Lecture 4. Synonymy, Antonymy, Homonymy

Antonyms and their Classification
Definition of Homonyms and their Classification

belonging to the same part of speech, possessing one or

more identical meaning, interchangeable at least in some contexts without any considerable alteration in denotational meaning, but differing in morphemic composition, phonemic shape, shades of meaning, connotation, affective value, style, and emotional coloring peculiar to one of the elements in a synonymic group.

same notion but different in shades of meaning (ex., battle/fight)
stylistic

synonyms – words differing in stylistic characteristics (ex., to put off/to postpone)
absolute synonyms – words coinciding in all their shades of meaning and stylistic characteristics (ex., pilot - airman — flyer – flyingman; screenwriter - scriptwriter - scripter – сценарист; semasiology – semantics.)

to bellow- to roar)
emotive connotation (ex., alone-single-lonely-solitary)
evaluative (ex., to sparkle

– to shine with amusement, good humour and happiness, to glitter – to shine with anger, hatred, malice)
stylistic connotations (ex., snack-refreshment-feast)
the connotation of duration (ex., to shudder – brief action, to shiver – lasting action)
causative (ex., to blush – from modesty, shame, embarrassment, to redden – from indignation)
connotation of manner (ex., to stroll-to trot-to pace-to stumble)
connotation of attendant circumstances (ex., to pip – through a hole, to peer – in darkness or through the fog)
connotation of attendant features (ex., beautiful – associated with classical features and figure, pretty – associated with some small delicate features and a fresh complexion)

the group in the most general way without contributing any

additional information to the manner or intensity of the referent (ex., to look – synonymic dominant of “pip, peer, stare”).
Characteristics of the dominant:
high frequency of usage,
broad combinability – ability to be used in combinations with various classes of words
broad general meaning
lack of connotation.

belonging to the same part of speech and to the

semantic field identical in style and nearly identical in distribution associated and used together so that their denotative meaning renders opposite notions.

express:
Contradictory antonyms express mutually opposed and denying one another notions.

(Ex. married=not single; male=not female; alive= not dead.)
Contrary antonyms are so opposed to each other that the language admits possibilities between and beyond them. The denial of one member of the contrary opposition does not necessarily imply the assertion of the other. (Ex. Old-young.)

Love-hate
Love-attachment- liking- indifference- dislike- antipathy- hate.)
Complementary antonyms imply self-denial (Ex.

Prose-poetry)
Conversives denote one and the same referent as viewed from different angles that of subject and that of the object. (Ex. To teach-to learn; to buy- to sell.)
Reversives designate the reverse or the undoing of the action expressed by one of them. (Ex. To tie-to untie; to marry-to divorce.)

both in sound and spelling or identical only in spelling

or sound.
Classification of homonyms
The most widely accepted classification of them is the following:
Homonyms proper (or perfect homonyms)
Homophones
Homographs

as a round object used in game, “ball” as a

gathering of people for dancing.

meaning, for example:
“Air” – “heir”, “arms” – “alms”, “bye” –

“buy” – “by”, “him” – “hymn”, “knight” – “night”, “rain” – “reign”, “not” – “knot”, “or” – “ore” – “oar”, “piece” – “peace”, “scent” – “cent”, “steal” – “steel” – “still”, “write” – “right”, “sea” – “see”, “son” – “sun”.
Homophonic sentences: “The sons raise meat” - “The sun’s rays meet”.

accidentally identical in spelling:
Bow [bou] – лук / [bau] – поклон

или нос корабля
Lead [li:d] – вести / [led] – свинец
Row [rou] – грести или ряд / [rau] – шум, скандал
Wind [wind] – ветер / [waind] – заводить (часы)

of wood+ a game, contest).
Partial homonyms are subdivided into 3

groups:
simple lexico-grammatical partial homonyms (ex., “found”- Past Simple of “to find”, “to found” - основывать),
complex lexico-grammatical partial homonyms (ex., maid-made)
partial lexical homonyms (ex., to hang-hung-hung-вешать, to hang-hanged-hanged-казнить, to lie-lay-lain, to lie-lied-lied).