Seminar 5-6.

Lexico-Semantic Classes of Words

1. Homonyms in English and Ukrainian. Classifications.

The word “homonym” comes from the Greek word “homonymos” which means
“having the same name”. The word “homo” means the same and “nym” means name.
Homonyms are words which are identical in sound and spelling, or, at least, in
one of these aspects, but different in their meaning. E.g.:
Bank – a shore; bank – an institution for receiving, lending, exchanging, and
safeguarding money. Ball – a sphere, a round object used in games; ball – a large
dancing party.
English vocabulary is rich in such pairs and even groups of words. Their identical
forms are mostly accidental; the majority of homonyms coincided due to phonetic
changes which they suffered during their development. In Ukrainian homonyms are rare
due to a well-developed system of endings.
Homonyms classified into three groups: absolute (proper) homonyms,
homophones and homographs.
Homonyms, which are the same in sound and spelling, are termed absolute
(proper) homonyms (e.g. ball - ball, bank – bank, palm - palm).
Homophones are also known assound-alike words, are words with the same
pronunciation but different spelling and meaning e.g.: night – knight, piece – peace,
scent – cent, sent; son – sun; rite, n – to write, – right; sea – to see.
In the sentence “The play-write on my right thinks that some conventional rite
should symbolize the right of every man to write as he pleases” the sound complex [rait]
is noun, adjective, adverb and verb, has 4 different spellings and different meanings.
The difference may be confined (обмежна) to the use of a capital letter as in “bill” and
“Bill”: “How much is my milk bill?” – “Excuse me, madam, but my name is John”. On
the other hand, whole sentences may be homophonic: “The sons raise meat” (Сини
виробляють м’ясо) – “The sun’s rays meet” (Зустрічаються сонячні промені). To
understand this one needs a wide context.
In Ukrainian homophones are not numerous. They may be found only among the
words with sounds in unstressed or shadowed position of a word. e.g гриби - греби
Homographs are words which have the same spelling but different in their
meaning, origin and pronunciation.
E.g.: to tear [te] – tear [tie]; to polish [o] – Polish [ou], row [rau] – to row [o].
Homonyms also may be classified by the type of their meaning. In this case one
should distinguish between:
 1. Lexical homonyms which belong to the same part of speech, e.g. light
(легкий, світлий); club (клуб, кийок, клюшка); bear (терпіти, нести);
2. Grammatical homonyms which belong to different parts of speech, e.g. row
(гребти, ряд); weather – whether, brothers – brother’s;
3. Homoforms which are identical only in some of their paradigm constituents,
e.g. bore (отвір), n. – bore (p.p. bear); scent – sent; to found – found (p.p. find).

2. Synonyms in English and Ukrainian.

The term synonym comes from a combination of the Ancient Greek syn, meaning
with, similar, alike, and onoma, meaning “name.” Synonyms are regular and essential
parts of everyday language that we use almost without thinking. They come in all parts
of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and so on.
Synonyms are words belonging to the same part of speech, differing in sound
form, and possessing one or more identical or nearly identical denotative meanings.
They have the same paradigmatic characteristics and possess sematic equivalence. E.g.
метелиця :: заметіль :: завірюха :: хуртовина :: хурделиця vs. snowstorm ::
blizzard :: precipitation; look :: glance :: stare :: gaze :: glimpse :: peep :: sight :: view
vs. дивитися :: глядіти :: зирити :: глипати :: спозирати :: назирати :: поглипувати,
etc.
Words are said to be synonymous if they mean the same thing. The terms movie,
film, flick, and motion picture all have the same set of referents in the real world and are
usually taken to be synonymous terms. To address the notion of synonymy more
formally, we can say that term A is synonymous with term B if every referent of A is a
referent of B and vice versa. For example, if every movie is a film and every film is a
movie, the terms movie and film are synonymous. The “vice versa” is important:
without it, we would be defining hyponymy.
Among the criteria that underlie lexical items synonymy are:
a) identity or closeness of meanings, cf.: cosmos :: universe vs. космос ::
всесвіт; краєвид :: ландшафт vs. scenery :: landscape.
b) interchangeability (взаємозамінність) in a context, cf.: It’s a huge (gigantic)
tower vs. Це величезна (гігантська) вежа.
Words that are totally identical in their meaning and stylistic colouring, being
interchangeable in the context are called absolute synonyms. In fact, there are very few
true synonyms in lexicon. More often than not, terms that appear to be synonymous
have different social and affective connotations. Even if we restrict meaning to
linguistic meaning, words that appear synonymous at first glance often refer to slightly
different sets of concepts or are used in different situations. The adjectives fast, quick,
and rapid may be used interchangeably in reference to someone’s running speed, but a
fast talker (a ‘slippery or deceptive person’) is different from a “quick talker”; some
people live lives in the fast lane, not the “rapid lane”. And quick is the most appropriate
term to describe a mind or a glance, while rapid is the usual term when reference is
made to a person’s stride (крок), especially metaphorical strides, as in learning to type
or do mathematics. In Ukrainian, the corresponding synonymous group also reveals
restrictions, determined by lexical collocations, cf.: швидка (хода), швидкісний
(поїзд); пливка (течія), кваплива (мова), прудкокрилий (птах), прудконога
(дівчина), негайна (поміч), шпарка (робота), etc.

