Lexicology in theory, practice and tests Study guide Recommended by the Academic Council of Sumy State University Sumy Sumy State University 2015
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Exercise 7. Pick out synonyms from the sentences below. Comment on their shades of meaning and stylistic reference. 1. Miss Elphistone was white and pale. 2. He is continuously tense and worried, easily upset, and constantly haunted by future calamities or future errors. 3. It can cause only sad and tragic kind of entertainment. 4. Soldiers began to fire and shoot with all guns they had. 5. We were hungry so he suddenly became so unselfish and generous. 6. Due to aliens’ gas it was too hazardous and dangerous to stay outdoors. 7. Welcome to the new wave of fear. If you were scared before, you’ll be terrified now. 8. She must have been a foolish, dull woman, or else very inexperienced. 9. “I’ll give him ‘go out’!” he shouted like an insane, crazy thing. 10. They said good-day, and all departed together. 11. It is not only your skill and dexterity that fascinates me. 12. Her cleanliness and purity had reacted upon him. 13. Nothing upsets me more than being hungry; I snarl and snap and burst into tears. 14. It was a shark attack, clear and simple. 15. I don’t believe she took their curses and graces any more seriously than she took the aches and pains of characters in a novel. Exercise 8. Classify synonyms in bold type according their types. 1. a) Lula was standing hand on hip, watching me spar with Connie. b) Morelli looked at me for a couple beats. 2. a) Ranger cut his eyes to Tank. b) Her demon eyes narrowed. 3. a) My life is too weird. b) Ranger is the mystery man. 4. a) And I didn't have a clue how to choose between them. b) Seemed like a bad idea to say something that might ratchet up the competition between them. 5. a) You're using Bob to lure me to your house. b) I'm surprised Morelli isn't trying to seduce me. 6. a) I crossed the lot to the large glass double doors leading to the offices. b) You are a huge problem, Stephanie. 7. a) Now, as the meeting was about to begin, Leslie turned to Amy, who was serving coffee. b) I worked the last shift at Dave’s Dogs, and I was supposed to start shutting down a half hour before closing so I could clean up for the day crew. 8. a) Leslie Stewart was beautiful and had an IQ of 170, and nature had taken care of the rest. b) He was even more attractive in person than in his photographs. 9. a) One early fall evening, Oliver prepared dinner at his home, a charming house in Versailles, a small town near Lexington. b) They were a spectacular-looking couple, Oliver dark and handsome, and Leslie with her lovely face and figure and honey-blond hair. 10. a) The next few weeks were filled with frantic preparations for the wedding. b) Senator Todd Davis was without doubt Kentucky’s most influential citizen, and the story of his daughter’s marriage and of the groom’s jilting Leslie was big news. 11. a) Rita Lonergan froze for a moment, and then screamed. b) I grabbed my big black leather shoulder bag and yelled good-bye to my roomie, Rex-the-hamster. 12. a) The pay wouldn’t be great but the benefits would be pretty decent. b) I’m sure we’re all pleased that big business is doing so well and that corporate profits have never been higher. 13. a) I’d been taking a time-out from Morelli and Ranger, hoping to get a better grip on my feelings, but I wasn’t making much progress. b) “We’ve got to start some damage control,” Peter Tager was saying. 14. a) The entire factory was housed in a mammoth three-story redbrick building. b) At lunchtime, in the hotel dining room, large platters of sandwiches were placed in the centre of the table. 15. a) General, the Tribune would like to do some coverage on the meeting you had with the president on October fifteenth. b) Okay, I don’t actually have an interview appointment, but Karen Slobodsky works in the personnel office, and she said I should look her up if I ever wanted a job. 16. a) It happened at the Borgata, a restaurant in a castle-like old Italian village setting, the dinner was superb. b) Romantic plans made now will be fulfilled, excellent prospects for the future. 17. a) He said it’s a disaster waiting to happen. b) It was a simple, optimistic statement, with not the slightest portent of the dramatic chain of events that was about to occur. 18. a) Leslie’s father was a handsome man, patrician and intellectual. b) An imposing-looking man seated on the couch rose as Oliver came in. 19. a) She was an extraordinarily intelligent child. b) And what the hell is a young kid doing in an expensive suite like this? 20. a) Father asked me to talk to you, Oliver, he’s very upset. b) “Tomorrow can we climb up to the top of the monument, Daddy?” he begged. 21. a) The introductions seemed to go on forever. b) The people walking the streets behind Dana continued as though they had heard nothing. 