Words have different meanings. Homonyms: examples of use in Russian

Our language is multifaceted and rich. Sometimes, when using this or that word, we do not think about the boundaries of its meaning. We know that Earth is the name of our planet, and earth is part of its surface, land, soil. Everyone also knows that peace is the entire system surrounding us, and at the same time, peace is the absence of hostility, life without war. We express some semantically different interpretations with the same ones, which are words with several meanings. Let's find out why this happens.

Why do languages ​​have words that have multiple meanings?

Another linguist A. A. Potebnya, who lived in the 19th century, wrote in his monograph “Thought and Language” that the development of human there's talk towards greater abstraction.

When our distant ancestors learned to express their desires and emotions with the help of sounds, they did not yet know what geometry and the periodic table were, and did not distinguish between the concepts of “bad” and “terrible,” “good” and “excellent.” The first words named objects, phenomena and feelings, the ability to identify and express which was necessary in Everyday life. Likewise, children who are just learning to speak first use simple words, such as “mom”, “dad”, “house”, “table”, and only then do they understand what kindness, joy, hatred, anger means.

During the development of ancient man ability for imaginative and analytical thinking, it became necessary to come up with new designations for newly emerged concepts. Sometimes words already existing in the language were used as such designations, which, however, were given new meaning. But at the same time, the original meaning of these words was preserved. This is how many words with several meanings appeared.

How to correctly name lexemes with multiple meanings

In linguistics, a word that has several meanings is called ambiguous. This is a term of Russian linguistics, and in foreign science such words are called polysemic (from the Greek polis - “many”, and semanticos - “denoting”).

Russian academician V.V. Vinogradov called polysemy the ability of one word to convey various information about objects and phenomena of extra-linguistic reality. It should be said that the meaning inherent in a word, its material-semantic shell is called lexical meaning. Above are examples of the interpretation of words that have several lexical meanings. However, few people know that the word “peace” has not two, but seven meanings! You can check this using Ozhegov’s explanatory dictionary.

Polysemy and homonymy

In linguistics, as in any other science, there are concepts that are debatable. So, for example, A. A. Potebnya and R. Yakobson believed that words with several meanings do not exist, because if a lexeme under some circumstances began to designate another object or phenomenon, then it completely changed its semantic core.

However, in traditional polysemy and homonymy they still differ, although in Internet resources they are often confused.

It is believed that words that have several meanings still retain their semantic center in each interpretation, a certain representation that lies at the very root of the structure of the lexical unit. It is assumed that polysemic words have continuity of meaning, but homonyms do not. For example, a crane and a kitchen faucet, the note “salt” and kitchen salt are homonyms, not ambiguous words, because there is no semantic connection between them.

How does polysemy of words arise?

Polysemy is believed to arise in three main ways:

• Using metaphorical transfer. Metaphor refers to a shift in the meaning of a word based on the similarity of several objects. For example: a grain of wheat is a grain of truth.
• Using metonymy. Metonymy is understood as transferring the meaning of one word to another based on the principle of the presence of semantic connections between two concepts. For example: a dish made of expensive porcelain - tasty dish French cuisine.
• Using synecdoche. Many linguists believe that synecdoche is a special case of metonymy. This term refers to the transfer of the name of a part to the whole. For example: “home” instead of “ native home” and “returning home from America” instead of “returning to Russia” (if we mean specifically coming to your own country, and not specifically to your home from someone else’s home).

Examples of polysemous words

It can be assumed that the name of our planet - Earth - appeared secondary from the name of land, soil. After all, people and mammals exist on land; it is their real habitat. And the name of our planet was formed using metonymic transfer, that is, the designation of a part of the surface was transferred to the whole. We also say, for example, that the class listens attentively to the teacher, meaning by this not the room, but the students in it.

We call berries raspberries, as well as the bush on which they grow. Polysemy here developed according to the principle of synecdoche. But the colloquial meaning of the word “raspberry” - “den of thieves” is, rather, a homonym for the other two examples of its use.

What does the word "prefix" mean?

Can you immediately tell whether the word “prefix” has one or more meanings? From the school course of the Russian language, everyone knows that this is the name of the part of the word that precedes the root and serves to change the meaning of the lexical unit. This noun is derived from the verb “to stick” and actually names everything that is “attached”, that stands next to something.

IN explanatory dictionary The Russian language has two meanings for this word:

• tape recorder that amplifies sound power;
• morpheme, prefix;
• 10-15 years ago, a special installation for virtual games was also called a console.

