OUTLINE
Introduction |
3 |
- General Characteristics of Ambiguity and its
Cases
- Ambiguity of Natural Languages
|
5
5 |
- Polysemy as a Linguistic Phenomenon
|
6 |
- Homonymy and its Types
|
9 |
| |
|
- Comparison of Ambiguity Cases in German and Ukrainian
|
12 |
- Polysemy in German and Ukrainian
|
12 |
- Homonymy in German and Ukrainian
|
13 |
Conclusion |
16 |
Literature |
18 |
INTRODUCTION
Language is defined as a human system of communication
that uses arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written
symbols. But frankly speaking, language is far too complicated, intriguing,
and mysterious to be adequately explained by a brief definition. The
organic function of the language is to carry meaning. Most of the problems
in linguistic science are intimately bound to question of semasiology
and call for scientific analysis of communication in words. The study
of words is not exclusively a study of roots and stems, of prefixes
or suffixes. The mysterious world of words is an object of scientific
investigation [ 7, p. 29 ].
Theoretical problems of linguistic
form and meaning as relevant to the progressive development of language
have attracted the attention of scholars, philosophers and grammarians
since the times of Plato and Aristotle. From those times sameness of
meaning was not very easy to deal with but there seemed nothing inherently
difficult about difference of meaning. The situation is the same nowadays. Not only different words have different
meanings; it’s also the case that the same word may have a set of
meanings (polysemy) or one of a group of words that share spelling and
pronunciation but may have different meanings (homonymy)
These processes enrich all the languages. They create new words and
new meanings, expand the language vocabulary. In order to understand these phenomena,
we will compare them through the lens of two languages – German and
Ukrainian.
The aim of research is to make
an analysis of the main principles of polysemy and homonymy in Ukrainian
and German.
The objective of this research is
the investigation of polysemy and homonymy in German and Ukrainian.
According to the objective there are following tasks:
1) to describe the phenomena of lexical ambifuity in general;
2) to analize the features of polysemy and homonymy;
3) to consider the examples of polysemy and homonymy in German
and Ukrainian;
4) to analize .the common features of polysemy and homonymy in German
and Ukrainian.
- GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF
AMBIGUITY AND ITS CASES
- Ambiguity in Natural Languages
Ambiguity has been one of the most exciting and interesting
topics of discussion for many linguists and philosophers throughout
thousands of years. In Ancient Greece, Aristotle dealt with the issue
in his well-known writings of De sophisticis ellenchis and Ars rhetorica.
It was then Quintilian who showed strong opposition to the matter maintaining
that it was a device used and abused in courtrooms, thereby making a
connection to Cicero's reputation. The 17th century French linguist
Vaugelas in his discussion of equivoclue tried to prescribe how to avoid
ambiguity in speaking and writing. Similar examples reappeared in Bally
1944 who felt that ambiguity was unavoidable. Jespersen in 1964 regarded
ambiguity as a result of inadequacy in some languages, and that it might
even increase with the development of language .[1, p. 49]
Linguistically, the term ambiguity is seen
as a phenomenon where a word, phrase, or sentence has more than one
meaning.
Whatever one's position in these disputes, ambiguity
has always been felt as an obstacle to Communication, and has also been
looked upon as a deficiency of language. Nevertheless, one has to accept
that ambiguity is an inherent property of any natural language. The
term ambiguity has been associated with meanings such as "lack
of clarity" or "equivocation", and the reason for ambiguity
lies in the fact that the quantity of lexical items in a language are
finite. As a result, some of these items take on the task to fulfil
multiple functions .
A close examination of most words reveals that they
have many different senses and the rules which combine them into sentences
will frequently yield several possibilities for interpretation. Usually,
potential ambiguity is resolved unconsciously in a person's mind. This
shows the pragmatic and semantic abilities of that person in action.
It is in the nature of the general language that
words sometimes overlap. In most cases speakers of a language can still
easily distinguish the meanings of different lexical items (if in context
of a sentence for instance) although their form may be phonetically
and/or orthographically identical. Considering that communication is
not achieved merely by words in isolation but by words put into a broader
context, i. e. a "broader linguistic structure which can also be
called the syntagmatic structure", one can say that it is the context
which determines the meaning within a concrete linguistic situation.
[9, p. 58]
The special case of lexical ambiguity are polysemy,
metaphor, metonymy, vagueness, ill-definedness, laxness, generality,
and homonymy. In this project we are going to analyze the phenomena
of polysemy and homonymy.
