Homonyms: types and examples. Homonyms are similar words with different meanings (types and examples of homonyms)

20.10.2019

Homonyms are words that sound and are spelled the same, but have nothing in common in meaning. The term comes from the Greek language: homos - "same", onima - "name". Let's say onion- plant and onion- weapons for throwing arrows, drown stove And sink ships.

Consider types of homonyms.

1. Some words are spelled the same but pronounced differently: lock And lock, p'arit(linen, vegetables) and steam(in the clouds), st`oit(bread in the store) and worth it(car, tree). Such words are called homographs , which in Greek means "spelling the same way."

2. There are words that are pronounced the same way, but they need to be written differently. For example, pond And rod, metal And metal, five And span. This homophones , translated from Greek - "the same sounding".

Among the homophones there are many such pairs that do not coincide in all their forms, but in some or even one. If you start changing words by cases and numbers, then you immediately find a difference in their sound. Let's say by the pond, to the pondtwo rods, hit with a rod. Word " three" can also be a numeral ( three apples, three things) and verb ( three strong!). But not all forms of these words will match: rub, terthree, three. The same forms of different words are called homoforms .

Homonyms can be a hindrance in linguistic communication, they are especially difficult for a translator. In this case, the context helps, because in natural conversation, words are rarely used in isolation. From the context, it is easy enough to guess what meaning is meant: This is a very simple example. - Simple equipment is quite expensive.

§ 51. Homonymy and its types

The polysemy of words is a large and multifaceted problem, various issues of lexicology are associated with it, in particular, the problem of homonymy. Homonyms words that sound the same but have different meanings. The relationship between polysemy and homonymy is historically conditioned. With the development of the language, “the same inner shell of the word is overgrown with shoots of new meanings and meanings” [Vinogradov V. V. 1947: 14]. Homonyms in a number of cases arise from a polysemy that has undergone a process of destruction: fist- hand with clenched fingers and fist- a wealthy peasant, a good strong owner, and then fist - peasant exploiter (class definition). The problem of distinguishing between polysemy and homonymy is complex; linguists offer various criteria for breeding these phenomena. There are several approaches.

    O.S. Akhmanova built the distinction between polysemy and homonymy, first of all, taking into account the nature of the relationship of the word with objective reality. If each of the meanings is an independent name of a certain object of the surrounding world and is independent of any other object, then these meanings belong to different homonymous words. For example: hail (city) and hail (precipitation); scythe (hairstyle), scythe (shallow) and scythe (tool).

    E. M. Galkina-Fedoruk was of the opinion that the distinction between polysemy and homonymy should be carried out by selecting synonyms. If the synonyms have nothing in common, then these are homonyms: boron (drill) - boron (coniferous forest) - boron (chemical element).

    A number of scientists, without rejecting the named criteria, also suggested taking into account derivational features: for example, reaction as a term of different sciences has different derivational rows: reaction (biol., chem.) reagent, reactive, reactivity; reaction(polit.) - reactionary, reactionary, reactionary.

Homonyms often have different syntactic compatibility, different forms of control: care from work and care for a child, for flowers; change plan, but change homeland. However, these delimitation criteria are not universal, so sometimes there are discrepancies in dictionaries. The sources of homonymy are as follows:

    Homonyms are a product of the breakdown of polysemy: drying - drying and drying - type of product (steering wheel).

    Derivative homonyms: to buy (from the verb "buy") and (from the verb "to bathe").

    The consequence of the historical change in the sound image of different words: IS (available) and ЂST (to eat) coincided in sound by the middle of the 18th century: the sound “ê” (closed) or the Old Russian diphthong “ie” (transmitted in writing by the letter Ђ “yat”) became pronounced like [e], so the pronunciation of words ceased to differ. In 1918, a spelling reform was carried out, some letters were abolished, including the letter Ђ, and the above words coincided not only in sound, but also in spelling. Let's take another example. Word lynx(animal) in ancient times it sounded “ryd” and was the same root with the words blush, red; then "ds" was simplified into "s". Word lynx how the running of a horse goes back to the Old Russian “rist” (cf. the lists), later the final “t” “disappeared, and the “r” hardened.

