Homonyms examples 10 words. Homonyms are similar words with different meanings (types and examples of homonyms)

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

Homonyms are divided into complete and incomplete.

Complete homonyms coincide in all of their grammatical forms. For example: key (source, ) - key (rod for unlocking locks); block ( building 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.

In the Russian language, as in other languages, there is the phenomenon of homonymy. Its essence is that words that are written and pronounced the same can mean completely different things. Our article is dedicated to this amazing phenomenon.

What are homonyms

Homonyms are words that are spelled and pronounced the same, but have completely different meanings. An example of homonyms is the word “onion”. It can mean both a weapon and (in a homonymous sense) a plant. For example, onions and a tight bow.

The phenomenon of homonymy is the subject of a funny and educational children's book by the poet Ya. Kozlovsky “About various words - identical, but different.” There are many funny short poems in it that help to understand the essence of the phenomenon of homonymy.

However, it must be said that the phenomenon of homonymy is very difficult, mysterious and multifaceted. It only seems simple and understandable to children who are studying the topic in 2nd grade, when the answer to the question, what are homonyms in the Russian language, looks quite definite. But we must keep in mind that there are other types of homonymy - words that do not always coincide and not in all forms.

If words belong to the same part of speech and are the same in all forms, they usually speak of complete homonyms. For example, complete homonyms are the words “bor” (forest - pine forest) and “bor” ( chemical substance). But there are also incomplete homonyms in the language.

Let's consider a number of such cases:

• homophones- these are words that are pronounced the same, but spelled differently; For example, cat - animal and code - digital code of the lock, twig (branch) and pond (lake);
• homographs- words that, on the contrary, are written the same way, but are pronounced differently, as a rule, with different stress; For example, the words “castle” and “castle”, “Iris” and “iris”– these are homographs;
• homoforms- these are words that coincide only in some specific forms, but in fact they can even be words different parts speeches; For example, such words: “glass” (window) and “glass” (something down).

How to distinguish homonyms

Sometimes it is difficult to understand what is in front of us: homonyms or polysemantic words. After all, they are, in general, similar.

Like homonyms, ambiguous words have many meanings; but all these meanings are much closer in meaning. For example, the word “brush”.

It can mean a part of a hand (hands), a decoration made of threads (a scarf with tassels), a drawing device (dip a brush in paint), or a twig with a lot of small flowers or berries (a bunch of grapes). All these words are connected general meaning: a bundle, several long objects fastened at one point. That is, the meanings of one polysemantic word are somewhat similar in meaning.

Homonyms have nothing in common with each other. The concepts they mean are not related in any way. For example, a mink (in the ground, an animal’s home) and a mink (an animal). Even if a mink lives in a mink, they still cannot be considered similar.

In order not to make a mistake in any case, you need to remember usual rule: trying to distinguish homonyms from polysemantic words, you need to look in the dictionary. IN explanatory dictionary all meanings of one polysemantic word are given in one dictionary entry in a list and numbered inside it. As for homonyms, they are explained in different dictionary entries. That is, the word is written again, separately.

Here are examples of homonym words:

• LINE, -And; and. 1. to Scribble (1, 4 digits). 2. Solid seam on fabric, leather, etc. Machine stitching. 3. A type of openwork embroidery. Openwork, curly stitching.
• LINE, -And; pl. genus.-check, date-chkam; and. 1. =String (1-2 characters). Crooked stitch. 2. Even row, chain of something. A line of animal tracks. <Строчечка, -и; pl. genus.-check, date-chkam; and. Decrease-affectionate Linear, -aya, -oe.

Both homonyms have several interpretations under numbers within the dictionary entry. This means that each of these words has multiple meanings.

Of course, language strives to exclude homonymy, because the main function of language is communicative, that is, the transmission of information; and if homonyms are used in speech, it is not always easy to understand what is meant. For example, the sentence “Bring a bow” - it is not clear what should be brought (a bow-weapon or an onion-plant).

But if homonyms create so many problems, how can we explain that they exist in the language at all? In many cases, the reason for the appearance of homonyms is that once these words were written and pronounced differently, and only with a change in the sound and graphic system of the language did they begin to be written and pronounced the same; an example is the word "peace", which was written differently with different meanings.

In addition, jokes - puns - are often based on homonyms.

For example, you can recall the pun associated with the word “outfit”: “One is an outfit, and the other is an outfit out of turn.” The essence of the joke is that one of the homonyms means festive, beautiful clothes, and the other means an order to perform some work or a document regulating the types of work.

