Жанр: Учеба
Лексикология английского языка
... serves as a support, the original meaning
being "the leg of a man or animal". The association that lies behind
this development of meaning is the common function: a piece of furniture
is supported by its legs just as living beings are supported by
theirs.
154
The meaning of the noun hand realised in the context hand of a
clock (watch) originates from the main meaning of this noun "part of
human body". It also developed due to the association of the common
function: the hand of a clock points to the figures on the face of the
clock, and one of the functions of human hand is also that of pointing
to things.
Another meaning of hand realised in such contexts as factory
hands, farm hands is based on another kind of association: strong,
skilful hands are the most important feature that is required of a person
engaged in physical labour (cf. with the R. рабочие руки).
The adjective dull (see the scheme of its semantic structure in Ch.
7) developed its meaning "not clear or bright" (as in a dull green colour;
dull light; dull shapes) on the basis of the former meaning "deficient
in eyesight", and its meaning "not loud or distinct" (as in dull
sounds) on the basis of the older meaning "deficient in hearing". The
association here was obviously that of cause and effect: to a person
with weak eyesight all colours appear pale, and all shapes blurred; to
a person with deficient hearing all sounds are indistinct.
The main (and oldest registered) meaning of the noun board was
"a flat and thin piece of wood; a wooden plank". On the basis of this
meaning developed the meaning "table" which is now archaic. The
association which underlay this semantic shift was that of the material
and the object made from it: a wooden plank (or several planks) is an
essential part of any table. This type of association is often found
with nouns denoting clothes: e. g. a taffeta ("dress made of taffeta");
a mink ("mink coat"), a jersy ("knitted shirt or sweater").
Meanings produced through transference based on contiguity
sometimes originate from geographical or proper names. China in the
sense of "dishes made of porcelain" originated from the name of the
country which was believed to be the birthplace of porcelain.
Tweed ("a coarse wool cloth") got its name from the river Tweed and
cheviot (another kind of wool cloth) from the Cheviot hills in England.
The name of a painter is frequently transferred onto one of his
pictures: a Matisse - a painting by Matisse.1
Broadening (or Generalisation) of Meaning.
Narrowing (or Specialisation) of Meaning
Sometimes, the process of transference may result in a considerable
change in range of meaning. For instance, the verb to arrive
(French borrowing) began its life in English in the narrow meaning
"to come to shore, to land". In Modern English it has greatly widened
its combinability and developed the general meaning "to come" (e. g.
to arrive in a village, town, city, country, at a hotel, hostel, college,
theatre, place, etc.). The meaning developed through transference
based on contiguity (the concept of coming somewhere is the same
for both meanings), but the range of the second meaning is much
broader.
Another example of the broadening of meaning is pipe. Its earliest
recorded meaning was "a musical wind instrument". Nowadays it can
denote any hollow oblong cylindrical body (e. g. water pipes). This
meaning developed through transference based on the similarity of
shape (pipe as a musical instrument is also a hollow oblong cylindrical
object) which finally led to a considerable broadening of the range
of meaning.
The word bird changed its meaning from "the young of a bird" to
its modern meaning through transference based on contiguity (the
association is obvious). The second meaning is broader and more
general.
It is interesting to trace the history of the word girl as an example
of the changes in the range of meaning in the course of the semantic
development of a word.
1 Also: see Supplementary Material, p. 279.
In Middle English it had the meaning of "a small child of either
sex". Then the word underwent the process of transference based on
contiguity and developed the meaning of "a small child of the female
sex", so that the range of meaning was somewhat narrowed. In its
further semantic development the word gradually broadened its range
of meaning. At first it came to denote not only a female child but,
also, a young unmarried woman, later, any young woman, and in
modern colloquial English it is practically synonymous to the noun
woman (e. g. The old girl must be at least seventy), so that its range of
meaning is quite broad.
The history of the noun lady somewhat resembles that of girl. In
Old English the word (ОЕ hl?fdiZe) denoted the mistress of the
house, i. e. any married woman. Later, a new meaning developed
which was much narrower in range: "the wife or daughter of a baronet"
(aristocratic title). In Modern English the word lady can be applied
to any woman, so that its range of meaning is even broader than
that of the OE hl?fdiZe. In Modern English the difference between
girl and lady in the meaning of woman is that the first is used in colloquial
style and sounds familiar whereas the second is more formal
and polite. Here are some more examples of narrowing of meaning:
Deer: \ any beast] " [ a certain kind of beast ]
Meat: [ any food] " | a certain food product [
Boy: | any young person of the male sex [ " [ servant of the male sex ]
It should be pointed out once more that in all these words the second
meaning developed through transference based on contiguity, and
that when we speak of them as examples of narrowing of meaning we
simply imply that the range of the second meaning is more narrow
than that of the original meaning.