- Polysemy as a Linguistic Phenomenon
In polysemy (from the Greek words πολυ-, poly-, “many” and σήμα,sêma, “sign”), senses share similar characteristics. They are
semantically related to each other and belong to the same system of
concepts. In the case of polysemy, "the same acoustic image can
be the symbol for different realities". For instance, the meaning
of Wort in German represents kleinste formale Einheit eines Satzes in
terms of syntax and also bedeutungstragende Lexikoneinheit in terms
of lexical semantics. The word Sonde in German is another case of polysemy
as it is shared by several different subject fields, such as the medical
science, geology, meteorology, physics and aeronautics.[8, p. 15]
The use of polysemy is, in a way, the result of exploiting
existing resources of a language. This phenomenon where an existing
linguistic label becomes attached to a new concept is also referred
to as re-semanticisation.
Polysemy exists only in language, not in speech.
Polysemy belongs to paradigmatic description. The meaning of the word
in speech is contextual. Polysemy does not interfere with the communicative
function of a language because in every particular case the situation
or context is needed, i.e. environment of the word, cancels all unnecessary
meanings and makes speech unambiguous.
Professor A.I. Smirnitsky claimed that all the meanings
of the word form identity supported by the form of the word. His term
‘a lexico-semantic variant’ is a two-facet unit. The formal facet
of it is a sound-form of a word, while the content facet is one of the
meanings of a given word, i.e. the designation of a certain class of
objects. Words with one meaning are represented in the language system
by one LSV, polysemantic words – by a number of LSVs. All LSVs of
a word form a homogeneous semantic structure ensuring semantic
unity of the given word. They are united together by a certain meaning
– the semantic centre of the word, i.e. the part of meaning which
remains constant in all the LSVs of the word. [6, p. 123]
For example, the word face has at least thirteen meanings in Modern English.
There are the most common meanings: [5]
1.a. The surface of the front of the head from the
top of the forehead to the base of the chin and from ear to ear.
b. A person: We saw many new faces on the first day of classes.
2. A person's countenance: a happy face.
3. A contorted facial expression; a grimace: made a face at the prospect
of eating lemons.
4. Facial cosmetics: put one's face on.
5. Outward appearance: the modern face of the city.
6.a. Value or standing in the eyes of others; prestige: lose face.
b. Self-assurance; confidence: The team managed to maintain a firm face
even in times of great adversity.
7. Effrontery; impudence: had the face to question my judgment.
8. The most significant or prominent surface of an object.
Viewed diachronically, polysemy implies simultaneous
presence in the semantic structure of the word of its previous meanings,
which are called primary meanings, and of its new, more recent meanings,
which are termed derived, or secondary meanings. Secondary meanings
are always dependent on the primary meanings and appear in the language
after the primary meaning is in existence.
In the course of a diachronic semantic analysis of
the polysemantic word face we find that of all the meanings it has in
Modern English, the primary meaning is ‘the surface of the front of
the head from the top of the forehead to the base of the chin and from
ear to ear’, which is proper to the word in the Old English period
(OE. face from OF. face); all other meanings are secondary as they are
derived from the primary meaning of the word and appeared later.
In synchronic terms polysemy is understood as coexistence
of various meanings of one word at the given historical period of the
English language development, where the most recognizable and widely
used meaning is viewed as its basic or central one, and all the other
meanings are minor or secondary.
Synchronically polysemy is understood as the coexistence
of various meanings of the same word at a certain historical period
of the development of the language. In the course of a synchronic
semantic analysis of the world face all its meanings represent the semantic
structure of it. The central (basic) place in the semantic structure
occupies the meaning ‘front of the head’. This emerges as the central
(basic) meaning of the word, and all other meanings are marginal (minor)
meanings.
The central meaning occurs in various and widely
different contexts, marginal meanings are observed only in certain contexts.
There is a tendency in modern linguistics to interpret the concept of
the central meaning in terms of the frequency of occurrence of this
meaning. The word face in the meaning of ‘front of the head’ possesses
the highest frequency of value and makes up the highest percent of all
uses of this word.
- Homonymy and its Types
The phenomenon where a word designates two or more
concepts between which no semantic relationship exists is called homonymy.
