Homonyms

8.3a Homonyms are words which are identical in sound and spelling, or, at least, in one of these aspects, but different in their meaning.

e.g. bank, n. – a shore

bank, n. – an institution for receiving, lending, exchanging, and safeguarding money.

ball, n. – a sphere; any spherical body

ball, n. – a large dancing party.

English vocabulary is rich in such pairs and even groups of words. Their identical forms are mostly accidental: the majority of homonyms coincided due to phonetic changes that occurred during their development.

B Traditional classification

The most widely accepted classification of homonyms is:

· homonyms proper,

· homophones

· homographs.

Homonyms proper (or complete, perfect, absolute) are words identical in pronunciation and spelling but different in meaning.

e.g. back n. – part of the body bear n. – animal

back adv. – away from the front bear v. – carry, tolerate

back v. – go back

Homophones are words of the same sound form but of different spelling and meaning,

e.g. buy v. – by prep.

him pr. – hymn n.

piece n. – peace n.

rite n. – write v. – right adj.

Homographs are words different in sound and in meaning but accidentally identical in spelling,

e.g. bow [bau], v. – to incline the head or body in salutation;

bow [bou], n. – a flexible strip of wood for propelling arrows;

lead [li:d], v. – to conduct on the way, go before, to show the way;

lead [led] n. – a heavy, rather soft metal.

Homoforms are words identical in some of their grammatical forms.

e.g. to bound (jump, spring) – bound (past participle of the verb bind);

found (establish) – found (past participle of the verb find).