CHAPTER 9
Homonyms: Words of the Same
Form
Homonyms are words which are identical in sound and spelling,
or, at least, in one of these aspects, but different in their meaning.
E. g. J bank, n. - a shore
bank, n. - an institution for receiving, lending, exchanging,
and safeguarding money
ball, n. - a sphere; any spherical body ball, n. - a
large dancing party
\
English vocabulary is rich in such pairs and even groups of words.
Their identical forms are mostly accidental: the majority of homonyms
coincided due to phonetic changes which they suffered during
their development.
If synonyms and antonyms can be regarded as the treasury of the
language's expressive resources, homonyms are of no interest in this
respect, and one cannot expect them to be of particular value for
communication. Metaphorically speaking, groups of synonyms and
pairs of antonyms are created by the vocabulary system with a particular
purpose whereas homonyms are accidental creations, and
therefore purposeless.
In the process of communication they are more of an encumbrance,
leading sometimes to confusion and
misunderstanding. Yet it is this very characteristic which makes them
one of the most important sources of popular humour.
The pun is a joke based upon the play upon words of similar form
but different meaning (i. e. on homonyms) as in the following:
"A tailor guarantees to give each of his customers a perfect
fit."
(The joke is based on the homonyms: I. fit, n. - perfectly fitting
clothes; II. fit, n. - a nervous spasm.)
Homonyms which are the same in sound and spelling (as the examples
given in the beginning of this chapter) are traditionally termed
homonyms proper.
The following joke is based on a pun which makes use of another
type of homonyms:
"Waiter!" "Yes, sir." "What's
this?" "It's bean soup, sir."
"Never mind what it has been. I want to know what it is now."
Bean, n. and been, Past Part, of to be are phones. As the example
shows they are the same in sound but different in spelling. Here are
some more examples of homophones:
night, n. - knight, n.; piece, n. - peace, n.; scent, n. - cent,
n. - sent, v. (Past Indef., Past Part, of to send); rite, n. - to
write, v. - right, adj.; sea, n. - to see, v. - С [si:] (the name of
a letter).
The third type of homonyms is called homographs. These are
words which are the same in spelling but different in sound.
E.g.
to bow
[bau], v.
bow
[bqu], п.
to
incline
the head
or body
in
salutatio
n a
flexible
strip of
wood
for
propelli
ng
arrows
to lead [li:d],v.- to conduct on the way, go before to
show the way - a heavy, rather soft
metal
lead [led], n. to
tear [teq], v.
tear [tie], n.
to pull apart or in
pieces by force
a drop of the fluid
secreted by the
lacrinial glands of
the eye
Sources of Homonyms
One source of homonyms has already been mentioned: phonetic
changes which words undergo in the course of their historical development.
As a result of such changes, two or more words which were
formerly pronounced differently may develop identical sound forms
and thus become homonyms.
Night and knight, for instance, were not homonyms in Old English
as the initial k in the second word was pronounced, and not dropped
as it is in its modern sound form: О.Е. kniht (cf. О.Е. niht). A more
complicated change of form brought together another pair of homonyms:
to knead (О.Е. cnedan) and to need (О.Е. neodian).
In Old English the verb to write had the form writan, and the adjective
right had the forms reht, riht. The noun sea descends from the
Old English form s?, and the verb to see from О. Е. seon. The noun
work and the verb to work also had different forms in Old English:
wyrkean and weork respectively.
Borrowing is another source of homonyms. A borrowed word
may, in the final stage of its phonetic
adaptation, duplicate in form either a native word or another borrowing.
So, in the group of homonyms rite, n. - to write, v. - right, adj.
the second and third words are of native origin whereas rite is a Latin
borrowing (" Lat. ritus). In the pair piece, n. - peace, п., the first
originates from O.F. pais, and the second from O.F. (" Gaulish) pettia.
Bank, n. ("shore") is a native word, and bank, n. ("a financial institution")
is an Italian borrowing. Fair, adj. (as in a fair deal, it's not
fair) is native, and fair, n. ("a gathering of buyers and sellers") is a
French borrowing. Match, n. ("a game; a contest of skill, strength") is
native, and match, n. ("a slender short piece of wood used for producing
fire") is a French borrowing.
