Jj is for Jottings 133.  Vocabulary: Homonyms, Heteronyms and Homophones.

 

Following on from learning vocabulary and direct vocabulary instruction, it is useful to consider another aspect of vocabulary: homonyms, heteronyms and homophones.  These categories are often either unknown or confusing for many people, so this is a good time to sort them out.  We can also see how useful they are as part of the approach to teaching vocabulary.

Much of the confusion about these word categories can be ironed out by discovering the root words of each category.  Then it is easy to remember what they mean.

HOMONYMS.

The word root ‘homo‘ comes from the Greek word “homos”, which means ‘same’. For instance, “homosexual” means being interested in the same sex/gender. Similarly, the word “homogeneous” means of the same kind. “Homogeny” means the state of being all the same.  Think homogenised milk, where the milk and cream are all mixed together instead of the cream rising to the top when it hasn’t been homogenised.  None of our milk was homogenised when I was a child, and my mother would use the thin cream at the top as a substitute for cream when it didn’t matter that the cream was not thick.  The opposite of “homo” is “hetero”, as in “heterosexual”.

 

Don’t confuse this Greek homo- element with the Latin homo- which means “mankind”, as in homo sapiens.

The “nym” part of “homonym” means “name” or “word” (Greek again).   Putting the two parts of the word “homonym” together, we have “same name”.  So homonyms are two or more words which are spelt and pronounced the same, but have different meanings.  And there are zillions of them.  (Well, maybe not zillions, but a great many.)  Think of the word, “jam”, for example.  We have a traffic jam; the sweet substance made from boiling fruit with sugar and water which you put on your scones and toast; jamming your finger in a door; to pack tightly/close together (people or objects); making something unworkable (the photocopier jammed); to be in a difficult situation.  Note that some homonyms which are used in, say, American English, may not be used in UK or Australian English.

Examples of Homonyms.

Following is a list of words which are homonyms.  They may have two meanings, or even up to five or six meanings.  You can have fun trying to think up as many meanings as you can with your child.  If they are unable to think up alternate meanings by themselves, you could mime alternative meanings or give clues.  They will expand their vocabulary much more easily if they find that playing with words can be fun:

Rock, duck (see previous post on direct vocabulary instruction), ball, bill, gum, bark, mole, down, cast, log, seal, bear, swallow, steer, prune, tart, date, corn, toast, spoke, faint, boil, launch, lean, spring, file, brush, round, rare, plain, bridge, stall, ground, fair, pool, kid, pupils, speakers, man, scale, match, key, game, dull, fast, stable, dart, pass, hail, sole.  If you are unable to think up more than one meaning for any of these words, you might want to look them up, and expand your vocabulary at the same time as your child’s!  (More often than not, you’ll probably find that you did know more than one meaning but you just didn’t think of alternatives at the time.)

HETERONYMS.

Putting together the root words from the previous section, we have “different” + “name”.  Heteronyms are two or more words which are spelt the same, but have different meanings and are pronounced differently.  For example “wind” can be winding up a toy, and the wind drying the washing on the line.  We automatically work out which it is from the context. Examples are:

Wound, tears, bow, row, present, close, lead, object, produce, alternate, contest, project, minute, content, record, subject, invalid, excuse, suspect, conduct, permit, progress.

Note that some of the pairs are actually the noun and verb of the same word.  An example is “record”. The verb is to write down information; its noun is the information itself; and they are pronounced differently.

A difficulty with heteronyms is that, if you want to know the different pronunciation of the two words, you have to either hear it, or to be able to read the system used in whatever dictionary you are consulting.

Heteronyms  Can Also Be Homonyms.

Just to confuse things, sometimes one or both of the heteronyms have several meanings themselves.  For example, the word “subject” has three meanings as a noun (i.e. they are homonyms) and one as a verb.  As a noun, the meanings are:

• The person or thing that is discussed in a book, story, magazine etc., or in conversation. “The subject of that article was most interesting.”
• An area of study such as English, science, history. “My favourite subject is French.”
• The part of a sentence which tells us who or what the sentence is about. “The teacher asked us to underline the subject of each sentence.”

As a verb “subject” means to force a person to go through something.  “Please don’t subject me to another of your angry outbursts.”

In this example we didn’t have two different parts of speech with the same meaning.

HOMOPHONES.

Now we know that “homo” means “same”.  “Phon” is another Greek root word which means “sound” or “voice”.  Think phonological awareness, phonemic awareness and phonics.  Also “symphony” and “telephone”.   So homophones are two or more words which sound alike, but have different meanings and spellings.  And here is where poor spellers run into heaps of trouble.  An illustration of homophones is:

• “The bird flew to its nest to feed its young.”
• “I was bed-ridden with the flu.”
• “The smoke from the fire goes up the flue and out of the chimney.”

Examples of homophones are:

Beets/beats; hare/hair; blue/blew; due/dew; deer/dear; bear/bare; horse/hoarse; knew/new; flea/flee; toad/towed; berry/bury; steak/stake; tea/tee; pare/pear/pair; chews/choose; herd/heard; pour/pore; stare/stair; wait/weight; break/brake; male/mail; in/inn; hall/haul; I’ll/isle/aisle; creek/creak; road/rowed/rode; ball/bawl; bored/board; or/oar/ore; sleigh/slay; pale/pail; week/weak/; plane/plain; bridle/bridal; tide/tied; ceiling/sealing; loan/lone; ring/wring; heal/heel; sore/soar; waist/waste; fair/fare; pray/prey.

Some Homophones Are Also Homonyms.

As you can see, sometimes one of the homophones is also a homonym.  For example, fowl/foul:

• Fowl is a bird such as duck, goose or turkey. “We always have some sort of fowl for Christmas dinner.”
• Foul, as an adjective, means unpleasant. “Once, as a practical joke, my grandfather nailed a dead fish under his neighbour’s kitchen table.  They even ripped up some floorboards in an attempt to find the source of the foul smell.”  (This is true.  He was a boy at the time, I think and hope.)
• Foul, as a noun, is an action for wrongdoing. “”The umpire called a foul and gave the other team a free kick.”

USING HOMONYMS, HETERONYMS AND HOMOPHONES TO TEACH VOCABULARY.

You can use the examples given in each category above to expand your child’s vocabulary.  Whilst your child may know one meaning of a homonym, for example, you can now teach other meanings.  And you can actually work your way systematically through the lists, filling in any holes as you discover them.  Remember to use as many different learning pathways as you can – pictures, real life examples, having the child write the words – as outlined in the previous articles linked in the first paragraph above.

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