Homonyms and English Form-Class Analysis

Abstract

TWO LINGUISTIC FORMS that are phonemically identical but differ as to meaning are said to be homonyms of each other.2 A narrower definition reads 'two morphemes are homonymous if they differ in meaning alone.'3 For purposes of this article, however, we will begin by regarding as homonyms any pair of linguistic forms whose phonemes are identical, since part of the problem is to determine when meanings are the same and when they are different. If we approach the question in this way we find that, on the basis of the distributions occurring among homonyms, there exist what may be regarded as several types of homonymy. One of these types, constituted by various occurrences of a morpheme like /jaj/, is of special interest for us since, depending on whether we regard its occurrences as constituting one or two morphemes (that is, one or another type of homonymy), we retain or remodel the conventional form-class taxonomy of English. Analysis of form classes begins by observing recurrences of identical phonemic sequences. Let us assume that morpheme boundaries have been delimited, by means of junctural and other criteria. We find that the majority of such sequences pattern in unequivocal ways.4 That is to say, given a set of recurrences of identical phonemic sequences, the members of the set will cooccur with a limited number of structural features and in a certain order. Only certain bound forms (from among all the possibilities) will occur with the members of the set; only certain free forms will occur, in specific collocations, with the members of the set; and so on. We find next that recurrences of differently identical phonemic sequences co-occur with the same bound and free forms as do the members of the first set. In this way we isolate form classes, the members of which are defined as co-occurring in specific ways with particular bound and free forms. For example, we isolate a class of nouns