Separate entry vs. common head-word

The other problem is which of the selected units have the right to a separate entry and which are to be included under one common head-word. These are the issues of separateness and sameness of words. The first deals with syntagmatic boundaries of word-units and has to solve such questions as whether each other is a group of two separate words to be treated separately under the head-words each and other, or whether each other is a unit deserving a special entry.

The sameness deals with paradigmatic boundaries. E.g. How many entries are justified for hound? Concise Oxford Dictionary has two: one forthe noun, and the other for the verb: to chase (as) with hounds. The verb and the noun are thus treated as homonyms.

Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary combines them under one head-word, i.e. it takes them as variants of the same word (hence the term "sameness"). The problem is even more complicated with variants belonging to the same part of speech. This involves differentiation between polysemy and homonymy.