Language puns based on polysemy and homonymy

Every developed language has words that are the same in form, but different in meaning. The combination of such lexical units in one text is used to create a comic effect, a play on words - a pun. Try to explain what the comic effect of the following phrases is based on:

• Mowed with a scythe.
• He lit the stove all night. By morning she drowned.
• Parrot us, parrot.
• He learned verse and verse.

In the listed phrases, the comic effect is based on the homonymy of certain forms of words. But at the same time, the dictionary forms of these lexical units differ. So, in the first example the words “mow”, “oblique”, “braid” are used. “Oblique” as an adjective means “uneven”, “crooked”, and “oblique” as a noun is a colloquial name for a hare. The second example uses the polysemy of the word “drown”: to light a fire, to immerse it deep in water. In the third example, homonyms are used: parrot as a noun - the name of a bird, parrot as an imperative from the verb “to scare”. And finally, in the fourth, it is based on the coincidence of the past tense form of the verb “to subside” and the noun in nominative case"verse" (line in poetry).

It is not always easy to understand whether words have one or more meanings. The root of lexemes and analysis of contexts of use can help determine whether the units in question are polysemous or homonymous.

An exercise to interpret the meanings of polysemantic words

Assignment: look at the list below and try to determine for yourself whether the highlighted words have one or more meanings: wardrobe, fox, machine, way, hand, core. Explain your choice. How many meanings could you identify for each word?

All of the words listed have several lexical meanings:

• A wardrobe refers to items of clothing, as well as the room where they are stored.
• The fox is an animal and at the same time a cunning person. The ambiguity developed due to the fact that in ancient times (and in villages even now) foxes at night, when no one saw them, entered people's homes and barns to steal food.
• The car is vehicle, and technical equipment.
• A path is both a road on earth and air service, and metaphorically human life.
• Hand - part of the body and handwriting.
• The core is both the central part of something and the basis of a movement, for example, an army.

Several logic tasks

Look at the phrases below. Can you guess what unites:

1. the position of diplomat and pickle;
2. the radiation of the sun and the class of aristocrats;
3. marital relations and poorly made products;
4. a strip of land in the sea and the pride of a Russian beauty;
5. river fish and a brush for washing dishes.

Answers: ambassador; light; marriage; braid; ruff.

Which of these examples do you think relate to homonymy and which to polysemy? Words with several meanings differ from homonyms by the presence of some logical-semantic connection between different concepts. In example No. 2, the connection is based on a metaphor: just as the sun illuminates the earth, so the aristocrats, due to their education and development, were the adornment of society. And in example No. 5, the connection between the fish and the brush is based on metonymy, because the external shape of the brush resembles a fish. Examples numbered 1, 3, 4 are based on homonymy.

Thus, we found out that a word that has several meanings is called polysemous, or polysemic. But at the same time, it is advisable to be able to distinguish polysemy from homonymy. If there is any difference between words with multiple meanings semantic connection, then it is not present between homonyms.

1. Guess the riddle of O. Emelyanova, write a polysemantic word below.

Maybe even cause a flood,
At least pour some water into a glass,
Build a hundred-story house

And stop the train.

2. Choose and write a different meaning for each word.

Fastener on jacket, trousers

Lightning

Tank chassis detail

Caterpillar

Words to choose: natural phenomenon, sister of thunder, heavenly arrow, garden pest, beetle's girlfriend.

3. Enter the words - homonyms from the words to choose. Write the same words next to each other again, breaking them into syllables.
They store perfumes and medicines. They hit your nose when you drink lemonade.
This ____________________. ____________________________.

Board game. Special emblem on taxi.
This ___________________. ___________________________.

Words to choose: bottles, vials, boxes, checkers, sabers, knives.

4. Guess and write homonym words into the sentences.

1. _________________ has already become the moon in the sky, and dad is still _________________ not coming from a business trip.

2. I’ll pick up the fallen __________________ and paste it onto the landscape ___________________.

3. ____________________, _____________________ there will be a hole, and maybe more than one,

and whole _____________________.

Come up with your own sentence using the homonym words zebra and zebra.

__________________________

5. Insert the missing letters (where necessary) and answer the question in writing.

What kind of bird _ feces _ melts in our test _ work _ bots?

Verification work 26
Words similar in meaning (synonyms)

1. Check the row in which all words are similar in meaning (synonyms).
 Moody, sad, sorrowful, angry
 Dwarf, baby, midget, boy - the size of a finger.
 Take off, soar, rise, overtake.
 Simple, easy, uncomplicated, interesting.

