HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

HOMONYMY
IN ENGLISH - VIETNAMESE
Instructor : Nguyen Ngoc Vu
Student: Doan Quynh Nhu
Class: 4A
HCMC, 31/12/2010
Doan |2
Abstract
When speaking and listening, have you ever misunderstood or felt difficult in
choosing or understanding words? Of course, yes. What is the reason? From my point of
view, there are many reasons and one of them is confusing words because any language has
confusing words. This is the reason making us embarrassed because those confusing words
make us misinterpret someone’s meaning or be difficult to understand. Sometimes, there are
mistakes funny, otherwise, they are terrible. And homonym is one of the reasons causing this
phenomenon. I find it very interesting. Being an English teacher-to be, I want to search and
analyze the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese homonym. This is
very useful for my teaching and I hope that I bring an exciting thing to you.
Literature review
What is homonym? The word "homonym" comes from the conjunction of the Greek:
prefix homo- (meaning same) and suffix -onym (meaning name). Thus, it refers to two or
more distinct words sharing the "same name". (Wikipedia) A homonym is one of a group of
words that share the same spelling or pronunciation (or both) but have different meanings.
The state of being a homonym is called homonymy. (English semantics) Examples of
homonyms:
In English, stalk which can mean either part of a plant or to follow someone around;
to, two and too are homonyms because they are pronounced the same, despite their spelling
differences.
In Vietnamese, đường (railway) đường tàu Thống Nhất; đường (sugar) mua một cân
đường; sao (star) ông sao trên trời; sao (why) sao anh lại làm như thế; sao (copy) đi sao giấy
khai sinh; sao (dehydrate) sao thuốc nam.
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In English and Vietnamese, homonym appears mainly between word-word. How
about between word-phrase, phrase-phrase? It is very rare. (Cơ sở ngôn ngữ học và tiếng Việt
188). For instance, the sun’s rays meet // the sons raise meat; or jack in the box // jack-in-thebox.
However, they are also different because of the classification of homonym. Now, we
are going to have a deep look into the types of homonym in English and Vietnamese to see
how they are similar and different. Then we will find some various points between homonym
and polysemy. Finally, that is a summary about what we can learn and apply to our study and
teaching as well.
Homonym in English
Several similar linguistic concepts are related to homonymy. The term 'homonym' is
ambiguous because there are a number of ways that two meanings can share the 'same name'
and because the term is used in different ways by educated speakers, and these variant
meanings are recorded by dictionaries. The terms "homograph" and "homophone" are
however usually defined the same way as meaning "same spelling" and "same sound"
respectively.
The first, homonyms are words that have the same (sound and written) form but have
different meanings. For example, the noun bank1 (a financial institution) and the noun bank2
(the shore of a river), both being pronounced // in RP. We will take bear for another
example: the noun bear, which refers to a large heavy animal with thick fur; the verb bear1,
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which means give birth to, and the verb bear2, which means tolerate; all being pronounced
// in RP1.
The second, homographs are words that have the same written form but have different
meanings and sound forms. Example one: classified as two homographs are the verb lead
// in Does this road lead to town and the noun lead /led/ in Lead is a heavy mental.
Another example: Classified as two homographs are the bare infinitive form read // and
the past tense form read //.
The third is homophones. Before giving definition of homophones, we will read this to
see what homophones are.
They don’t look alike
they’re not spelled the same.
That’s how it is in the homophone game.
Homophones, homophones!
Can you find the homophones?
Oh, I went to the ocean to see the sea.
Homophones, homophones!
Last night a knight was looking at me.
Homophones, homophones!
Can you find the homophones?
1
Received Pronunciation (RP), also called the Queen's (or King's) English, Oxford English, or BBC
English, is the accent of Standard English in England, with a relationship to regional accents similar to
the relationship in other European languages between their standard varieties and their regional
forms.
