SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIATION OF HOMONYMOUS NOUNS OF THE MODERN GERMAN LANGUAGE

Abstract

The article explores the semantic features of homonyms and the methods used to differentiate them in speech. A comprehensive sampling from the explanatory dictionaries Duden (2023), Langenscheidt (2019), and Wahrig (2018) revealed 2,128 homonymous nouns, which were grouped into 1,018 homonymous series. A component analysis of these homonymous nouns indicated that the majority refer to people or groups of people, as well as artificial objects. Other significant lexical-semantic groups, in descending order, encompass human social status, place names, fauna, mechanisms and devices, food and drink, measurements, actions, flora, art, language, human attributes, buildings, abstract concepts, natural things, and spatial objects. Statistical analysis shows that concrete concepts are more likely to be listed as the first or second homonym in the dictionary, while abstract concepts typically appear in third to fifth positions. This pattern reflects a broader principle in human activity organization, including language, where development progresses from simple to complex, from familiar to unfamiliar, and from observable to abstract. It has been determined that, in the majority of cases (86%), homonyms belong to different lexical and semantic groups, providing a natural form of differentiation within the language system. Homonyms that belong to the same lexical-semantic group are distinguished by factors such as grammatical gender, different plural forms, and social, regional, stylistic, or chronological markers. These distinctions enable a clear understanding of their meanings, reducing the ambiguity traditionally associated with homonymy. This observation suggests that the common belief that homonymy is a significant obstacle to communication may be overstated, as the above-mentioned factors allow for effective differentiation, ensuring that the risk of misinterpretation is not as frequent as one might expect.