2. Think about the order in which the words should be arranged. Write them down in in the right order.
Big, gigantic, universal, huge, immense.

Are these words close in meaning? Check the correct box
answer.
 Yes  No

Make up and write down word combinations with any two of these words.

__________________________

3. Read the text. Choose the most from brackets suitable value words and write it into a sentence. In the penultimate sentence, underline words that are similar in meaning.

She went out into the garden and ___ (gasped, screamed, was surprised). The sun is not quite _____________________________ (rose, rose, rose), but its first rays were already shimmering in drops of dew. The apricot trees were _______________________________ (fabulous, beautiful, unusual)! They shone and sparkled with a red summer glow. And they smelled.
(According to A. Mironenko)

4. Write down the sentences, replacing each word with a similar meaning if possible.

Babushkino apricot jam was special. Whole apricots floated in a thick, amber and surprisingly fragrant syrup.

____________________

5. Compare two poetic passages. Find and write down words that are similar in meaning according to the example.

1. You offended me, but tell me why?

I held the lollipop in my hand, I won’t eat it all!

I asked for just a little bit, I asked for a little bit,

I would carefully bite off a corner.

(I. Tokmakova)

2. You upset me, but answer me - why?
I hid the lollipop in my fist, but I won’t take it all away!
I whined just a little, begged a little,
I would carefully break off the edge.
(S. Mikhailova)
Sample. Offended - offended,

Test work 27
Words with opposite meanings (antonyms)

1. In proverbs and sayings, find and underline the words opposite
by value.
Know more, say less. Do not be afraid of a smart enemy, be afraid of a foolish friend. If you get used to the book, you will gain intelligence.
Write down the first proverb by dividing
all words are to be transferred.

2. Insert the missing letters. Guess the riddle, write the answer. Underline words that have opposite meanings.
In a linen page _ not according to _ ke - sheet
The passage floats, then to the back, then to the front.

And behind it there is such a smooth surface - there’s not a _ crack to _ give.

3. Select and write down words that are opposite in meaning.
Floats - ___________________, land - _______________, moon - __________, black - _______________________________, night - __________________,
Earth - ______________

4. Enter in folk signs words with opposite meanings.
Spring is red, but hungry; autumn is rainy, gloomy, yes ___________________________.
A summer week is more expensive ___________________________________.
Words to choose: nourishing, generous, rich, wintery, new, hot.

Write the word rainy, dividing it for hyphenation.

5. The girl accidentally replaced one word with another. Will the new word have the opposite meaning? Please tick the correct answer.
We decided to tell the guests a story
Read about the squirrel.
But from excitement
I read
What's in the cage
The bun lived!
(According to A. Barto)
 Yes  No

Is it possible to match the words squirrel or bun words with opposite meanings? Explain in writing.

__________________________

Test work 28

HOMONYMS

HOMONYMS

(Greek homonymos, from homos - similar, and onoma - name). Words that have the same pronunciation but different meaning or spelled differently, but pronounced the same. For example, a stove trumpet and a musical trumpet, flour as suffering, and flour as ground grains of bread.

Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. - Chudinov A.N., 1910 .

HOMONYMS

[ gr. homonyma homos - identical + onyma - name] - linguistic. words having same shape , but different meaning (e.g. " braid , but different meaning (e.g. "- for mowing" and "

- from hair")., 2006 .

HOMONYMS

words with the same spelling and pronunciation, but different meanings, for example, nose, floor, leaf, key, etc.

A complete dictionary of foreign words that have come into use in the Russian language. - Popov M., 1907 .

HOMONYMS

words that have different meanings, but are pronounced the same (braid, floor, kidney, key, etc.).

Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. - Pavlenkov F., 1907 .

Homonyms

(gr. homonyma homos identical + onyma, onoma name) words that have the same sound but different meaning, for example, a scythe (a tool for mowing) - a braid (made of hair).

New dictionary foreign words.- by EdwART,, 2009 .