This is due to the fact that the term has sometimes different etymological
backgrounds. For example, in English the term 'pupir as in anatomy and
denoting an individual, or in German der Bauer = farmer and das Bauer
birdcage' are cases of homonymy where two concepts having completely
different characteristics share the same linguistic label.These concepts
are, however, semantically not related to each other at all. [8, p.19]
The synchronic
and diachronic levels play an important role in the distinction between
polysemy and homonymy. According to Rogers, the usual criterion for
distinguishing between, polysemes and homonyms is etymology [1, p. 59],
i. e. if words coincide in their phonological structure without having
any common etymological roots one can speak diachronically of homonymy.
That is, homonymy arises through 'coincidential' phonetic and semantic
developments, through which
a) originally distinct expressions collapse into
a single form (e.g. sound,: distinctive noise, sound2: healthy, secure,
sound3: channel of water, and sound4: probe, investigate);
b) a single original expression branches into
two or more expressions retaining the original orthographic (and phonological)
form, e. g. snow,: solid precipitation and snow2: cocaine [1, p. 59]
However, the etymological criterion is generally
problematic since the point of divergence from a common etymological
origin is often unclear.
Synchronically, polysemy and homonymy can be differentiated
based on their semantic relations.To put it more simple: homonymy is
traditionally distinguished from polysemy in that a polysemic expression
has several closely related variations in its meaning, e. g. green (fresh,
inexperienced, and raw, amongst others), while the meanings of homonymous
expressions have no apparent semantic relation to one another [1, p.
61]
There are a lot of different types of homonyms (homographs,
homophones, homoforms, heteronyms, polysemes, capitonyms), but we will
discuss only three common almost for all languages types.[1, p.64]
Homographs (literally "same writing") are
usually defined as words that share the same spelling, regardless of
how they are pronounced. If they are pronounced the same then they are
also homophones (and homonyms) - for example, bark (the sound of a dog)
and bark (the skin of a tree). If they are pronounced differently then
they are also heteronyms - for example, bow (the front of a ship) and
bow (a type of knot). [9, p. 58]
Homophones (literally "same sound") are
usually defined as words that share the same pronunciation, regardless
of how they are spelled. If they are spelled the same then they are
also homographs (and homonyms); if they are spelled differently then
they are also heterographs (literally "different writing").
[9, p. 58]
Homoforms are homonymic forms of
words; words that are pronounced alike only in certain forms (of the
same or different parts of speech). Homoforms examples include rose (flower) and rose
(past tense of rise). [9, p. 59]
2.COMPARISON OF AMBIGUITY
CASES IN GERMAN AND UKRAINIAN
- Polysemy in German and Ukrainian
Lexical ambiguity is widespread in
all world languages. A word is ambiguous if it involves two lexical
items that have identical forms, but have distinct, i.e. unrelated meanings.
One of the special types of lexical ambiguity is polysemy. In order
to understand the phenomenon of polysemy in all its aspects, we will
examine it through the lens of German and Ukrainian languages.
As we noted, every meaning in the
language is signaled either by the form of the word itself or by context.
The unity of the form and content of a polysemantic word is kept in
its lexico-grammatical variant. All the lexico-grammatical variants
of a word taken together form its semantic structure. The
semantic structure of a word is a structured set of interrelated
lexico-grammatical variants with different denotative and sometimes
connotative components of meaning. These variants belong to the same
set because they are expressed by the same combination of morphemes,
although in different contextual conditions. The elements are interrelated
due to the existence of the common semantic component.
According
to Langenscheidte-Grosswörterbuch Deutsch als Fremdsprache grün can
be used as adjectives, nouns [3, p. 219].When it is used as adjectives,
the word form has 11 senses. When it is used as nouns, the word form
has 18 senses. There are the most common meanings:
1. The hue of that portion of the visible spectrum lying between yellow
and blue;
2. Something green in color.
3. Grün Green growth or foliage, especially:
a. The branches and leaves of plants used for decoration.
b. Leafy plants or plant parts eaten as vegetables.
4. A grassy lawn or plot, especially:
a. A grassy area located usually at the center of a city or town and
set aside for common use; a common.
5. Slang Money.
Великий тлумачний словник
gives only 5 meanings of зелений, but the word can also be used
as adjectives, nouns. [2, p. 312] The meanings of its adjective senses
refer to the senses of color. Green denotes the color which is “intermediate
between blue and yellow” in the spectrum. It is also used to describe
something that consists of green herbs, plants, or vegetables. Yet,
meanings of its adjective senses are figurative senses. The additional
senses include “full of vitality”, “of tender age”, “unripe,
immature, undeveloped”, “fresh, new”, and “pertaining to environmentalism.”
