Language homonyms examples. Types of homonyms

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 identical in sound and spelling have different meanings. They are called "homonyms". Examples of them are found everywhere. We use them extremely often in ordinary speech.

Homonyms

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

• “bow” in the meaning of plant and weapon;
• “escape”, in one case denoting a young branch, and in the other - an unauthorized hasty departure.

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

• Green onions are especially good in vegetable salads.
• A boy was given a toy bow and arrow for his birthday.
• The apple tree produced 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 you understand what homonyms mean:

• “green onions” and “sharp onions”;
• “maiden braid” and “river braid”;
• "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 lessons and extracurricular activities

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

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

• “shop” as a piece of furniture and a small retail outlet;
• the word "Lama", appearing in one sense as an animal, and in another - as a Tibetan monk.

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

Homonymy and polysemy

Many words have more than one meaning. Although they have the same 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 like “key” can act as homonyms in the following way:

• spring and device for opening.

But in the meanings of “violin”, “wrench”, “from a door lock”, “a device for rolling up cans”, “key” is one word. This is an amazing linguistic feature that should already be considered a phenomenon of polysemy. After all, each listed option involves the key’s ability to open something: a line of music or some object. This 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 occurs from the transition of a name based on external similarity. This is

• “sleeve” - a separate river bed and part of the shirt;
• “ribbon” is a device for a girl’s hairstyle and a long road, a moving part of a conveyor.

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

Etymological homonymy

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

These are the word “boron”, which means a chemical element, and its homonym - pine forest. The first noun came into Russian speech from the Persian language, where it sounded like “borax,” that is, boron compounds. 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 etymology of the words itself differs.

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

Disputes between linguists about polysemy and homonymy

However, not everyone can determine the historical origin of words offhand. This often 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 the polysemy here. The explanatory dictionary classifies them as different words with different meanings.

Examples of homonyms that cause controversy among linguists are:

• “braid” in the meaning of a hairstyle and a tool for mowing, since some argue that there is a transition of the name based on external similarity (thin and long);
• “pen” as a tool for writing, a device for opening, turning on, since some people determine ambiguity by the fact that they have something in common in their method of action (writing and opening with their hand);
• “feather” in the sense of “handle” and as a cutaneous horny formation of birds and some dinosaurs, considering that the first meaning came to the word from the historical method of writing with bird feathers.

Some linguists classify as homonymy all words in which polysemy can be traced. They consider polysemy to be 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 divided into one category. Examples of these: “braid”, “tongue”, “escape”, “key” and others. In all their forms, these words are the same in both spelling and pronunciation.

Incomplete or partial homonyms

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

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

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

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

Homonyms and homophones

Some people confuse the phenomenon of homonymy with others. For example, homophones are words that sound alike but have different meanings but are differently spelled. 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 symbols or sounds.

Everyone will notice that these words should be written differently. But it is almost impossible to hear the difference by ear. The word “code” must be pronounced with the final consonant stunned. 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 have the same spelling, but are pronounced differently, most often due to stress. These are also not homonyms. Examples of homograph words are:

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

Homographs are also interesting for composing tasks for competitions and games. Using picture riddles in which homographs are encrypted, you can diversify linguistic activities.

In the Russian language, as in other languages, there is the phenomenon of homonymy. Its essence is that words that are written and pronounced the same can mean completely different things. Our article is dedicated to this amazing phenomenon.

What are homonyms

Homonyms are words that are spelled and pronounced the same, but have completely different meanings. An example of homonyms is the word “onion”. It can mean both a weapon and (in a homonymous sense) a plant. For example, onions and tight onions.

The phenomenon of homonymy is the subject of a funny and educational children's book by the poet Ya. Kozlovsky, “On Diverse Words – Same, But Different.” There are many funny short poems in it that help to understand the essence of the phenomenon of homonymy.

However, it must be said that the phenomenon of homonymy is very difficult, mysterious and multifaceted. It only seems simple and understandable to children who are studying the topic in 2nd grade, when the answer to the question, what are homonyms in the Russian language, looks quite definite. But we must keep in mind that there are other types of homonymy - words that do not always coincide and not in all forms.

If words belong to the same part of speech and are the same in all forms, they usually speak of complete homonyms. For example, complete homonyms are the words “boron” (forest - pine forest) and “boron” (chemical substance). But there are also incomplete homonyms in the language.

Let's consider a number of such cases:

• homophones- these are words that are pronounced the same, but spelled differently; For example, cat - animal and code - digital code of the lock, twig (branch) and pond (lake);
• homographs- words that, on the contrary, are written the same way, but are pronounced differently, as a rule, with different stress; For example, the words “castle” and “castle”, “Iris” and “iris”– these are homographs;
• homoforms- these are words that coincide only in certain forms, but in fact they can even be words of different parts of speech; For example, such words: “glass” (window) and “glass” (something down).

How to distinguish homonyms

Sometimes it is difficult to understand what is in front of us: homonyms or polysemantic words. After all, they are, in general, similar.

