Homophony

Authors

Darryl Francis

Abstract

A homophone is a word or phrase pronounced like another word or phrase, but different in meaning and possibly in derivation as well, as DONE/DUN or BITE/BIGHT/BYTE. Not long ago, I realized that a large number of homophones could be constructed on the word ROSES, particularly if punctuation as well as spelling were used to distinguish among the various examples:

-the presence or absence of a capital letter, as illustrated by the girl's name (Rose) and the flower (rose)
-the presence or absence of an apostrophe, as in a simple plural (roses), the genitive of a singular noun (Rose's), and the genitive of a plural noun (Roses').

Recommended Citation

Francis, Darryl (1983) "Homophony," Word Ways: Vol. 16 : Iss. 1 , Article 17.
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/wordways/vol16/iss1/17