Литература по учебной дисциплине «Практика устной и письменной речи»

(1) 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.: cf., OE mal> NE mole I (родинка) :: OE mol> ME molle> NE mole II (крот).
(2) Historical homonyms are those which result from disintegration (splitting) 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 (ноготь) :: nail (гвоздь) < OE naeg(e)l; beam (луч) :: beam (балка) < OE beam.
The so-called ‘false friends’ are pairs of words or phrases in two languages or dialects (or letters in two alphabets) that look or sound similar, but differ significantly in meaning: e.g., English resin – смола, канифоль and Russian резина – rubber.


3.5. Paronyms
Paronyms are words that are alike in form but different in meaning and usage. They are liable to be mixed and sometimes mistakenly interchanged. E.g., precede – proceed; preposition – proposition; popular – populous.
According to the lexical meaning, paronyms are:
– synonymous, semantically close: hustle – hassle;
– antonymous: emigration “the act of leaving one’s native country with the intent to settle permanently or temporarily elsewhere) – immigration (the movement of people into a country to which they are not native in order to settle there), progress – regress – progression – regression;
– semantically different: bed – bad, gay – guy.
Homonyms and paronyms are used to make pun, which is a play on words and their meanings aimed at expressing criticism and/or producing a humorous effect. E.g., A good farmer is nothing more nor less than a handyman with a sense of humus. (E. B. White, The Practical Farmer); Curl Up and Dye (a beauty salon in London).


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