See what "HOMONYMS" are in other dictionaries:

- (from the Greek ὁμός identical and ονομα name) language units different in meaning, but identical in spelling and sound (words, morphemes, etc.). The term was introduced by Aristotle. Not to be confused with homophones. Contents 1 Classification 2 Examples 2.1 Words ... Wikipedia

- (Greek) words that coincide with each other in their sound but have a complete discrepancy in meaning. Example: “bow” (weapon) “bow” (plant). Usually the appearance of O. in the language is explained coincidence once different foundations as a result of a series of... Literary encyclopedia

Homonyms- HOMONYMS are words that have the same sound but different meanings. For example, “swords” (from the word “sword”) and “swords” (from the word “throw”); “three” (number) and “three” (from the word “rub”), etc. A pun game is built on homonyms (see pun), and already with ... Dictionary literary terms

- (from the Greek homos identical and onyma name), different in meaning, but identical sounding and written units of language (words, morphemes, etc.), for example, trot running and lynx animal... Modern encyclopedia

- (from the Greek homos identical and onyma name) different, but identically sounding and written units of language (words, morphemes, etc.), for example. lynx running and lynx animal... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

HOMONYMS- (from Greek homos – identical + onyma – name). Words that belong to the same part of speech and sound the same, but have different meanings. There are O. complete (in which the entire system of forms is the same), partial (in which the sound is the same... ... New dictionary of methodological terms and concepts (theory and practice of language teaching)

HOMONYMS- (from Greek homos identical + onyma, onoma name) words with different meanings, which, however, are written and pronounced the same. For example, in English O.'s language includes the words pupil (student and pupil), as well as iris (iris of the eye and rainbow); in Russian language... ... Great psychological encyclopedia

homonyms- Identical terms denoting different entities. [GOST 34.320 96] Database topics EN homonyms ... Technical Translator's Guide

Homonyms- (from the Greek homos identical and onyma name), different in meaning, but identical sounding and written units of language (words, morphemes, etc.), for example, “trot” running and “lynx” animal. ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

homonyms- (ancient Greek ομος homos identical + onyma, ονυμά name) Words that have the same sound, but different meaning: braid1 (girl's hairstyle), scythe2 (tool), scythe3 (river spit, peninsula in the form of a narrow sandbank). Interlingual homonyms occur... ... Dictionary linguistic terms T.V. Foal

Books

• Homonyms of Russian dialect speech, M. Alekseenko, O. Litvinnikova. This is the first attempt at a dictionary of homonyms in Russian dialect speech. Includes words of different grammatical classes. Refers to the partial explanatory type of dictionaries. Called up…

Homonyms- these are different in meaning, but identical sounding or spelling units of language - words, morphemes.
Derived from Greek homos- identical and onyma- Name.
There are several types of homonyms: full and partial, graphic and grammatical, phonetic and homonymous.

U full/absolute homonyms the entire system of forms coincides. For example, key(for castle) - key(spring), bugle(blacksmith) - bugle(wind instrument).
U partial Not all forms have the same sound. For example, weasel(animal) and weasel(show of endearment) diverge in the genitive case plural - caress - caress.

Graphic homonyms or homographs- words that are the same in spelling, but differ in pronunciation (in Russian due to differences in stress).
From Greek homos- identical and graphic- writing.
Atlas - atlas
lead - lead
whiskey - whiskey
road - road
castle - castle
smell - smell
great - great
goats - goats
lesok - lesok
little - little
flour - flour
hell - hell
pier - pier
forty - forty
Already - already

Grammatical homonyms or homoforms- words that sound the same only in some grammatical forms and most often belong to different parts speech.
I'm flying by plane and I'm flying throat (in other forms - fly and heal, flew and treated, etc.); acute saw And saw compote (in other forms - saw and drink, saw and drink, etc.).

Homonymous morphemes or homomorphemes- morphemes that are the same in their sound composition, but different in meaning.
Derived from Greek homos- identical and morphe- form.
For example, the suffix -tel in nouns teacher(meaning actor) And switch(the meaning of the current item); suffix -ets in words sage, male, cutter and brother; suffix -k(a) in words river, training, extras and graduate student.

And the most interesting Phonetic homonyms or homophones- words that sound the same, but are spelled differently and have different meanings.
Derived from Greek ὀμόφωνο - "sound-likeness".
Examples in Russian:

threshold - vice - park,
meadow - onion, fruit - raft,
mascara - mascara,
fall - you will fall,
ball - point,
inert - bony,
betray - give,
emit - imitate.

In the Russian language, the two main sources of homophony are the phenomenon of deafening consonants at the end of words and before another consonant and the reduction of vowels in an unstressed position.

Homophony also includes cases of phonetic coincidence of a word and a phrase or two phrases. The letters used can be completely identical and the difference in spelling is only in the placement of spaces:

in place - together,
in everything - at all,
from mint - crushed,
from the hatch - and the angry one,
not mine - dumb.

In English, homophones arose as a result of the historically established different designations in writing for the same consonant or vowel sound, for example:

whole-hole,
knew - new.

