HOMONYMY, HOMOPHONE, and
HOMOGRAPHS
A. Homonymy
Homonym is one of a group of words that share
the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different
meanings. This usually happens as a result of the two words having different
origins. The state of being a homonym is called homonymy, the
quality or condition of being homonymous. Here are some examples:
·
Aid (to assist) and Aide (an assistant)
·
Air (stuff we breath) and Heir (one who will
inherit)
·
Aisle (walkway) and Isle (island)
·
Allusion (an indirect reference) and
Illusion (a misconception)
·
Ant (insect) and Aunt (parent's sister)
·
Bald (hairless) and Bawled (cried
aloud)
·
Band (a group) and Banned (forbidden)
·
Capital (city) and Capitol (wealth and
resources)
·
Climactic (great intensity) and
Climatic (weather conditions)
·
Days (more than one day) and Daze (to
bewilder)
·
Die (to become dead) and Dye (coloring agent)
·
Elicit (to bring out) and Illicit
(unlawful)
·
Gorilla (large ape) and Guerrilla
(military soldier)
·
Knead (working bread dough) and Need
(must have)
·
Mail (postal delivery) and Male
(masculine person)
·
Principle (a basic truth) and Principal
(head of a school/sum of money)
·
Scene (visual location) and Seen (past
tense of saw)
·
Than (a comparison) and then (shows
time)
·
There (a place) and Their (belongs to
them) and They're (they are)
·
To (a preposition) and Too (an adverb)
and Two (a number)
Look
at this picture :
B. Homophone
Homophone is
a word that has the same sound as another word but is spelled differently and
has a different meaning. Some examples of homographs
are:
·
to, too, and two
·
they're and their
·
bee and be; sun and son
·
which and witch
·
and plain and plane
C. Homographs
Homograph originated from the Greek word homos
that means “the same” and graph means “to write”, and it is used
extensively in language. It can be defined as words that are used in such a
manner as to give two or more different meanings where the words have the same
spelling, but different meanings and sometimes different pronunciation as well.
Here are some examples:
·
bass as in fish vs bass
as in music,
·
bow as in arrow vs bow
as in bending or taking a bow
at the end of a performance,
·
close as in next to vs close
as in shut the door,
·
Desert as in dry climate vs desert
as in leaving alone.
look at this picture:
So, in this above picture we can define easily,
References: