On English Homophones

Оглавление

Bridges Robert. On English Homophones

ENGLISH HOMOPHONES

LIST OF HOMOPHONES

I. THE MAIN LIST OF HOMOPHONES

II. All the following examples involve wh. > w.5

III. Group of Homophones caused by loss of trilled R.6

IV. The name of a species (of animals, plants, &c.) is often a homophone. Where there is only one alternative meaning, this causes so little inconvenience that the following names (being in that condition) have been excluded from List I.7

V. The suffix er added to a root often makes homophones. The following are examples. (And see in List VI.)

VI. Words excluded from the main list for various reasons, their homophony being rightly questioned by many speakers

VII. Homophones due only to an inflected form of a word. Comparatives of adjectives, &c

VIII. 'False homophones' [see p. 4], doubtful doublets, &c

IX. The following words were not admitted into the main class chiefly on account of their unimportance

SUMMARY

Отрывок из книги

This list, the object of which is to make the reader easily acquainted with the actual defect of the language in this particular, does not pretend to be complete or scientific; and in the identification of doubtful words the clue was dictated by brevity. s., v., and adj. mean substantive, verb, and adjective. The sections were made to aid the conspectus.

The main indictment is contained in sections i, ii, and iii. These three sections contain 505 entries, involving some 1,075 words.

.....

The order in this section is that of the phonetic alphabet.

The facts of the case being now sufficiently supplied by the above list, I will put my attitude towards those facts in a logical sequence under separate statements, which thus isolated will, if examined one by one, avoid the confusion that their interdependence might otherwise occasion. The sequence is thus:

.....