3. Classification of Synonyms.
There are four main types of synonyms:

1. Absolute synonyms are identical in their meanings and stylistic colouring.

They are interchangeable in all contexts and are very rare, e.g. to moan – to groan,
fatherland – motherland – homeland; word-building – word-formation; compounding –
composition; батьківщина – вітчизна.

2. Ideographic (semantic) synonyms are words that have the same concept, but
differ in additional shades of meaning. E.g.: шлях :: дорога (шлях “смуга землі,
призначена для їзди та ходіння; дорога”; дорога “будь-яке місце для проїзду й
місце для проходу, навіть дуже вузьке”) vs. way :: road (way “a route, direction or
path”; road “an open way, usually a paved one, for the passage of vehicles, people, and
animals”). Some other examples: страх vs. жах; say vs. tell; town vs. city; fast, quick,
rapid;

3. Stylistic synonyms are differ in stylistic characteristics, e.g. father – parent –

dad (daddy) – papa – governor (голова, начальник); to eat – to partake (приймати
їжу) – to wolf (пожирати).

In most cases the synonymic group includes both ideographic and stylistic
synonyms, e.g. to begin (neutral) – to commence (bookish) – to start (neutral) – to
initiate (bookish).

Stylistic synonyms can also appear by means of abbreviation. In most cases the
abbreviated form belongs to the colloquial style, and the full form to the neutral style,
e.g. examination – exam.

Among stylistic synonyms we can point out a special group of words which are
called euphemisms (юфумізмс). These are words used to substitute some unpleasant
or offensive words, e.g. the late (покійний) instead of dead, to perspire (потіти) instead
of to sweat etc.
 4. Mixed (ideographic-and-stylistic) synonyms are words that differ in shades
of meaning, semantic extension, emotive and / or expressive charge.

E.g.: friend (neutral) “a person whom you know well and whom you like a lot,
but who is usually not a member of your family”; associate (приятель), comrade, pal
are characterized by social and emotional relations between the people during a
considerable period of time. Associate is “someone who is closely connected to another
person as a companion, friend or business partner”; comrade (slightly dated) – “an
intimate friend or associate”; pal (informal) “a close friend”. Those words, unlike the
word companion “a person you spend a lot of time with because you are friends or
because you are travelling together” cannot denote contacts of short duration, those that
can be easily established and broken with (e.g. in a game, on a train etc.). The word
crony (informal) “a close friend, esp. of long standing” denotes friendship of many
years standing.

In Ukrainain друг (neutral) “людина, зв’язана з кимнебудь довірою,

відданістю, спільними поглядами, переконаннями, на яку можна в усьому
покластися”; брат, друзяка, дружище (informal) “у звертанні”; побратим, камрат
(dialect) “переважно у боротьбі, боях”; приятель (informal), дружок (informal), кум
(informal), кумпан (dialect) “людина, з якою склалися добрі, але не надто близькі
стосунки”; товариш “людина, яка спільно з ким-небудь виконує якусь справу,
бере участь у якихось діях”; спільник, однодумець, братчик (informal);
компаньйон “товариш, співучасник чого-небудь”; колега “за фахом, місцем праці
чи навчання” etc.

