Homonymy

Lecture 4

Definition
Homonymy is the relation between two words that are spelled the
same way but differ in meaning, or the relation between two words
that are pronounced the same way but differ in meaning.
Homonyms can be divided into homographs and homophones.
Homographs written in the same way, but have different
meanings.
Homophones pronounced in the same way but spelt differently.

Homographs vs Homophones

He took a bow at the end of

the concert. /bau/

He was wearing a bow tie.

/bu/

Bow take a bow

Bough bough of a tree

Homographs

I live in the north of England.

Your favourite pop star is singing live on TV tonight.

I read in bed each night.

I read War and Peace last year.

The lead singer in the group is great.

Lead pipes are dangerous.

The wind blew the tree down.

Dont forget to wind your watch.

I wound my watch last night.

He suffered a terrible wound in the war.

Homographs

Some students at Oxford spend more time learning to row well than
studying.
They shared a flat for ages until they had a row over money and split

up.

The book is called English Vocabulary in Use.

You must know how to use words as well as their meanings.

They lived in a large old house.

The buildings house a large concert hall as well as a library.

The sow has five piglets.

The farmers sow the seeds in spring.

I bathed the baby this morning.

We bathed in the sea everyday when we were on holiday.

Homographs

Air/ heir

Faze/ phase

Groan/ grown

Might/ mite

Pain/ pane

Pray/ prey

Write/ right/ rite

Sent/ scent

Steak/ stake

Tire/ tyre

Whether/ weather

Aloud/ allowed

Floe/ flow

Hoarse/ horse

Moan/ mown

Peal/ peel

Raise/ rays

Sight/ site

Whine/ wine

Tea/ tee

Tow/ toe
Waist/ waste

How would you pronounce each

of
the underlined words?

Write the word in phonetic script

in the correct spelling for the
context.

Write one sentence using both of the words

corresponding to the phonetic scrip.

Match the parts of the jokes and then

explain the play on words in each joke.