Лексикология английского языка

5). Words made by sound-imitation can also form pairs of homonyms with other words: e.g. bang, n (a loud, sudden, explosive noise) – bang, n (a fringe of hair combed over the forehead – чёлка).

The above-described sources of homonyms have one important feature in common. In all the mentioned cases the homonyms developed from two or more different words, and their semilarity is purely accidental. In this respect, conversion presents an exception for in pairs of homonyms formed by conversion one word of the pair is produced from the other: a find < to find.

6). Now we come to a further source of homonyms which differs from all the above cases. Two or more homonyms can originate from different meanings of the same word when the semantic structure of the word breaks into several parts. This type of formation of homonyms is called split polysemy (распад полисемии). The semantic structure of a polysemantic word presents a system within which all its constituent meanings are held together by logical associations. In most cases, the function of the arrangement and the unity is determined by one of the meanings (e.g. the meaning “flame” in the noun fire). If this meaning happens to disappear from the word’s semantic structure, associations between the rest of the meanings may be severed, the semantic structure loses its unity and falls into two or more parts which then become accepted as independent lexical units.

Let us consider the history of three homonyms:

board, n – a long, thin piece of timber

board, n – daily meals provided for pay, e.g. room and board

board, n – an official group of persons who direct or supervise some activity, e.g. a

board of directors.
It is clear that the meanings of these three words are in no way associated with one another. Yet, most larger dictionaries still enter a meaning of board that once held together all these other meanings ”table”. It developed from the meaning “a piece of timber” by transference based on contiguity (association of an object and the material from which it is made). The meanings “meals” and “an official group of persons” developed from the meaning “table”, also by transference based on contiguity: meals are easily associated with a table on which they are served; an official group of people in authority are also likely to discuss their business round a table.

Nowadays, however, the item of furniture, on which meals are served and round which boards of directors meet, is no longer denoted by the word board but by the French Norman borrowing table, and board in this meaning, though still registered by some dictionaries, can be marked as archaic as it is no longer used in common speech. That is why, with the intrusion of the borrowed table, the word board lost its corresponding meaning.