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We can realize that homophones are words that have the same sound form but have
different meanings and written forms. Such words include the noun hour (a twenty-fourth part
of a day and night) and the possessive adjective our (belonging to us), both being pronounce
// in RP. Another two homophones are the noun place, which means a particular area or
position in space, and the noun plaice, which means a type of fish; both being pronounced
// in RP. (See appendix for more examples)
Consider the following table and identify homonyms, homophones and homographs
via their main features. (English semantics)
Written form
Sound form
Meaning
Homonyms
+
+
-
Homophones
-
+
-
Homographs
+
-
-
+: the same or nearly the same
-: different or opposite
Homonymy in Vietnamese
Vietnamese is a root-isolating language. On the other hand, this language is
uninflected. For this reason, those words are homonyms which always have the same spelling
and sound in any context. This is very different from English since it is an inflectional
language. Accordingly, these words are homonyms in this form but not in another form such
as verb meet (present form) and noun meat are homonyms, both have the same spelling //
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but verb met (past form of meet) and noun meat are not homonyms. Another example: the
noun saw (a tool that is used for cutting wood), noun sore (a painful, often red place on your
body where the skin is cut or infected) and verb saw (become conscious of something)-past
form of see are homonyms, these words are pronounced //. As a result, Vietnamese
language classifies homonym in different way. There are two types of homonym: homonym
among words and homonym among words and syllables. Firstly, homonym among words has
two subclasses:
Lexical homonyms are those words belonging to the same word-class. Example like
đường 1 (road)-đường 2 (sugar), or đường kính1 (a type of sugar)-đường kính2 (diameter), they
are nouns. Another example: cất1 cất nhà (build a house)-cất2 cất tiền vào tủ (lay by one’s
money in wardrobe)-cất3 cất rượu (distil spirit), they are verbs.
Another subclass is lexical-grammatical homonyms. That means those words are
homonyms belonging to different word-class. For instance, chỉ1 cuộn chỉ (thread) (noun), chỉ2
chỉ tay năm ngón (point) (verb), chỉ3 chỉ còn có dăm đồng (only) (adverb).
This homonymic phenomenon is very interesting in Vietnam through proverbs and
word-plays like:
Bác1 bác2 trứng. (bác1 is a noun and bác2 is a verb). Or
Bà già ra chợ Cầu Đông
Xem một quẻ bói lấy chồng lợi1 chăng?
Thấy bói gieo quẻ nói rằng:
Lợi2 thì có lợi3 nhưng răng chẳng còn
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At the first glance, maybe listeners will be angry. But when they realize these words
have the same sound but different meaning, listeners burst out laughing and are not angry.
Lợi1 is an adjective which means useful; however, lợi2 and lợi3 are nouns which mean gums.
Secondly, homonyms among words and syllables are those words not belonging to the
same level of lexicon. For example “Nhà cửa để lầm than con thơ trẻ lấy ai rèn cặp” the
syllable than (coal) and word lầm than (complain) are homonyms; the syllable rèn (forge) and
word rèn cặp (educate) are also homonyms. This phenomenon does not have in English
because Vietnamese language does not have the contrast between roots and affix; words are
formed by the combination of syllables.
Or only words also make us confused and funny like “Bữa qua1, qua2 nói qua3 qua4
mà qua5 hổng qua6. Hôm nay, qua7 hông nói qua8 qua9 mà lại qua10.” Bữa qua1 means
yesterday; qua2, qua3, qua5, qua7, qua8 means you and qua4, qua6, qua9, qua10 means arrive.
These words are homonyms.
Distinguish between homonymy and polysemy
A well-known problem in semantics is how to decide whether we are dealing with a
single polysemous word (like plain) or with two or more homonyms (like port1, as in The ship
left port, and port2, as in He drank port). In other words, how do you know words are
homonyms or polysemy?
Some sources state that homonym meanings must be unrelated in origin (rather than
just different). Thus right (correct) and right (opposed to left) would be polysemous and not
be homonyms. Bank in river bank and Bank of England are homonymous: they share no
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meaning whatsoever; they function as two totally unrelated words. River bed and hospital
bed seem to be somehow semantically linked: it is a case of polysemy.
Implications for language teaching
It is important to learn the different spellings, pronunciations and meanings of words
in the beginning stage of language learning or you could say something you don’t mean or
understand something to be what it is not.
Homonyms are words like bank. All of these nouns are pronounced the same so you
really need to understand the context of the sentence or you won’t know whether someone is
talking about a financial institution, or a shore of a river. The word sound is most often first
learned as noise. It is very basic vocabulary that all beginners know. But sound also means
something else as healthy. Examples like these are easier to spot in writing, since nouns
generally need an article in front of them, but in everyday speech if you cannot understand
every word and only catch certain basic vocabulary, you could completely misunderstand the
message. This is also why learning the pronunciation of conjugations of verbs is important at
the beginning stage. Obviously for words that are spelled the same, it easy to look up their
definition(s) and pronunciation(s) in the dictionary. But for words that are not spelled the
same, yet are pronounced the same, it can be a bit trickier.
