The Origin of Homonyms

Homonyms

Two or more words identical in sound and spelling but different in meaning, distribution and origin are called homonyms. (GK. homōnymous – homos “the same”, onoma “name”).

Homonymy exists in many languages but it is particularly frequent in English with its monosyllabism. (from 2540 homonyms listed in the “Oxford English dictionary” 89 % are one-morpheme words).

Homonyms are subdivided into homonyms proper, homophones and homographs.

Homonyms proper are words identical in pronunciation and spelling: back (part of the body) – back (away), ball (a round object used in games) – ball (a gathering of people for dancing), bark (the skin of a tree) – bark (a sailing ship) – bark (the noise made by the dog).

Homophones are words of the same sound but of different spelling and meaning: air – heir, birth – berth, cite- site – sight, desert – dessert, fir – fur, hoarse – horse, sale – sail.

Homographs are words different in sound and in meaning but accidentally identical in spelling: bow [bau] – bow [bou], lead [lJd] – lead [led], tear [tFq] – tear [tIq].

Patterned homonymy is characteristic of homonyms that have developed from one common source, possess identical lexical meaning and belong to various parts of speech. Care _n – care _v, love _v – love _n, stone _n – stone _v, drive _v – drive _n.

Full homonyms are words that are homonymous in all their forms (complete homonymy).

Seal – any of various aquatic mammals with a sleek, torpedo – shaped body and limbs in the form of flippers; seal – a die or signet with a raised or incised emblem used to stamp an impression on a substance such as wax or lead.

Partial homonyms are word forms that are homonymous in some of their forms (this type of homonymy is characteristic of words belonging to different lexico-grammatical classes).

Seal _n – an aquatic mammal (seal, seal’s, seals, seals’).

Seal _v, to close tightly (seal, seals, sealed, sealing).

Paronyms are words that are kindred both in sound and meaning and usage and therefore only mistakenly interchanged:

Hanged – hung, assure – ensure, ingenious – ingenuous, affect – effect.

The intense development of homonymy in the English language is first of all connected with the phonetic identity or words and stems, their monosyllabic character.

In the course of numerous phonetic transformations two or more words accidentally coincide in sound: homonymy develops in this case through convergent sound development. Out of 2540 homonyms listed in “The Oxford English Dictionary” 93 % are formed through occasional coincidence in sound:

Sound (Zesund) – sound (sonus), see – sea, knight – night, bee – be, bean – been, cell – sell, fair – fare, son – sun, week – weak.

Homonymy may also develop from polysemy through divergent sense development. This process also may be combined with loss of endings and other morphological processes. It may be the result of split of polysemy or polysemy destroy.

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