Words are homonyms and their meanings. What are homonyms in Russian for and what are they needed?

Homonyms (from the Greek oμoς - identical and ονομα - name) are units of language that are different in meaning, but identical in spelling (words, morphemes, etc.). The term was introduced by Aristotle.

Full lexical homonyms are words that sound the same but have different meanings. For example, onion(plant) and onion(for shooting). There is also partial homonymy, in which only certain forms of words coincide, for example, lived(verb live) And lived(noun lived). Along with homonyms, there are homographs - words that have the same spelling but different stress ( flour - flour).

Our dictionary contains homographs-homographs, i.e. forms of different (although often close in meaning) words that have the same spelling. The accent is not taken into account, the letter e not used - as is usually the case in written text. For example, I'm running (run, run), take (take, takes(headdress)). We called them homonymous word forms. The dictionary is organized in such a way that word forms are on the left, and lexemes are on the right ( vocabulary words) to which these word forms belong. Parts of speech marks are indicated in brackets.

A complete list of homonymous word forms was obtained by generating all word forms from the computer version of the Grammar Dictionary of A.A. Zaliznyak (*) in the department of the Russian Language Machine Fund of the Russian Language Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

From full list For this publication, matching word forms of the following words were excluded:

  • - participle - adjective
  • - verbs like pull out - break out
  • - nouns like boot - boots
  • - type spelling options bypass - bypass, beaver - beaver

and some other words close in meaning.

Identification of parts of speech:

With- noun

ms- pronoun

union- union

P- adjective

number- numeral

intl- interjection

G- verb

ancestor- predicative

often- particle

n- adverb

proposal- preposition

bb- introductory word

Homonyms are words that sound and spell the same, but have nothing in common in meaning. The term comes from the Greek language: homos - “same”, onyma - “name”. Let's say onion– plant and onion- weapons for throwing arrows, drown stove And sink ships.

Let's consider types of homonyms.

1. Some words are written the same but pronounced differently: castle And castle, steam(linen, vegetables) and steam(in the clouds), worth it(bread in the store) and worth it(car, tree). Such words are called homographs , which translated from Greek means “spelled the same way.”

2. There are words that are pronounced the same, but they must be written differently. For example, pond And rod, metal And metal, five And span. This homophones , translated from Greek - “sounding the same.”

Among homophones there are many pairs that coincide not in all of their forms, but in some or even one. If you start changing words by cases and numbers, you will immediately notice a difference in their sound. Let's say by the pond, to the pondtwo rods, hit with a rod. Word " three"can also be a numeral ( three apples, three things) and verb ( three is stronger!). But not all forms of these words will coincide: rub, rubbedthree, three. Identical forms of different words are called homoforms .

Homonyms can be a hindrance in language communication, and they are especially difficult for a translator. In this case, context helps, because... in natural conversation, words are rarely used in isolation. From the context it is quite easy to guess what meaning is meant: This is a very simple example. Equipment downtime is quite expensive.

§ 51. Homonymy and its types

The polysemy of words is a large and multifaceted problem; various issues of lexicology are associated with it, in particular the problem of homonymy. Homonyms words that sound the same but have different meanings. The relationship between polysemy and homonymy is historically determined. With the development of language, “the same inner shell of a word acquires shoots of new meanings and meanings” [Vinogradov V.V. 1947: 14]. Homonyms in some cases arise from polysemy that has undergone a process of destruction: fist– hand with clenched fingers and fist- a wealthy peasant, a good strong owner, and then fist – peasant exploiter (class definition). The problem of distinguishing between polysemy and homonymy is complex, linguists suggest various criteria to separate these phenomena. There are several approaches.

    O.S.

    E. M. Galkina-Fedoruk was of the opinion that the distinction between polysemy and homonymy should be made by selecting synonyms. If synonyms have nothing in common, then these are homonyms: boron (drill) - boron (coniferous forest) - boron (chemical element).

    A number of scientists, without rejecting the mentioned criteria, also proposed taking into account derivational features: for example, reaction as a term various sciences has different word-formation series: reaction (biol., chemical) reagent, reactive, reactivity; reaction(political) – reactionary, reactionary, reactionary.