22. a) Dana watched him leave. b) There was no chance that the president was going to let them get away with this. 23. a) In Suite 825, the Imperial Suite, there was total silence. b) I could see absolute minimum of storage space in that garage. 24. a) It was a Filipina maid who found the dead girl’s body sprawled on the floor. b) This recently deceased girl remains an obscure figure. 25. a) As far as Oliver was concerned, it was a marriage of convenience, and he was careful to see that he did nothing to disrupt it. b) He’s trying to destroy everything I've worked for. Euphemisms More “decent” synonymic substitutes used instead of indecent, impolite or too direct words are called euphemisms. A euphemism is a generally innocuous word, name, or phrase that replaces an offensive or suggestive one. Some euphemisms intend to amuse, while others intend to give positive appearances to negative events or even mislead entirely. Euphemisms are used for dissimulation, to refer to taboo topics (such as disability, sex, or death) in a polite way, and to mask profanity. The opposite of euphemism roughly equates to dysphemism. The word euphemism comes from the Greek word ευφημία (euphemia), meaning “the use of words of good omen”, which in turn is derived from the Greek root-words ‘eu’ (ευ), “good/well” + “pheme” (φήμι) “speech/speaking”, meaning “glory, flattering speech, praise”. Etymologically, ‘the eupheme’ is the opposite of ‘the blaspheme’ (evil-speaking). The term euphemism itself was used as a euphemism by the ancient Greeks, meaning “to keep a holy silence” (speaking well by not speaking at all). A euphemism also may be a substitution of a description of something or someone rather than the name, to avoid revealing secret, holy, or sacred names to the uninitiated, or to obscure the identity of the subject of a conversation from potential eavesdroppers. Some euphemisms are intended to be funny. When a phrase is used as a euphemism, it often becomes a metaphor whose literal meaning is dropped. Euphemisms may be used to hide unpleasant or disturbing ideas (stupid → unwise, drunk → mellow, to lie → to distort the facts, etc.), even when the literal term for them is not necessarily offensive. This type of euphemism is used in public relations and politics, where it is sometimes called doublespeak. Sometimes, using euphemisms is equated to politeness. There are also superstitious euphemisms (devil → deuce, dickens), based on the idea that words have the power to bring bad fortune and religious euphemisms, based on the idea that some words are sacred, or that some words are spiritually imperilling. Euphemisms can also be treated within the synchronic approach, because both expressions, the euphemistic and the direct one, co-exist in the language and form a synonymic opposition. Not only English but other modern languages as well have a definite set of notions attracting euphemistic circumlocutions. These are notions of death, madness, stupidity, drunkenness, certain physiological processes, crimes and so on. For example: die :: be no more :: be gone :: lose one’s life :: breathe one’s last :: join the silent majority :: go the way of alt flesh :: pass away :: be gathered to one’s fathers. A prominent source of synonymic attraction is still furnished by interjections and swearing addressed to God. To make use of God’s name is considered sinful by the Church and yet the word, being expressive, formed the basis of many interjections. Later the word God was substituted by the phonetically similar word goodness: For goodness sake / Goodness gracious / Goodness knows! Many euphemisms fall into one or more of these categories: foreign terms, abbreviations, abstractions, indirections, mispronunciation, longer (usually Latinate) words. There is some disagreement over whether certain terms are or are not euphemisms. For example, sometimes the phrase visually impaired is labelled as a politically correct euphemism for blind. However, visual impairment can be a broader term, including, for example, people who have partial sight in one eye, a group that would be excluded by the word blind. Exercise 9. State which words are replaced by euphemisms. 1. It was the name of the man who had been walking along the Oxford Canal at the time when Joanna Franks passed away – when Joanna Franks was supposedly murdered. 2. They’re all asleep. 3. The remains of Joanna Franks were found at Duke’s Cut on the Oxford Canal at about 5.30am on Wednesday 21st June 1859. 4. Sad, however, from Morse’s point of view, was the unequivocal assertion made here that the body was still warm. 5. Do you mean he's lost his life? 6. The protagonist, ‘the cave-man in a lounge suit’, is the maddening, irascible and fascinating Professor George Edward Challenger. 7. Shirley, would you go powder your nose? I have things to discuss with Loulie. 8. After all, losing weight by losing your lunch is never a goal. 9. She was wearing a white leotard that showed off her ample proportions. 10. Before an agency can furlough employees, it must seek approval of its plan from the State Personnel Board. 