Antonyms.

Grouping of words is based upon similarities and contrasts. Taking up similarity of meaning and contrasts of phonetic shape we observe that every language has in its vocabulary a variety of words, kindred in meaning but distinct in morphemic composition, phonemic shape and usage.

The term generally used to denote these two types of semantic relatedness are synonymy and antonymy.

Synonymy is often understood as semantic equivalence. Sem equivalence however can exist between words and word-groups, words and sentences. For example, John is taller than Bill is semantically equivalent to Bill is shorter than John. Mary sold the toy to Kate and Kate bought the toy from Mary may be considered semantically equivalent. Semantic equivalence may be observed on the level of word-groups. Thus we may say that to win a victory is synonymous with to gain a victory, etc.

The terms synonymy and synonyms should be confined to semantic relation between words only. Similar relations between word-groups and sentences are described as semantic equivalence. Syn-s may be found in different parts of speech and both among notional and functional words. For example, though and albeit, on and upon, since and as are synonymous because these phonemically different words are similar in their denotational meaning.

Synonyms are traditionally described as words different in sound-form but identical or similar in meaning. This defnition has been criticised on many points. It is inconceivable that polysemantic words could be synonymous in all their meanings. The verb look, e.g., is usually treated as a synonym of see, watch, observe, etc., but in another of its meanings it is not synonymous with this group of words but rather with the verbs seem, appear (cf. to look at smb. and to look pale).

Synonyms can be defined in terms of linguistics as two or more words of the same language, belonging to the same part of speech and possessing one or more identical or nearly identical denotational meanings, interchangeable, at least in some contexts, without any alteration in denotational meanings, but differing in morphemic composition, phonemic shape, shades of meaning, connotations, style, valency and idiomatic use.

The Eng. word-stock is extremely rich in syn-s which can be largely accounted for by abundant borrowing. Quite a number of words in synonymic sets are usually of French or Latin origin. For instance, out of thirteen words making up the set see, behold, descry, espy, view, survey, contemplate, observe, notice, remark, note, discern, percieve only see and behold can be traced back to Old English (O.E. seon and behealdan), all others are either French or Latin borrowings.

Another feature of synonymy is that the bulk of synonyms may referred to stylistically marked word, i.e. they possess a peculiar connotational component of meaning. This can be observed by examining the syn-s for the stylistically neutral word money listed above. In Mod.Am.Eng. there at least 20 words used to denote money: beans, bucks, the chips, do-re-mi, the needful,

Syn-y has its characteristic patterns in each language. It‘s peculiar feature in Eng. is the contrast between simple native words stylistically neutral, literary words borrowed from French and learned words of Greco-Latin origin. This results in a sort of stylistically conditioned triple “keyboard” that can be illustrated by the following.

Mod.Eng.words W-s borrowed W-s borrowed

Native Eng.w-s from French from Latin

To ask to question to interrogate

Belly stomach abdomen

To gather to assemble to collect

HOMONYMS

Two or more words identical in sound and spelling but different in meaning, distribution and (in many cases) origin are called homonyms. The term is derived from Greek (homos “similar” and onoma “name”) and thus expresses very well the sameness of name combined with the difference in meaning.

CLASSIFICATION OF HOMONYMS

The most widely accepted classification is that recognizing homonyms proper, homophones and homographs.

Homonyms proper are words identical in pron-n and spelling, like fast and liver above. Other examples are: back (n “part of the body”; back adv. “away from the front”:: back (v) “go back”, ball (n) “a round object used in games”:: ball (n) “a gathering of people for dancing”:: bark (n) “a noise made by a dog”:: bark (v) “to utter sharp explosive cries”:: bark (n) “the skin of a tree”:: bark (n) “a sailing ship”. The important point is that hom-s are distinct words: not different meaning within one word.

Homophones – are words of the same sound but of different spelling and meaning: air - heir; arms - alms; buy - bye, by; him – hymn; knight – night; and many others. In the sentence the play-wright on my right thinks it right every man to write as he pleases, the sound complex [right] is noun, adj., adv., and verb has 4 different spellings and 6 different meanings.

.Homographs are words different in sound and in meaning but accidentally identical in spelling: bow [bou] – bow [bau], tear [tε ]-tear [ti ], wind [wind] – [waind] and etc.

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