Volodymir Dubichynsky. Mirror Reflections: Interlingual Homonyms and Paronyms. Monograph. [Владимир Дубичинский. Зеркальные отражения: межъязыковые омонимы и паронимы. Монография (EBOOK)]. Warsaw: University of Warsaw Press, 2024, 264 p. ISBN: 978-83-235-6695-3, https://doi.org/10.31338/uw.9788323566953

Abstract

Volodymyr Dubichynsky’s monograph Mirror Reflections: Interlingual Homonyms and Paronyms (2024) makes a significant contribution to the development of contrastive lexicology and translation studies, offering an innovative theory for describing interlingual homonymy and paronymy. The author consistently distinguishes between intralinguistic and interlinguistic phenomena, introducing the category of lexical parallels as an overarching concept encompassing formally similar lexical units in two synchronically compared languages. A key element of the work is the redefinition of homonymy and paronymy, including the reclassification of homophones and homographs into the domain of intralinguistic paronymy, which leads to a more coherent and rigorous terminological framework. The author proposes a three-part classification of lexical parallels (complete, incomplete and erroneous), based on the degree of semantic convergence, and develops the concept of interlingual homonymy and paronymy as multi-component structures of parallel oppositions. This theory is confirmed in practice in the lexicographical section of the monograph, which includes two innovative contrastive dictionaries. The work is of great significance for lexicography, research into language interference, foreign language teaching and translation practice.