Homonyms. Classification of 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 a result of split of polysemy, but also as a result of levelling of grammar inflexions, when different parts of speech become identical in their outer aspect: care from caru and carefrom carian. They can also be formed by means of conversion: slim – to slim. They can be formed with the help of the same suffix from the same stem: reader – a person who reads and a book for reading. They can be the result of forming splinters, completives and lexical abbreviations: bio – a splinter with the meaning biology, biological as in the word biometrics; bio – a combining form with the meaning life as in the word biology; bio – a lexical shortening of the word biography with the meaning a short biography. 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: COD fromConcise Oxford Dictionary and cash on delivery. IV. Classification of Homonyms Walter Skeat classified homonyms according to their spelling and sound forms and he pointed out three groups: perfect homonyms, words identical in sound and spelling: school – косяк рыбы and школа; homographs, words with the same spelling but pronounced differently: bow – поклон and bow – лук; homophones, words pronounced identically but spelled differently: 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 into two types: a) perfect homonyms which are identical in their spelling, pronunciation and their grammar form: spring in the meanings the season of the year, a leap, a source; b) homoforms which coincide in their spelling and pronunciation but have different grammatical meaning: reading – Present Participle, Gerund, Verbal noun; to lobby-lobby. I.V. Arnold pointed out the following groups of homonyms: a) homonyms identical in their grammatical meanings, basic forms and paradigms and different in their lexical meanings: board – a council and board – a piece of wood sawn thin; b) homonyms identical in their grammatical meanings and basic forms, but different in their lexical meanings and paradigms: 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: 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: a bit and bit (from to bite); e) patterned homonyms differ from other homonyms, having a common component in their lexical meanings. They are formed either by means of conversion, or by levelling of grammar inflexions. These homonyms are different in their grammatical meanings, in their paradigms, but identical in their basic forms: warm – to warm.

3. The alphabets of the Germanic people.

The Runic alphabet

The oldest of these alphabets (for the Germanic tribes) is the runic alphabet. It was created in the II - III centuries AD and was applied till the Late Middle Ages. The runic alphabet is a common Germanic script, it was used by all Germanic tribes, East Germanic, North Germanic, as well as West Germanic tribes. The runic alphabet is a specifically Germanic alphabet, not to be found in languages of other groups. Runic alphabet was used by various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter. It was generally replaced by the Latin alphabet as the cultures that had used runes underwent Christianization by around AD 700 in central Europe and by around AD 1100 in Northern Europe. However, the use of runes persisted for specialized purposes in Northern Europe. Until the early 20th century runes were used in rural Sweden for decoration purposes. The three best-known runic alphabets are the Elder Runes (around 150 to 800 AD), also called Futhark; the Younger Runes (800–1100), which was further subdivided into Danish and Swedish-Norwegian; and the Anglo-Saxon Runes (400 to 1100 AD). The name of the alphabet futhark or fuÞark originated from the first six letters of the alphabet: F, U, Þ, A, R, K. Runology is the study of the runic alphabets, runic inscriptions, runestones, and their history. Runology forms a specialized branch of Germanic linguistics.

The Gothic alphabet The Gothic alphabet was invented around the middle of the 4th century AD by Bishop Ulfilas (311-383 AD), the religious leader of the Visigoths, to provide his people with a written language and a means of reading his translation of the Bible. It is based on the Greek alphabet, with some extra letters from the Latin and Runic alphabets. The alphabet consisted of 27 letters. The Gothic alphabet is preserved in a single written record of the Gothic language, known as Codex Argenteus. The Codex Argenteus, "Silver Codex", is a 6th century manuscript, originally containing bishop Ulfilas's 4th century translation of the Bible into the Gothic language. Of the original 336 folios, 188 have been preserved, containing the translation of the greater part of the four gospels. It is written on red parchment with silver and golden letters. The decoration is limited to a few large, framed initials and, at the bottom of each page, a silver arcade which encloses the monograms of the four evangelists. In modern publications of the Gothic bible, mostly Latin transliteration is used.

The Latin Alphabet The Latin alphabet spread among Germanic tribes alongside their conversion into Christianity. The Roman Catholic church banned religious services in vernaculars, therefore in countries, where Christianity penetrated directly from Rome, religious services were conducted in the Latin language. At churches and monasteries special schools were founded were the language of instruction was the Latin language. The very first Germanic words written in the Latin script were place names and proper names. Later appeared glosses in manuscripts and with the spread of Christianity the Latin alphabet came to be used for writing in Germanic languages. The first written records in the Latin script appear from VII – IX centuries in the West Germanic languages, while the North Germanic language start using Latin for their writings from XII – XIII centuries as a result of later Christianization of Scandinavian countries. The Latin alphabet was created in the VIII – VII centuries BC on the basis of Western Greek and Etruscan alphabets.

Билет № 17

1.What is the characteristic feature of the Old English phonetic system?

Old English (Ænglisc, Anglisc, Englisc) or Anglo-Saxon is the earliest historical form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers probably in the mid 5th century, and the first Old English literary works date from the mid 7th century. After the Norman Conquest of 1066, English was replaced for a time as the language of the upper classes by Anglo-Norman, a relative of French, and Old English developed into the next historical form of English, known as Middle English.

Old English had four major dialect groups: West Saxon, Mercian, Northumbrian, and Kentish. West Saxon and Kentish occurred in the south, approximately to the south of the Thames river. Mercian constituted the middle section of the country, divided from the southern dialects by the Thames and from Northumbrian by the Humberriver. In the south, the easternmost portion was Kentish and everywhere else was West Saxon. Mercian and Northumbrian are often grouped together as "Anglian".

The biggest differences occurred between West Saxon and the other groups. The differences occurred mostly in the front vowels, and particularly the diphthongs. (However, Northumbrian was distinguished from the rest by much less palatalization. Forms in Modern English with hard /k/ and /g/ where a palatalized sound would be expected from Old English are due either to Northumbrian influence or to direct borrowing from Scandinavian. Note that, in fact, the lack of palatalization in Northumbrian was probably due to heavy Scandinavian influence.)