    The richest source of homonymy are borrowed words, for example: tour (bull - Old Russian) and tour (from French): waltz tour, beam (ravine - from Turkic languages) and beam (log - from German), marriage (marriage - Russian) and marriage (flaw - from German) and others.

Homonyms are divided into full, or actually lexical homonyms, and incomplete homonyms, among which, in turn, several types are distinguished. TO proper lexical homonyms include, for example: English: flaw1 – crack; flaw2 – gust of wind; Russian: light1 - energy; light2 - the world, the universe. These words have the same sound, spelling and refer to the same part of speech. The types of incomplete homonyms are as follows:

1. Homophones - words and forms of different meanings, coinciding in sound, but differing in spelling:

meadow (field) - bow (shooting tool), ball (dance party) - score (score).

2. homographs - words that are different in meaning and sound, but the same in spelling:

atlas (fabric) - atlas (a collection of geographical maps), castle - castle.

3. homoforms (morphological homonyms) - words that coincide in sound and spelling in one or more grammatical forms:

swarm (n.) of bees - swarm (vb.) pit, expensive (n.) - expensive (adj.), new saw (n.) - drank (vb.) coffee, tourniquet (v.) grass - medical tourniquet ( n.).

Adjacent to homonyms paronyms words that are similar in sound and spelling, but different in meaning. They are sometimes mistakenly used one instead of the other: a subscription (the right to use something) and a subscriber (a person who has a subscription); effective (productive) and spectacular (conspicuous); a secretive (closed) person and a hidden (invisible) mechanism and many others.

Homonyms are words that are different in meaning but have the same sound and spelling.

Word homonym came from the Greek homos - identical + onima - name.

Most homonyms are among nouns and verbs.

Example:

1. DEFEND - protect (defend a friend).

2. DEFEND - stand (to stand in line).

3. DEFEND - to be at some distance from someone, something. (the airport is five kilometers away from the city).

Reasons for the appearance of homonyms in the language

    random word match:

Example:

1. ONION - loans. Garden plant with a spicy taste.

2. ONION - claim.-rus. A hand-held weapon for throwing arrows, made from a flexible, resilient rod (usually wooden) tied into an arc with a bowstring.

    coincidence in the formation of new words:

Example:

SEND - send with an order. The person doing the task 1. AMBASSADOR .

SALT - preserve something in a salt solution. Method of salting products - 2. AMBASSADOR .

    loss of semantic connection between the meanings of a polysemantic word.

Example:

This happened in ancient times with the word LIGHT :

LIGHT - 1) lighting, 2) earth, world, universe.

These meanings have become so distant that they have lost their semantic connection. Now they are two different words.

1. LIGHT - radiant energy that makes the world around us visible.

2. LIGHT - Earth, world, universe.

Homonyms must be distinguished from polysemantic words. The meanings of homonyms are clear only in phrases and sentences. A single word GENUS unclear. But, if you introduce it into a phrase, it becomes clear what is at stake:

Example:

ancient genus , male genus .

Types of homonyms

Often homonyms, homoforms, homophones and homographs are used in puns - witty expressions, jokes.

Example:

You are NOT MINE this umbrella, because it is NOT MINE, you lost it MUMB.

Use homonyms, homoforms, homophones and homographs in your speech should be very careful. Sometimes they lead to unwanted ambiguity.

Example:

Yesterday I visited the Poetry DAY. Day poetry? Or bottom poetry?

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In the process of learning a language, you have to master more terminology. Students should understand what homonyms, antonyms, synonyms are, and in many other concepts. Although this is not the easiest task, you can gradually delve into most of the intricacies of the Russian language.

Homonyms

The answer to this question can be found within the term itself. It consists of two roots taken from the ancient Greek language. The first is translated as the same, and the second is the name. Thus, homonyms are certain words that have different meanings, but sound and spell the same.

Interestingly, this concept appeared about three hundred years before the beginning of our era. It was created by Aristotle, the famous ancient Greek philosopher, the founder of a comprehensive system of philosophy.

