HOMOGRAPH WORDS: CHARACTERISTICS, EXAMPLES - LITERATURE - 2025

The homographs words are those that present an exact match in terms of writing. To differentiate one from the other, it is necessary to resort to context. This should not be confused with the phenomenon of polysemy - the ability of each word to have several related meanings - as they are different words.

Thus, in the sentences "you saw that I brought a coffee" and "She wears a brown suit" both phenomena occur. “Viste” (verb form of seeing) and “viste” (verb form of seeing) are homographs. The same happens with "suit" (verb form of bringing) and "suit" (garment). Instead, "coffee" is the same word (the drink and the color of this drink).

The term comes from the Greek homós (equal) and graphé (writing). In some languages, such as English, even if they have the same spelling, they can have different pronunciation. In this way, they can be homograph words, but not homophones (same pronunciation). In any case, both are known as homonymous words.

According to experts, Spanish has a multiplicity of homograph words due to the differences in language forms between the continents. Thus, a certain word has a particular meaning in peninsular Spanish and another in South American Spanish.

characteristics

Ambit

The phenomenon of homography occurs in most languages. For example, in the English language, lead (/ liːd /) and lead (/ lɛd /) mean to lead and lead, respectively.

It is then observed that they are homograph words, but not homophones. The same happens with wind (/ wind /) and wind (/ waɪnd /). The first translates wind and the other winding.

As for French, there are also homographs such as the word page (page) and page (page) or mode (grammatical mode or fashion).

The accents, in many cases, are what make the difference: cote (quoted value, rating) and côte (coast), cura (treatment) and curé (priest) or pécheur (sinner) and pêcheur (fisherman).

On the other hand, as mentioned above, all homograph words in Spanish are homophones. However, this is not necessarily true in the reverse direction. Some words are pronounced the same, but have different spellings.

This is the case, for example, of "haya" (verbal form of haber) and "aya" (person who takes care of and takes care of children) or of "cup" (container for drinking) and "rate" (relationship between two magnitudes).

Ambiguity

Homograph words are an important source of lexical ambiguity as they have different conceptual representations. Context plays a critical role in narrowing down and selecting the most appropriate meaning for such words.

For example, to interpret the word "river" in the sentence: "Every time you visit me, I laugh at your occurrences", you must use the context to inhibit the inappropriate dominant meaning (body of water) and select the subordinate meaning contextually appropriate (act of laughing).

Accent mark

As already seen in the case of French, the orthographic accent can be used to distinguish one word from another. In Spanish, many monosyllabic homograph / homophone words have this particularity: de (preposition) and dé (verb form of giving), mi (possessive pronoun) and me (personal pronoun) or mas (but) and more (adverb of quantity).

In addition, there are pairs of words that are only distinguished by the prosodic accent (greater prominence or charge in the pronunciation of a syllable). The diacritical accent serves to show these semantic differentiations: meat / card, cesar / caesar and Lucio / lució.

Examples of homograph words

Evita (diminutive of Eva) / avoids (verb form of avoid)

"My sacrifice would be a useless sacrifice, because you are alive… But I would give my life for the salvation of the country… and I would give my life and all my blood, drop by drop, to achieve the resurrection of Evita." (In The flesh of Evita, by Daniel Guebel, 2012)

“So it is with this soul: she is love, and love reigns in her, powerful and sovereign, in action and in repose, in what she undertakes or in what she avoids doing, in exterior and interior things, according to her will ”. (In The Inner Look: Mystical and Visionary Writers in the Middle Ages by Victoria Cirlot and Blanca Garí, 2008)

Capital (economic goods) / capital (main population of a region)

"Once it has been decided how much to invest in each type of asset and has reserved a capital to invest in the stock market, that's when you have to decide how to do it." (In 30 actions to invest in the stock market in 2017 by José Poal and Francisco López, 2016).

"… in the face of this 'high politics'… it quickly found its trigger in the treatment of an issue that had already been extremely irritating in the past decade: the designation of the Capital of the Republic." (In The Republic of Opinion: Politics and Public Opinion in Buenos Aires between 1852 and 1862 by Alberto Rodolfo Lettieri, 1998)

Candle (piece of wax or paraffin to light) / candle (piece of canvas or canvas of the boats)

“The candle that we know today only began to be used in the Middle Ages, a time when people with limited resources made it with tallow (fat from oxen or lambs). These candles generated a lot of smoke… ”. (In The Book of Candles by Fabián León and María Eugenia Rossi, 2000)

“When launching the sail, it is convenient not to take it to the maximum extreme of wind. This will allow all the components of the sail (seams, fibers) to be placed and fit evenly with each other ”. (In Sailing on a skateboard, by Ricard Pedreira, 2007)

Wine (drink made with grapes) / wine (verb form of coming)

“We won't toast, but we pour ourselves a glass of wine. The cup has its own voice. Ask for a dash of burgundy. The wine falls into her as we would like to fall, loose and determined, into someone's arms ”. (In Forgive our pleasures, by Sandra Russo, 2006)

"And she would also be proud of you for being such a loving and protective father to us…" she exclaimed, smiling, immediately changing the subject. By the way, Don Jorge came early to tell you that your shipment would arrive tomorrow ”. (In The Harvest Festival by José Luis Vázquez, 2017)

Potato (highest representative of the Catholic Church) / potato (edible tuber)

"… young Spanish journalist based in Rome and director of Rome's report, the news agency that supplies all the world media with Vatican news and the Pope, tells us about Francis." (In The Pope of Mercy by Javier Martínez-Brocal, 2015)

“… On the north coast of Peru, the Mochica culture had already established a relationship between the potato and the supernatural world. This can be seen in its ceramics… (In The potato: treasure of the Andes: from agriculture to culture, by Christine Graves, 2000)

References

1. Definition ABC. (s / f). Definition of Homography. Taken from definicionabc.com.
2. Garachana, M and Santiago, M. (2000). Practical manual of academic writing. Barcelona: Ariel
3. New South Wales Department of Education. (s / f). Homonyms (also known as homographs). Taken from det.nsw.edu.au.
4. Gallego Vera, JH (s / f). Literacy program, basic and secondary education for youth and adults. Taken from casdquindio.edu.co
5. Martínez, JA (2004). Write without mistakes: basic spelling manual. Oviedo: University of Oviedo.
6. Arroyave de la Cruz, H. (2008). Spanish up to date. Rules of common use. Medellín: Metropolitan Technological Institute.
7. Carrera Díaz, M. (2008). Italian language course. Barcelona: Grupo Planeta (GBS).
8. Gottlob, Lawrence et al. (1999). Reading homographs: Orthographic, phonologic, and semantic dynamics. Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, No. 25, pp. 561-74.