Each group of synonyms comprises a synonymic dominant – the unit possessing

the most general meaning of the kind which can substitute any word in the group, e.g. to
shine – to flash, to gleam, to glisten, to sparkle, to glitter, to shimmer, to glimmer; red –
purple, scarlet, crimson.

In English there are a lot of synonyms because there are many borrowings, e.g.
hearty (native) – cordial (borrowing). After a word is borrowed it undergoes
desynonymization because absolute synonyms are unnecessary for a language. In cases
of desynonymization one of the absolute synonyms can specialize in its meaning and we
get semantic synonyms, e.g. city (borrowed) – town (native). The French borrowing city
is specialized. In other cases native words can be specialized in their meanings, e.g.
stool (native) – chair (French borrowing).

4. Antonyms in English and Ukrainian. Classification.

Semantic similarity or polarity of words may be observed in their denotational or
connotational meanings. Similarity or polarity of meanings is to be found in lexiсal
groups of synonyms and antonyms. Similarity and polarity of denotative components
serve as the basis for stylistic stratification of vocabulary units. Both problems atr much
the same and are approached in similar ways.
Antonyms (Gr. anti – against, onyma – name) – are words which are different in sound
form and characterized by semantic polarity of their denotative meanings. Antonymy
shares many features typical of synonymy. Like synonyms, perfect and complete
antonyms are rare; interchangeability is typical to antonyms as well. In contrast with
synonymy antonymy is a binary relationship between 2 words. In most cases antonyms
go in pairs: day – night; present – absent; early – late. Groups of 3 or more words
brought together as opposites are commonly reduced to binary opposition: difficult,
hard – easy; broad, wide – narrow; rapid, fast – slow.
According to morphological classification antonyms may be absolute (root) and
derivational. Absolute antonyms are diametrically opposite in meaning and
remainantonyms in many word combinations: love – hate; light – dark; white – black.
Derivational antonyms are formed with the help of the negative affixes:
a) prefixes: un- (the most productive): known - unknown;
in- (with its allomorphs il-, or-, im-): irregular, incomplete;
dis-: to disarrange, to disfigure, to dishonour;
mis-: misfortune, mislead, misproportion, to mistrust;
non-: non-human, non-abolity, non-acceptance, non-aggressive.
b) suffixes: -less (often instead of -ful): careful – careless; shameful –shameless; painful
– painless.
Mixed affixes: both absolute and derivational: correct – incorrect, wrong; expensive –
unexpensive, cheep; normal – abnormal, queer; temporary – untemporary, interminable.
According to the semantic classification antonyms may be: proper, complementary,
conversive. The semantic polarity in antonyms proper is relative.
It may embrace several elements characterized by differenet degrees of the same
property. They always imply comparison: large – little, small; strong – weak. They
denote polar degrees of the same notion – size. Such antonyms are called gradable, they
indicate dimensions on the scale.
Complementary antonyms (complimentaries) are words characterized by a
binary (double) opposition which may have only 2 members. The denial of one member
implies the assertion of the other: male – female; alive - dead. They are absolute or non-
gradable and indicate sharp boundaries in the semantic spectrum.
Conversives denote one and the same referent as viewed from different point of view
(e.g. that of the subject and that of the object, etc.): he gave her flowers and she took
them. Conversive pairs denote relations between objects and people: lend and borrow;
above and below; buy and sell. They bear symmetrical relations to each other.
Antonyms are common in proverbs.
e.g. A good beginning makes a good ending.
Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.
Drunkeness reveals what soberness conceals

