Homonyms
What are homonyms?
Words that are the same in form or sound but have different meanings. In a strict classification, homonyms share spelling and pronunciation.
What are synonyms? Give one example.
Words with the same or nearly the same meaning, e.g. big and large.
What are antonyms? Give one example.
Words with opposite meanings, e.g. hot and cold.
What is polysemy?
When one word has several related meanings.
What is the opposite of ancient?
Modern or new.
What type of homonyms are these: bat (an animal) and bat (used in baseball)?
Homonyms proper (lexical homonyms)
Choose a synonym for happy: sad, joyful, angry, or tired.
Joyful
What is the antonym of generous?
Selfish
The word head can mean a body part or a leader. What linguistic phenomenon does this show?
Polysemy
In 'The room is cold' and 'She gave me a cold look,' does cold have exactly the same meaning?
No. It has a literal temperature meaning in the first sentence and a figurative meaning suggesting an unfriendly attitude in the second.
Are sea and see homophones, homographs, or homonyms?
Homophones
Are begin and start absolute synonyms or near-synonyms?
Near - synonyms
What type of antonyms are hot/cold: gradable, complementary, or relational?
Gradable antonyms. There are degrees between them, such as warm and cool.
Give two related meanings of the word mouth.
The mouth of a person and the mouth of a river. Both refer to an opening or place where something enters or leaves.
Are the words bank (financial institution) and bank (side of a river) an example of polysemy or homonymy?
Homonyms
What type of homonyms are lead (a metal) and lead (to guide)?
Homographs
Identify the synonym that is more formal: help, assist, or give a hand.
Assist
Explain why alive/dead are usually complementary antonyms.
In their usual literal sense, they present two mutually exclusive states: something is alive or dead, rather than partly one and partly the other.
What is the difference between polysemy and homonymy?
Polysemy involves several related meanings of one word. Homonymy involves words with the same form but unrelated meanings.
Identify the semantic relationship: tiny / small, arrive / depart, and flower / flour.
Tiny/small: synonyms. Arrive/depart: antonyms. Flower/flour: homophones.
Explain the difference between homophones and homographs. Give one example of each.
Homophones sound the same but are spelled differently, e.g. flour/flower. Homographs are spelled the same but can differ in pronunciation and meaning, e.g. lead (metal)/lead (guide).
Explain the difference between absolute and contextual synonyms. Give an example of contextual synonyms.
Absolute synonyms have the same meaning and can be exchanged in all contexts, which is rare. Contextual synonyms are similar in a particular context. For example, bright can mean intelligent in 'a bright student,' making bright similar to clever there.
Identify the type of antonymy in buy/sell and explain the relationship.
Relational or converse antonyms. They describe the same transaction from opposite perspectives: one person buys what another person sells.
Consider paper in 'I wrote on paper' and 'I read an interesting paper.' Explain how the meanings are related.
Paper can mean the material used for writing and a written document or academic article. These meanings are related, so this is an example of polysemy.
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