Polysemy and Homonymy

English is rich in homonyms due to its monosyllabic character. The identical form of homonyms is mostly accidental (they coincide due to the phonetic change in the course of their development).

• English is rich in homonyms due to its monosyllabic character. The identical form of homonyms is mostly accidental (they coincide due to the phonetic change in the course of their development).
• lead, v. and lead, n.
• Tear, n. and tear (apart), v.

Full and partial homonyms

• There is the case of full and partial homonyms. It is connected with the concept of paradigms.
• Full homonyms belong to the same part of the speech, they share a paradigm (coincide in all their forms). To blow (to send out a strong current of air) and to blow (to produce flowers) – blow, blows, blowing, blew, blown.
• “Match” and “ball” are also the examples of full homonymy. They coincide in spelling, sounding and part of the speech.

• Homonyms similar in sound form and spelling are termed homonyms proper.

E.g.: fast, adj. – быстрый / fast, n. – пост;

•Homophones are homonyms which are the same in sound but different in spelling and meaning:

E.g.: buy, v - покупать / by, prep. - предлог тв. падежа

•Homographs are words which are the same in spelling, but different in sound.

E.g.: lead, v [li:d] – управлять - lead, n [led] – свинец

Partial homonyms
homophones
tale and tail
waste and waist
flew, flu, flue
bight, bite, byte
homographs
bow and bow
polish and Polish

Classification of homonyms according to the type of meaning

• Lexical
• Seal (an animal) and seal (a stamp). The part of the speech meaning and grammatical meaning of all the forms are identical. The difference lies in only lexical meaning.