Abstract
This chapter discusses homographs. As an isolated unit, the identical spelling and pronunciation of the word provides no clue as to which meaning is intended. Although interpretation of the isolated unit can be influenced by the relative frequency with which the word is used to denote one rather than the other, meaning that only the surrounding context makes clear the intended meaning. Such words that have the same form but more than one meaning are called homonyms. If the two meanings of the word are represented by the same spelling, the word is a homograph. If the two meanings of the word are represented by the same pronunciation, the word is a homophone. A word can be both a homograph and a homophone. Some words are homographs but not homophones. Because homonyms are heavily dependent on context for their interpretation, they provide useful material for studying the modification of verbal meaning as a function of experimental variations in context.
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