SEMANTIC EXCLUSION OF UKRAINIAN-BELARUSIAN INTERLINGUAL HOMONYMS AS A RESULT OF INTRALINGUAL HOMONYMY

Abstract

The article analyzes in detail the lexical and semantic features of complete Ukrainian-Belarusian interlingual homonymy (semantic exclusion) caused by intra-lingual homonymy on the basis of factual material selected from the explanatory dictionaries of the Ukrainian and Belarusian languages. Our research defines the concept of homonem and shows that at the junction of correlated homonems of two languages, pairs of homogeneous and heterogeneous interlingual homonyms with the relation of semantic exclusion arise. The paper establishes that the specificity of this relation in each case is determined primarily by the nature of the connections between the components in the homonems themselves. It reveals that homonems formed from other interlingual homonems can also generate homonymous pairs with semantically mutually exclusive correlates (even if word formation eliminates certain components or semes of derivational homonems) and lose this ability only when, as a result of derivation, they degenerate into a homopair with semantically identical or partially homonymous correlates. The study has proved that Ukrainian-Belarusian interlingual homonems are dominated by noun homonems whose correlates outline a specific concept (names of botanical and zoological taxa, economic and scientific terms, etc.). Many of these homonyms appeared on native soil (Ukrainian or Belarusian) because of derivation and the evolution of polysemous lexemes, which led to their disintegration into separate linguistic units. Correlates of multiple adjectival interlingual homonems are mainly formed from homonymous words or stems. In the adverbial interlingual homopairs which arose at the junction of homonems in two languages, correlates of adjectival origin prevail, but occasionally there are also correlates of noun origin, both homogeneous and heterogeneous.