Homonyms are words that are identical in sound composition, but not related in meaning: lezginka (dance) - lezginka (woman); rook (piece in chess) - rook (ship); ambassador (method of procurement of products) - ambassador (diplomat). The same external sound-letter and grammatical form of homonyms makes communication difficult, since distinguishing their meaning is possible only in context, in combination with other words. Homonyms, examples of which show this, cannot be understood without context: an advantageous offer is an impersonal offer; buds open - cure buds; right hand - right (innocent).
Types and examples of homonyms in Russian
Full lexical homonymy is the coincidence of words referring to the same part of speech in all forms: month (calendar) - month (light), assembly of a car (from the verb to collect) - assembly on fabric (fold), motive (musical) - motive (behavior), read (book) - read (adults, parents), outfit (order) - outfit (clothes), note (diplomatic) - note (musical). Incomplete lexical homonymy implies a coincidence in spelling and sounding of words related to the sameparts of speech, not in all forms: stingray (wheel; inanimate) - stingray (to the river; inanimate) - stingray (fish; animate); bury a hole (perfect view - bury) - bury medicine (perfect view - bury); cancer (river animal) - cancer (disease, has only a singular number).
There are homonyms, examples of which can be seen below, related to grammatical and sound change: mouth - gender (pronounced as [mouth]); three (from the verb to rub) - three (number); pair (boots) - (clubs) pair; oven (pies) - (Russian) oven.
Homonyms: examples and types by structure
- Root. They have a non-derivative basis: marriage (factory) and marriage (happy), peace (reigns in the family and the state) and peace (Universe).
- Derivative homonyms - the result of word formation: drill (song drill) and drill forest.
Phonetic, grammatical and graphic homonyms: examples of usage
Homophones (phonetic homonyms) - words that are identical in sound composition, but different in spelling (letter composition): mushroom and flu, code and cat, fort and ford, illuminate and consecrate, people and fierce.
Homographs (letter, graphic homonyms) - words that have the same alphabetic composition, but differ in pronunciation: shelves - shelves, horns - horns, atlas - atlas, soar - soar (the stress in these words falls on different syllables).
Omoforms - coincidence of grammatical forms of one word or different words: window glass (noun) - glass on the floor (verb inpast tense), it's time to go - summer time; hunting (for predators) and hunting (desire); popsicle ice cream - frozen meat (noun and adjective); return in spring - enjoy spring (adverb and noun); flow on the floor - close up a leak (verb and noun).
Pun and homonyms: examples of words and casual statements
You need to be careful when using homonyms, because in some situations homonymy can distort the meaning of the statement and lead to comedy. For example, the words of a football match commentator: “In today's match, the players left the football field without goals” can be understood in two ways. And even writers are not immune from such speech incidents:
- "Have you heard?"
- "You can't be indifferent to evil."
