词汇学论文01

Abstract

When we learn a language ,words are basic and important.It is neccessary to learn it from various aspect .. Homonymy is an important sense ralationship of words.It can help us to learn and apply what we have learnt accurately.

摘要：学习一门语言，仅仅掌握它的词汇的读音和拼写是不够的。要全面的掌握一门语言需要从多方面学习了解。词汇是一门语言中很重要很基本的方面，而准确的把握有助于了解和准确运用一门语言 。

Key words:homonyms,origins,types,rhetorical functions 关键词：同形同音异义词，来源，种类，修辞功能

Introduction

1.1 Introduction of homonyms

A word is a minimal free form of a language that has a given sound，meaning and syntactic function. As we know ，words are arbitrary symbols.They are related to one another in a variety of ways.As a foreign language learner,when you learn a foreign language,you may find that there are many difficulties for you to learn it well.For example,you can find that in English that there are some words which have different sounds while identical inspelling .At the same time,they are different in meaning.In some cases,they may also belong to different part of speech.Or,you may meet difficulties like these which identical in sounds while have absolute different spellings.words like these are called homonyms.These also exist in Chinese.Have a good understanding of homonyms can help you grasp a language well.homonyms can also help you in rhetorics.

1.2The organization of this paper

1. detailed imformation of homonyms(definition,types,origin) 2.funcion

3.advantages and disadvantages

2. detailed imformation of homonyms

2.1definition

Two words can share none, any or all of Spelling, Pronunciation and Meaning. All languages have synonyms (words with unrelated spelling and pronunciation but the same meaning) and words with multiple meanings.what I want to introduce is homonyms.In linguistics, a homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings (in other words, are both homographs and homophones), usually as a result of the words having

different origins. The state of being a homonym is called homonymy.

2.2Types of homonyms 2.2.1.Perfect homonyms

Perfect homonyms are these which identical both in sound and spelling.They are also known as absolute homonyms.In English,there are many words in this kind of sense relationship.there are many examples.The word “bank”is a familiar to all of us.Phrases like a river bank,a saving bank,a bank of switches share a common spelling and pronounciation,but differ in meaning.All of them are pronounced /bank/,but they are different in meaning.In “a river bank”,bank refers to the edge of the river,lake,ect.In “a savings bank ”,bank means an estalishment for money business.And it means an arrengment of similar things in a row or in tiers.There is also a intereting question about this word.The question is “why the river is the richest?”,the answer is”because it has two banks”.The bank here means an estalishment for money business.The word “bear”is same as “bank”in this kind of situation.It has only single one pronounciation/bɛə/.As for meaning,it refers to a large heavy animal when it functs as a noun while it also means “to put up with”when act as verb.In Chinese,there are many words like these as well.We all knowthat”妻子”means”wife”which refers toa man‟s partner in marriage,while in ancient china it means both wife and children.when we now say”小学”we means the primary stage of school education,but in ancient times it meant the small apects of study.one more example,”颜色”means the color of something,but in ancient china it means complexion.When we are reading or diong our exercises like comprehensoin,we alwaysmeet problems like these.They always bring us a lot of difficulties.So,it is very necessary for us to gain a good knowledge of perfect homonyms.

2.2.2Homographs

Words identical only in spelling but diferent in sound and meaning are called homographs.when you communicate with others,if you do not know these or you speak with a wrong pronounciation,then you can not properly express what you want to say.Other may do not know what you are saying a well.On the other hand,as a listener,other‟s words can not be convyed to you accurately.Some examples about homographs.The word “bow”,pronounced as /bəu/, refers to the device used for shooting arrows.It can also be pronounced/bau/and means “bending the head as a greeting”In English,there are many words which the change of sound is the result of change in type of speech.The worl”live‟is pronounced /liv/when it functs as a verb which means “to have your home in a particular place”.When its function is a adjetive,it is pronounced/laiv/,means”living,not dead”.In Chinese,there are also these kinds of words. “乐”is pronounced as “lè”as a adjective,it means”happy,glad,joyful”.It can also be pronounced as” yuè”since it can also act as a noun,and

means”music”.As for the word “看”,it has two pronounciations---“kān”and “kàn”,wirh the former pronounciation,it means “look after,take care of”while for the later pronounciation it means”see,look at,watch”.No matter which language you are studying now,you must learn homographs well.