5. Types of Antonymic Correspondence.

According to their structure antonyms are divided into cognate (semantic) and non-
cognate (derivational).
Non-cognate antonyms are words that are opposed by their meanings. They constitute
the majority of antonyms both in English and in Ukrainian, cf.: warm :: cold vs. теплий
:: холодний; early :: late vs. рано :: пізно; швидкий :: повільний vs. quick :: slow;
будувати :: руйнувати vs. build :: destroy.
Cognate antonyms are words that are formed by adding an affix (in particular, prefix)
to the opposing word, cf.: armed :: unarmed vs. озброєний :: беззбройний;
симетричний :: асиметричний vs. symmetric :: asymmetric.
The most productive opposite-forming affixes in Ukrainian are без-, а-, анти-, де-, ви-,
за-, від- :: під-, від- :: при-, роз- :: з-(с-), роз- :: на-, у-(в-), cf.: демократичний ::
антидемократичний; орієнтація :: дезорієнтація; виводити :: заводити; відбігати ::
підбігати; відчалювати :: причалювати; розформувати :: сформувати;
розвантажувати :: навантажувати; вдихати :: видихати. In
English these affixes are: anti-, dis-, in-, un-, counter-, -less :: -ful, cf.: organization ::
disorganization; complete :: incomplete; settled :: unsettled; fascist :: antifascist;
revolutionary :: counter-revolutionary; hopeless :: hopeful.
The analysis of the English and Ukrainian counterparts reveals four types of antonymic
correspondences. Antonyms may be:
a) non-cognate in Ukrainian, but cognate in English, cf.: з’являтися :: зникати vs.
appear :: disappear;
b) non-cognate in English, but cognate in Ukrainian, cf.: mask :: expose vs.
маскувати :: демаскувати;
c) non-cognate both in Ukrainian and in English, cf.: ніжний :: грубий vs. tender ::
rude.
d) cognate both in Ukrainian and in English, cf.: розбірливий :: нерозбірливий vs.
legible :: illegible.

Exercise 1. Find homonyms in the following extracts. Classify them into homonyms
proper (absolute), homographs and homophones.
1. "Mine is a long and a sad tale!" said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing. "It is a
long tail, certainly," said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse's tail; "but why
do you call it sad?" (homophones)

2. Our Institute football team got a challenge to a match from the University team and
we accepted it.
3. Somebody struck a match so that we could see each other. (proper (absolute))

4. It was nearly December but the California sun made a summer morning of the season.
5. On the way home Crane no longer drove like a nervous old maid. (homophones)

6. On their left a few feathery coconut palms stretched their necks above the clumped
vegetation.
7. Johnny puffed at his cigarette in his closed palm. (proper (absolute))

8. She wished she could run a million miles away. Away from her husband who had
cried and wailed constantly for a week.
9. "He's still too weak. Don't stay long." (homophones)

Exercise 2. Provide the following words with absolute homonyms. Give their Ukrainian
equivalents. exam
Fair (чесний, ярмарок, ясний)
Mood (настрій, тональність)
School (школа, косяк)
Pupil (учень, зіниця)
Seal (тюлень, печатка)
May (травень, може)
Like (як, подобатися, схожий)
Firm (твердий, фірма)
Club (клуб, кийок, булава)
Scale (шкала, масштаб)
Spring (джерело, весна, пружина, стрибати)
Long (довгий, високий, бажати)
Mess (безлад, їдальна військових)
Can (консервна банка, могти)
Bear (ведмідь)
Band (група (музична), бандаж, бинт, оркестр)

Exercise 3. Find homographs to the following words and transcribe them.

Wind
/wɪnd/ - вітер
/waɪnd/ звиватися
tear
/teər/ - рвати
/tɪər/ - сльоза
polish
/ˈpɒl.ɪʃ/ - полірувати
/ˈpəʊ.lɪʃ/ - польський
row
/rəʊ/ - гребти, ряд
/raʊ/ - сварка
bow
/baʊ/ - згинатися
/boʊ/ - бант, лук
object
/ˈɒb.dʒɪkt/ - об'єкт
/əbˈdʒekt/ - заперучувати
desert
/ˈdez.ət/ - пустеля
/dɪˈzɜrt/ - дезиртирувати
bass
/beɪs/ - бас (в музиці)
/bæs/ - окунь

Exercise 4. Find homophones to the following words. Translate them into Ukrainian.
Piece – peace
right – write
sail – sale
see – sea
knight – night
cite (цитувати) – sight (зір, визначне місце),
son – sun
meat – meet
fare (тариф, плата за проїзд) – fair
heal – heel
sole – soul
whole – hole
weather – whether,
suit – soot (кіптява)
buy – by (біля)
plate – plait (коса).

