Homonyms, homographs, homophones and minimal pairs 1

 I have been too busy to do much on this blog for the past year, but I'm hoping to revive it in the coming months. Keep your fingers crossed.

Today's post concerns four seemingly basic categories of relationships between words that can be rather confusing for first-year students of English Studies, let alone learners with no background in linguistics. Today's post will be followed by one with exercises.

1. Homonyms are words which are spelt and pronounced the same and which have different, unrelated meanings. They may have very different etymological origins or they may be traced back to the same word, but in this case their connection is no longer relevant to modern-day speakers, who may just as well be unaware of it. The most popular example is that of the words bank, meaning: 1) the edge of a river, 2) a financial institution. 

2. Homographs are two words that are spelt the same but pronounced differently and usually have unrelated meanings, e.g. you can sow /səʊ/ seeds in a field or a flowerpot, but a female pig is called a sow /saʊ/, with two different diphthong phonemes despite the same spelling. The spelling <ow> is often pronounced in the two ways given above. Interestingly, sometimes two grammatical forms of a word have different pronunciations despite having the same spelling: the infinitive and present tense of read is pronounced /riːd/, whereas the past form read is pronounced /red/.

3. Homophones are the opposites of homographs in that they are pronounced the same despite different spelling. The negative particle no and the verb know are pronounced the same, i.e. /nəʊ/, as are the letter name C, the verb see and the noun sea /siː/. Owing to the complex history of English spelling homophones as well as homographs abound, particularly one-syllable words.

4. If two words, regardless of their spelling, are pronounced with just one phonemic difference between them, they are a minimal pair. Not particularly significant in more theoretical phonological studies, minimal pairs are of paramount importance in pronunciation teaching and speech therapy: exercises based on minimal pairs allow teachers and therapists to study phonemic hearing skills (can a student/patient perceive the difference between two or more distinct sounds?) and production skills (can they pronounce the sounds in question differently?).

For practical purposes it makes sense to present minimal pairs where the sounds in question are similar and thus likely to be confused. Contrasting thin and fin (voiceless dental/labio-dental fricatives) or bet and bat (short front monophthong vowels) is more justified than contrasting the vowels of bat and boot or the initial consonants of what and shot. 

Sometimes two words which are spelt similarly but one of them is one sound longer than the other are also called minimal pairs. One example pair is thing /θɪŋ/and think /θɪŋk/: here despite similar spelling the former word contains just one velar consonant at the end while the latter contains two, a voiced nasal and a voiceless plosive/stop.

In some cases it is possible to produce a long minimal set (of more than two items). Consider these examples: 1) pat-bat-mat-fat-vat-that-tat-lat-gnat-chat-rat-cat-hat (C + /æt/)
2) bit-beat-bet-bat-but-Bart-bot-bought-boot-Bert-bait-bite-boat-bout (/b/ + V + /t/)

5. It is worth noting that different accents of English have different homographs and homophones. In non-rhotic accents like RP, the words caught and court are pronounced the same, i.e. /kɔːt/, while in rhotic ones like GA, court naturally contains an /r/ sound. Likewise, the words ant and aunt are pronounced the same as /ænt/ in accents without the TRAP-BATH split, e.g. GA, while in accents with the split, including RP, the word aunt is pronounced /ɑːnt/. Changes occur over time as well: in modern-day RP speakers do not pronounce /ʊə/ in pour, hence pour and pore are homophones (/pɔː/). The disappearance of a voiceless [ʍ] as a phoneme marked as <wh> in spelling also means that which and witch, whales and Wales have become homophones in RP and many other accents (/w/ in both rather than /ʍ/ as opposed to /w/).

Word Stress: Different patterns in compound words

The following phrases are near-homographs and consist of two syllables. In some the first syllable is stressed Oo, in others the second oO. The difference between them is that some are just nouns described by adjectives (in one case a phrasal verb) whereas others are compound words whose meanings are different from the meanings of their components.

oO  (a) black bird, (a) tall boy, (a) black leg, (a) light house, (a) green house, (a) hot dog, (a) black board, (to) check in

Oo (a) blackbird, (a) tallboy, (a) blackleg, (a) lighthouse, (a) greenhouse, (a) hotdog, (a) blackboard, check-in

Ex. Which word with which pattern has the following meaning?

1. a chest of drawers, 2. a bun with a sausage/weiner and vegetables, 3. a tower with a light source on top, 4. a designated area at an airport or a convention centre, 5. someone who refuses to go on strike, 6. a glass structure for growing plants in

KEY

1. a tallboy Oo, 2. a hotdog Oo, 3. a lighthouse Oo, 4. check-in Oo, 5. a blackleg Oo, 6. a greenhouse Oo

Speech on sociophonetics

 Today I have something different: in case you'd like to hear me speak about sociophonetics, namely Margaret Thatcher's pronunciation and the way it was interpreted by Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady and Gillian Anderson in Season 4 of The Crown, here is something for you.