What have we learned?

Words that are spelled and pronounced the same, but have completely different meanings, are called homonyms. The phenomenon of homonymy also includes cases when words are only spelled the same, but pronounced differently (homographs), only pronounced the same, but spelled differently (homophones), and coincide only in certain forms (homoforms). To distinguish homonyms, you need to look into the explanatory dictionary: the interpretation of various homonyms is given there in separate dictionary entries.

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According to linguists, the Russian language has more than 150,000 words, and this number is constantly growing. However, despite the richness of our language, there are often cases in which one lexical unit can denote several different concepts. Such words are classified as homonymous. We will talk about what homonyms are in the Russian language, what their types and varieties are.

The term “homonymy” is known from Ancient Greece, formed from the combination of two Greek words homos and onyma, which literally translates as “same name, title.” Consequently, scientists became interested in this problem many centuries ago. Homonyms are words that are identical in pronunciation and writing, but have different, unrelated meanings. In speech, the meanings of these words are usually easily determined from the context due to the conversational situation.

Below are sentences with homonyms, in which the meaning of homonymous words will be clear from the context:

1. In our club Today admission is free for everyone. – High rises rose from behind the houses clubs smoke.
2. The boat moored to cool bank of the river. – My grandmother always made tea cool boiling water
3. Vanya under any pretext drove to the neighboring village. - Telegrams are written without prepositions and alliances to save money.

Emergence

Scientists name many reasons for the emergence of homonymy. As a rule, this is due to the development and change of language.

Let's look at the main ones:

1. In the process of diverging meanings of one polysemantic word. Example: belly is part of the body or life.
2. Accidental consonance of a Russian word with a borrowed one or two borrowed words (from different languages ​​or the same language, but at different times). Examples: Goal- from English “a ball scored into a goal” or from Holland. "ship hull"; pump- from fr. XIX century - “pump” or from French. XX century - “pomp.”
3. Accidental identity in the sound of a dialect word with a literary one. Example: stitch- liter. quilt or dial. path.
4. The same sound is a consequence of phonetic and orthographic transformations occurring in the language. Example: " onion" as a vegetable and "onion" like weapons came from different words that were once written differently: one with the combination “ou” in place of the “u”, and the other with an “o” nasal.
5. As a result of the emergence of new words through word formation. Example: the word " key" in the meaning of an unlocking instrument, comes from noun. stick, and the word “ key" as the name of a water source - from Ch. bubble.

Onions as a vegetable and onions as a weapon

Types

There are 2 main types of homonymous words:

• Complete, having a coincidence in the entire paradigm of grammatical forms. For example, the words “chapter” (books) and “chapter” (states) are the same in all cases and numbers.
• Incomplete (partial), having discrepancies in one or more grammatical forms. For example, the word “baika” (story) is declined in all cases and numbers, but “baika” (fabric) does not have plural forms. h.

Remember! Full and partial homonyms are always expressed by one part of speech.

Useful video: homonyms

Phenomena of homonymy

There are phenomena that have a close resemblance to homonymy. However, such words are not homonymous in the full sense of the term. They reflect random coincidences of words at different levels of language.

The following types are distinguished:

• homoforms,
• homographs.

Types of homonyms

Homoforms are a type of homonyms in which there is a coincidence in only one (sometimes several) grammatical forms. They usually belong to different parts of speech.

• pigeons(noun in R.p. or V.p.) drive - the sky becomes pigeons(adj. comparative degree);
• division (noun) of property - division (verb in the past tense) of the property.

Homophones are a type of homonyms that differ in meaning and spelling, but are identical in sound.

The following words can be homophones:

• expressed by one part of speech: rinse - caress; mushroom - flu; lick - climb;
• belonging to different parts of speech: climb - flattery; young - hammer; old-timer - guarded;
• phrases that have a sound match: by kalach - I will beat you; with fire - we will bend, to grow to a hundred - to old age.

Homographs- words that differ in meaning and pronunciation (mainly due to stress), but have the same spelling.

Example: mugs – mugs; fall asleep - fall asleep; Iris - iris.

Ambiguous words

One of the difficult tasks is the distinction between homonymy and polysemy. The table below will help you distinguish homonyms from polysemantic words.

Attention! There are special dictionaries in which you can find a complete list of homonyms, for example, “Dictionary of Homonyms of the Russian Language” by N.P. Kolesnikova. You can also use online dictionaries to search for them, the most complete is Homonyms.

