A Classification of Words

8/10/2019 A Classification of Words

1/3

180

CL SSiFIC TION OF WORDS

MAXEY

BROOKE

Sweeny, Texas

One of the pleasures

of the

logologis t is investigating the relat ions

between pa i r s

of

words .

Words can

be

charac te r ized in

four

ways: spel

l ing or appearance) , sound o r pronunciat ion) , meaning o r definition) ,

and origin

or

der ivat ion) . Two words

can

be

ei ther identical

o r differ

ent with respec t to each of these

proper t ies ;

thus,

there

are

16

different

ways in

which word-pa i r s

can

be

classif ied, ranging from identical

in

al l

four respec ts

to

different in

all four respec ts .

The 14

in te rmedia te

cases ,

those

in

which

a pair

of words are identical

in

some

respec ts

but differ in others , are the ones

of

most in te res t

to the

logologis t .

This work was inspired

by Dave

Si lverman,

who,

in the May 1974

Kickshaws,

int roduced

a s l ightly

s impler 8- way classif icat ion,

ignoring

origin but dis t inguishing spel l ing, sound and meaning. He suggested

homograph, homophone and

synonym

to descr ibe

word-pa i r s

ident ical

in exact ly

one of

these

charac te r i s t ic s ,

and

gave

examples (but

not

defi

nite names) of word-pa i r s ident ical in two

charac te r i s t ic s .

For brevi ty , I int roduce the following

notation.

Let Sp stand

for

spel

l ing,

So

for

sound, Me,

for meaning and O r

for

origin; also,

le t paren

theses enclosing

any

of these

abbreviat ions

denote that the two words are

unlike in that respec t . For example , word- pair s

ident ical

in spel l ing

and

sound but different in

meaning and origin

are denoted by

the

symbol

i s m SpSo( Me)

(Or)

.

Over

the

years

a cons iderable

number

of

words

have

been introduced

to

dist inguish

words

according to these proper t ies . Unfortunately,

the

definitions

do not

always

specify the presence or absence of

each

prope r

ty; for

example , two

words

are

synonyms

i f they have

the

same

meaning,

r ega rd le ss of whether or not they have the same o r different

sounds,

spel l ings o r orig ins . Worse ,

dic t ionar ies often

give different

defini t ions

for

the same word. I summar ize below the defini t ions given severa l

common and not- so- common words

by

the Oxford Engl ish Dictionary

(OED) , The Merr i am- Webster

Unabridged

(W3,

W2),

and the

Funk

Wagnalls Unabridged

FW)

, as well

as by

a

dict ionary

devoted

to

l in

guis t ic

s ,

Mario

Pei

and

Frank

Gaynor

I

s

Dictionary

of

Linguis t ic

s

(Crown

Publ ishers ,

1954) PG) .

conjugate

OrMe OED-

W3- FW

doublet

O r

OED- W3; O)? FW;

Or( Me)

PG

heteronym

Sp( So)

(Me)

OED-

W2-

FW

- PG

homograph

Sp( Or)

(Me)

OED-

FV1;

Sp(

Or) , Sp(

Me),

Sp( So) W3;


2/3

181

Sp(

Or) (So)

(Me) PG

homomorph

= homophone

W2 -

PG

homonym So( Me) OED; SpSo( Me) , =

homophone,

= homograph

W3; So(Me), Sp(So) (O r ) , So(Sp)

(Or)

FW;

SpSo( Me)

(Or) PG

homophone

So

Me)

0

r)

So

0 r) 0

ED;

So

Me)

,

So

0

r)

,

So

Sp)

W3; =

homonym

FW;

So(

Sp)

Or) (Me) PG

paronyzn

r OED-

FW;

So( Sp)

(Me) . =

conjugate

FW;

Or( Me)

PG

polyonym

= synonym W2- OED

synonym

Me OED- W3-

FW-PG

t is c lear f rom this tha t homonym

is

a hopeless ly confused t e r m

which

ought to be avoided in any sys temat ic c lass i f icat ion . Although he te ro

nyzn

i s somewhat

c lea re r ,

it is so

frequently regarded

as the

opposi te

of

homonym

that

i t . too. should be eschewed.

He re is my proposed nomenclature

for

classi fying

pa i rs

of words:

So( Sp) (Me) (Or)

example ,

FLOCKS

and

PHLOX.

Following

Pei

and

Gaynor.

this should be cal led

a homophone.

