Give as many synonyms for the italicized words in the following jokes as you can. If you do not know any of them consult the dictionaries.

1. "I hear there's a new baby over at your house, Wil­liam," said the teacher. "I don't think he's new," re­plied William. "The way he cries shows he's had lots of experience."

2. A little boy who had been used to receiving his old brother's old toys and clothes remarked: "Ma, will I have to marry his widow when he dies?

3. Sma11 boy (to governess): Miss Smith, please excuse my speaking to you with my mouth full, but my little sister has just fallen into the pond.

4. A celebrated lawyer once said that the three most troublesome clients he ever had were a young lady who wanted to be married, a married woman who wanted a divorce, and an old maid who didn't know what she wanted.

5. В о s s: You are twenty minutes late again. Don't you know what time we start to work at this office?
New Employee: No, sir, they are always at it when I get here.

6. He (as they drove along a lonely road): You look lovelier to me every minute. Do you know what that's asign of?

She: Sure. You are about to run out of gas.

7. Husband (shouting upstairs to his wife): For last time, Mary, are you coming?

W i f e: Haven't I been telling you for the last hour that I'll be down in a minute.

 

 

IX) Antonymy

 

Exercises

 

1.Find antonyms for the words given below.

 

Good, adj.; deep, adj.; narrow, adj.; clever, adj.; young, adj.; to love» v.; to reject, v.; to give, v.; strong, adj.; to laugh, v.; joy, n.; evil, п.; up, adv., slowly, adj.; black, adj.; sad, adj.; to die,v.; to open, v.; clean, adj.; darkness, n.; big, adj.

 

2. Find antonyms in the following joke and extracts and describe the resultant stylistic effect.

 

Policeman (holding up his hand): Stop!

Visitor: What's the matter?

P.: Why are you driving on the right side of the road?

V.: Do you want me to ride on the wrong side?

P.: You are driving on the wrong side.

V.: But you said that I was driving on the right side.

P.: That is right. You are on the right, and that's wrong.

V.: A strange country! If right is wrong, I'm right when I'm on the wrong side. So why did you stop me?

P.: My dear sir, you must keep to the left. The right side is the left.

V.: It's like a looking-glass! I'll try to remember. Well, I want to go to Bellwood. Will you kindly tell me the way?

P.: Certainly. At the end of this road, turn left.

V.: Now let me think. Turn left! In England left is right, and right is wrong. Am I right?

P.: You'll be right if you turn left. But if you turn right, you'll be wrong.

V.: Thank you. It's as clear as daylight.

 

X) Homonymy

Additional material

Homonyms can be subdivided into homographs and homophones. Homographs are words which are written in the same way but have different meanings and may be pronounced differently. Compare bow in 'he took a bow /bau/ at the end of the concert' and 'he was wearing a bow /bou/ tie'. Homophones are words with different meanings which are pronounced in the same way but are spelt differently, e.g. bow as in 'he took a bow' and bough, 'the bough of a tree'.

Here are some more examples of homographs with differing pronunciations.

I live in the north of England, /liv/

Your favourite rock group is singing live on TV tonight, /laiv/

I read in bed each night. /ri:d/

I read War and Peace last year, /red/

The lead singer in the group is great. /li:d/

Lead pipes are dangerous, /led/

The wind blew the tree down, /wind/

Wind the rope round this tree, /waind/

I wound my watch last night, /waund/

He suffered a terrible wound in the war. /wu:nd/

Some students at Oxford spend more time learning to row well than studying, /гou/

They shared a flat for ages until they had a row over money and split up. /rau/

They stood in a row and had their photo taken, /rou/

This book is called English Vocabulary in Use. /ju:s/

You must know how to use words as well as their meaning. /ju:z/

They lived in a large old house, /haus/

The buildings house a library and two concert halls as well as a theatre, /hauz/

The sow has five piglets, /sau/

The farmers sow the seeds in the spring, /sou/

Bathing the baby at night may help it to fall asleep. /ba:qih/

(On a sign at a beach) No bathing /bei¶ih/

 

Here are some other many examples of homophones inEnglish.