Homonyms are often confused with other similar concepts. For example, there are also homophones and homographs.

  • A homophone differs from a homonym in that, despite the same sound, such words have different spellings.
  • With a homograph, the opposite is true. Although such words look exactly the same, they have different meanings and are also pronounced differently. As a rule, this is achieved by changing the accent.

Polysemy

There is another term similar to the concept of homonym. Polysemy are words that are spelled in a similar way, sound the same, but at the same time they have historically different meanings. The main difference from the homonym is that the words related to polysemy originated from the same language, but became ambiguous.

Determining whether a word is considered a homonym or polysemy is very simple. It is enough to look at where concepts originated. For example, the concept of boron has the meaning of a forest and a chemical element. However, “pine forest” is a word that originated from the Slavic language, and boron, a chemical element, was formed from the Persian term “borax”. So these words are homonyms.

If we take the word "ether", which can act both in the meaning of a certain substance, and in the sense of broadcasting, then we can replace that they all came from the ancient Greek concept of mountain air. Thus, it would be polysemic.

Not every person studying linguistics clearly distinguishes between polysemy and homonyms. Some perceive the former as a special case of the latter. However, if the words are different parts of speech, then it is safe to say that this is a homonym.


Classification

There are three main groups of homonyms.

  • Full or absolute homonyms are those words that will retain their match even if the original form is changed. This is what full homonyms are, and examples of them look like this: outfit (clothing) - outfit (order).
  • The second option is partial homonyms. Such words, as a rule, differ in one case or in several forms. A classic example is the word "weasel". If we put it in the plural and the genitive case, then the word for the animal will be “weasels”, and the word for tenderness will be “caresses”.
  • The third type is grammatical homonyms, also called homoforms. These concepts will coincide only in a strictly defined form, sometimes there are two or three of them, and sometimes only one. As an example, the numeral "three" will be a homonym for the verb "rub", but only in two versions ("three", "three").

Homomorphemes

Another term similar to homonyms is the word homomorpheme. In this case, not the whole word is taken into account, but some specific morpheme. This part of the word looks and sounds the same, but it differs in meaning from a similar morpheme.

As a rule, an example with the ending -a is considered.

  • First of all, such an ending denotes the feminine gender of verbs.
  • At the same time, it is used to represent the plural of nouns of the second declension.
  • In addition, such an ending creates a genitive case for nouns.

Taxonomy

Although homonyms are almost always remembered in connection with the rules of the Russian language, the same word is also part of the taxonomy. Taxonomy is the study of various classification principles.

Each group consisting of objects and being an element of the classification is called a taxon. In this case homonym is a biological taxon, that is, a certain biological group, which in its own way name is identical(or almost identical) to another taxon, however, the name-bearing type differs.

Such homonyms have their own gradation. The taxon that appeared first is called the senior homonym. Later groups are called junior.

Sometimes groups initially have different names, but then they are transferred to another species or genus. If in this case the name has become a homonym, then those that existed before are considered primary homonyms, and those that appeared in connection with the transfer are secondary.

As a rule, if people discover taxonomic homonyms, they try to eliminate them. Preference is given to older homonyms, and other names are created for younger ones.

In many languages ​​of the planet there is such a thing as homonymy. It is based on the fact that words and morphemes that are the same in sound and spelling have different meanings. They are called "homonyms". Examples of them are found all over the place. We use them very often in ordinary speech.

Homonyms

Examples confirming this phenomenon are known to many. These are common words:

  • "bow" in the meanings of plant and weapon;
  • "escape", in one case denoting a young branch, and in another - unauthorized hasty departure.

Out of context, it is difficult to determine exactly what meaning these homonyms are used in. Example sentences with words will demonstrate this phenomenon clearly.

  • Green onions are especially good in vegetable salads.
  • The boy was given a toy bow and arrow for his birthday.
  • The apple tree gave a young shoot, but the gardener pruned it in the fall.
  • The Count of Monte Cristo escaped from prison in a creative way, replacing the prisoner's corpse with himself.

