II. For each example, say whether the result of the semantic shift is narrowing, widening, degeneration or amelioration.

1. wife: OE (wif) “a woman” > MnE “a married woman”

2. nuke: “to destroy with nuclear weapon”' > “to destroy in any manner”

3. marshall: ME “groom for horses (literally “horse slave”)” > MnE “high ranking officer”

4. starve: OE (steorfan) “to die (of any cause)” > MnE “to die from hunger”

5. villain: ME (vilein) “feudal serf, farmer” > MnE “a wicked or evil person”

6. butcher: OE (bouchier) “one who slaughters goats” > MnE butcher “one who slaughters animals”

7. girl: ME (girle) “child” > MnE “female child”

8. lyric: “poem to be sung with a lyre” > “any poem to be sung”

9. lewd: “of the laity (i.e. non-church)” > “indecent”

10. barn: “a storehouse for barley” > “any kind of storehouse”

11. undertaker: “a person who undertakes something” > “funeral director”

12. gossip: ME (godsip) “god parent” > “the one who talks scandal”

13. knight: ME (kniht) “manservant” > “noble man”

III. Identify the type of semantic shift that has occurred in each case, choose either metaphor or metonymy:

1. barbecue “a rack for cooking meat over a fire” > “a social event at which food is cooked over a fire”

2. eat “to take (food) into the mouth and swallow it” > “to damage or destroy, esp. by chemical action”

3. mouth “the body opening through which an animal takes food” > “a person” (e.g. “three mouths to feed”)

4. label “to fix or tie a label on” > “to put into a kind or class”

5. counter “a device for counting” > “a surface on which various devices can be placed”

6. mouth “the body opening through which an animal takes food” > “an opening into a cave or canyon”

7. white shirt “a shirt that is white in color” > “a manager”

8. salute “a military sign of recognition” > “a greeting”

9. naked (of a person’s body) “not covered by clothes” > (with the naked) eye “without any instrument to help one see”

10. nickel “hard silver-white metal” > “the coin of the US and Canada worth five cents”

SEMINAR IX

Homonyms and Paronyms

1. Classification of homonyms.

2. Sources of homonymy.

3. Differentiation between homonymy and polysemy.

4. Paronyms.

Questions and Tasks

I. Consider your answers to the following:

1. What are homonyms?

2. What is the traditional classification of homonyms? Give your own examples to illustrate your answer.

3. What is the difference between full and partial homonyms?

4. What are lexical, grammatical and lexico-grammatical homonyms?

5. What are the main sources of homonymy?

6. What is the essential difference between homonymy and polysemy? What are the means of differentiation between them?

7. What are paronyms? Why should they be studied?

II. Give perfect homonyms to the following words:

Ear, date, can, sample, rare, mole, hide, sound, rally, mere, grasp, box, bark, litter, bowler, mean, pile, yard.

III. Find homophones to the following words, translate them into Russian or explain their meanings in English:

Heir, dye, cent, tale, sea, week, peace, mail, pain, meat, steel, sum, coarse, sight, hare.

IV. Find homographs to the following words and transcribe both:

Minute, to tear, row, lead, sewer, close.

SEMINAR X

Synonyms and Antonyms

1. Definition of synonyms. Criteria of synonymy. Sources of synonymy. Synonymic dominant.

2. Types of synonyms. Euphemisms.

3. Antonyms.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 3682