11. By comparison, private correctional facilities held only 10.2% of the total adults in 1998. 12. First he sent Pat to a specialist to investigate why, after nine months of marriage, there was still no bun in oven. 13. It includes people who are temporarily between jobs because they are moving, etc. 14. “Are there any houses of ill repute in Foxglove?” he said. 15. At first everything was O.K. but suddenly he felt a call of nature. 16. For drinkers of more adult beverages, there is a special establishment. 17. We had a friend whose parents completely furnished their house with stuff that fell off the back of the track. 18. The dog was bad, so veterinarian had to put her to sleep. 19. Two pirates had bitten the dust. 20. There are also concerns that present policies are not only ineffective but create collateral damage. Homonyms Modern English is exceptionally rich in homonymous words and word-forms. It is held that languages where short words abound have more homonyms than those where longer words are prevalent. Therefore it is sometimes suggested that abundance of homonyms in Modern English is to be accounted for by the monosyllabic structure of the commonly used English words. Two or more words identical in sound or spelling, or both in sound and spelling but different in meaning, distribution and origin are called homonyms. The term is derived from Greek “homonymous” (homos – “the same” and onoma – “name”) and thus expresses the sameness of name combined with the difference in meaning. The state of being a homonym is called homonymy. Walter Skeat classified homonyms according to their spelling and sound forms and he pointed out three groups: perfect homonyms, homographs and homophones: 1. Perfect homonyms (or homonyms proper) which are identical both in sound and spelling, e. g. back n “part of the body” – back adv “away from the front” – back v “go back”; ball n “a gathering of people for dancing” – ball n “round object used in games”; bark n “the noise made by dog” – bark v “to utter sharp explosive cries” – bark n “the skin of a tree”. 2. Homographs which are identical in spelling but different in sound, e. g. bow [bou] – bow [bau]; lead [li:d] – lead [led]; sewer [‘soue] – sewer [sjue]; tear [tie] – tear [tee]; wind [wind] – wind [waind] and many more. 3. Homophones which are identical in sound but different in spelling, e. g. arms – alms; buy – by; him – hymn; knight – night; piece – peace; rain – reign; scent – cent; steel – steal; write – right and many others. These words are a very common source of confusion when writing. Common examples of sets of homophones include: to, too, and two; they're and their; bee and be; sun and son; which and witch; plain and plan; key and quay; sow and sew, etc. (see Table 11).
homophones e. g. arms – alms; buy – by; him – hymn; knight – night; not – knot homographs e. g. bow [bou] – bow [bau]; lead [li:d] – lead [led]; row [rou] – row [rau] perfect (or proper)
Another classification was suggested by Professor A. I. Smirnitskiy. He added to Skeat’s classification one more criterion: grammatical meaning. He subdivided the group of perfect homonyms in Skeat’s classification into two types of homonyms: perfect which are identical in their spelling, pronunciation and their grammar form, and homoforms which coincide in their spelling and pronunciation but have different grammatical meaning. Professor A. I. Smirnitskiy classified homonyms into two large classes: 1) full homonyms, 2) partial homonyms: 1) full homonyms are words, which represent the same category of parts of speech and have the same paradigm, e. g. wren n. (a member of the Women’s Royal Naval Service) – wren n. (a bird). 2) partial homonyms are subdivided into three subgroups: a) simple lexico-grammatical partial homonyms are words, which belong to the same category of parts of speech. Their paradigms have only one identical form, but it is never the same form, e. g. (to) found v. – found v. (past indef., past part. of to find), (to) lay v. – lay v. (past indef. of to lie). b) complex lexico-grammatical partial homonyms are words of different categories of parts of speech, which have identical form in their paradigms, e. g. rose n. – rose v. (past indef. of to rise), maid n. – made v. (past indef., past part. of to make). c) partial lexical homonyms are words of the same category of parts of speech which are identical only in their corresponding forms, e. g. to lie (lay, lain) v. – to lie (lied, lied) v., to hang (hung, hung) v. – to hang (hanged, hanged) v. (see Table 12).
partial homonyms partial lexical homonyms e. g. to lie (lay, lain) v. – to lie (lied, lied) v., to hang (hung, hung) v. – to hang (hanged, hanged) v. complex lexico-grammatical partial homonyms e. g. rose n. – rose v. (past indef. of to rise), maid n – made v
simple lexico-grammatical partial homonyms e. g. (to) found v. – found v. (past indef., past participle of to find) full homonyms e. g. wren n.
