English Lexicology_unit 15


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Exercise

Study the following passages and explain the rhetoric use of homonyms:
1. The following conversation takes place between a butcher and a customer.
　A: "How come your sausages taste like meat at one end, but like bread at the other?" the 　woman asked.
　B: The man replied: "Madam, in times like these no butcher can make both ends meet."
2. One swallow doesn't make a summer, but it surely warms you on a cold winter day.
3. "Why is Sunday the strongest day?"
　"Because all the others are week days."
4. "What colour would you paint the sun and the wind?"
　"The sun rose and wind blue."
Answer

1. Make both ends meat is a parody of make both ends meet which means "have enough money for one's needs". Here the butcher cleverly uses the pair of homonyms meat and meet to make a pun. It makes a proper answer to the lady's question. 1) Butchers cannot make both ends meat (make whole sausages with all meat) because they cannot make both ends meet (If they made sausages with all meat, which is more costly, they would not earn enough money to survive.) 2) Don't complain. All the butchers do the same. I am not the only one who is making sausages with bread.
2. Swallow is a bird which is seen in summer. But by one swallow we see, we cannot deduce that it is already summer time. Swallow can also mean a mouthful of wine. On a cold winter day, if one has a swallow of wine, one may feel wrm.
3. Week sounds like weak which is the opposite of strong. Since Sunday is the strongest, the others are naturally weak days. Literally, a weak contains six week days apart from Sunday. The ambiguous meaning of the sound /wick/ makes the dialogue humerous.
4. Paint the sun rose and the wind blue, which answer the question literally. But the sun rose and the wind blue can be understood as "The sun went up (rose) and the wind blew (which sounds like blue).　　close

1. Understand the sense relation of homonyms; 2. Get to know the characteristics of the three types of homonyms; 3. Be able to distinguish homonyms and polysemants 4. Be able to appreciate the special effect of using homonyms.

Main points

Homonymy

Types of homonyms

Origins

Differentiation

Rhetoric feature

TOP

Unit 15

●● Homonymy
　　6.2 Homonymy
　　Homonyms are generally defined as words different in meaning but either identical both in sound and spelling or identical only in sound or spelling.

●●● Types of homonyms
　　6.2.1 Types of Homonyms
　　Based on the degree of similarity, homonyms fall into three classes: perfect homonyms, homographs and homophones.
　　1. Perfect homonyms are words identical both in sound and spelling, but different in meaning, e.g.
　　bank n. the edge of the river, lake, etc.
　　bank n. an establishment for money business
　　bear n. a large heavy animal
　　bear v. to put up with
　　date n. a kind of fruit
　　date n. a boy or girl friend
　　bark v. （狗）吠
　　bark n. 树皮
　　fan n. 迷
　　fan n. 扇

　　2. Homographs [homo(same)+graph(writing)] are words identical only in spelling but different in sound and meaning, e.g.
　　bow /bau/ n. bending the head as a greeting
　　bow /b?u/ n. the device used for shooting arrows
　　sow /s?u/ v. to scatter seeds
　　sow /sau/ n. female adult pig
　　row v. 划（船）
　　row n. /rau/ 喧哗
　　lead v. /li:d/ 领导
　　lead n. /led/ 铅
　　3. Homophones [home(same)+phone(sound)] are words identical only in sound but different in spelling and meaning, e.g.
　　dear /di?/ n. a loved person
　　deer /di?/ n. a kind of animal
　　right /rait/ a. correct
　　write /rait/ v. to put down on paper with a pen
　　rite /rait/ n. a ceremonial procedure
　　son /s?n/ n. a male child of someone
　　sun /s?n/ n. the heavenly body from which the earth gets warmth and light
　　air
　　heir 继承人
　　sell
　　cell 小房间
　　Of the three types, homophones constitute the largest number and are most common.

●●● Origins
　　6.2.2 Origins of Homonyms
　　There are various sources of homonyms: change in sound and spelling, borrowing, etc.
　　1. Change in sound and spelling. 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, e.g.
　　ear n. an organ with which to listen and hear, from eare (OE)
　　ear n. the grain-bearing spike of corn or wheat, from ?r (OE)
　　long a. not short, from lang (OE)
　　long v. to want very much, from langian (OE)
　　2. Borrowing. As a result of heavy borrowing from other languages, many words of foreign origin coincide in sound and/or spelling with those of native origin or with those of other foreign origin, e.g.
　　fair n. a market, borrowed from feria (L)
　　fair a. pretty, from f?ger (OE)
　　ball n. an round object to play with, from beallu (OE)
　　ball n. a dancing party, borrowed from baller (OF)
　　3. Shortening. Many shortened forms of words happen to be identical with other words in spelling or sound, e.g.
　　ad n. shortened from advertisement
　　add v. to cause an increase
　　rock n shortened from rock `n' roll
　　rock n. a large mass of stone
　　NOW n. from the initials of National Organization of Women
　　now adv. at present

●●● Differentiation
　　6.2.3 Differentiation of Homonyms from Polysemants
　　Perfect homonyms and polysemants are fully identical with regard to spelling and pronunciation. This creates the problem of differentiation. The fundamental difference between homonyms and polysemants lies in the fact that the former refers to different words which happen to share the same form and the latter is the same word which has several distinguishable meanings. One important criterion is to see their etymology, i.e. homonyms are from different sources whereas a polysemant 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 polysemant are correlated and connected to one central meaning to a greater or lesser degree, e.g. neck (See 5.1 Polysemy). On the other hand, meanings of different homonyms have nothing to do with one another. In dictionaries, a polysemant has its meanings all listed under one headword whereas homonyms are listed as separate entries. Here are the characteristics of each:
　　polysemant: (1) same source, different meaning
　　　　　　　(2) meanings related
　　homonyms: (1) different source, different meanings
　　　　　　　(2) meanings not related

●●● Rhetoric Features
　　6.2.4 Rhetoric Features of Homonyms
　　As homonyms are identical in sound or spelling, particularly homophones, they are often employed to create puns for desired effect of, say, humour, sarcasm or ridicule. Consider the following conversation that took place between a waitress and a customer in a restaurant.
[25] "You're not eating your fish," the waitress said to him. "Anything wrong with it?"
　　"Long time no sea," the man replied.
Long time no see is usually said as a form of greeting between two friends when they meet after a long time. Here the customer cleverly employed the structure of the idiom to his advantage to criticize in a humorous way the bad quality of the food served at the restaurant. Long time no sea implies that `sea food kept for a long time is not fit for eating'. Here is another example.
[26] 　　"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.