In French There are whole series of homophones consisting of three to six words, one of the reasons for which is that in French many final letters are not readable.

Sources: Wikipedia, Dictionaries, Directories

hope. For example, hail as a type of precipitation and hail as a city: Show off, city of Petrov... (Pushkin the Bronze Horseman)

Or a key - a spring and a key to a castle, a braid - a type of hairstyle and a braid - a tool, etc.

Along with incomplete homonyms, there are three types of incomplete ones: homophones, homographs, homoforms.

Homophones - words that are the same in sound, but different in spelling and meaning: fruit - raft, threshold - vice, milk mushroom - sadness, beg - belittle, oxen - shafts, ear - voice.

"He believed that friends ready

It's an honor to receive him fetter"

"Her pampered fingers they didn’t know needles;

Leaning on hoop"

Homographs - on the contrary, words that are identical in spelling, but different in sound and meaning: organ - organ, flour - flour, castle - castle.

And finally, homoforms - these are words that have the same sound and spelling only in one or more forms, and are completely different in others.

Usually these are different parts of speech: simple (noun) - a break from work and simple (adj.) - not complex. They coincide only in the nominative case.

All these forms activate the play on words and are therefore widely used in poetry, in all kinds of puns. For example, in the epigraph to Eugene Onegin, Pushkin uses consonant phrases: a phrase from Garatius O rus! (O village! and Russian O Rus'!)

So he gradually instills in the reader the idea that true Rus' is rural.

A homonymous pair of words greatly enlivens speech in poetry. Sometimes it's a witty rhyme:

And what does he do? spouse

Alone, in absence spouse?

(A.S. Pushkin Count Nulin)

Or lines from Onegin:

Defender of Liberty and rights

I was in this place completely not right

3. Additional lexical resources of poetic language

In addition to the main lexical fund, poetic language includes special lexical resources , which are usually excluded from literary language, but function spontaneously in spoken language.

Fiction, using such words in poetic language, expands the circle of people who know them.

On the other hand, these words perform certain functions in poetic language.

Special lexical resources are classified internally into 4 types:

1) historical: Slavicisms, archaisms, historicisms, neologisms.

2) national: barbarisms.

3) geographical: dialectisms.

4) social: vernacular and professionalisms.

1) Slavicisms, archaisms, historicisms, neologisms

Over time, any National language changes, and the texts of ancient literature have to be literally translated into modern languages(from ancient Russian to modern Russian, from ancient Greek to modern Greek, etc.)

Each word has its own history, competes with other words, and sometimes completely changes its meaning and form. There are, however, words in the language whose historical location does not change.

These are Slavisms - words of Old Slavonic origin: lips, eyes, eyelids, cheeks, etc.

Slavicisms have Russian synonyms: enemy - enemy, shore - shore, night - night, etc.

Slavicisms have 3 functions in poetic language:

1. To give the story an archaic touch.

A.S. Pushkin used many Slavicisms in Onegin:

1) Listen to my sad voice…

2) Mladykh delightful first dream...

3) B lips tried to keep...

4) "Two-legged" creatures millions

For us there is only one weapon..."

“God’s Creature” in Church Slavonicism means “a living being created by God.

5) "Alkalo fatal food..." a word of Old Slavonic origin, meaning "passionately desire something."

2. Old Church Slavonic is still the professional language of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Therefore, in Pushkin’s Boris Godunov, the speech of the clergy is replete with Slavicisms:

The great sin will come

tongues of the earth...

3. The most important function of Slavicisms is associated with high calm. The use of Slavicisms adds solemnity to speech.

This is well illustrated by Pushkin’s poem The Prophet:

Arise, prophet, and see and hear,

Be fulfilled by my will.

And, bypassing the seas and lands,

Burn the hearts of people with the verb

Archaisms and historicisms perform artistic functions similar to Slavicisms in poetic language.

Archaisms (from the Greek archaios - ancient) - these are words that were later replaced from the active vocabulary by other words.

A large number of archaisms are found in Pushkin in Onegin:

1) What was for him from childhood…

2) Diana's chest, cheeks flora...

3) "The finale thunders, empties hall..."

4) “How you described yourself peeit..."

5) “Enemies gathered and others"

It should be distinguished from archaisms historicisms , words denoting phenomena of the distant historical past. For example: archers, guardsmen, boyars, rent, corvee, maids of honor.

In Onegin we read:

1) Yarem from corvée antique

quitrent replaced with a light one

2) And finally updated

On cotton wool dressing gown and cap