English we use the word «person»/ She is a good person»/
Development of lexical meanings in any language is influenced by the
whole network of ties and relations between words and other aspects of the
language.
POLYSEMY
The word «polysemy» means «plurality of meanings» it exists only in the
language, not in speech. A word which has more than one meaning is called
polysemantic.
Different meanings of a polysemantic word may come together due to the
proximity of notions which they express. E.g. the word «blanket» has the
following meanings: a woolen covering used on beds, a covering for keeping
a horse warm, a covering of any kind /a blanket of snow/, covering all or
most cases /used attributively/, e.g. we can say «a blanket insurance
policy».
There are some words in the language which are monosemantic, such as most
terms, /synonym, molecule, bronchites/, some pronouns /this, my, both/,
numerals.
There are two processes of the semantic development of a word: radiation
and concatination. In cases of radiation the primary meaning stands in the
centre and the secondary meanings proceed out of it like rays. Each
secondary meaning can be traced to the primmary meaning. E.g. in the word
«face» the primary meaning denotes «the front part of the human head»
Connected with the front position the meanings: the front part of a watch,
the front part of a building, the front part of a playing card were formed.
Connected with the word «face» itself the meanings : expression of the
face, outward appearance are formed.
In cases of concatination secondary meanings of a word develop like a
chain. In such cases it is difficult to trace some meanings to the primary
one. E.g. in the word «crust» the primary meaning «hard outer part of
bread» developed a secondary meaning «hard part of anything /a pie, a
cake/», then the meaning »harder layer over soft snow» was developed, then
«a sullen gloomy person», then «impudence» were developed. Here the last
meanings have nothing to do with the primary ones. In such cases homonyms
appear in the language. It is called the split of polysemy.
In most cases in the semantic development of a word both ways of semantic
development are combined.
HOMONYMS
Homonyms are words different in meaning but identical in sound or
spelling, or both in sound and spelling.
Homonyms can appear in the language not only as the result of the split
of polysemy, but also as the result of levelling of grammar inflexions,
when different parts of speech become identical in their outer aspect, e.g.
«care» from «caru» and «care» from «carian». They can be also formed by
means of conversion, e.g. «to slim» from «slim», «to water» from «water».
They can be formed with the help of the same suffix from the same stem,
e.g. «reader»/ a person who reads and a book for reading/.
Homonyms can also appear in the language accidentally, when two words
coincide in their development, e.g. two native words can coincide in their
outer aspects: «to bear» from «beran»/to carry/ and «bear» from «bera»/an
animal/. A native word and a borrowing can coincide in their outer aspects,
e.g. «fair» from Latin «feria» and «fair « from native «fager» /blond/. Two
borrowings can coincide e.g. «base» from the French «base» /Latin basis/
and «base» /low/ from the Latin «bas» /Italian «basso»/.
Homonyms can develop through shortening of different words, e.g. «cab»
from «cabriolet», «cabbage», «cabin».
Classifications of homonyms.
Walter Skeat classified homonyms according to their spelling and sound
forms and he pointed out three groups: perfect homonyms that is words
identical in sound and spelling, such as : «school» - «косяк рыбы» and
«школа» ; homographs, that is words with the same spelling but pronounced
differently, e.g. «bow» -/bau/ - «поклон» and /bou/ - «лук»; homophones
that is words pronounced identically but spelled differently, e.g. «night»
- «ночь» and «knight» - «рыцарь».
Another classification was suggested by A.I Smirnitsky. He added to
Skeat’s classification one more criterion: grammatical meaning. He
subdivided the group of perfect homonyms in Skeat’s classification into two
types of homonyms: perfect which are identical in their spelling,
pronunciation and their grammar form, such as :»spring» in the meanings:
the season of the year, a leap, a source, and homoforms which coincide in
their spelling and pronunciation but have different grammatical meaning,
e.g. «reading» - Present Participle, Gerund, Verbal noun., to lobby - lobby
.