Applications

Homonymy is a special linguistic phenomenon, and therefore the question arises: why are homonyms needed? They are widely used in speech and often become a tool for playing on words, especially when both of their variants are present in one statement. By combining words that are different in meaning and sound the same, the speaker achieves the desired effect - contrast or comedy.

The use of homonyms is one of the favorite techniques of writers and poets. Most often these words are played out in puns or jokes. Here is an interesting example of an epigram on a teacher: “Loved students fall asleep he, apparently, because they loved fall asleep at his lectures."

Often homonyms “rhyme” in poetic lines:

Breaking away from Earth

On a big rocket

They took a handful land

In memory of the planet.

Some proverbs and sayings are also built on the basis of the contrast in the meanings of homonyms: “Mow with a scythe, if you yourself are not a scythe,” “Whatever you are, you want to eat.”

It is usually clear from the context which word from a homonymous pair (group) is used, but often the inept use of these words leads to a change in meaning and unwanted comedy. For example: The player's absent-mindedness led to the loss of points. Similar ambiguity can be found in the works of famous writers: “With the fire of Prometheus” (shall we burn?); “Beautiful impulses of the soul” (from the word choke?).

Advice! It is necessary to use homonyms in speech with caution, avoiding ambiguity and unnecessary comedy. To be sure, say the statement out loud.

Useful video: grammatical homonyms of the Russian language

Conclusions

Homonymy is one of these phenomena that makes our language richer and more interesting. Familiarity with these words helps you avoid mistakes in your own speech and better understand someone else’s. This knowledge will be especially useful for those who work in advertising or want to become a good writer.

In many languages ​​of the planet there is such a thing as homonymy. It is based on the fact that words and morphemes that are identical in sound and spelling have different meanings. They are called "homonyms". Examples of them are found everywhere. We use them extremely often in ordinary speech.

Homonyms

Examples confirming this phenomenon are known to many. These are the common words:

• “bow” in the meaning of plant and weapon;
• “escape”, in one case denoting a young branch, and in the other - an unauthorized hasty departure.

Out of context, it is difficult to determine in what exact meaning these homonyms are used. Example sentences with words will demonstrate this phenomenon clearly.

• Green onions are especially good in vegetable salads.
• A boy was given a toy bow and arrow for his birthday.
• The apple tree produced a young shoot, but the gardener pruned it in the fall.
• The Count of Monte Cristo escaped from prison in a creative way, replacing the prisoner's corpse with himself.

Examples of phrases will help you understand what homonyms mean:

• “green onions” and “sharp onions”;
• “maiden braid” and “river braid”;
• "three apples" and "three rag stain".

This phenomenon is quite entertaining, therefore it is often used by Russian language teachers as an entertaining technique in studying the subject, a way to expand the vocabulary and horizons of students.

Games with homonyms in lessons and extracurricular activities

To conduct this competition, you should prepare pairs of words that have the same pronunciation and spelling, but completely different meanings. Players are offered only meanings, and the words themselves (you can use the same spelling for both) are hidden under a cardboard picture that will serve as a point token, for example, a template of a tree leaf, an apple, a gold bar. The participant who correctly names the homonyms receives this emblem as a point after the correct answer. At the end of the game, the token points are tallied and a winner is chosen.

Homonyms are suitable for the competition, examples of which can be as follows (it should be recalled that only pictures are presented to participants and spectators, the words themselves are closed):

• “shop” as a piece of furniture and a small retail outlet;
• the word "lama", appearing in one sense as an animal, and in another - as a Tibetan monk.

During the lesson, you can offer students one or two pairs of words. Completing this task will only take a few minutes, but the benefits will be enormous. Indeed, in addition to the above, this type of activity generates and strengthens interest in learning the Russian language.

Homonymy and polysemy

Many words have more than one meaning. Although they have the same spelling, they differ lexically. It is necessary to distinguish between homonyms and polysemantic words. Examples of polysemy are also quite common. For example, two words pronounced like “key” can act as homonyms in the following way:

• spring and device for opening.

But in the meanings of “violin”, “wrench”, “from a door lock”, “a device for rolling up cans”, “key” is one word. This is an amazing linguistic feature that should already be considered a phenomenon of polysemy. After all, each listed option involves the key’s ability to open something: a line of music or some object. This is one word with different meanings, not different homonyms.

There are a great many examples of such polysemantic words in Russian speech. Sometimes it is quite difficult to separate them from homonyms.

Polysemy sometimes occurs from the transition of a name based on external similarity. This is

• “sleeve” - a separate river bed and part of the shirt;
• “ribbon” is a device for a girl’s hairstyle and a long road, a moving part of a conveyor.

