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English Language Arts GlossaryAdapted from: McArthur, Tom & Roshan, eds. The Oxford Concise Companion to the English Language. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.Homograph: A kind of HOMONYM: one of two or more words that are identical in SPELLING but different in origin, meaning, and PRONUNCIATION, such as entrance (noun: stress on the first syllable) a door, gate, etc., and entrance (verb: stress on the second syllable) to put in a trance; lead (verb, rhyming with “deed”) to take, conduct, guide, etc., and lead (noun: rhymes with “dead”) a metal.Homonym: One of two or more words that are identical in sound but different in meaning. There are three kinds: those that sound and look alike (bank1, a slope, bank2, a place for money, and bank3 a bench or row of switches); HOMOPHONES that sound alike but do not look alike (coarse, course); and HOMOGRAPHS, that look alike but do not sound alike (the verb lead and the noun lead). The occurrence of homographs is largely a matter of chance, although a tendency to assimilate the unfamiliar to the familiar is also a factor, as with compound (an enclosure, originally Malay kampong), and pigeon (as in “not my pigeon,” a variant of pidgin). Dictionaries distinguish homographs by means of superscript numbers preceding or following them, largely on the basis of etymology. The degree of separation in dictionaries usually depends on the extent to which each variation in etymology is taken into account: for example, bank (slope) and bank (a place for money) are ultimately related but have had sufficiently divergent routes on their way to English to warrant separate treatment.Homophone: One of two or more words that are identical in sound but different in spelling and meaning: beer/bier, there/their/they’re. The occurrence of homophones is largely a matter of historical chance, in which words with distinct meanings come to coincide phonologically: byre, a cowshed, and buyer, one who buys. Words may be homophones in one variety of English but not another: father/farther and for/four are homophones in received pronunciation, but not in American English and Scottish English; wails/Wales are general homophones; wails/Wales/whales are homophones for many, but not in Irish English or Scottish English. Whether/Whither are homophones in Scotland, but not whether/weather, which are homophones in England. ................
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