Homonyms often have different syntactic compatibility, different shapes controls: care from work and care for a child, for flowers; change plan, but change homeland. However, these delimitation criteria are not universal, so sometimes there are discrepancies in dictionaries. The sources of homonymy are the following:

    Homonyms are a product of the collapse of polysemy: drying - drying and drying - type of product (steering wheel).

    Derivational homonyms: buy (from the verb “buy”) and (from the verb “bathe”).

    A consequence of the historical change in the sound appearance of different words: EST (available) and ЂСТ (to eat) coincided in sound by the middle of the 18th century: the sound “ê” (closed) or the Old Russian diphthong “ie” (transmitted in writing by the letter Ђ “yat”) became pronounced as [e], so the pronunciation of words ceased to differ. In 1918, a spelling reform was carried out, some letters were abolished, including the letter Ђ, and the above words coincided not only in sound, but also in spelling. Let's give another example. Word lynx (animal) in ancient times sounded like “laugh” and was the same root as the words blush, red Let's give another example. Word; then "ds" was simplified to "s". Word

    just as the running of a horse goes back to the Old Russian “rist” (cf. ristalishche), later the final “t” “disappeared, and the “r” hardened.

The richest source of homonymy are borrowed words, for example: tour (bull - Old Russian) and tour (from French): waltz tour, beam (ravine - from Turkic languages) and beam (log - from German), marriage (marriage - Russian) and marriage (flaw - from German) and others. Homonyms are divided into complete, or actually lexical homonyms, and incomplete homonyms, among which, in turn, several types are distinguished. TO actual lexical homonyms

1. include, for example: English: flaw1 – crack; flaw2 – gust of wind; Russian: light1 – energy; light2 – world, universe. These words have the same sound, spelling and belong to the same part of speech. The types of incomplete homonyms are as follows: - words and forms of different meanings, identical in sound, but different in spelling:

meadow (field) - bow (shooting weapon), ball (dance evening) - point (score).

2. Homographs - words that are different in meaning and sound, but identical in spelling:

atlas (fabric) – atlas (collection of geographical maps), zamok – castle.

3. Omoforms (morphological homonyms) – words that have the same sound and spelling in one or more grammatical forms:

swarm (noun) of bees – swarm (verb) hole, dear (noun) – expensive (adj.), new saw (noun) – drank (verb) coffee, tourniquet (verb) grass – medical tourniquet ( noun).

Homonyms are adjacent to paronyms Words that are similar in sound and spelling, but different in meaning. They are sometimes mistakenly used one instead of the other: subscription (the right to use something) and subscriber (a person who has a subscription); effective (effective) and spectacular (conspicuous); secretive (closed) person and hidden (invisible) mechanism and many others.

Homonyms are words that have different meanings, but are the same in sound and spelling.

Word homonym came from the Greek. homos - identical + onyma - name.

There are the most homonyms among nouns and verbs.

Example:

1. DEFEND - protect (defend a friend).

2. STAND - stand (stand in line).

3. STAND AWAY - to be at some distance from someone or something. (the airport is five kilometers from the city).

Reasons for the appearance of homonyms in the language

    random coincidence of words:

Example:

1. ONION - borrowing A garden plant with a pungent taste.

2. ONION - historical-russian A hand-held weapon for throwing arrows, made from a flexible, elastic rod (usually wood) pulled into an arc by a bowstring.

    coincidence in the formation of new words:

Example:

SEND - send on an errand. A person carrying out an assignment - 1. AMBASSADOR .

SALT - preserve something in a salty solution. Method of salting foods - 2. AMBASSADOR .

    loss of semantic connection between the meanings of a polysemantic word.

Example:

This happened in ancient times with the word LIGHT :

LIGHT - 1) lighting, 2) earth, world, universe.

These meanings have become so distant that they have lost their semantic connection with each other. Now these are two different words.

1. LIGHT is radiant energy that makes the world around us visible.

2. LIGHT - Earth, world, universe.

Homonyms must be distinguished from ambiguous words. The meanings of homonyms are clear only in phrases and sentences. A single word GENUS unclear. But, if you introduce it into a phrase, it will become clear what we are talking about:

Example:

ancient genus , male genus .

Types of homonyms

Often homonyms, homoforms, homophones and homographs are used in puns - witty expressions, jokes.