2.2.3Homophones

Homophones are words identical only in sound but different in spelling and meaning.Have a good konwledge of homophones can develop your abilities in listening.It can do good to your communication with others As we know the words”son”and”sun”are identical in sound.Both of them are pronounced/ sʌn /,but the former one refers to “a male child of a parent”while the later one refers to “the heavy body from which the earth gets warmth and light”.Another example,”knows”and”nose”are pronounced as/ nəuz /.”Knows”means” be cognizant or aware of a fact or a specific piece of information; possess knowledge or information about”.”nose”means” the organ of smell and entrance to the respiratory tract; the prominent part of the face of man or other mammals”.Actually,we should introduce another conception here which is called homoforms. It refers to words quite different in „meaning but identical in spelling or sound in some of their grammatical forms are called homoforms.”knows”and ”nose”are two words in that situation.There is a joke about these two words.there is a question which ask you the cleverest aninmal in the world.the answer is pig,because “it nose every thing”.Here,”nose”is the homophony of “knows”.In fact,it means”pig knows evering thing”,so it is the cleverest animal So are the words” lives /livz/” as a verb (third person, singular, present tense of to live) and ” lives/laivz/” as a noun (plural form of life). In the word.In chinese,words like these are also exists in a great number.”权利”and ”权力” are homophones.Both of them have the very same pronounciation” quánlì”.But “权利”means “right”,”权力”means“power,authority”.Another example,”国事”and ”国势”are both” guó shì”.but the foemer one means “national affairs”while the later one means “national power”.Of these three types,homophones constitute the largest number and are most common.So we should do our best to grasp it .

2.3.Origins of homonyms We have learnt polysems which is a common feature peculiar to all natural languages.you may find that polysems are very much like the perfect homonyms.Actualy,they are different.They are belong to different origins. Perfect homonyms and polysems are fully identical with regard to spelling and pronunciation. This creates the problem of differentiation. The fundamental difference between homonyms and polysems lies in the fact that the former refers to different words which happen to share the same form and the latter is the one and same word which has several distinguishable meanings. One important criterion is to see their etymology, i. e. homonyms are from different

sources whereas a polysem is from the same source which has acquired different meanings in the course of development. The second principal consideration is semantic relatedness. The various meanings of a polysem are correlated and connected to one central meaning to a greater or lesser degree, e. g. neck (See 6. 1 Polysemy). On the other hand, meanings of different homonyms have nothing to do with one another. In dictionaries, a polysem has its meanings all listed under one headword whereas homonyms are listed as separate entries.In a summary,the origins of homonyms can fall into three types:change in sound and spelling,borrowing,shorening.

Firstly,some homonyms are native by origin,derived from different earlier forms in Old English.The change in sound and spelling gradually made them identical in modern English.when ear means an organ with which to listen and hear, came from Old English ēare, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch oor and German Ohr, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin auris and Greek ous.when it means the grain bearing spike of corn or wheat , come from Old English ēar, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch aar and German Ähre.

Secondly,borrowing.As a result of heavy of borrowing from other language,many words of foreign origin coincide in sound and spelling with those of native origin or with those of other foreign origin.when “fair” means a market,it comes from from late Latin feria, singular of Latin feriae 'holy days' (on which such fairs were often held).when it means pretty, it comes from Old English fæger 'pleasing, attractive', of Germanic origin.

Thirdly ,shortening.many shortened forms of words happen to be identical with other words in spelling or sound.one example,”ad”

And “add”,which the former one is shortened from advertisment while the later one means “to cuse an increase”.Homonyms in China mostly happened along with development of history.As the development of our history,many words are used in many diffirent situation under different circurmstances,so they have been added many other absolutly different meanings.most are reference meaning . Some of them comes into being as a resulte of the coincidence of the sound or the polarization of the word‟s meaning.

3.Rhetorical function of homonyms

We know that homonym s are identical either in sound or in spelling.Some are identical both in sound and spelling.But they are all different in meaning.so,some people may make use of features of these homonyms.One can make many jokes with these homonyms.We know that many puns comes from the homonyms.Some examples, there is a sentence like this“On Sunday they pray for you and on Monday they prey on You.”This was the remark made by a London worker on one Sunday morning when he saw groups of the so-called pious gentlemen and ladies entering the church for prayer. Prey meaning „plunder‟ or „rob‟ sounds the same as pray. In the church, the

