Professor: Gabriel Maican.

Subject: Phonetics and Phonology.

Student: Richard López.
CI: 28.702.319

Words with different spelling, pronunciation and meaning

Any language has a lot of words, which can be related between them. That
relation can be demonstrated through meanings, spellings and pronuciation that
some words can share with other in the same language. To figure out it, it is
necessary to study de origen of words in a language.

In this essay is explained the conceps homonym, polysemy, homographs,

homophones, heterographs, heteronyms, capitonym, synonym and antonym, to
figure out the relation in some English’s words, and how they can share some
characteristics among them but anyone most be used in differents contexts.

Homonym

In linguistics, homonyms are words that share the same spelling and are
pronounced the same, but have a different meaning. In other words, homonyms
are words wich are simultaneously homographs and homophones, it means that
they have identical pronunciation and spelling, whilst maintaining different
meanings.

Examples of homonys are:

/baː┘k/: bark (the sound a dog makes) and bark (part of a tree)

/stɔːk/: stalk (part of a plant) and stalk (follow/harass a person)

/lɛft/: left (past tense of leave) and left (opposite of right)

/pɪt ʃ ə┘/: pitcher (the player in baseball who throws the baseball from pitcher's
mound) and pitcher (a large jug)

/k┘eɪn/: crane (a bird) and crane (a machine used at construction sites)

/pleɪ/: play (the game) and play (to play, a verb)

/paː┘k/: park (action of moving vehicle to a place - usually a car park) and park
(a public area close to nature)

/bɛː┘/: bear (an animal), bear (to tolerate).

Polyseme

Polysemy (from Greek: polý-, "many" and sêma, "sign") is the capacity for a
word or phrase to have multiple meanings, usually related by contiguity of
meaning within a semantic field. In other words, they are homonyms but they
have a relation between all its meanings.

Some examples of polysemes are:

Wood /wʊd/

-The material made from trees

-A geographical area with many trees

Man /mæn/

-The human species (i.e., man vs. other organisms)

-Males of the human species (i.e., man vs. woman)

-Adult males of the human species (i.e., man vs. boy)

Homographs

Homographs (from the Greek: homós, "same" and gráphō, "write") are words
that are spelled the same, no matter the pronunciation but have a different
meaning. If, when spoken, the meanings may be distinguished by different
pronunciations, the words are also heteronyms.

Some examples of homographs are: hound /haʊnd/ (a dog breed) and hound
/haʊnd/ (to pester); sow /zɒw/ (to plant seed) and sow /zaʊ/ (female pig); bear
/bɛː┘/ (to support or carry) and bear /bɛː┘/ (the animal); agape /əgeɪp/ (with
mouth open) and agape /əgeɪp/ (love); bass /bæs/ (type of fish) and bass /beəs/
(low, deep voice); bat /bæt/ (piece of sports equipment) and bat /bæt/ (an
animal); bow /baʊ/ (type of knot) and bow /baʊ/ (to incline); down /daʊn/ (a
lower place) and down /daʊn/ (soft fluff on a bird).

Homophones

Homophones (It derives from the Greek homo "same", and phōne, "voice".) are
words that share the same pronunciation, no matter how they’re spelled, but
also have a different meaning. If they’re spelled the same they’re both
homographs and homonyms. Any unit with this property is said to be
"homophonous".

Some examples are: fair, fare = /fɛː┘/; air, heir = /ɛː┘/; aisle, isle = /aəl/; ante-,
anti = /əntaɪ/; bare, bear, bear = /bɛː┘/; be, bee = /biː/; brake, break = /b┘eɪk/;
buy, by = /baɪ/; cell, sell = /sɛl/; cent, scent = /sɛnt/; cereal, serial = /sɪ┘ɪəl/;
coarse, course = /kɔː┘s/; complement, compliment = /kʌmpləmɛnt/; dam, damn
= /daːm/; dear, deer = /diː┘/; die, dye = /daɪ/; eye, I = /aɪ/; fair, fare = /fɛː┘/; fir,
fur = /fə┘/; flour, flower = /flʌwə┘/; hair, hare = /heə┘/; heal, heel = /hiːl/; hear,
here = /hiː┘/; him, hymn = /hɪm/; hole, whole = /hɔːl/; hour, our = /aʊə┘/; idle,
idol = /aidəl/; in, inn = /ɪn/; knight, night = /naɪt/; knot, not = /nʌt/; know, no
= /nɒw/; made, maid = /meɪd/; mail, male = /meɪl/; meat, meet = /miːt/; morning,
mourning = /mɔː┘nɪŋ/; none, nun = /nʌn/; oar, or = /ɔː┘/; one, won = /wən/; pair,
pear = /pɛː┘/; peace piece = /piːs/; plain, plane = /pleɪn/; poor, pour = /pɔː┘/;
pray, prey = /p┘eɪ/; principal, principle = /p┘ɪnsəpəl/; profit, prophet = /p┘ɒfət/;
real, reel = /┘ɪəl/; right, write = /┘aɪt/; root, route = /┘ʊt/; sail, sale = /seəl/; sea,
see = /siː/; seam, seem = /siːm/; sew, so, sow = /sɒw/; sight, site = /saɪt/; shore,
sure = /ʃɔː┘/; sole, soul = /sɔːl/; some sum = /sʌm/; son, sun = /sʌn/; stair, stare
= /steə┘/; stationary, stationery = /steɪʃənɛ┘iː/; steal, steel = /stiːl/; suite, sweet
= /swɪt/; tail, tale = /teɪl/; toe, tow = /tɒw/; waist, waste = /weɪst/; wait, weight
= /weɪt/; way, weigh = /weɪ/; weak, week = /wiːk/; wear, where = /wɛː┘/.