Homonyms may be classified by the type of their meaning. In this case one should distinguish between:
From the viewpoint of their origin, homonyms are divided into etymological and historical. Etymological homonyms are words of different origin. Their formal coincidence is the result of various factors: phonetical changes in native and borrowed words, changes in spelling, etc. E. g. M. E. base І (підлий) L. basis > O. E. base > M. E. base II (основа, підвалина); O. E. mal > M. E. mole І (родимка); O. E. mol > M. E. molle > M. E. mole II (кріт). Historical homonyms are those which result from disintegration (split) of polysemy. At present there is not any connection between their meanings, though they can be traced back to the same etymological source, e. g. nail (ніготь) :: nail (цвях) < O.E. naeg(e)l; beam (промінь) :: beam (балка, бантина) < O.E. beam.
Night and knight were not homonyms in Old English as the initial k was pronounced. In Old English the verb to write had the form written, and the adjective right had the form reht, riht.
In all the mentioned cases the homonyms developed from two or more different words, and their similarity is purely accidental. Another source: two or more homonyms can originate from different meanings of the same word when, for some reason, the semantic structure of the word breaks into several parts. This type of formation is called split polysemy. Let us consider the history of three homonyms: board, n. – a long and thin piece of timber; board, n. – daily meals, esp. as provided for pay, e. g. room and board; board, n. – an official group of persons who direct some activity, e. g. a board of directors. These three words are in no way associated with one another. Yet board has a meaning “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” develop from the meaning “table” also by transference based on contiguity. It was meaning ‘table’ which served as a link to hold together all the parts. Exercise 10. Classify the words in bold type into homophones, homographs and homonyms proper. 1. a) It’s made out of wood. b) “The skaters would normally perform their stunts and tricks there,” May explains. 2. a) “A half – pipe can be dangerous. Skateboarders wear protective gear,” May points out. b) “Staying safe is important,” Buzz agrees. “Now where is my notebook?” 3. a) “Good luck!” Buzz tells May. “Go take the lead in this competition!” b) “I feel nervous”, May says. “My legs feel as if they are made of lead”. 4. “May I sail with you in May?” 5. Mouse: Deer, I’m very glad to have such dear friends. 6. But he’s unable to see that Oscar prefers his presence to his presents once in a while. 7. a) It’s my birthday present to him. b) “I can fill in,” Ollie says. “I’d be happy to present the Big Air Jam, with Buzz”. 8. a) “Dad, buy me a ball!” b) “Bye, Osc, I’m in a hurry,” answered Mark and hung on. 9. a) “What a nice scent, Nicky! Hilary Duff “With love?” asked Ally. b) “Ughmn. My father sent it to me last Christmas,” said Nicky climbing the ladder. 10. a) I’d like to go to the sea. b) “I think it’s amazing to see the autumn sunset,” said Carolyn a bit enigmatically. 11. a) Hermione slammed her Arithmancy book down on the table so hard that bits of meat and carrot flew everywhere. b) It was of a very handsome young man called Dorian Gray and when Lord Henry saw it, he wanted to meet this young man. 12. a) If I had known that you were ill I would have gone to see you. b) They entered it in one of its lowest points, and drove for some time through a beautiful wood, stretching over a wide extent. 13. a) But they won fair and square, even Wood admits it. b) I took one last look out at the statue. 14. a) It was the worst I have ever seen. b) The whole scene was almost too perfect to disturb. 15. a) I may thank you, Eliza, for this piece of civility. b) They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope and happiness out of the air around them. 16. a) She couldn’t come to the party, which was a pity. b) If the one-eyed witch was boarded up too, he would never be able to go into Hogsmeade again. 17. a) The journey to King’s Cross was very uneventful compared to Harry’s trip on the Knight Bus. b) Last Wednesday night, there were over a thousand fans at Cardiff University Great Hall to see Coldplay. 18. a) What would you do if somebody gave you a lot of money? b) “Though it is difficult,” said Jane, “to guess in what way he can mean to make us the atonement he thinks our due, the wish is certainly to his credit.” 19. a) And with his arm around my waist, guiding me into my third-row seat, I was reminded that the nice man attended the gym very regularly. b) “This is such a waste of time,” Hermione hissed. 20. a) I have a high respect for your nerves. b) “Hi,” I said, accepting his kiss on the cheek and feeling distinctly underdressed in a little Splendid T-shirt dress and Havaianas. 