Paronymy as a Linguistic Phenomenon

Paronymy as a linguistic phenomenon has not yet been sufficiently studied. Until the 60s of the 20th century, it was little studied. But even such a study by lexicologists led to many ambiguities and confusion in the definition of paronyms. The root of the word is taken as the basic criterion for paronyms. For two lexemes to be paronyms, a basic and necessary condition is that they have the same root. Close-sounding words with different roots can be used incorrectly as a result of individual verbal associations and this leads to the appearance of paronomasia (metal || mental, detailed || dental, juice || sauce, evening || wind). There are two points of view on what paronyms are: 1. Paronyms are words that sound similar, but their meaning is different, and therefore they are not interchangeable with each other. 2. Paronyms are words with the same root that sound similar, have different meanings, and belong to the same word group. Lexically speaking, paronyms are words with the same root, with lexical-semantic closeness, and belong to the same semantic field. Russian linguists often call paronyms “difficult words.” The reason is that to this day there are still no specific, accurate definitions of paronyms. The basic criteria by which paronyms are most often defined are form and meaning. According to them, paronyms are words that are similar in form and meaning. For example: addressee || addressant, Indian || Indian (Native American). The word paronym comes from the Greek word paronimos which means: para = near, beside, around and onyma = name. Therefore, paronyms are words with a similar, but not the same form. The paronyms can be classified based on different criteria. One of the first divisions when modern views on them had not yet been established, was the rough division into: paronyms with the same roots and paronyms with different roots. To successfully define paronyms, the following factors must be taken into account: paronyms must be separated from other similar-sounding words, paronyms must be distinguished from paronomasias, rhyming words must be separated from paronyms, and paronyms must be viewed as an opportunity for mixing similar-sounding words. The insignificance of sound differences presents a difficulty in their acquisition, especially among school-age children. Errors in the use of paronyms most often occur with less familiar words, and this sometimes leads to nonsense in the text itself, or speech. In order to avoid such gross errors, it is necessary to use explanatory dictionaries.