Like homonyms, ambiguous words have many meanings; but all these meanings are much closer in meaning. For example, the word “brush”.

It can mean a part of a hand (hands), a decoration made of threads (a scarf with tassels), a drawing device (dip a brush into paint), or a twig with many small flowers or berries (a bunch of grapes). All these words are connected by a common meaning: a bundle, several long objects fastened at one point. That is, the meanings of one polysemantic word are somewhat similar in meaning.

Homonyms have nothing in common with each other. The concepts they mean are not related in any way. For example, a mink (in the ground, an animal’s home) and a mink (an animal). Even if a mink lives in a mink, they still cannot be considered similar.

In order not to make a mistake in any case, you need to remember the usual rule: in an effort to distinguish homonyms from polysemantic words, you need to look in the dictionary. In an explanatory dictionary, all the meanings of one polysemantic word are given in one dictionary entry in a list and numbered inside it. As for homonyms, they are explained in different dictionary entries. That is, the word is written again, separately.

Here are examples of homonym words:

• LINE, -And; and. 1. to Scribble (1, 4 digits). 2. Solid seam on fabric, leather, etc. Machine stitching. 3. A type of openwork embroidery. Openwork, curly stitching.
• LINE, -And; pl. genus.-check, date-chkam; and. 1. =String (1-2 characters). Crooked stitch. 2. An even row, a chain of something. A line of animal tracks. <Строчечка, -и; pl. genus.-check, date-chkam; and. Decrease-affectionate Linear, -aya, -oe.

Both homonyms have several interpretations under numbers within the dictionary entry. This means that each of these words has multiple meanings.

Of course, language strives to exclude homonymy, because the main function of language is communicative, that is, the transmission of information; and if homonyms are used in speech, it is not always easy to understand what is meant. For example, the sentence “Bring a bow” - it is not clear what should be brought (a bow-weapon or an onion-plant).

But if homonyms create so many problems, how can we explain that they exist in the language at all? In many cases, the reason for the appearance of homonyms is that once these words were written and pronounced differently, and only with a change in the sound and graphic system of the language did they begin to be written and pronounced the same; an example is the word "peace", which was written differently with different meanings.

In addition, jokes - puns - are often based on homonyms.

For example, you can recall the pun associated with the word “outfit”: “One is an outfit, and the other is an outfit out of turn.” The essence of the joke is that one of the homonyms means festive, beautiful clothes, and the other means an order to perform some work or a document regulating the types of work.

What have we learned?

Words that are spelled and pronounced the same, but have completely different meanings, are called homonyms. The phenomenon of homonymy also includes cases when words are only spelled the same, but pronounced differently (homographs), only pronounced the same, but spelled differently (homophones), and coincide only in certain forms (homoforms). To distinguish homonyms, you need to look into the explanatory dictionary: the interpretation of various homonyms is given there in separate dictionary entries.

Test on the topic

Article rating

Average rating: 4.3. Total ratings received: 254.

Lexicology studies two types of homonyms: complete and partial. However, according to the method of formation, homonyms can be simple and derivative. In addition to the listed types, there are also functional homonyms. Therefore, the question “What types of homonyms are there?” is actually not as simple as it might seem at first glance.

Full and partial homonyms

Full homonyms It is also customary to call them absolute. These are words that are completely identical in form. That is

• they sound the same
• their stress falls on the same syllable;
• they belong to the same part of speech;
• they change the same way.

For example, a forge (a wind instrument) and a forge (a blacksmith's). No matter how we spin these two words, they will not be different from each other.

The absolute homonyms include the following (I will list them without meaning): key, scythe, force, month...

If homonyms do not have all the same sound forms of a word, then they are classified into the group partial homonyms.

For example: caress (show of tenderness) and caress (animal). In the plural and genitive case, these words will sound differently: too many caresses - I see a lot of caresses in the cage.

Simple and derived homonyms

When it comes to simple and derived homonyms, it is necessary to remember word formation. Simple homonyms- these are non-derivative words that completely coincide in sound: the factory club is a puff of smoke, the male gender is a parquet floor, and so on.

Derivative homonyms are formed from other words: swim with fat - swim far (both words are formed from the word swim in a prefix way, they sound the same, but mean completely different things).

Functional homonyms

In the Russian language there is another group of words that sound the same, but belong to different parts of speech. Such words are also called homonyms, but are classified as a separate type

For example, the word is exactly a functional homonym, since it can be an adjective, an adverb, a comparative conjunction, and a modal particle:

• measurement is accurate,
• accurately determine;
• as if a storm had passed;
• he was definitely replaced.

Not to be confused with homophones, homoforms and homographs!

Distributing homonyms by type is quite difficult due to the fact that they are easily confused with homophones, homoforms and homographs. They are similar to lexical homonymy, but in essence refer to stylistic homonymy.

Homophones Pronounced the same, but written differently: could - could it get wet, eye - voice.

Omoforms The words sound and are written the same in either one or several forms: dear man - we were driving the wrong way.

Thanks to stylistic homonymy, you can achieve expressiveness of speech, create jokes and puns. A striking example is Ya. Kozlovsky’s poem about a bear and wasps.