Word-building also contributes significantly to the growth of
homonymy, and the most important type in this respect is undoubtedly
conversion. Such pairs of words as comb, n. - to comb, v., pale,
adj. - to pale, v., to make, v. - make, n. are numerous in the vocabulary.
Homonyms of this type, which are the same in sound and
spelling but refer to different categories of parts of speech, are called
lexico-grammatical homonyms. [12]
Shortening is a further type of word-building which increases the
number of homonyms. E.g. fan, n. in the sense of "an enthusiastic
admirer of some kind of sport or of an actor, singer, etc." is a shortening
produced from fanatic. Its homonym is a Latin borrowing fan,
n. which denotes an implement for waving lightly to produce a cool
current of air. The noun rep, n. denoting a kind of fabric (cf. with the
R. репс) has three homonyms made by shortening: rep, n. (" repertory),
rep, n. (" representative), rep, n. (" reputation)', all the three
are informal words.
During World War II girls serving in the Women's Royal Naval
Service (an auxiliary of the British Royal Navy) were jokingly nicknamed
Wrens (informal). This
neologistic formation made by shortening has the homonym wren, n.
"a small bird with dark brown plumage barred with black" (R. крапивник).
Words made by sound-imitation can also form pairs of homonyms
with other words: e. g. bang, n. ("a loud, sudden, explosive noise") -
bang, n. ("a fringe of hair combed over the forehead"). Also: mew, n.
("the sound a cat makes") - mew, n. ("a sea gull") - mew, n. ("a pen
in which poultry is fattened") - mews ("small terraced houses in
Central London").
The above-described sources of homonyms have one important
feature in common. In all the mentioned cases the homonyms developed
from two or more different words, and their similarity is purely
accidental. (In this respect, conversion certainly presents an exception
for in pairs of homonyms formed by conversion one word of the pair
is produced from the other: a find " to find.)
Now we come to a further source of homonyms which differs essentially
from all the above cases. Two or more homonyms can originate
from different meanings of the same word when, for some reason,
the semantic structure of the word breaks into several parts. This
type of formation of homonyms is called split polysemy.
From what has been said in the previous chapters about polysemantic
words, it should have become clear that the semantic structure
of a polysemantic word presents a system within which all its constituent
meanings are held together by logical associations. In most
cases, the function of the arrangement and the unity is determined by
one of the meanings (e. g. the meaning "flame" in the noun fire - see
Ch. 7, p. 133). If this meaning happens to disappear from the word's
semantic structure, associations between the rest of the meanings may
be severed, the semantic structure loses its unity and falls into two or
more parts which then become accepted as independent lexical units.
Let us consider the history of three homonyms:
board, n. - a long and thin piece of timber
board, n. - daily meals, esp. as provided for pay,
e. g. room and board board, n. - an official
group of persons who direct
or supervise some activity, e. g. a board
of directors
It is clear that the meanings of these three words are in no way associated
with one another. Yet, most larger dictionaries still enter a
meaning of board that once held together all these other meanings
"table". It developed from the meaning "a piece of timber" by transference
based on contiguity (association of an object and the material
from which it is made). The meanings "meals" and "an official group
of persons" developed from the meaning "table", also by transference
based on contiguity: meals are easily associated with a table on which
they are served; an official group of people in authority are also likely
to discuss their business round a table.
Nowadays, however, the item of furniture, on which meals are
served and round which boards of directors meet, is no longer denoted
by the word board but by the French Norman borrowing table,
and board in this meaning, though still registered by some dictionaries,
can very well be marked as archaic as it is no longer used in
common speech. That is why, with the intrusion of the borrowed table,
the word board actually lost its corresponding meaning. But it
was just that meaning which served as a link to hold together the rest
of the constituent parts of the word's semantic structure. With its diminished
role as an element of communication, its role in the semantic
structure was also weakened. The speakers almost forgot that
board had ever been associated with any item of furniture, nor could
they associate the concepts of meals or of a responsible
committee with a long thin piece of timber (which is the oldest
meaning of board). Consequently, the semantic structure of board
was split into three units. The following scheme illustrates the process:
Board, n. (development of meanings)
A long, thin piece
of timber
" A piece of
furniture
-
"
Meals provided
for pay
An official
group of
persons
Board I, II, III, n. (split
polysemy)
I. A long, thin piece of
timber
A piece of
furniture
II.