Heterographs

Heterographs are words that sound the same as other words, but they have
different spellings and different meanings. For the English language learner or
for young students, these words can be very confusing. There are 335
heterographs in the English language. Learning to recognize the differences
between heterographs is important to understanding the English language.

Some examples of heterographs are:

/tʊ/: “to, too and two” as in, “I went to the store”, “you come, too”, “I saw two
monkeys”.

/ ðeɪ┘/: “their and they’re” as in, “their dog bit me” and “they’re my cousins”.

Heteronyms

Heteronyms are a subset of homographs. They have different pronunciations

and meanings. In other words, they are homographs, but not homophones.
Examples of heteronyms are: lead /lɛd/ (a metal element) and lead /liːd/ (a leash
or halter to direct an animal), and row /┘aʊ/(a noisy disturbance or quarrel) and
row /┘ɒw/ (to propel a boat by means of oars). Heteronym pronunciation may
vary in vowel realisation, in stress pattern or in other ways.

Capitonym

A capitonym is a word that changes its meaning (and sometimes pronunciation)

when it is capitalized; the capitalization usually applies due to one form being a
proper noun or eponym. In situations where both words should be capitalized
(such as the beginning of a sentence), there will be nothing to distinguish
between them except the context in which they are used. Some examples are:
Polish /pəʊlɪʃ/ (from Poland) polish (to make shiny) / pɒlɪʃ/, and march
/maː┘tʃ/ (rhythmic walking) and March /maː┘tʃ/ (the third month of the year).

Synonym

A synonym (this word comes from Ancient Greek sýn, "with" and ónoma,
"name") is a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another
word or phrase in the same language but they share neither spelling nor
pronunciation. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the
state of being a synonym is called synonymy. For example, the words
begin /bəgɛn/, start /staː┘/, commence /kʌmɛns/, and initiate /ɪnəʃeɪt/ are all
synonyms of one another.

Some examples which are synonymous: big /bɪg/- large /laː┘tʃ/,

correct /kʌ┘ɛt/– true /t┘uː/, near /niː┘/– close /kləʊs/, baffle /bæfəl/–
deceive /dəsɪv/, beautiful /bəʊtɪfəl/– attractive /ət┘æktəv/, bossy /bʌsiː/–
controlling /kənt┘ɒlɪŋ/, fair /fɛː┘/– just /jʌst/, funny /fʌniː/–
humorous /həʊmɒ┘ɔːs/, happy /hæpiː/– content /kʌntənt/.

Antonyms

An antonym is a word that means the opposite of another word. For instance,
the antonym of “hot /hʌt/“ may be '”cold /kɔːld/”. The root words for the word
“antonym” are the words “anti”, meaning “against” or “opposite”, and “onym”,
meaning “name”.

Some examples are: boy /bɔɪ/- girl /g ɛː┘l/, off /ʌf/- on /ʌn/, night /naɪt/- day
/deɪ/, entrance /ɪnt┘əns/- exit /ɛksɪt/, exterior /ɛkstɪ┘ɪə┘/- interior /ɪntə┘ɪə┘/,
true /t┘uː/- false /fɔːls/, dead /dɛd/- alive /əlaɪv/, push /pʊʃ/- pull /pəl/,
pass /pæs/– fail /feɪl/, above /əbɒv/- below /bɪlɒw/, doctor /dʌktə┘/- patient
/peɪʃɛnt/, husband /hʌsbænd/- wife /waɪf/, servant /sɛː┘vənt/- master /mæstə┘/,
borrow /bʌ┘əʊ/- lend /lɛnd/, give /gɪv/- receive /┘ɛsɪv/, predator /p┘ɛdətə┘/-
prey /p┘eɪ/, buy /baɪ/- sell /sɛl/, instructor /ɪnst┘ʌkt ə┘/– pupil /pəʊpəl/,
young /jɔːŋ/- elderly /ɛldə┘liː/, hard /haː┘d/- easy /iːsiː/, happy /hæpiː/-
wistful /wɪstfəl/, wise /waɪs/- foolish /fʊlɪʃ/, fat /fæt/- slim /sliːm/, warm /waː┘m/-
cool /kuːl/, early /ɛː┘liː/- late /leɪt/, fast /fæst/- slow /slɒw/, dark /daː┘k/– pale
/peɪl/.

It's possible to create an antonym simply by adding a prefix to the word. For
example: agree /əg┘iː/– disagree /dɪsəg┘iː/, tolerant /tʌlə┘ænt/-
intolerant /ɪntʌlə┘ænt/ and likely /laɪkliː/– unlikely /ʌnlaɪkiː/.
How it’s demostrated, a language can countain a lot of words wich have one, or
more, relation between them. It can produces those differents variations
demostrated in this essay.

It’s so important to study all these types of words variations, since it allows us to
understand the meaning and subcontext in any conversation or text. Also, it
avoids that we confuse or change any information wich we are receiving. For
example, if we do not know that “night and knight” are homophone, in a
conversation we can misinterpret the sentence: “I am looking at night” for “I am
looking at (a) knight”.

It’s put bellow a Euler diagram that helps us as a visual helping to undertand in
a better way the relation between the conceps which were explained in this
essay.