It is inconceivable that polysemantic words could be synonymous in all their meanings. The verb "look", for example, is usually interpreted as a synonym for the following words: "see", "watch", "observe" and so on, but in its other meaning it is not synonymous with this group of words, but rather verbs seem to appear (to look at somebody. and to look pale). The number of synonymic sets of words polysomatism committed, as a rule, be equal to the number of individual values of the words.
Номер журнала Вестник науки №8 (17) том 2
Ссылка для цитирования:
Балаева А.М. HOMONYMY IN MODERN ENGLISH // Вестник науки №8 (17) том 2. С. 28 - 30. 2019 г. ISSN 2712-8849 // Электронный ресурс: https://www.вестник-науки.рф/article/1991 (дата обращения: 26.04.2024 г.)
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