Example:

You this umbrella is NOT MINE, because it is NOT MINE, you lost it Mute.

You must use homonyms, homoforms, homophones and homographs in your speech very carefully. Sometimes they lead to unwanted ambiguity.

Example:

Yesterday I visited Poetry Day. Day poetry? Or bottom poetry?

Homonyms are words that have the same sound and spelling, but differ in lexical meaning and compatibility with other words.


Homonyms are divided into complete and incomplete.


Full homonyms coincide in all their grammatical forms. For example: key (source, ) - key (rod for unlocking locks); block ( construction material) - block (sports technique).


Incomplete homonyms do not coincide in their individual grammatical forms. Examples: bow (weapon) - onion (garden plant). The word "onion" in the meaning of "plant" does not have a plural form.

Types of homonyms

In addition to lexical homonyms, there are quite a lot of phenomena close to them. The following types of homonyms are distinguished:


1) - words that are spelled the same, but completely differently. Examples: castle - castle; Atlas - atlas; Iris - iris; on the street it soars - the eagle soars;


2) homophones - words that are pronounced the same but spelled completely differently. Examples: company - campaign; stories - to be lucky; rinse - rinse; mascara - mascara; guarded -; Roman - novel; arson - arson;


3) homoforms - words that coincide in their individual forms. Examples: when I am treating a patient, I am flying on an airplane; young man - caring for a young mother.


Thus, homonymy is a lexical-semantic unit that serves as a means of creating expressive speech.

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. Homonyms are another confirmation of the “greatness and power” of the Russian language. It is precisely these “nuances of vocabulary” that make the Russian language difficult for foreigners to learn.

  1. CRANE - water supply or lifting (taps, tap, crane, etc.)
  2. BRITTER - hair styling, shoreline or agricultural tool (braid, scythe, scythe, scythe, etc.)

Partial homonyms- these are words that are similar to each other in their original form (singular, nominative case, perfect view), but may not coincide in individual cases or plurals.

  1. WEASEL is an animal of the mustelidae or tenderness family. If we take the genitive case and the plural, then the words will no longer sound and be written the same - there are a lot of LASK (animals) and a lot of LASK (manifestation of feelings).
  2. LOVE is a feeling for another person and female name. If we take the genitive case singular, then the words will sound in a new way - no LOVE (feeling) and no LOVE (name).

Grammatical homonyms- words in Russian that are the exact opposite of partial homonyms. That is, they do not coincide at all in their original form, but become similar in individual forms.

  1. THREE is a number and a derivative of the verb TERET. A match is only possible when the first word is used in nominative case, and the second in imperative mood. In all other variants, the words will cease to be homonyms.
  2. LECHU – derivatives from two different verbs FLY and TREAT, both of which are used in the first person.
  3. GLASSES is the genitive case of the noun GLASS (no glass) and the feminine past tense of the verb DRAIN (glass water).

By the way, you can note that grammatical homonyms can represent different parts of speech, for example, a noun and a verb, and so on. This is their fundamental difference from full and partial homonyms, where the parts of speech always coincide.

Homographs and homophones

There are two more types of words in the Russian language that some linguists (but not all) classify as varieties of homonyms.

Homographs- these are words that are spelled the same, but at the same time sound differently (mostly due to the fact that they are stressed differently). The term is also Greek and consists of “homos” (same) and “grapho” (I write).

  1. A TLAS (collection of maps or tables) and ATL A C (type of fabric)
  2. Z A IOC (medieval building) and ZAM ABOUT K (locking device)
  3. MUK A(ground cereals) and M U KA (experience)
  4. ABOUT RGAN (human) and ORG A N (musical instrument)
  5. SEL ABOUT(settlement) and C E LO (sun)
  6. P A RIT (in the bath) and STEAM AND TH (in the air)

Homophones- the opposite of homographs. They sound the same, but are spelled differently. The word is also Greek - “homos” (same) and “phone” (sound).

  1. FRUIT – RAFT
  2. THRESHOLD – VICE
  3. PILLAR – PILLAR
  4. CODE – CAT
  5. FLU – MUSHROOM

Examples of homonym words in literature

Not so often, but some writers and poets resort to the help of homonyms. For example, to create a rhyme. For example, an excerpt from Pushkin:

What does the wife do?
Alone, in the absence of a spouse?

