Criteria for differentiating homonymy and polysemy of prepositions (based on non-derivative Russian prepositions “c1”, “c2”, “c3”, constituents of prepositional phrases “preposition c1 + noun in the genitive case”, “preposition c2 + noun in the accusative case”, “preposition c3 + noun in the instrumental case”)

The definitions of “polysemy” and “homonymy” have been presented in the article. Comparative analysis of these linguistic phenomena has been carried out. The specific features of homonymy of auxiliary parts of speech, in particular, lexical non-derivative prepositions have been determined; specifically, the Russian prepositions c1, c2, c3, and constituents of prepositional phrases “preposition c1 + noun in the genitive case”, “preposition c2 + noun in the accusative case”, “preposition c3 + noun in the instrumental case” have been considered. The issues arising within the scope of this problem have been formulated. Criteria for distinguishing between homonymy and polysemy of the prepositions (semantic, lexical, morphological, syntactic, derivational, stylistic, and historical ones), allowing to prove the emergence of homonymous relationships in prepositions, have been identified. The specificity of the lexical and grammatical meanings of prepositions is indicated.