Exercise 5. Comment on the mechanism of homonyms formation. Define the parts of

speech:
Уголос – у голос, настав – на став, додому – до дому, убік – у бік, удень –у день,
зате – за те, звечора – з вечора, догори –до гори, уп’ятьох – у п’ятьох, по-перше –
по перше, якби – як би.

Exercise 6. Give synonyms to the words in bold type.

1. Isabel sat still at her dressing table. (quietly, motionlessly)
2. There was complete silence. (absolute, total)
3. It was an ordinary bus trip with crying babies and hot sun. (tour, journey,
excursion)
4. That idea stirred (схвилювала) Caroline. (excited, agitated, alarmed)
5. When she laughed it came out loose and young. (giggled, chukled)
6. She longed for him with all her heart for him to take her in his arms so that she
could lay her head on his breast. (desired, wanted, wished)
7. I was astonished at seeing him so changed. (amazed, impressed, surprised,
shocked)
8. There was a scent of honey from the lime-trees in flowers. (smell, fragrance,
aroma)
9. He merely blushed and said that he was jolly well going to go, because this girl
was in Cannes. (turned red)
10. Her voice was trembling with excitement. (shaking, quivering, wavering,
shivering)

1. Яка в кого натура, така й совість (Григір Тютюнник). (вдача, характер)

2. Сивий сніг заносить поле бою (М. Рильський). (Сірий, білуватий,
посріблений; місце битви)
3. Чи поліпшує погану книжку те, що її написав гарний письменник?
(покращує / талановитий, хороший, здібний, чудовий)
4. Краще з мужніми полягти, ніж зі слабкими вистояти. (померти, спочити,
пропасти)

Exercise 7. Find synonymic dominants in the following groups of synonyms.

ask, inquire, demand, interrogate, question;
choose, elect, pick out, select;
odd, strange, queer, quaint;
gratify, please, exalt, content, satisfy, delight;
alone, single, solitary, lonely;
man, chat, fellow, lad;
reflect, think, meditate, brood.

Exercise 8. Find antonyms to the words given below.

Narrow - wide
poor – rich, wealthy
to die – to birth, bear
clean – dirty
light – dark, heavy
young – old
enemy – friend
quick – slow
to rise – fall, lower
slowly – quickly, fast
employed - unemployed
to start – to finish
unknown – known, famous
selfish - kind
order – mess (лад), prohibition (дозвіл)
active – passive
to close – to open
impossible – possible, probable
to descend – to ascend
down – up
to lose – to find (губити), to win (програвати)
dull – intresting (нудний), bright (тьмяний)
Яскравий – тьмяний
твердий – м’який
сум – радість
юність – старість
відомий – невідомий
плюс – мінус
мовчазний – балакучий
початок – кінець
втрачати – знаходити
 щедрий – скупий

Exercise 9. Find antonyms in the following sentences. Classify them into root and
affixational.

1. To see both sides of a question vigorously (енергійно) was at once John's strength
and weakness. (root)
2. Once people are dead, you can't make them undead. (affixational)
3. His vitality (життєва сила) was absolute, not relative (відносний). (root)
4. And behind his tangible (відчутний) dread (страх) there was always that intangible
trouble, lurking (ховатися) in the background.
5. If the stakes (ставки) over became higher enough - if the evil were evil enough, if the
good were good enough ― I would simply tap (використовувати) a secret reservoir of
courage that had been accumulating inside me over the years. (root)
6. Certain blood was shed (проливатися) for uncertain reasons. (affixational)
7. What sticks (залишатися, затримуватися) to memory, often, are those odd little
fragments that have no beginning and no end. (root)