Concept

Homograph

Summary
A homograph (from the ὁμός, homós, "same" and γράφω, gráphō, "write") is a word that shares the same written form as another word but has a different meaning. However, some dictionaries insist that the words must also be pronounced differently, while the Oxford English Dictionary says that the words should also be of "different origin". In this vein, The Oxford Guide to Practical Lexicography lists various types of homographs, including those in which the words are discriminated by being in a different word class, such as hit, the verb to strike, and hit, the noun a blow. If, when spoken, the meanings may be distinguished by different pronunciations, the words are also heteronyms. Words with the same writing and pronunciation (i.e. are both homographs and homophones) are considered homonyms. However, in a broader sense the term "homonym" may be applied to words with the same writing or pronunciation. Homograph disambiguation is critically important in speech synthesis, natural language processing and other fields. Identically written different senses of what is judged to be fundamentally the same word are called polysemes; for example, wood (substance) and wood (area covered with trees). Examples: sow (verb) soʊ – to plant seed sow (noun) saʊ – female pig where the two words are spelt identically but pronounced differently. Here confusion is not possible in spoken language but could occur in written language. bear (verb) – to support or carry bear (noun) – the animal where the words are identical in spelling and pronunciation (bɛər), but differ in meaning and grammatical function. These are called homonyms. List of English homographs Many Chinese varieties have homographs, called () or (), (). Modern study of Old Chinese has found patterns that suggest a system of affixes. One pattern is the addition of the prefix /*ɦ/, which turns transitive verbs into intransitive or passives in some cases: Another pattern is the use of a /*s/ suffix, which seems to create nouns from verbs or verbs from nouns: Many homographs in Old Chinese also exist in Middle Chinese.
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