As we can see, the meanings are similar, but in Ukrainian there is
only 5 meanings of the word and in German there are 18 senses. In both
languages the meanings of its senses refer to the senses of color.
In both languages German and Ukrainian
polysemy is the common phenomenon. These two languages belong to the
same language family, and both are synthetic languages (any language in which syntactic relations within
sentences are expressed byinflection (the change in the form of a word
that indicates distinctions of tense, person, gender, number, mood,
voice, and case) or by agglutination (word formation by means of morpheme, or word unit, clustering)) [1,
p. 45]. So polysemy is more characteristic of the English vocabulary
than of German or Ukrainian one. The reasons for widespread development
of polysemy in English are monosyllabic character of the language and
predominance of root words.[9, p. 89]
- Homonymy in German and
Ukrainian
Homonymy is a traditional problem
of linguistics. Linguistics have found the phenomenon of homonymy so
puzzling that a lot of work in linguistics has been done to explain
homonymy. Traditionally, homonyms are two or more words identical in sound and spelling
but different in meaning, distribution and in many cases origin. The
term is derived from Greek “homonymous” (homos – “the same”
and onoma – “name”) and thus expresses very well the sameness
of name combined with the difference in meaning.
There are several classifications of homonyms. One
of them is based on the type of meaning and according to it homonyms
may be classified into lexical, lexico-grammatical and grammatical.
Lexical homonyms belong to one and the same part
of speech and the grammatical meanings of all their forms are identical,
but they are different in their lexical meaning. E.g., ключ, — source,
spring, fountain and ключ — key; Taube – pigeon and Taube - deaf person.
Lexico-grammatical homonyms differ both in lexical
and grammatical meanings, they belong to different parts of speech.
E.g., German: arm - poor and Arm – arm; Ukrainian: ніс (на обличчі) - ніс
(минулий час від нести).
Grammatical homonyms differ in grammatical meaning
only. It is the homonymy of different word-forms of one and the same
word. E.g., Ukrainian: відносно — prp., відносно
— adverb; точно— c j., точно— adverb.
The second classification is based not only on the
meaning, but all the three aspects (sound-form, graphic form and meaning)
are taken into account. There are homonyms proper, homographs, homophones
and homoformes.
- Homonyms proper (perfect) are words identical both
in sound-form and in graphic form but different in meaning: коса ( braid) and коса (spit) (As both languages are synthetic it is very difficult
to find such phenomenon in German and Ukrainian.)
- Homographs are words identical in spelling but different
both in their sound-form and in meaning: in German lesen (to read and to sift), der Preis
(price andprize), die Mutter (mother and nut); in Ukrainian замок – замок ( castle – lock), приклад — приклад, дорога – дорога ( a road – dear). Ukrainian and German spelling transmits
sound words clearly enough, so homographs are relatively uncommon. However,
some features of pronunciation, that affect the content, are not transmitted
in writing, so there may be homograph pairs. In particular, the distinctive
feature of homographs is the stress, which is mostly unused for writing,
in spite of the existence of well-established method of its graphical
notation.
- Homophones are words identical in sound-form but
different both in spelling and meaning. In German there are such homophones: Saite und Seite ( string and page), Lerche und Lärche ( lark and larch), Lied und Lid ( song and lid), Weise ( method) und Waise ( orphan); in Ukrainian pоман і роман (a novel and an affair ), ліхтар погас і пішла
по гас, сонце і сон це. In Ukrainian there are few homophones,
among them several borrowings with doubled consonants (біль - білль), and words with unstressed vowels „е/и” (гребти - греби - гриби). German spelling may use different
letters to denote a one sound (e - ä; i – ie), that is why there are much
more homophones than in Ukrainian language.
- Homoforms are pronounced alike only in certain
forms (of the same or different parts of speech). In German:
Ich führe dise Arbeit (1.Per, Sng, Präs, Ind.);
Die Mutter sagte, er führe morgen
nach Moskau (3.P., Sng. Prät. Kon-v).
In Ukrainian три (numeral in the form of the nominative) and
три (verb in the imperative mood, to rub); шию (noun in the accusative
singular of the neck) and шию (the verb in the present tense, first
person, from the stitching).
CONCLUSION
One of the most complicated problems in semasiology
is to define the place of homonyms among other relationships of words.
In a simple code each sign has only one meaning and it’s meaning is
associated with only one sign. But this ideal is not realized in natural
language. When several related meanings are associated with the same
form, the word is called polysemantic. When 2 or more unrelated meanings
are associated with the same form, these words are homonyms.