Examples of phrases will help to understand what homonyms mean:

  • "green onions" and "accurate onions";
  • "maiden spit" and "river spit";
  • "three apples" and "three rag stain".

This phenomenon is quite entertaining, therefore it is often used by Russian language teachers as an entertaining technique in studying the subject, a way to expand the vocabulary and horizons of students.

Games with homonyms in the classroom and extracurricular activities

To conduct this competition, you should prepare pairs of words that have the same pronunciation and spelling, but completely different meanings. Only meanings are offered to players, and the words themselves (you can use one spelling for both) are hidden under a cardboard picture that will serve as a point token, for example, a pattern of a tree leaf, an apple, a gold ingot. The participant who correctly named the homonyms receives this emblem after the correct answer as a point. At the end of the game, token points are counted and a winner is chosen.

Homonyms are suitable for the competition, examples of which may be as follows (it should be recalled that only pictures are presented to participants and viewers, the words themselves are closed):

  • "shop" as a piece of furniture and a medium-sized outlet;
  • the word "lama", acting in one sense as an animal, and in another - as a Tibetan monk.

At the lesson, you can offer students one or two pairs of words. This task will take only a few minutes, and the benefits will be enormous. Indeed, in addition to the above, this type of activity generates and strengthens interest in the study of the Russian language.

Homonymy and polysemy

Many words have more than one meaning. Coinciding in spelling, they differ lexically. It is necessary to distinguish between homonyms and polysemantic words. Examples of polysemy are also quite common. For example, two words pronounced as "key" can act as homonyms in the following way:

  • spring and device for opening.

But in the meanings of “violin”, “wrench”, “from the door lock”, “device for rolling cans”, “key” is one word. This is an amazing linguistic feature, which should already be considered as a phenomenon of polysemy. Indeed, in each of the listed options, the ability of the key to open something appears: a musical string or some object. It is one word with different meanings, not different homonyms.

There are a great many examples of such polysemantic words in Russian speech. Sometimes it is quite difficult to separate them from homonyms.

Polysemy sometimes comes from the transition of the name by external resemblance. This is

  • "sleeve" - ​​a separate riverbed and part of the shirt;
  • "tape" - a device for a girl's hairstyle and a long road, a moving part of the conveyor.

The ambiguity of these words arose from the outward similarity of some features. For example, a sleeve in clothing is separated from a common large object. And the branching of the channel resembles the same phenomenon. Actually, the word “trouser leg” could have appeared in this version, but for some reason the Russian people chose the “sleeve”.

The tape is a narrow long object. Apparently, the person who invented the conveyor saw the similarity of its moving part with a device for a girl's hairstyle. This is how the name transition, the phenomenon of polysemy, took place.

Etymological homonymy

A group of words refers to homonyms unambiguously, since their very origin is already different. Therefore, in the task “Give examples of homonyms that differ etymologically”, you need to pick up such words that came into Russian speech from different languages. To do this, look into the etymological dictionary.

These are the word "boron", denoting a chemical element, and its homonym - a pine forest. The first noun came into Russian speech from the Persian language, where it sounded like "borax", that is, a compound of boron. The name of the pine forest is of Slavic origin.

Some linguists believe that the existence of the phenomenon of homonymy should be recognized only where the very etymology of words differs.

The same linguists do not see homonymy in the noun "ether" as an organic substance and in the meaning of "broadcasting and television". After all, historically both words have a common etymology. They came from the ancient Greek root αἰθήρ, which means "mountain air". And if the task says: “Give examples of homonyms,” and the respondent uses the word “ether” in two meanings, then these scientists will consider the answer incorrect.

Disputes of linguists about polysemy and homonymy

However, not everyone can offhand determine the historical origin of words. Often this requires special dictionaries. Therefore, most people see that the meanings of the word "ether" are completely different and classify them as homonyms. Therefore, some linguists also do not see ambiguity here. The explanatory dictionary also refers them to different words with different meanings.

