Homophone
Words pronounced alike having
different spellings and meanings are called homophones. The word 'homophone' is
derived from the Greek words 'homo' meaning
'same', and 'phōnḗ' meaning 'voice or
utterance'. Examples are beet (vegetable), beat (musical rhythm) and beat (to
strike),'eye' and 'I', 'meat' and 'meet', 'new' and 'knew'.
Homonym
A Homonym is a
couple of words that share the same spellings and pronunciations but have
different significances. The state of being a homonym is called homonymy.
Examples of homonyms are the pairs of words like
bank- bank
bail-bail
Hyponymy
A Hyponym is a word or phrase which is included in
the semantic domain of some other word, its hypernym. Hyponymy shows the
kinship between the general terms (Hypernyms) and its specific instances
(hyponyms). A hyponym is a word or phrase whose semantic field is
more specific than its hypernym (superordinate term).
Polysemy
Polysemy is the
capacity of a word or words to have multiple related meanings. It is commonly
seen as distinct from homonymy, in which the multiple meanings of a word may be
disconnected or unrelated.
Portmanteau words or blends
A portmanteau word
is formed by mixing the sound (morphemes) and the meaning of two words.
For example 'edutainment' combines 'education' and 'entertainment'. The word
comes from the English term "portmanteau luggage" for a piece of
luggage with two compartments, derived from the French 'portmanteau' [to transmit] and 'manteau' meaning 'coat'. The word 'smog', is coined by blending
smoke and fog, and 'motel' from 'motor' and 'hotel'.
Clipping
A long word is abbreviated
by omitting (clipping) one or more syllables. This procedure is known as
CLIPPING, eg., Bus from Omnibus, Copter from helicopter and Fridge from refrigerator
Conversion
The usual device for changing the
word-class(part of speech) of an item is addition of suffixes. But this can
sometimes be accomplished without this device. The process of derivation
whereby the word class of an item is altered without the addition of derivational
suffixes is known as CONVERSION. In this process the same word is used as different
components of speech, and this is indicated by word stress, inflectional suffixes and
other syntactic devices.
Verb to noun : The man is a cheat
Noun to verb: He elbowed his way through the crowd.
Adjective to noun: Our school subscribes to one daily and three weeklies.
Adjective to a verb: The boy dirtied
his hands with mud.
Gerund
Dancing is good for health.
The word collecting is
formed from the verb collect. It also has an object (stamps).
Therefore,collecting is like a verb.
Ø A word which is like a verb but
performs the work of a noun is called a gerund.
Ø Gerund
is a verbal noun,it is a noun formed from a verb
Ø Since
a gerund is a noun,we can use articles(a, an, the), possessive
adjectives(my,your, etc.) or words like some, may before it:
The trekking
was over by 10 a.m.
Ø Gerunds
can have adjectives:
Her
marvellous writing charmed
everybody. His
rash riding scared us at times.
Ø Gerunds
can have their own objects:
He
denied stealing the book.
Ø Gerunds
can be used after some verbs where the infinitive(to+verb) cannot be used:
The
students stopped writing when the
bell rang.
The Participle
Nobody could enter the burning house.
Ø The
word burning is formed from the verb burn by adding-ing. It’s therefore like a
verb.
Ø But
it is also describing the noun house. So it’s performing the work of an
adjective.
Let
us take one more example
·
We found the guests waiting for us.
Ø The
word waiting is formed from the verb wait. So it is like a verb. But waiting is
also describing the noun guests. So it is performing the work of an adjective.
Ø A word which is like a verb but
performs the work of an adjective is called a participle.
Ø A participle is a verbal adjective.
Present
participles should not be confused with Gerunds which also end -ing.
For example:
(This
is a gerund not a present participle.)
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