21. a) He is going to fall into the hole. b) ‘And with Alex?’ Jenny asked, signalling the waitress and ordering more or less the whole dessert menu. c) For a hole in your roof or a whole new roof. 22. a) “Well, you know that old motorbike that Mick had for years?” b) “No,” he shook his head, smiling. 23. a) Our boat survived and I was trying to recover when my elder brother put mouth close to my ear, and screamed out the horrifying word ‘Whirlpool!’ b) He did look at it and into it for half an hour, was pleased with what the owner said in its praise, and took it immediately. 24. Do you see the letter 'c' written in sea salt? 25. a) Nazan picked up me and stroked my tail. b) That is the beginning of my tale. 26. a) He sees America as a crazy house. b) The final issue deals with the right to seize the item. 27. A much more terrible sight awaited one at the site of the accident. 28. a) Suffice to say I’d never hammered a nail before in my life, and Alberta knew it. b) My nails skewed at odd angles or bounced free and took flight. 29. We must polish the Polish furniture. 30. The glory and the beauty of new days will always leave me in a heady daze! 31. a) “Face your partners!” called Lockhart, back on the platform. “And bow!” b) As he passed the door to the living room, Harry caught a glimpse of Uncle Vernon and Dudley in bow ties and dinner jackets. 32. a) “You're wrong,” he said aloud to the still and silent hat. b) But they are the most dangerous creatures that ever lived because there is nothing they will not do if allowed, and nothing they will not be allowed to do. 33. a) Firstly, there is a joint-stock piano in a great many of the boarding-houses. b) In every little chamber that I entered, and at every grate through which I looked, I seemed to see the same appalling countenance. 34. a) Commissions in the service are distributed on the same principle. b) The principal medical attendant resides under the same roof; and were the patients members of his own family, they could not be better cared for, or attended with greater gentleness and consideration. 35. a) Ron went as red as Ginny. b) “Lizzy, when you first read that letter, I am sure you could not treat the matter as you do now.” 36. a) The ladies were somewhat more fortunate, for they had the advantage of ascertaining from an upper window that he wore a blue coat, and rode a black horse. b) He was digging here, one summer day, very industriously, when the wicket in the outer gate chanced to be left open: showing, beyond, the well-remembered dusty road and sunburnt fields. 37. a) Restlessly, without thinking she began to lift objects with her mind and put them back down, the way a nervous woman awaiting someone in a restaurant will fold and unfold her napkin. b) I wake, of course, when we get under weigh, for there is a good deal of noise. 38. a) Our road wound through the pleasant valley of the Susquehanna; the river, dotted with innumerable green islands, lay upon our right; and on the left, a steep ascent, craggy with broken rock, and dark with fir trees. b) The tip of Dumbledore's long, crooked nose was barely an inch from Mrs. Norris's fur. 39. a) They passed a group of gloomy nuns, a ragged man wearing chains, and the Fat Friar, a cheerful Hufflepuff ghost, who was talking to a knight with an arrow sticking out of his forehead. b) Four Hi-Presh-A Smart Suits moved slowly out of the open hatchway of the salvage craft and waded through the barrage of its lights toward the monstrous shape that loomed darkly out of the sea night. 40. a) A ring at the doorbell sounded loudly. b) That golden ring with diamond was very expensive but Robert bought it for Betty. 41. a) A good rest was just necessary for him, because of his being terribly tired. b) Two of the attackers were killed, and the rest escaped. 42. a) The plane was just a dot on the horizon. b) Her beauty was the valuable dot from nature. 43. May one give us peace in all our States. And the other – a piece for all our plates. 44. See shadows of a ghost ship lost at sea. Directory: bitstream -> 123456789 123456789 -> College day annual report 123456789 -> Biomchanics and Medicine in Swimming, Jyväskyla, Finland June 1998 123456789 -> A. gw student and alumni numbers summary 3 123456789 -> Keywords Domestication research, older adults, digital games, media adoption, motivation, time expenditure, display of technology, identification Corresponding Author 123456789 -> Clustering Microarray Data within Amorphous Computing Paradigm and Growing Neural Gas Algorithm 123456789 -> From Via della Scala to the Cathedral: Social Spaces and the Visual Arts in Paolo Uccello’s Florence 123456789 -> Paralinguistic factors affecting foreign language acquisition 123456789 -> The need for utopian thinking in architecture Download 1.19 Mb. Share with your friends:
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