Examples of homonyms that cause controversy among linguists are as follows:

  • “braid” in the meaning of a hairstyle and a mowing tool, since some argue that there is a transition of the name here according to external similarity (thin and long);
  • "pen" as a tool for writing, a device for opening, turning on, since some people determine polysemy by the fact that they have something in common in the mode of action (they write and open with their hands);
  • "feather" in the sense of "pen" and as a skin horn formation of birds and some dinosaurs, considering that the first meaning came to the word from the historical way of writing with bird feathers.

Some linguists refer to homonymy all words in which polysemy can be traced. They consider polysemy only a special case.

Full homonyms

Linguists divide words that have the same pronunciation and spelling and have different meanings into two groups. Full lexical homonyms belonging to the same grammatical category are allocated to one category. Examples of these: "scythe", "tongue", "escape", "key" and others. In all their forms, these words coincide both in spelling and in pronunciation.

Incomplete or partial homonyms

There are also words that coincide only in some forms. These are grammatical homonyms. Examples of this phenomenon often refer to different parts of speech:

  • “three” is a verb of the 2nd person singular imperative with the initial form “rub” and “three” is a cardinal number;
  • “oven” is a verb in an indefinite form and “oven” is a feminine singular noun;
  • "saw" is a feminine singular past tense verb and "saw" is a feminine singular noun.

Grammatical homonymy is also observed in words belonging to the same part of speech. For example, the verbs of the 1st person singular of the present tense "fly". The first word is defined as an action related to medicine. Already the infinitive will sound like "treat". And the second verb has the initial form "to fly" and denotes the action of making a flight.

Partial homonymy is observed in words of the same grammatical category. This happens when words differ in only one form. For example, two nouns "weasel" - an animal and a manifestation of tenderness - do not coincide only in the genitive plural. These homonyms will look like “weasels” and “weasels” in this form.

Homonyms and homophones

Some confuse the phenomenon of homonymy with others. For example, homophones are words that sound the same but have different meanings but are spelled differently. These are not homonyms! Examples of words that are homophones show this feature.

  • “Cat” is a pet, and “code” is most often a certain set of characters or sounds.

Everyone will notice that these words should be written in different ways. But by ear to catch the difference is almost impossible. The word "code" must be pronounced with a stunning final consonant. This is where the sound similarity comes from.

Homonymy and homography

There are other linguistic phenomena similar to the one we are considering. For example, homographs are interesting because they are the same in spelling, but are pronounced differently, most often due to stress. They are also not homonyms. Examples of homograph words are as follows:

  • gate - gate;
  • castle - castle;
  • smell - smell.

Homographs are also interesting for composing tasks for contests and games. With the help of picture riddles in which homographs are encrypted, linguistic activities can be diversified.

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 it when one lexical unit can denote several different concepts. Such words belong to the category of homonyms. It will be about what homonyms are in Russian, what are their types and varieties.

The term "homonymy" is known from ancient Greece, formed from the combination of two Greek words homos and onima, which literally translates as "the same name, name." 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.

We give below sentences with homonyms, on the example of which the meaning of homonymous words will be clear from the context:

  1. In our club Today admission is free for everyone. - Because of the houses rose high clubs smoke.
  2. The boat docked at cool riverbank. My grandmother always made tea. cool boiling water.
  3. Vanya under any pretext drove to the neighboring village. - Telegrams are written without pretexts and unions 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 the language.

Let's consider the main ones:

  1. In the process of divergence of the meanings of one polysemantic word. Example: belly - part of the body or life.
  2. Random consonance of a Russian word with a borrowed word or two borrowed words (from different languages ​​or the same language, but at different times). Examples: Goal- from English. "ball kicked into the goal" or from Dutch. "ship hull"; water pump- from fr. 19th century - "pump" or from fr. 20th century - "splendor".
  3. Random identity in the sound of a dialect word with a literary one. Example: stitch- lit. quilt or dial. path.
  4. The same sound as a result of phonetic and orthographic transformations taking place in the language. Example: " onion" like a vegetable and "onion" how weapons came from different words that were once written differently: one with a combination of “oh” in place of “y”, and the other with a “o” nasal.
  5. As a result of the emergence of new words through word formation. Example: the word " key" in the meaning of the unlocking tool came from the noun. stick, and the word " key" as the name of a water source - from Ch. bubbling.