Meals provided
for pay
Seldom used; ousted III. by
the French borrowing table.
An official
group of
persons
A somewhat different case of split polysemy may be illustrated by
the three following homonyms:
spring, n. - the act of springing, a leap spring, n. - a place
where a stream of water comes up out of the earth (R. родник,
источник) spring, n. - a season of the year.
Historically all three nouns originate from the same verb with the
meaning of "to jump, to leap" (О. Е. sprin-gan), so that the meaning
of the first homonym is the oldest. The meanings of the second and
third homonyms were originally based on metaphor. At the head of a
stream the water sometimes leaps up out of the earth, so that metaphorically
such a place could well be described as a leap. On the
other hand, the season of the year following winter could be poetically
defined as a
leap from the darkness and cold into sunlight and life. Such metaphors
are typical enough of Old English and Middle English semantic
transferences but not so characteristic of modern mental and linguistic
processes. The poetic associations that lay in the basis of the semantic
shifts described above have long since been forgotten, and an attempt
to re-establish the lost links may well seem far-fetched. It is just the
near-impossibility of establishing such links that seems to support the
claim for homonymy and not for polysemy with these three words.
It should be stressed, however, that split polysemy as a source of
homonyms is not accepted by some scholars. It is really difficult
sometimes to decide whether a certain word has or has not been subjected
to the split of the semantic structure and whether we are dealing
with different meanings of the same word or with homonyms, for
the criteria are subjective and imprecise. The imprecision is recorded
in the data of different dictionaries which often contradict each other
on this very issue, so that board is represented as two homonyms in
Professor V. K. Muller's dictionary [41], as three homonyms in Professor
V. D. Arakin's [36] and as one and the same word in Hornby's
dictionary [45].
Spring also receives different treatment. V. K. Muller's and
Hornby's dictionaries acknowledge but two homonyms: I. a season of
the year, П. a) the act of springing, a leap, b) a place where a stream
of water comes up out of the earth; and some other meanings,
whereas V. D. Arakin's dictionary presents the three homonyms as
given above.
Classification of Homonyms
The subdivision of homonyms into homonyms proper, homophones
and homographs is certainly not precise enough and does not
reflect certain important features of these words, and, most important
of all, their status
as parts of speech. The examples given in the beginning of this chapter
show that homonyms may belong both to the same and to different
categories of parts of speech. Obviously, a classification of homonyms
should reflect this distinctive feature. Also, the paradigm of
each word should be considered, because it has been observed that
the paradigms of some homonyms coincide completely, and of others
only partially.
Accordingly, Professor A. I. Smirnitsky classified homonyms into
two large classes: I. full homonyms, II. partial homonyms [15].
Full lexical homonyms are words which represent the same category
of parts of speech and have the same paradigm.
E. g. / match, n. - a game, a contest
I match, n. - a short piece of wood used for
I producing fire
wren, n. - a member of the Women's Royal Naval
Service wren, n. - a bird
Partial homonyms are subdivided into three subgroups:
A. Simple lexico-grammatical partial homonyms are words which
belong to the same category of parts of speech. Their paradigms have
one identical form, but it is never the same form, as will be seen from
the examples.
E. g. / (to) found, v.
\ found, v. (Past Indef., Past Part. of to ( find)
/ to lay, v.
I lay, v. (Past Indef. of to lie)
[ to bound, v.
I bound, v. (Past Indef., Past Part, of to
( bind)
B. Complex lexico-grammatical partial homonyms
are words of different categories of parts of speech
which have one identical form in their paradigms.
E. g. f rose, n.
rose, v. (Past Indef. of to rise)
maid, n.
made, v. (Past Indef., Past Part, of to make)
left, adj.
left, v. (Past Indef., Past Part, of to leave)
bean, n.
been, v. (Past Part, of to be)
one, num.
won, v. (Past Indef., Past Part, of to win)
C. Partial lexical homonyms are words of the same
category of parts of speech which are identical only in
their corresponding forms.
E. g. \ to lie (lay, lain), v. to lie
(lied, lied), v.
to hang (hung, hung), v.
to hang (hanged, hanged), v.
to can (canned, canned) (I) can
(could)
Exercises
I. Consider your answers to the following.
1. Which words do we call homonyms?
2. Why can't homonyms be regarded as expressive
means of the language?