Carried by the bear, walking towards the market
Jar of honey for sale.
Suddenly there’s an attack on Misha! -
The wasps decided to attack.
Teddy bear with an army of aspen
He fought with a torn aspen.
Could he not fly into rage?
If the wasps climbed into the mouth,
They stung anywhere!
They got it for this.

Can such words be considered homonyms or their types? Linguists still distinguish these words into separate groups, because in their initial form such words cannot be classified even as partial homonyms. Agree, aspen and aspen are completely different.

In the process of learning a language, you have to master more terminology. Students must understand what homonyms, antonyms, synonyms are, and many other concepts. Although this is not the easiest task, you can gradually understand 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 a name. Thus, homonyms are certain words that have different meanings, but sound and spell the same.

It is interesting that 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 these words look exactly the same, they have different meanings and are also pronounced differently. Typically this is achieved by changing the accent.

Polysemy

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

Determining whether a word is considered a homonym or polysemy is very simple. Just look at where the concepts came from. For example, the concept boron has the meaning of forest and chemical element. However, “pine boron” is a word that comes from the Slavic language, and the chemical element boron is derived from the Persian term “borax.” This means that these words are homonyms.

If we take the word “ether”, which can act both in the sense of a certain substance and in the sense of broadcasting, then we can replace that they all come from the ancient Greek concept of mountain air. So it would be polysemy.

Not every person who studies linguistics clearly distinguishes between polysemy and homonyms. Some perceive the first as a special case of the second. However, if the words are different parts of speech, then we can say with confidence that this is a homonym.

Classification

Homonyms have three main groups.

• Full or absolute homonyms are those words that will remain the same even if the original form is changed. This is what complete homonyms are, and their examples 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 genitive case, then the word denoting animal will be “caress”, and the word denoting tenderness will be “caress”.
• 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, and sometimes only one. As an example, the numeral “three” will be a homonym for the verb “rub”, but only in two variants (“three”, “three”).

Omomorphemes

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

As a rule, the example with the ending –a is considered.

• First of all, this ending denotes the feminine gender of verbs.
• Moreover, it is used to depict the plural of second declension nouns.
• In addition, this ending creates the 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 a study that examines various classification principles.

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

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

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 considered secondary.

Typically, when people discover taxonomic homonyms, they try to eliminate them. Preference is given to older homonyms, and other names are created for younger ones.

Lexical homonyms are combined into rows, each of which includes at least two words belonging to the same part of speech. There are two types of lexical homonyms: complete and incomplete (partial). Full homonyms- these are words that coincide in all grammatical forms, for example: Lavka (1) - “bench” and Lavka (2) - “small premises for trading”.

These words will appear in the same forms in all cases, and the plural forms will also be the same. Incomplete homonyms- these are words belonging to the same part of speech, in which the system of grammatical forms does not completely coincide, for example:
Shelf - “a device for storing something”, can be in the form of units. and many more h. (shelf - shelves, many shelves);
Shelf - “destruction of weeds” (a verbal noun formed from the verb weed), exists only in the singular form. h.

So, from the first word the singular and plural forms are formed, from the second word it is impossible to form the plural form. Both complete and partial (incomplete) homonyms are studied by lexicology. One should distinguish from them phenomena that lexicology does not study, although it mentions them, comparing them with homonyms. In other words, other types of homonymy should be distinguished from lexical homonyms, both full and partial. In modern Russian, these types of homonymy are presented as follows.
1) Phonetic homonymy- words match only in sound:
Pond - rod, Carry - lead, Code - cat
Such words are called homophones.
2) Graphic homonymy- words coincide only in spelling while maintaining differences in sound:
zamok (to storm) - zamok (to close); steam (vegetables) - steam (in the clouds); a "tlas (geographical) - atla"s (type of fabric). Such words are called homographs.
3) Morphological homonyms- the coincidence of words belonging to different parts of speech in one or more grammatical forms: three (numeral) - three (command, incl. from the verb to rub); oven (verb in the infinitive form) - oven (noun in I.p.); simple (adjective) - simple (noun). Such words are called homoforms.

One more series of words should be distinguished from homonyms, which are called paronyms. Paronyms(from the Greek Para - about and Onyma - name) - these are words that are similar in sound and morphemic structure, but have different meanings. Typically, paronyms are words formed from the same root, but using different affixes (suffixes, prefixes). For example: Put on (a coat on yourself) - dress (a child); Economical (person) - economical (regime) - economic (crisis); Escalator (moving staircase) - excavator (earthing machine); Zdravitsa (toast, congratulation) - health resort (sanatorium).

The similarity of paronymic words in sound and the common root in them is the main source of errors in their use. Paronyms are sometimes mixed in speech, although they denote different phenomena. For example, they say “put on a coat” instead of “put on a coat.” Meanwhile, the verbs put on and dress differ in meaning: they put on what, and dress whom (put on a coat, hat, mittens - dress a child, a sick person). This example shows that paronyms differ not only in meaning, but also in compatibility with other words.