Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site reed.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!tektronix!reed!elbaum From: elbaum@reed.UUCP (Daniel Elbaum) Newsgroups: net.nlang Subject: Re: homonymns vs homophones Message-ID: <803@reed.UUCP> Date: Sun, 13-Jan-85 15:34:59 EST Article-I.D.: reed.803 Posted: Sun Jan 13 15:34:59 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 16-Jan-85 04:48:18 EST References: <11900002@hpfcnml.UUCP> Reply-To: elbaum@reed.UUCP (PUT YOUR NAME HERE) Organization: Reed College, Portland, Oregon Lines: 28 Summary: In article <11900002@hpfcnml.UUCP> robert@hpfcnml.UUCP (robert) writes: >In school sets of words such as "sent" and "scent" were called >homonymns. I have been corrected and told that these are >homophones. Homonyms are orthographically identical but lexically distinct, e.g. bay - to howl, bay - an inlet. Homonymy (what a fun word to say ;-}) is often difficult to distinguish from polysemy, the property of a word bearing several meanings, as dark - obscure, dark - evil. The safest criterion seems to be etymology, but this is a dark field. Daniel Elbaum {decvax, ucbvax, pur-ee, uw-beaver, masscomp, cbosg, mit-ems, psu-cs, uoregon, orstcs, ihnp4, uf-cgrl}!tektronix teneron----\ ogcvax------+-!reed!elbaum muddcs-----/ cadic-----/ oresoft--/ grpwre--+