3. What is the traditional classification of homo
nyms? Illustrate your answer with examples.
4. What are the distinctive features of the classifica
tion of homonyms suggested by Professor
A. I. Smirnitsky?
CHAPTER 10
Synonyms:
Are Their Meanings the Same or Different?
Synonymy is one of modern linguistics' most controversial problems.
The very existence of words traditionally called synonyms is
disputed by some linguists; the nature and essence of the relationships
of these words is hotly debated and treated in quite different ways by
the representatives of different linguistic schools.
Even though one may accept that synonyms in the traditional
meaning of the term are somewhat elusive and, to some extent, fictitious
it is certain that there are words in any vocabulary which clearly
develop regular and distinct relationships when used in speech.
In the following extract, in which a young woman rejects a proposal
of marriage, the verbs like, admire and love, all describe feelings
of attraction, approbation, fondness:
"I have always liked you very much, I admire your talent, but,
forgive me, - I could never love you as a wife should love her
husband."
(From The Shivering Sands by V. Holt)
Yet, each of the three verbs, though they all describe more or less
the same feeling of liking, describes it in its own way: "I like you, i.
e. I have certain warm feelings towards you, but they are not strong
enough
Посмотри в окно!
Чтобы сохранить великий дар природы — зрение,
врачи рекомендуют читать непрерывно не более 45–50 минут,
а потом делать перерыв для ослабления мышц глаза.
В перерывах между чтением полезны
гимнастические упражнения: переключение зрения с ближней точки на более дальнюю.
for me to describe them as "love"," - so that like and love are in a
way opposed to each other.
The duality of synonyms is, probably, their most
confusing feature: they are somewhat the same,
and yet they are most obviously different. Both as
pects of their dual characteristics are essential for
them to perform their function in speech: revealing
different aspects, shades and variations of the same
phenomenon.
"- Was she a pretty girl?
- I would certainly have called her attractive."
(Ibid.)
The second speaker in this short dialogue does his best to choose
the word which would describe the girl most precisely: she was goodlooking,
but pretty is probably too good a word for her, so that attractive
is again in a way opposed to pretty (not pretty, only attractive),
but this opposition is, at the same time, firmly fixed on the
sameness of pretty and attractive: essentially they both describe a
pleasant appearance.
Here are some more extracts which confirm that synonyms add
precision to each detail of description and show how the correct
choice of a word from a group of synonyms may colour the whole
text.
The first extract depicts a domestic quarrel. The infuriated husband
shouts and glares at his wife, but "his glare suddenly softened
into a gaze as he turned his eyes on the little girl" (i. e. he had been
looking furiously at his wife, but when he turned his eyes on the
child, he looked at her with tenderness).
The second extract depicts a young father taking his child for a
Sunday walk.
"Neighbours were apt to smile at the long-legged bare-headed
young man leisurely strolling along the
street and his small companion demurely trotting by his side."
(From Some Men and Women by B. Lowndes)
The synonyms stroll and trot vividly describe two different styles
of walking, the long slow paces of the young man and the gait between
a walk and a run of the short-legged child.
In the following extract an irritated producer is talking to an ambitious
young actor:
"Think you can play Romeo? Romeo should smile, not grin,
walk, not swagger, speak his lines, not mumble them."
(Ibid.)
Here the second synonym in each pair is quite obviously and intentionally
contrasted and opposed to the first: "... smile, not grin."
Yet, to grin means more or less the same as to smile, only, perhaps,
denoting a broader and a rather foolish smile. In the same way to
swagger means "to walk", but to walk in a defiant or insolent manner.
Mumbling is also a way of speaking, but of speaking indistinctly or
unintelligibly.
Synonyms are one of the language's most important expressive
means. The above examples convincingly demonstrate that the principal
function of synonyms is to represent the same phenomenon in
different aspects, shades and variations.
And here is an example of how a great writer may use synonyms
for stylistic purposes. In this extract from Death of a Hero R. Aldington
describes a group of survivors painfully retreating after a defeat
in battle:
"... The Frontshires [name of battalion] staggered rather than
walked down the bumpy trench ... About fifty men, the flotsam of
the wrecked battalion,
stumbled past them .... They shambled heavily along, not keeping
step or attempting to, bent wearily forward under the weight of
their equipment, their unseeing eyes turned to the muddy ground."
In this extract the verb to walk is used with its three synonyms,
each of which describes the process of walking in its own way. In
con
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