Onion as a vegetable and onion as a weapon

Types

There are 2 main types of homonymous words:

  • Complete, having a match in the entire paradigm of grammatical forms. For example, the words "chapter" (books) and "head" (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, and "baika" (fabric) has no plural. h.

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

Useful video: homonyms

The phenomena of homonymy

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

There are the following types:

  • homoforms,
  • homographs.

Homonym types

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

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

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

Homophones can be words:

  • expressed in 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; with fire - bend, grow up to a hundred - until old age.

homographs- words that are different in meaning and pronunciation (mainly due to stress), but coinciding in spelling.

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

Polysemantic words

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

Way of demarcation Polysemantic words, examples Homonyms, examples
1. Lexical (carried out by the selection of synonyms) They form identical rows of synonyms.

Copy(paintings) - copy(father). Common synonyms: double, dubbing.

They form various synonymic rows.

Escape (from home) - departure, flight.

Escape (about a plant) - a stem, a branch.

2. Morphological (according to the form of education) One form of education. different form of education.

The word “thin” (about a person’s physique) forms the form of the comparative degree “thinner”, and the word “thin” (bad) has another form of the comparative degree - “worse”.

3. Word-building (according to the ways of forming new words) New words form the same word-building chains.

A mask (overlay that hides the face) and a mask (cosmetic product) have the following chain: mask - mask - mask - mask.

Various word formations.

Escape (from home) is formed from the word run or run;

Escape (about a plant) has no variants of word formation.

4. Semantic (according to the degree of homogeneity of values) All meanings of a polysemantic word are united in meaning and have common features.

Word house(building): people are supposed to live in it;

Word house(family): it is understood that some community of people lives in the same building.

The values ​​are not related to each other.

checker as a "figure for a board game" is in no way connected in meaning with the word checker in the meaning of "cold weapons".

5. Dictionary (according to the article in the explanatory dictionary) They have one dictionary entry.

Dictatorship- 1) state power based on the political domination of one group of people; 2) unlimited power based on violence.

Divided into separate dictionary entries.

Check1 is the title of a monarch in Iran.

check2- position in chess, when there is a direct attack on the opponent's king.

Attention! There are special dictionaries in which you can find a complete list of homonyms, for example, N.P. Kolesnikov. You can also use online dictionaries to search for them, the most complete is Homonyms.

Areas of use

Homonymy is a special linguistic phenomenon, and therefore the question arises: what are homonyms for? They are widely used in speech and often become a tool for word play, especially when both of their options are present in one statement. By combining different in meaning and identical in sound words, 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 up in puns or jokes. Here is an interesting example of an epigram for a teacher: “I loved students fall asleep he, apparently, because // That 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.

On the basis of the contrast of the meanings of homonyms, some proverbs and sayings are also built: “Mow oblique, if he himself is not oblique”, “Whatever it is, but wants to eat”.

Usually it is clear from the context which word from the homonymous pair (group) is used, but often the inept use of these words leads to a change in meaning and undesirable comedy. For example: The distraction of a player led to the loss of points. A similar ambiguity can be found in the works of famous writers: “With the fire of Prometheus” (bend?); “Souls are wonderful impulses” (from the word strangle?).

Advice! It is necessary to use homonyms in speech with caution, avoiding ambiguity and unnecessary comedy. For fidelity, pronounce the statement aloud.

Useful video: grammatical homonyms of the Russian language

conclusions

Homonymy is one such phenomenon that makes our language richer and more interesting. Acquaintance with these words helps to avoid mistakes in one's own speech and better understand someone else's. Especially this knowledge will be useful to those who are engaged in advertising or want to become a good writer.