Various

general izat ions

have

appeared in Word Ways. such as queer reed /que r i ed (Februa ry

1973) and new

dandy

can a r y ' s skin/nude Andy can a i r his skin (Aug

ust 1969).

On

the

other

hand, the August

1969 i ssue suggests that

homophones

can re fe r

to different groups of le t te rs in

words having

the same sound

(as

uff-uph).

Sp( So) ( Me)

(Or) example .

TARRY

( to wait)

and T

ARR

Y ( cove red

with

t a r ) . Again following Pei and Gaynor, this should be ca l led a homo

graph; heteronym is a le ss -acceptable synonym. In his book Play

i n , With

Words,

Joseph Shipley cal ls

these

doubletones .

Me( So

Sp)

Or) example , PORKE

R and PIG.

All

re fe rences agree

that

the word synonym descr ibes a word-

pai r

identical in

meaning ,

regard less

of

any other

character is t ic .

Since

this

is too genera l ,

I propose the following modification: definit ive

synonym.

Or( So)

(Sp) (Me) example .

GUARD and WARD. No dict ionary

defines

this prec ise

combination

of charac te r i s t ic

s;

I suggest borrowing

the

word

doublet.

SoSp(

Me) (Or) example . SQUASH

(a vegetable,

f rom

the Indian

asqnash)

and

SQUASH

(a

game, f rom the French esquachie r ) . Descr ibed by

Dave Si lverman as words with two origins in

the

May

1969

Kick

shaws, these can be chr is tened double orig in words . Drury ' s a r

t icle in

the

August 1969 Word Ways cal ls

these

words homographs ,

a word

already

used above.

SoMe( Sp) (Or) example . COLE

(Anglo-Saxon

for

cabbage) and

KOHL

(German

for cabbage) . I can

find no

t e r m

for

this

class i f icat ion ,

and propose synonymic

homophone.

SoOr( Sp) (Me)

example ,

CANON

and

CANNON, both f rom

the

Greek

kanna. meaning

r eed ;

canon

gets i ts

meaning f rom reed in the

sense

of a rod, while cannon gets i ts meaning f rom

reed

in the

sense of a hollow tube. Although this class i f icat ion h as been t e rmed

a

quasi -

homograph

in

the August 1969

Word Ways.

I

bel ieve that

homophonic doublet

is

a

c lea re r descr ipt ion.


3/3

182

SpMe(

So) (Or) example ,

QUAY (pronounced

1l

kee

l l

,

f rom the

French)

and QUAY (pronounced cay ,

f rom

the

Spanish) .

I

can

find no

t e r m for this

clas

sification, and propose synonymic homographs.

s p a r ( So) (Me) example ,

PRESENT

(verb) and

PRESENT

(noun).

I

find no

t e r m

for this

classi f icat ion,

and

propose

homographic

doublets.

MeOr(So)

(Sp) example, KENTUM (Lat in) and SATEM (Sanskr i t ) ,

both

meaning one hundred . I find

no t e r m

for this classif icat ion,

and

propose

synonymic doublets.

SoSpMe( Or) example , YANKEE (c la imed by

Thomas Anbury in his

1789

work, Trave ls ,

to

corne

f rom the

Cherokee

eankke , or

coward

1

and YANKEE (c la i med by H. L. Mencken in his 1937

book)

The

Amer

ican

a n g u a ~ e

to corne

f rom

the Dutch

Janke,

the diminut ive

of

j a n ) . T ese are words that have

conflict ing

derivat ions; the

c lass ic

example

is

the

word

OK,

discussed

by Ralph

Beaman

in the

May

1975 Word

Ways.

I

propose

the name

derivat ion

var iants .

SoSpOr(

Me) example ,

CONDUCT

(to lead) and CONDUCT (behavior) .

Although

this classif icat ion has been t e rmed

a

pseudo-homograph

in the August 1969

Word Ways,

I believe that meaning

variant i s

a

c lea re r descript ion.

SoMeOr(

Sp) example , CHECK

and

CHEQUE.

These are mere ly

spelling

variants .

SpMeOr( So) example ,

CA

RlBBEAN

(accented

on

the

th i rd

syllable)

and

CA

I ~ E N (accented

on the

second syllable). These a re mere ly

pronunciat ion

var iants .

Thus endeth

my essay . I

am

indebted

to

Dmitr i Borgmann

for various

suggest ions and addit ions .

A Classification of Words

Documents