Word stress for speakers of Polish 1: Introduction

This is a short introduction to word stress with examples focused on some common difficulties experienced by native speakers of Polish.

English does not have strongly fixed word stress. Shorter nouns and adjectives are likely to be stressed on the first syllable, many short verbs are stressed on the last syllable, final stress is more likely in Latinate or French-derived words than Germanic ones, but it is difficult to generalise. By contrast, Polish word stress is fairly fixed on the penultimate (last but one) syllable, while some verb forms with suffixes and a number of foreign words are stressed on the antepenultimate (last but two) syllable. Numerous speakers of Polish do not, however, pronounce those exceptional words in the standard way but instead move the word stress to the penultimate syllable to the dismay of some prescriptivists and Polish language teachers.  

A major difference between English and Polish lies in the reduction of most unstressed English syllables to the schwa sound (more on which below), while Polish phonology does not have reduced vowels, just quieter, shorter versions of full vowels. Comparing the schwa sound to unstressed versions of the Polish /a/, /ɛ/ or /i/ should be, in my opinion, avoided in TEFL.

1. Many books use capital O and lowercase o to mark stressed and unstressed syllables, e.g. those by Cambridge University Press.

Poland, yellow Oo insist, believe oO

This is different from phonetic symbols, where a stroke at the top of the line is used to indicate that the next syllable is stressed.
/ˈpəʊlənd/, /ˈjeləʊ/, /ɪnˈsɪst/, /bɪˈliːv/

2. Some words have more than one stressed syllable. In those words there is a main stress (a stroke at the top of the line) and a secondary stress (a stroke at the bottom).

understand OoO, magazine OoO, photographic OoOo
/ˌʌndəˈstænd/, /ˌmægəˈziːn/, /ˌfəʊtəˈgræfɪk/

3. Stressed syllables are longer, somewhat louder and the pitch often goes up.
In unstressed syllables the most common sound is the schwa /ə/ or the front close vowel /ɪ/, even if the spelling suggests a full vowel.

nature Oo /'neɪtʃə/ the "ure" is not /uːr/ or /juːr/, but /ə/ (/ɚ/ in US English and other rhotic varieties).

4. Some unstressed syllables have syllabic consonants - according to some sources there is no real vowel there at all:
/l/ in double, battle, /n/ in station, fashion, /m/ rhythm, chasm Oo
/ˈdʌbl/, /ˈbætl/, /ˈsteɪʃn/, /ˈfæʃn/, /ˈrɪðm/, /ˈkæzm/

5. The most common traps for Polish speakers are words which are similar to Polish ones (cognate words) but with different stress patterns.

kalendarz oOo, dinozaur oOo, rakieta oOo, natura oOo, kultura oOo, lemoniada ooOo,
afrykański OoOo, polityka OoOo
calendar Ooo, dinosaur Ooo, rocket Oo, nature Oo, culture Oo, lemonade OoO /ˌleməˈneɪd/,
African Ooo, politics Ooo

6. Almost no Polish words have final syllable stress, which is why Polish speakers avoid it in English.

along, ago, begin, belong, bereave, between, Chinese, dessert, evade, fatigue, go on … oO

7. Some words are double traps: some Polish speakers may not believe the stress in an English word is analogical to that in a Polish word.

mechanik, komputer oOo / mechanic, computer oOo
Ameryka oOoo / America oOoo

As a result, many Polish learners of English are likely to say */'kɒmpjuːtə/ instead of /kəm'pjuːtə/, */'mekənɪk/ instead of /mɪ'kænɪk/, */ˌæmə'rɪkə/ or */ˌæmə'riːkə/ (or another version with additional errors such as Polish vowels) instead of /ə'merɪkə/.

8. The final point worth mentioning is the difference in word stress that occurs in British and American English:

adult, garage, ballet, café   British Oo, American oO

Trios 3

I used The Free Dictionary at thefreedictionary.com .

Ex. Fill in the gaps with one word. The same word in the same form is needed in each of the three sentences.

1. You've made some progress but there's still ___ for improvement.
My London flat was so small there was no ___ to swing a cat.
The computers are assembled in a clean ___.

2. Don't give me this ___ look. It's not my fault Jane didn't arrive.
I gave up my job at a corporation: it was stressful, the competition was ___ and the salary wasn't high anyway.
The neighbour's ___ dog once killed a wild pigeon. [not: angry, bad]

3. Octopodes do not have an ___ shell.
The castle had an inner wall and an ___ wall.
Johnnie watched an old science fiction movie about evil robots from ___ space.

4. I don't have time for this, I have bigger ___ to fry.
Oliver drinks like a ___. Last night he was so drunk we had to call a taxi to take him home.
On my first day in the new department I felt like a ___ out of water.