In this case, the word SPOUSE means a woman (wife) in the first sentence, and a man (husband) in the second.

Or here from Bryusov:

Closing my exhausted eyelids,
The moment has passed, I TAKE CARE.
Oh, if only I could stand like this forever
On this quiet SHORE.

In this case, the first word is one of the forms of the verb BARECH, and the second is the SHORE of some body of water, used in the accusative case.

Homonyms in riddles, anecdotes, puns

A lot of riddles have been created based on homonyms.

  1. A zigzag trail of fire was drawn in the sky. Nothing can replace me in a skirt. (LIGHTNING)
  2. They are cast from metal and fall from trees. (LEAVES)
  3. This device will be used for eating. And then we will connect the device to the network. (FORK)
  4. I can’t sit idle, I’m in the hands of a craftswoman. And I’m spinning like a fidget in a bicycle wheel. (SPOKE)
  5. Without it, you can’t open a door or write a letter. (PEN)
  6. As the reason I act and I control the horse. (OCCASION)
  7. It stores ammunition and sells food. (SHOP)
  8. They eat jam from it and use it as a fence. (SOCKET)

Sometimes jokes are based on homonyms.

The doctor told the blonde patient that she would get better soon. And she: “Yes, I would rather die than get better!”

Here, in the first case, the word GET RECOVERY means improving health, and in the second case, getting fat.

Doctor: “How is your condition, patient?” Patient: “Thanks to your care, my condition has greatly improved.”

The word CONDITION can simultaneously mean well-being and health, as well as financial situation.

On a literature exam, the teacher asks: “What can you say about heroin?” The student responds: “Heroin is a powerful drug. What does literature have to do with it?”

There’s no need to explain anything special here. The word HEROINE in the dative case is really consonant with the name of the drug. This is one example of grammatical homonyms.

When I go shopping with my husband, he often says: “I’ll pay.” And it seems to me that he can barely restrain himself from changing the emphasis.

And here shining example homographs. Words REFUND U SB and RASPL A CHUS really make a funny couple.

Well, based on the same sound, but different spellings of words (and these are homophones in their pure form):

Or here's another example of a great pun based on homophones:

Carried by the bear, walking towards the market
A jar of honey for sale,
Suddenly the bear is attacked! —
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.

Dictionary of homonyms

Basic or full homonyms there's actually not much in Russian. Here is their list:

  1. BOR – pine forest and dentist’s tools;
  2. ABUSE – swearing and outdated meaning of battle;
  3. APPEARANCE – appearance and grammatical category;
  4. COMB – a comb and a small outgrowth on the head of birds;
  5. YARD – the area in front of the house and those close to the monarch;
  6. DEBT – obligation and borrowed;
  7. DISCIPLINE – strict rules and variations in science or sports;
  8. FRACTION – balls for shooting and a number consisting of a part of a unit;
  9. FACTORY – enterprise and watch mechanism;
  10. TOOTH – an organ in the mouth and the sharp part of the instrument;
  11. BRUSH – part of the artist’s hand and tool;
  12. KOL - a pointed piece of wood and a grade at school;
  13. SHOP – a store and a piece of furniture;
  14. MOTIVE is a synonym for motive and melody;
  15. MINK - a small animal and a depression in the ground;
  16. HUNTING – tracking down animals and a colloquial synonym for desire;
  17. – part of speech and constructive idea;
  18. NOVEL - literary work and love relationships;
  19. LIGHT is a source of brightness and high society;
  20. INVESTIGATION – investigation and conclusion.
  21. UNION - an association (of countries) and a service word connecting words.
  22. The TONGUE is a means of communication and an organ in the oral cavity.


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How do homonyms differ from ambiguous words?

In conclusion, I would like to say that you do not confuse homonyms with the so-called “”. There is such a concept in Russian.

For example, a HAT for a woman, a nail and a mushroom mean approximately the same thing, namely a headdress and its similarities. And in this case, the word cannot be considered a homonym, since the main criterion is violated - miscellaneous lexical meaning (here it is essentially the same).

Good luck to you! See you soon on the pages of the blog site

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