18. Polysemy and homonymy: etymological, semantic, distribution and spelling criteria.

Paronyms: words that are alike in form, but different in meaning and usage. precede – proceed, preposition – proposition, economic – economical ;

Polysemy- different meanings of one and the same word are mutually dependent

Homonymy- different meanings of words are mutually independent, there is no connection between such words

The criteria to differentiate homonymy and polysemy: etymological – if homonymy is viewed diachronically, then all cases of sound convergence of two or more words may be regarded as cases of homonymy.race – гонка; race – племя, род They can be traced back to two etymologically different words

semantic – if the connection between the various meanings is apprehended by the speaker a case of polysemy; Otherwise a case of homonymy. case – 1) smth. that has happened; 2) a box, a container

criterion of spelling flower, flour: different lexical units as they differ in graphic form homonyms.

criterion of distribution

The context in which the words are used (distribution) is sufficient to establish the borderline between homonyms.

paper – (to) paper: the noun may be preceded by the article and followed by a verb; (to) paper can never be found in identical distribution.

So far no formal means have been found to differentiate between polysemy and homonymy. There are cases when none of the criteria is helpful.

19. Major types of semantic relations of lexical units. All lexical units in the lexicology display certain types of semantic relations to other lexical units based on common meanings that form a word-net. There are 2 types relations btw lexical units: 1) syntagmatic liner sequence relations of lexical or any other language units in speech that can be presented as a horizontal lines: he feels happy/uncomfortable/ good. 2) paradigmatic relations – non-liner relations of lang-ge units based on their common function & similar meaning in lan-ge system. Lexical substitution in a phrase is possible due to paradigmatic relations of certain lexical units. The words that are in paradigmatic relations & may be substituted in a phrase can be presented in a vertical line: the person became uncomfortable; the boy turned uneasy; Paradigmatic relations are the most fundamental for the organization of the lexicon & there are very diverse. There are 2 major group of paradigmatic relations of words: 1) the relations of compatibility this relations are based on some common semantic features while the other features don’t coin inside. No inclusion is observed words are all the same hierarchical level. incompatibility means that words denote the same called but they are neither synonyms or antonyms. 2) the relation of inclusion or hierarchical relations (hyponymy, meronymy & serial relations).

20.paradigmatic relations of compatibility: synonyms. Synonymy is confined to semantic relations btw words only. Similar relations btw word-group &sentences are described as semantic equivalence. : john is taller than bill. Bill is shorter than john. S. are traditionally described as words different in sound-form but identical or similar in meaning. Critical points of this definition: 1)it cant be applied to polysemantic words as they cant be synonyms in all their meanings: to look at smb-see; watch: to look pale-seem; appear; 2)it’s impossible to speak of identity or similarity of lexical meaning as a whole as it’s only the denotational component that may be described as identical; to die, to pass away – the connotative component is quite different; to die/ to walk to smile – identical in their stylistic; 3) cases of complete synonymy are rather rare & can be found only in terms. Attempts have been made to introduce the criterion of interchangeability in linguistic contexts, i.e. the words are synonyms if either of them can occur in the same context. S-words different in their sound-form but similar in their denotational meaning or meanings & interchangeable at least in some context. Classification by vinogradov: 1) ideographic – words differ in their denotational meaning; to stroll, to stride; 2) stylistic – words differ in the connotational meaning; hearty, cordial; 3) ideographic-stylistic (denotational-connotational) to last, to persist.

21. the dominant synonym… synonyms- a word that means the same or nearly the same as another word. Absolute s- have exactly the same meaning & belong to the same style: homeland motherland; Dominant s- a word whose meaning is equal to the denotation common to the entire s group: to surprise.to puzzle.to amaze; features of dominant s: 1) high frequency of usage;2) broad general meaning;3) lack of connotations; 4)broad combinability-the ability to be used in combinations with various classes of words; there are words in every lan-ge which people instincity avoid cause they are considered rude, too direct. There referents are described in a round-about way by using substitute called euphemisms. Euphemisms: 1) social taboos; lavatory –washroom; pregnancy; drunk; 2) superstitious taboos – people believed that there are was a super link btw a name & the object it represented. A dangerous animal – the one- lurking – in the wood

22. antonyms. A- words different in sound form and characterized by different types of semantic contrast of denotational meaning & interchangeability at least in some contexts. Absolute or root a.-have different roots(late-early); derivational – have the same roots but different affixes(honest-dishonest). Classification: 1)contradictories – represent the type of semantic relation that exist btw pairs like dead-alive; single-married. To use one of the words is to contrast the other & to use ‘not’ before one of them is to make it semantically equivalent to the other. Among contradictories we find a subgroup of words of the type young-old; big-small; the difference btw them lies in the fact that to say ‘not young’ isn’t necessarily ‘old’ they are generic terms for the common quality: size,age,etc. 2)contraries – differ from the contradictories: contraries admit no possibility btw them. One is either single or married but contraries admit such possibilities: cold-hot is intermediate members. Contraries may be opposed to each other by the absence or presence of one of the components of meaning like sex or age. 3) conversives- Name a situation from different opposing points of view: to buy – to sell

23Paradigmatic relations of inclusion (hierarchical relations): hyponymy, meronymy, serial relations

Hyponymy: a semantic relation of inclusion. car, bus, taxi – vehicle; oak, pine – tree; horse, cow – animal.

The hyponymic relationship may be viewed as the hierarchical relationship between the meaning of the general and individual terms. Plant : grass bush tree shrub flower

pine oak ash

white pine yellow pine

The more specific term is called the hyponym. The more general term is called the hyperonym or the classifier.

Meronymy: the relations of parts to the whole

The division of the human body into parts: Body Arm Hand Finger

Serial relations: graded (open-ended series) e.g. military ranks; an open number system as in one, two, three... cyclical series (not open-ended series) e.g. seasons of the year; days of the week