The ambiguity of these words arose from the external similarity of some features. For example, a sleeve in clothing is separated from a common large item. And the branching of the riverbed resembles the same phenomenon. Actually, the word “trouser leg” could have appeared in this version, but for some reason the Russian people chose “sleeve”.

The tape is a narrow, long object. Apparently, the person who invented the conveyor saw the similarity of its moving part with a device for a girl’s hairstyle. This is how the name transition occurred, the phenomenon of polysemy.

Etymological homonymy

A group of words belongs to homonyms unambiguously, since their very origin is already different. Therefore, in the task “Give examples of homonyms that differ etymologically,” you need to select words that came into Russian speech from different languages. To do this, you should look into the etymological dictionary.

These are the word “boron”, which means a chemical element, and its homonym - pine forest. The first noun came into Russian speech from the Persian language, where it sounded like “borax,” that is, boron compounds. The name of the pine forest is of Slavic origin.

Some linguists believe that the existence of the phenomenon of homonymy should be recognized only where the etymology of the words itself differs.

These same linguists do not see homonymy in the noun “ether” as an organic substance and in the meaning of “radio broadcasting and television.” After all, historically both words have a common etymology. They come from the ancient Greek root αἰθήρ, which means “mountain air”. And if the task says: “Give examples of homonyms,” and the answerer uses the word “ether” in two meanings, then these scientists will consider the answer incorrect.

Disputes between linguists about polysemy and homonymy

However, not everyone can determine the historical origin of words offhand. This often requires special dictionaries. Therefore, most people see that the meanings of the word “ether” are completely different and classify them as homonyms. Therefore, some linguists also do not see the polysemy here. The explanatory dictionary classifies them as different words with different meanings.

Examples of homonyms that cause controversy among linguists are:

• “braid” in the meaning of a hairstyle and a tool for mowing, since some argue that there is a transition of the name based on external similarity (thin and long);
• “pen” as a tool for writing, a device for opening, turning on, since some people determine ambiguity by the fact that they have something in common in their method of action (writing and opening with their hand);
• “feather” in the sense of “handle” and as a cutaneous horny formation of birds and some dinosaurs, considering that the first meaning came to the word from the historical method of writing with bird feathers.

Some linguists classify as homonymy all words in which polysemy can be traced. They consider polysemy to be only a special case.

Full homonyms

Linguists divide words that have the same pronunciation and spelling and have different meanings into two groups. Full lexical homonyms belonging to the same grammatical category are divided into one category. Examples of these: “braid”, “tongue”, “escape”, “key” and others. In all their forms, these words are the same in both spelling and pronunciation.

Incomplete or partial homonyms

Words that coincide only in some forms are also highlighted. These are grammatical homonyms. Examples of this phenomenon often refer to different parts of speech:

• “three” is a 2nd person singular verb of the imperative mood with the initial form “to rub” and “three” is a cardinal number;
• “oven” is an infinitive verb and “oven” is a feminine singular noun;
• “saw” is a feminine singular verb in the past tense and “saw” is a feminine singular noun.

Grammatical homonymy is also observed in words belonging to the same part of speech. For example, the 1st person singular verbs of the present tense are “I’m flying.” The first word is defined as an action related to medicine. Already the infinitive will sound like “to treat.” And the second verb has the initial form “fly” and denotes the action of flying.

Partial homonymy is observed in words of the same grammatical category. This occurs when words differ in only one form. For example, the two nouns “caress” - animal and manifestation of tenderness - do not coincide only in the genitive plural. These homonyms in this form will look like “weasel” and “weasel”.

Homonyms and homophones

Some people confuse the phenomenon of homonymy with others. For example, homophones are words that sound alike but have different meanings but are differently spelled. These are not homonyms! Examples of words that are homophones show this feature.

• “Cat” is a pet, and “code” is most often a certain set of symbols or sounds.

Everyone will notice that these words should be written differently. But it is almost impossible to hear the difference by ear. The word “code” must be pronounced with the final consonant stunned. This is where the sound similarity comes from.

Homonymy and homography

There are other linguistic phenomena similar to the one we are considering. For example, homographs are interesting because they have the same spelling, but are pronounced differently, most often due to stress. These are also not homonyms. Examples of homograph words are:

• gate - gate;
• castle - castle;
• smell - smell.

Homographs are also interesting for composing tasks for competitions and games. Using picture riddles in which homographs are encrypted, you can diversify linguistic activities.