gentlemen and ladies pray for blessing from the God, but once out of church, they show their true features, ruthlessly exploiting the working people like ferocious animals preying on their victims. The sardonic tone is unmistakable.when some one ask you “who is closer to you ,your mom or your dad?”you can answer”my mom,because my dad is farther”.For”father‟ and “farther” are very the same in pronounciation.they are homophones.Perfect homonyms can produce the same effect.If someone ask you “can you go to cinema with your broken watch?”If you do not want to go,you can say like this”of course not,for I do not have time””time ”have two different meanings here.One means” an indefinite period (usually marked by specific attributes or activities, a period of time considered as a resource under your control and sufficient to accomplish something”,on the other hand it also means” watch,a small portable timepiece”.Homonyms are many advertiser‟s favorates as well.The using of homonym in advertiseCan make people get a deep impression of the advertisment.Almost all of us know the beverage 7-Up.” 7 days, without 7-Up, makes one weak（七天不喝七喜使人浑身乏力）”is the advertising slogan of this beverage.people here used homophones “weak” and ”week”.The auther make use of their sameness in pronounciation.Wether “week” or “weak”can make it a sentence.but in this way,it can deeeply impressed you.As for chinese,you can also use homonyms in rhetirics.You can replace a word by its homonym and then make the whole phrase or sentence into a different but amazing way.One example is the homonyms used in puns as idioms in chinese. In the past, after someone died, his coffin was carried by men to the funeral in the morning. And it was considered ominous to come across the \"carrying process\" when you were out from home in the morning. (In the Chinese culture, morning is quite important for a whole day. As it is the beginning of a day, people wish to have a good beginning which foretells a good day.) If people saw the process accidentally, they consoled themselves by saying \"出门见棺(官)\".\"棺\" means coffin, and \"出门见棺\" means to see a coffin after getting out from home. \"官\" means officials, which is a homonym of \"棺\". And that is how we console ourselves by changing \"to see a coffin\" to \"to see an official\". (More lucky for sure!)In the modern times, although we do not use coffin anymore, the term is still used when coming across a hearse as a consolation.another two examples, \"岁岁平安\" is a greeting that we say during the Chinese New Year, which is to say \"Safe and sound in the next year.\" \"岁\" means year, and it is a homonym with \"碎\" which means to break something or broken. So if we break something, a bowl for instance, accidentally in the day, we say \"碎碎（岁岁）平安\". (Turning the fact that something is broken to a good wish).This idiom is used in Chinese New Year too, which means \"Wish you to have a good saving every year.\" (In Chinese philosophy, it is believe that we should always save something for the future.) \"余\" means remained things, or savings, and it shares a same pronunciation with \"鱼\" which means fish. And that is why we always have fish on the New Year's Day.Chinese use homopgones in advertisement.There is a advertisement about mosquito-repellent incense.It uses”默默无蚊”which is the variant of“默默无闻”.It is easier for people to remember it .The skillfully use in couplet is also

unique.Threr is a couplet says”海水朝朝朝朝朝朝朝朝落，浮云长长长长长长长长消”，it makes uses of the different pronounciation and different meaning of the only one spelling of these two words.so,this couplet can be read in many different ways.

4.Advangtages and disadvangtages of homonyms

From all above we can learn that there both advantages and disadvantages of homonyms.however wo should try our best and learn it well.

Advantages:it can be used in idioms which express a concealed meaning.it uses a very simple expresing to show us a very important imformation.on the other hand it is widely used in advertisment.In this way ,people can easily remenber the adas well as the products the ads want to convey to audience. Disadvabtages :it can cause many ambiguities.in most situations it will nort cause ambiguityies,because many words are used noly paticular situaions,but you should take this into consideration when the user of the language is not the native speaker,he can not understand the culture well..so he wil mistake what you said as another meaning.another disadvantage is that the use of homonyms in ads can produce a bad effect on you.especially for chinese pepol,it also make use of the feature of homonym that two words which they can share the same pronounciation but usually do not have any relaotionships with each other.Sometimes it is even wrong in terms of grammer.So it is not good for us to remenber the accurate form of a phrase.

5.Conclusion

As a foreign language leaner,is is naccessary and important fo us to learn homonyms.So is the studying of comparison of homonyms in English and Chinese.They have many similarities as well as differences.Have a better understanding of this can do good both to your own native language and foreign language. Bibliography

1.《英语词汇学教程》张维友，华中师范大学出版社。

2. 《词汇的文化蕴涵》周一农，上海三联书店。3.http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/homonyms.html 4.http://blog.hjenglish.com/wyu8402