Robert A. Rosenberg wrote: <begin extract> By the way you mean Homophone not Homonym. The former are words that sound alike but are spelled differently while the latter are words that mean the same thing but are spelled/pronounced differently. There are also words that are spelled the same but have different meanings and pronunciations (although I forget the term for this case) such as in "Please read this book which I have already read". </end extract>
Mr. Rosenberg's position is not devoid of merit. I could (correctly) have written 'homophone' instead of 'homonym', but I was under no obligation to do so: homophones and a proper subset of homonyms. About the word he has forgotten: Homographs, words spelled in the same way, that are pronounced differently are called heteronyms. Of my two examples 'His curiosity was peaked', and 'She has a 24-inch waste', Tony Harminc wrote </begin extract> Neither of these sentences, while improbable, is impossible, or inherently devoid of meaning. </end extract> I concede that there is an important sense in which neither is impossible. They and their ilk are common; and, as its name suggests, the existential quantifier confers existence. My objection to them was and is different: They are subliterate in the literal sense that they are committed by persons having poor reading skills. (On another reading of the word 'impossible' the first is of course impossible: the verb 'to peak' is used ungrammatically.) Let me also note that the American linguists' cult of usage, which legitimates, even sanctifies, anything someone says or writes, must bear part of the responsibility for the prevalence of these constructs. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA On 7/3/12, Barry Merrill <[email protected]> wrote: > QATAR Airways is also without the U and seemingly well pronounced in their > advertisements. > > Barry > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