What are homonyms in Russian

In the lexical system of the Russian language, there are words that sound the same, but have completely different meanings. Such words are called lexical homonyms, and the sound and grammatical coincidence of different language units that are not semantically related to each other is called homonymy (gr. homos- identical + onyma- Name). For example, the key is "spring" ( icy key ) And key- "a metal rod of a special shape for unlocking and locking the lock" ( steel key ); onion" - "plant" ( green onion ) And onion- "weapon for throwing arrows" ( tight onion ). Unlike polysemantic words, lexical homonyms do not have a subject-semantic connection, that is, they do not have common semantic features by which one could judge the polysemanticism of one word.

Various forms of lexical homonymy are known, as well as phenomena related to it at other levels of the language (phonetic and morphological). Complete lexical homonymy is the coincidence of words belonging to the same part of speech in all forms. An example of full homonyms is the words outfit- "clothes" and outfit- "instruction"; they do not differ in pronunciation and spelling, they coincide in all case forms of the singular and plural.

With incomplete (partial) lexical homonymy, the coincidence in sound and spelling is observed in words belonging to the same part of speech, not in all grammatical forms. For example, incomplete homonyms: factory- "industrial enterprise" ( metallurgical factory ) And factory- "device for actuating the mechanism" ( factory at the clock). The second word has no plural forms, but the first one does. For homonymous verbs bury(pit) and bury(medicine) match all forms of the imperfect form ( I'm burying, I'm digging, I'll be burying); forms of real participles of the present and past tense ( digging, digging). But there is no match in the forms of the perfect form ( dig - dig etc.).

By structure, homonyms can be divided into root and derivatives. The first ones have a non-derivative basis: world- "lack of war, consent" ( came world ) And world- "Universe" ( world filled with sounds); marriage- "flaw in production" ( factory marriage ) And marriage- "marriage" ( happy marriage ). The latter arose as a result of word formation, therefore, they have a derivative basis: assembly- verb action gather" (assembly designs) And assembly- "small fold in clothes" ( assembly on a skirt); combatant- "relating to actions in the ranks" ( drill song) And combatant- "suitable for buildings" ( combatant forest).

Along with homonymy, they usually consider related phenomena related to the grammatical, phonetic and graphic levels of the language.

1. Among the consonant forms, homoforms are distinguished - words that coincide only in one grammatical form (less often - in several). For example, three- numeral in the nominative case ( three friend) And three- verb in the imperative mood of the singular 2nd person ( three carrots on a grater). The grammatical forms of words of one part of speech can also be homonymous. For example, adjective forms big, young may indicate, firstly, the nominative singular masculine ( big success, young "specialist); secondly, to the genitive singular feminine ( great career, young woman); thirdly, into the dative singular feminine ( to a great career, to a young woman); fourthly, to the instrumental case of the feminine singular ( with a big career, with a young woman). These forms agree with nouns appearing in different cases. Homoforms by their nature go beyond the vocabulary, as they belong to a different level of the language and should be studied in the section of morphology.

2. Russian uses words that sound the same but are spelled differently. These are homophones (gr. homos- identical + phone- sound). For example, words meadow And onion, young And hammer, carry And lead coincide in pronunciation due to the stunning of voiced consonants at the end of a word and before a deaf consonant. Changing vowels in an unstressed position leads to the consonance of words rinse And caress, lick And climb up, old-timer And guarded. Words are pronounced the same patronize And march, device And acute, take And brother etc. Consequently, homophones are phonetic homonyms, their appearance in the language is associated with the action of phonetic laws.

Homophony can also manifest itself more widely - in the sound coincidence of a word and several words: Not you, but Sima suffered unbearable, water Neva is wearable; Years before a hundred grow us without old age (M.) Homophony is the subject of study not of lexicology, but of phonetics, as it manifests itself at a different linguistic level - phonetic.

3. Words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently are called homographs (gr. homos- identical + grapho- writing). They usually have stress on different syllables: mugs - mugs, fell asleep - fell asleep, p'arit - steam etc. There are more than a thousand pairs of homographs in modern Russian. Homography is directly related to the graphic system of the language.

Strict differentiation of linguistic phenomena requires to delimit proper lexical homonyms from homoforms, homophones and homographs.



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