43. The main semantic aspects of Compounds. What do we have in a result of rearrangement of distributional pattern of compounds? Into what semantic groups can compounds be divided?

One and the same word in different syntactical relations can develop different meanings. POLYSEMY – the ability of words to have more than one meaning.

1) Radial polysemy: the semantic structure is presented by different meanings as the main or primary meaning stands in the centre and each secondary meaning can be traced to the primary meaning. E.g. AIR: aircraft/airbag, airline, airport, airspeed.

2) Chain polysemy: the semantic structure is determined as the semantic components within each separate meaning, where some semantic structures are arranged on different principles. E.g. DULL: a dull book(boring), a dull weather(not clear or bright), a dull pupil(stupid), a dull knife(not sharp).

The term “semantic” came from Greek SEMA – sign, SEMANTICOS – significant.

The structural meaning of compounds is formed on the base oft he meaning of their distributional patterns

which is understood as the order and arrangement of the constituents of a compound word. E.g. dog house – house-dog. Vid kid – a kid who is a video fan, kid vid – a video film for kids.

The semantic structure of compound words:

- non-idiomatic compounds represent meanings which can be described as the sum of their constituent meanings. E.g. classroom, bedroom, nightdress, raincoat.

- idiomatic compounds – the compounds which meanings do not correspond to the separate meanings of their constituent(main) parts.

Types of idiomatic compounds:

1. Compounds with partial (non-complete) changed meaning where one of the component has changed meaning. E.g. blackboard, blackbird, blackberries, lazybones, chatter-box.

2. Compounds with total (complete) changed meaning where the key semantic aspect has been lost. E.g. butterfly, bluecoat, lady-bird, butter-finger.

Semantic changes of compounds are connected with the development of the social nature of the language (a new object or phenomenon). E.g. Boomerang kid – a child who is returned home; boomerang kid – an adult child who returns home after university or smth else because of having no money or job.

43. Whai is Homonyms? What types of Classification of Homonyms do you know?

Homonyms are words different in meaning but identical in sound or spelling, or both in sound and spelling.

The term “homonym” is derived from Greek homos – “similar” and onoma – “name”, and thus expresses the sameness of name combined with the difference in meaning.

E.g.: bank, n. – a shore; bank, n. – an institution for receiving, lending, exchanging money. Ball, n. – a sphere, any spherical body; ball, n. – a large dancing party.

Classification of Homonyms.

Homonyms are distinguished into three types:

Homonyms are the same in sound and spelling are traditionally termed homonyms proper. E.g.: match, (n.) – a game, match, (n.) – thing is used for producing fire; right, (adj.) - in accordance with fact, reason, truth, right, (adj.) - the direction or position on the right side; spring, (n.) - the act or an instance of jumping or leaping, spring, (n.) - the season of the year.

Homonyms are the same in sound but different in spelling can be defined as homophones. E.g.: a piece (n.) – peace (n.); cent (n.) – sent (v.); sea (n.) - see (n.); week (n.) - weak (adj.); bean (n.) - been (v.).

Homographs are words with the same spelling but pronounced differently.

E.g. bow –[bau]- (v.) – to incline the head or body in salutation; bow – [bәu]- (n.) – a flexible strip of wood for propelling arrows; to lead [li:d ]-(v.) – to conduct on the way, go before to show the way, lead [led ]- (n.) – a heavy, rather soft metal.

A more detailed classification was given by I.V. Arnold. She classified only perfect homonyms and suggested four criteria of their classification: lexical meaning, grammatical meaning, basic forms and paradigms.

According to these criteria I.V. Arnold pointed out the following groups:

- homonyms identical in their grammatical meanings, basic forms and paradigms (a typical example or model of a word) and different in their lexical meanings, e.g. a board in the meanings a council and “a thin flat piece of wood”;

- homonyms identical in their grammatical meanings and basic forms, different in their lexical meanings and paradigms, e.g. to lie - lied - lied, and to lie - lay - lain;

- homonyms different in their lexical meanings, grammatical meanings, paradigms, but coinciding in their basic forms, e.g. light – lights, light – lighter – lightest;

- homonyms different in their lexical meanings, grammatical meanings, in their basic forms, but coinciding in one of the forms of their paradigms, e.g. a bit and bit (from “to bite”).