Knowing more about homonymy, we can explore to know how to teach vocabulary
excitingly and also decrease difficulties for learners. Supposing we can make a sentence like
this “Our bear cannot bear to be bare at any hour.” And ask them to listen and repeat. Then
we will explain.
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Conclusion
This phenomenon is very interesting and useful for our teaching and learners as well.
To us, we should explore many ways to help them study easier and find it exciting. In
addition, we also give them some tips to help them learn better. To learners, they should know
this and pay attention to pronunciation. Moreover, they should take notice of context when
they translate or listen.
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Appendix
+ Heroin /'herouin/ (n) = (dược học) thuốc gây mê làm từ moocphin, dùng trong ngành dược
để gây ngủ hoặc giảm đau, hoặc do người nghiện ma túy dùng; hêrôin
+ Heroine /'herouin/ (n) = nữ anh hung
Cite /sait/ (v) = trích dẫn
+ Site /sait/ (n) = địa điểm, khu đất ( để xây dựng).
+ Sight /sait/ (n) = khe ngắm, tầm ngắm; quang cảnh, cảnh tượng;
(v) = quan sát, nhìn thấy
+Principal /'prinsəpl/ (n) = hiệu trưởng (trường phổ thông); (Adj) = chính, chủ yếu.
+ Principle / 'prinsəpl/ (n) = nguyên tắc, luật lệ
Hi (Chào) and High (trên cao, cao)
Hi, how are you? (Chào, bạn có khỏe không?)
At 12 o'clock the sun is high in the sky. (Vào 12 giờ trưa, mặt trời lên cao.)
In (trong) và Inn (quán rượu)
Come in and have a cup of tea. (Hãy vào nhà và dùng một ly trà.)
'Inn' is an old-fashioned word for 'pub'.('Inn' là từ kiểu xưa của từ 'pub')
'' is an old-fashioned word for 'pub'.
New (mới) và knew (đã biết)
I love your new dress! (Em thích chiếc áo đầm mới của chị.)
I knew the answer as soon as she asked the question. (Tôi biết được câu trả lời vừa khi cô ta đặt câu hỏi.)
We (chúng tôi) và Wee (nhỏ, bé)
We (my husband and I) would love you to come and stay.(Chúng tôi (ông xã của tôi và tôi) mong muốn bạn đến
chơi và ở lại.)
Scottish people say 'wee' for 'small' or 'little'. (Người Xcốt-len dùng từ 'wee' thay từ 'small' hoặc 'little'.)
Need (cần thiết) và Knead (nhào bột)
We're hungry so we need some food.(Chúng tôi đói bụng vì thế chúng tôi cần thức ăn.)
To make bread you have to knead the dough (a mixture of flour and water). (Để làm bánh mì, bạn phải nhào bột
nhão.)
So (vì thế) và Sew (may vá)
It's raining so you need to use your umbrella.(Trời đang mưa vì thế bạn cần sử dụng chiếc dù.)
Will you sew a button on this shirt for me please? (Bạn vui lòng đính chiếc nút vào chiếc áo này cho tôi nhé?)
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Reference
Chừ, Mai Ngọc, Vũ Đức Nghiệu, and Hoàng Trọng Phiến (1997). “Cơ sở ngôn ngữ học và
tiếng Việt”. Ho Chi Minh city: Education Publishing House.
“Hiện tượng đồng âm”. Truyencuoi
http://www.truyencuoi.vn/?menu=view_story&tl=108&truyen=289
“Homonym”. Wikipedia. Retrieved October 21, 2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homonym
“Những cặp từ gây khó khăn trong tiếng anh”. Globaledu
http://www.globaledu.com.vn/Thong-Tin-Chi-Tiet/2712/Nhung-cap-tu-gay-kho-khan-trongtieng-Anh
“Lối chơi chữ trong đối và thơ”. nguoivienxu.vietnamnet.
http://nguoivienxu.vietnamnet.vn/chuyentiengmede/2004/03/54108/
“Luyện nói tiếng anh”. globaledu
http://www.globaledu.com.vn/Thong-Tin-Chi-Tiet/2225/2225
Tô Minh Thanh (2009) “English Semantics”. Ho Chi Minh City: National University.