HOMONYMY
- Homonymy occurs when two words
look and sound the same but they
have different meanings
- They represent two different entries
in the dictionary because they are
two lexemes with the same form
- Without checking the dictionary, it is
difficult to differentiate homonymy
from polysemy. In the former there is
no relation in the meaning of the
words whereas in the latter we are
talking about one word with more
than one meaning
o Bank vs. eye
- There are 3 types of homonyms:
o Homophones: same sound but
different spelling (site & sight)
o Homographs: same spelling
but different sound (invalid)
o Homomorphs: same form but
different syntactic categories.
(‘process & pro’cess)
SYNONYMY
- Two words are synonyms when they
are different in form but share the
same meaning. They should be
interchangeable without a change of
meaning in the utterance
- Truly synonyms are those which share
the same semantic features,
connotations and grammatical
identity and behaviour
- There are some linguists who affirm
that there is not absolute synonyms
because there is always a
connotation that makes one word
more suitable than the other
- There are 6 types of synonyms:
o Connotations
o Partial synonyms
o Jargon
o Dialectal
o Stylistic
o Euphemism
ANTONYMY
- Oppositeness is one of the most
important sense relations in language
because they share most of their
semantic features with the exception
of meaning
- Antonyms occur in the same style,
register and dialect
- There are 2 types of antonyms:
o Gradable: are not absolute
qualities, they are subject to
comparison and qualification.
Gradable antonyms represent
two ends of a spectrum with
intermediate point along its
length. They don’t mutually
exclude the other
o Ungradable: are divided into
complementary and
relational. In the former, the
denial of a member implies
the assumption of the other
(live vs. dead). In the latter,
one term presupposed the
other (buy vs. sell)
 FALSE FRIENDS
- False-friends are pairs of words that belong to
different languages, they look or sound similar but
have completely different meanings
- That is a problem for unwary translators, native
speakers and learners of foreign languages
- They are normally associated with languages which
are culturally or historically associated (Spanish,
English, French) but they also occur with unrelated
languages such as English and Japanese
- Lexical Transfer: occurs when an individual attributes
to a word of a foreign language the semantic features
of its assumed native language translation equivalent.
- Teachers normally provide lists of false friends but
those need practice and memorisation in order to be
useful.
LEXICAL CREATIVITY
- Languages are dynamic systems whose elements are in continuous
development
- Meaning & vocabulary are the levels of language which are more
subject to change and influence. Those are continually revised and
extended because new words from native or foreign origin occupy
the semantic space which another word used to represent.
- New semantic gaps appeared too, so new words need to be created
or new meaning need to be added to the already existing ones.
- Lexical creativity could be carried out by creating new word or adding
new meaning to the existing ones. In order to create new word we
use word-formation processes, clipping, blending or compounding.
However, to create new meaning we use the metaphor, the
metonymy or narrowing and widening.
- Lyons focused on the metaphor and established some features for
lexical creativity. Among them we find:
o Narrowing and widening
o Pejoration and amelioration
o Contiguity and similarity of meaning
o Contiguity and similarity of form
- Figurative language
o Widely used in literature and humour
o It breaks and violates semantic restrictions
o Its most common linguistic devices are: synecdoche,
oxymoron, personification, and synaesthesia.