air/heir aloud/allowed break/brake fare/fair

faze/phase flu/flew grate/great groan/grown

hoarse/horse its/it's lays/laze mail/male

meat/meet mown/moan our/hour pale/pail

pane/pain pair/pear/pare peal/peel place/plaice

practise/practice pray/prey raise/rays read/reed

rein/rain right/rite/write sale/sail scene/seen

sight/site so/sew sole/soul some/sum

steak/stake tea/tee there/their/they're through/threw

tire/tyre toe/tow waist/waste wait/weight

weak/week weather/whether whine/winewould/wood

 

Exercises

1. Each underlined word rhymes with, or sounds similar to, one of the words in brackets;
choose the matching word.

1 The girl I live with knows a good pub with live music. (five/give)

2 The main house houses a collection of rare stamps. (mouse/browse)

3 It's no use. I can't use this gadget. (snooze/juice)

4 You sow the seeds while I feed the sow. (cow/go)

5 The violinist in the bow tie took a bow. (now/so)

6 He's the lead singer in the group ' Lead piping'. (head/deed)

7 What a row from the last house in the row! (plough/though)

8 Does he still suffer from his war wound? (found/tuned)

9 I wound the rope around the tree to strengthen it against the gale. (round/spooned)
10 It's quite hard to wind in the sails in this wind. (find/tinned)

2. Write the word in phonetic script in the correct spelling for the context.

 

EXAMPLE I really must do some more exercise or I'll never lose /weit/ weight

1 Watching TV game shows is such a /weist/ of time.

2 There is a hole in the /saul/ of my shoe.

3 He broke a /pein/ of glass in the kitchen window.

4 The eldest son of the monarch is the /e / to the throne.

5 You are not /a'laud/ to talk during the test.

6 Let's /'praktis/ our swimming together this evening.

7 He's going /qru:/ a rather difficult /feiz/ at the moment.

8Don't throw away that orange /pill/. I need it for a recipe.

 

3. Homophones and homographs are at the root of many jokes in English. Match the first
part of each of these children's jokes with the second part and then explain the play on
words involved in each.

 

1 What do you get if you cross a sheep and a kangaroo? Let's play draughts.

2 What did the south wind say to the north wind? A drum takes a lot of beating.

3 Why did the man take his pencil to bed? A woolly jumper.

4 Why is history the sweetest lesson? He wanted to draw the curtains.

5 What's the best birthday present? Because it's full of dates.

 

4. Find the homonyms in the following extracts. Classify them into homonyms proper, homographs and homo­phones.

 

1. "Mine is a long and a sad tale!" said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing. "It is a long tail, certain­ly," said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse's tail; "but why do you call it sad?" 2. a) My seat was in the middle of a row. b) "I say, you haven't had a row with Corky, have you?" 3. a) Our Institute football team got a challenge to a match from the University team and we accepted it. b) Somebody struck a match so that we could see each other. 4. a) It was nearly Decem­ber but the California sun made a summer morning of the season, b) On the way home Crane no longer drove like a nervous old maid. 5. a) She loved to dance and had every right to expect the boy she was seeing almost every night in the week to take her dancing at least once on the weekend. b) "That's right," she said. 6. a) Do you always forget to wind up your watch? b) Crane had an old Ford without a top and it rattled so much and the wind made so much noise. 7. a) In Brittany there was once a knight called Eliduc. b) She looked up through the window at the night. 8. a) He had a funny round face. b) — How does your house face? — It faces the South. 9. a) So he didn't shake his hand because he didn't shake cowards' hands, see, and somebody else was elected captain. b) Mel's plane had been shot down into the sea. 10. a) He was a lean, wiry Yankee who knew which side his experimental bread was buttered on. b) He had a wife of excellent and influential family, as finely bred as she was faithful to him. 11. a) He was growing progressively deafer in the left ear. b) I saw that I was looking down into another cove similar to the one I had left. 12. a) Iron and lead are base metals. b) Where does the road lead? 13. Kikanius invited him and a couple of the other boys to join him for a drink, and while Hugo didn't drink, he went along for the company.