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:
a) homonyms identical in their grammatical meanings, basic forms and
paradigms and different in their lexical meanings, e.g. «board» in the
meanings «a council» and « a piece of wood sawn thin»; b) 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; c) homonyms different in their lexical meanings, grammatical
meanings, paradigms, but coinciding in their basic forms, e.g. «light» /
«lights»/, «light» / «lighter», «lightest»/; d) homonyms different in their
lexical meanings, grammatical meanings, in their basic forms and paradigms,
but coinciding in one of the forms of their paradigms, e.g. «a bit» and
«bit» (from « to bite»).
In I. V. Arnold’s classification there are also patterned homonyms,
which, differing from other homonyms, have a common component in their
lexical meanings. These are homonyms formed either by means of conversion,
or by levelling of grammar inflexions. These homonyms are different in
their grammar meanings, in their paradigms, identical in their basic forms,
e.g. «warm» - «to warm». Here we can also have unchangeable patterned
homonyms which have identical basic forms, different grammatical meanings,
a common component in their lexical meanings, e.g. «before» an adverb, a
conjunction, a preposition. There are also homonyms among unchangeable
words which are different in their lexical and grammatical meanings,
identical in their basic foms, e.g. « for» - «для» and «for» - «ибо».
SYNONYMS
Synonyms are words different in their outer aspects, but identical or
similar in their inner aspects. In English there are a lot of synonyms,
because there are many borrowings, e.g. hearty / native/ - cordial/
borrowing/. After a word is borrowed it undergoes desynonymization, because
absolute synonyms are unnecessary for a language. However, there are some
absolute synonyms in the language, which have exactly the same meaning and
belong to the same style, e.g. to moan, to groan; homeland, motherland etc.
In cases of desynonymization one of the absolute synonyms can
specialize in its meaning and we get semantic synonyms, e.g. «city»
/borrowed/, «town» /native/. The French borrowing «city» is specialized. In
other cases native words can be specialized in their meanings, e.g. «stool»
/native/, «chair» /French/.
Sometimes one of the absolute synonyms is specialized in its usage and we
get stylistic synonyms, e.g. «to begin»/ native/, «to commence»
/borrowing/. Here the French word is specialized. In some cases the native
word is specialized, e.g. «welkin» /bookish/, «sky» /neutral/.
Stylistic synonyms can also appear by means of abbreviation. In most
cases the abbreviated form belongs to the colloquial style, and the full
form to the neutral style, e.g. «examination’, «exam».
Among stylistic synonyms we can point out a special group of words which
are called euphemisms. These are words used to substitute some unpleasant
or offensive words, e.g «the late» instead of «dead», «to perspire» instead
of «to sweat» etc.
There are also phraseological synonyms, these words are identical in
their meanings and styles but different in their combining with other words
in the sentence, e.g. «to be late for a lecture» but «to miss the train»,
«to visit museums» but «to attend lectures» etc.
In each group of synonyms there is a word with the most general meaning,
which can substitute any word in the group, e.g. «piece» is the synonymic
dominant in the group «slice», «lump», «morsel». The verb « to look at» is
the synonymic dominant in the group «to stare», «to glance», «to peep». The
adjective «red’ is the synonymic dominant in the group «purple», «scarlet»,
«crimson».
When speaking about the sources of synonyms, besides desynonymization and
abbreviation, we can also mention the formation of phrasal verbs, e.g. «to
give up» - «to abandon», «to cut down» - «to diminish».
ANTONYMS
Antonyms are words belonging to the same part of speech, identical in
style, expressing contrary or contradictory notions.
V.N. Comissarov in his dictionary of antonyms classified them into two
groups : absolute or root antonyms /»late» - «early»/ and derivational
antonyms / «to please’ - «to displease»/ . Absolute antonyms have
different roots and derivational antonyms have the same roots but
different affixes. In most cases negative prefixes form antonyms / un-, dis-
, non-/. Sometimes they are formed by means of suffixes -ful and -less.
The number of antonyms with the suffixes ful- and -less is not very
large, and sometimes even if we have a word with one of these suffixes its
antonym is formed not by substituting -ful by less-, e.g. «successful»
-»unsuccessful», «selfless» - «selfish». The same is true about antonyms
with negative prefixes, e.g. «to man» is not an antonym of the word «to
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