-NYMS

HOMONYMY

Homonyms are words pronounced the same, however they have different meanings. For example, right.

- She must be right.

- He is on the right.

When we talk about homonymy, we don’t look at the spelling of the words as spelling is irrelevant.

POLYSEMY

If meanings of two words are related conceptually or historically, we can say there is polysemy. For instance, mouse.

- There is a mouse in the house.

- My mouse is broken it’s not working properly.

HETERONYMY

When we look at two words and try to decide if they are heteronyms, we consider: spelling, pronunciation and meaning. If two words have different meanings and are pronounced differently but are spelled the same, then, they are heteronyms. For example, close.

- Can you please close the door?

- It wasn’t even close.

	Homonymy	Polysemy	Heteronymy
Mean different things	✓(meanings unrelated)	✓ (meanings related)	✓
Pronounced the same	✓	✓	✕
Spelled the same	-	-	✓

 

SYNONYMY

Synonym words are pronounced differently but they have the same or similar meaning. For instance, important.

- It’s important for me, please be quiet.

In this sentence, important can be replaced by essential, crucial, significant.

If the number of shared semantic features increases, the possibility for two words to be synonyms increases as well. However, it doesn’t always show that any two words sharing a number of semantic features are synonyms. (Woman and girl)

ANTONYMY

Antonym words have opposite meanings. For example, dead and alive.

There are complementary pairs and gradable pairs of antonyms.

Complementary pairs:

Entrance – exit

True – false

Gradable pairs:

Fat – slim

Fast – slow

                        

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