Homonyms
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Homonyms are words different in meaning but identical in sound or spelling, or both in sound and spelling.
1 Homonyms can appear in the language not only as the result of the split of polysemy , 2 but also as the result of levelling of grammar inflexions, when different parts of speech become identical in their outer aspect, e.g. «care» from « caru » and «care» from « carian ».
3 They can be also formed by means of conversion, e.g. «to slim» from «slim», «to water» from «water». 4 They can be formed with the help of the same suffix from the same stem, e.g. «reader»/ a person who reads and a book for reading/.
5 Homonyms can also appear in the language accidentally, when two words coincide in their development, e.g. two native words can coincide in their outer aspects: «to bear» from « beran »/to carry/ and «bear» from « bera »/an animal/.
A native word and a borrowing can coincide in their outer aspects, e.g. «fair» from Latin « feria » and «fair « from native « fager » /blond/. Two borrowings can coincide e.g. «base» from the French «base» /Latin basis/ and «base» /low/ from the Latin «bas» /Italian «basso»/.
6 Homonyms can develop through shortening of different words, e.g. «cab» from «cabriolet», «cabbage», «cabin».
Classifications of homonyms
1. Walter Skeat classified homonyms according to their spelling and sound forms and he pointed out three groups: a) perfect homonyms that is words identical in sound and spelling, such as : «school» - « косяк рыбы » and « школа » ; b) homographs, that is words with the same spelling but pronounced differently, e.g. «bow» -/ bau / - « поклон » and / bou / - « лук »; c) homophones that is words pronounced identically but spelled differently, e.g. «night» - « ночь » and «knight» - « рыцарь ».
2. A.I Smirnitsky suggested another classification. He added to Skeat’s classification one more criterion: grammatical meaning . He subdivided the group of perfect homonyms in Skeat’s classification into two types of homonyms: perfect which are identical in their spelling, pronunciation and their grammar form, such as : « spring » in the meanings: the season of the year, a leap, a source, and homoforms which coincide in their spelling and pronunciation but have different grammatical meaning, e.g. «reading» - Present Participle, Gerund, Verbal noun, to lobby - lobby .
3. Arnold gave a more detailed classification. She classified only perfect homonyms and suggested four criteria of their classification: lexical meaning , e.g. «board» in the meanings «a council» and « a piece of wood sawn thin» grammatical meaning , e.g. to lie - lied - lied, and to lie - lay - lain; basic forms, e.g. «light» / «lights»/, «light» / «lighter», «lightest»/; paradigms , e.g. «a bit» and «bit» (from « to bite»).