5. Their Tinder date was a disaster: he kept telling rude jokes and she decided to ___ on him earlier and go home.
If you ___ someone out from gaol (jail), you pay to get them released earlier.
You have to ___ out the boat or it will sink.

6. If I buy ten lottery tickets, perhaps I'll strike it ___ this time.
Don't worry about failing the second driving test. Third time ___.
Grandma thanks her ___ stars that all her grandchildren went to university and found good jobs.

7. I hate conflicts and I never enter the ___.
My cheap jacket began to ___ around the edges after a month.
Tempers will ___ if aunt and uncle start discussing abortion laws again.

8. The passenger was caught with a ___ of drugs under his clothes.

Don't try to repair your laptop on your own or you'll ___ it and maybe start a fire too.

If he thinks he'll make tons of money by importing cheap Chinese games consoles, he's one ___ short of a load. 


KEY
1. room, 2. fierce, 3. outer, 4. fish, 5. bail, 6. lucky, 7.fray, 8. brick

Trios 2

 Ex. Fill in the gaps with one word. The same word in the same form is needed in each of the three sentences.

1. It was with a ___ heart that I brought my friend the bad news.

Jane's Norwegian boyfriend is a great fan of ___ metal.

For this dessert you will need 300 ml of ___ or double cream. There's no low-fat option in this recipe.

2. People who vote for different parties in different elections are ___ voters.

Autumn leaves were ___ on the surface of the lake.

Dozens of hot air balloons were ___ in the blue summer sky.

3. Tiny Tim was known for the high ___ of his singing voice.

Right before the start of the football match a man in a dog costume ran onto the ___ and was caught by two security guards.

The night in the jungle was ___ black, with no city lights to be seen for dozens of miles.

4. "Revenge is a dish best ___ cold."

Are you being ___, Madam? Shall I bring you a menu?

Our uncle ___ in the navy for 15 years.

5. Jason was ___ between staying in his hometown and moving to San Francisco.

The old hotel building was damaged in a fire and had to be ___ down.

If I'd known Mr Grumpy was coming, I'd have ___ off immediately.

6. I had a quick ___, ate my breakfast in a hurry and left for work.

Fran's grandparents always ___ her with gifts on her birthday.

Pauline's baby ___ was a success even though she got three identical teddy bears.

7. There are 100 employees on the ___ at the factory.

When Trudy quit the job, someone in the department had to take care of the ___ of account.

Children these days don't realise that in the past you had to keep phone ___ or directories at home in order to call anyone.

KEY

1. heavy, 2. floating, 3. pitch, 4. served, 5. torn, 6. shower, 7. books

Trios 1

In this series of exercises, inspired by a use of English task in Cambridge CPE examinations in the 2000's, you will need the same word to fill in the gaps in three sentences. The trick is that the word in question is usually used in different ways: it has multiple meanings, it is used in metaphorical expressions, phrasal verbs and idioms, it is converted from a noun to a verb or adjective etc. The word should be used in the same form in all three sentences: if the verb do is the answer, the sentences should not require does, doing, done, did etc.

Ex. Fill in the gaps with one word. The same word in the same form is needed in each of the three sentences.

1. When the man promised I'd earn millions by selling cryptocurrencies, it was a ___ light to me. 
It's Chris's stag night. Let's go out and paint the town ___. 
The thief left a false clue; it was a ___ herring.

2. You didn't study for your test and you got 10% of the score. Now you have to ___ the music.

Both the ___ and the hands of the clock were painted black; it was useless, you couldn't see a thing.

Gemma trusts people and takes their opinions at ___ value.

3. The company's meetings were so long and boring nobody wanted to ___ them.

Get off your high ___, Al: being a manager doesn't mean you never make mistakes.

Our teenage son spent all his money on a special gaming ___ instead of saving.

4. I took swimming lessons as a child but I still won't swim to the ___ end of the pool.

We're between the devil and the ___ blue sea: we can sell the house cheaply or spend far too much on getting it repaired.

The celebrity expressed her ___ apology following the scandal she had caused last week.

5. The smoke alarm went ___ for no reason, but we still had to leave the building.

The milk was left on the counter for three days and it went ___.

Don't just sit there, get ___ the couch and help me.

6. I'll have a double hamburger and large ___ fries.

Don't listen to him, he's a #*%@, pardon my ___.

They have a ___ window in the living room and can access the garden from there or the front lawn.

7. I'm feeling off ___ today. I had a bad headache all night.

100% on your exam? Oh, ___ me impressed!

Attending English lessons at school may be easy, but studying for a degree in English Language and Literature is a horse of another ___.

8. Don't ___ the dog without asking the owner first. It could bite you.

Developing organic plastic made from seaweed was a ___ of genius.

The vampire appeared at the ___ of midnight.

KEY

1. red, 2. face, 3. chair, 4. deep, 5. off, 6. French (in the first and third sentence some native speakers spell it "french"), 7. colour, 8. stroke