I.

Introduction
Homonymy is the relationship in which the meaning of one
form is comprised . Originally, the word “homonym” derives from the
Greek which means “having the same name”. In English, homonym is
differently defined. According to Yule (2010), two words that have the
same form but unrelated meanings are called homonyms. However,
what are the similarities as well as differences between English and
Vietnamese? In this paper, beside giving the definition and
classification of homonymy in English, the writer also makes a
comparison of homonymy in English and Vietnamese focussing on
word and morpheme level.
II. Definition
1. Homonymy in English

As mentioned above, homonymy is the relation between words with

identical forms but different meanings – that is, the condition of being
homonyms. Homonyms are defined as words that have the same
spelling and pronunciation but unrelated meaning (Richards &
Schmidt, 2002; Yule 2006). However, this definition does not include
anything about homophones and homographs; Additionally, it creates
a problem with polysemy. According to Atichison (1993), homonyms
are different words with the same sound form that may or may not be
identical in spelling. This definition is partially similar to that of
homophones. Moreover, Homonymy is defined by Gramley and
Pätzold (1992) as “the existence of different lexemes that sound the
same (homophones, e.g. days/daze) or are spelt the same
(homographs, e.g lead (guide)/lead (metal)) but have different
meanings.” In this way, homonyms are classified into homophones
and homographs.

2. Homonymy in Vietnamese

Because Vietnamese is one of the Austroasiatic languages

which are spoken by people distributring throughout Southeast Asia
and eastern India. Besides, Vietnamese is also an uninflected
language; therefore, homonyms in Vietnamese can be defined as
words or morphemes that have the same spelling and pronounce but
different meanings in any context (Ha, 2011).

III. Classification of homonyms

According to Walter Skeat , homonyms in English are
classified into 3 main types namely perfect homonyms, homophones,
homographs.
First and foremost, perfect homonyms are words that have the
same pronunciation and spelling but different meanings. For instance,
1
the word “ball” have two unrelated meanings. Ball means any
spherical body, Ball 2 means a large dancing party. Secondly, words
are identical in sound form but different in spelling and meanings
called homophones. For example, the couple of words peace (A
situation without war conflicts) and piece (Part separated from smth)
are pronounced in the same way. When two or more words have
different pronunciation but identical spelling they are called as
homographs, specifically, lead1 (The first position at a particular time
during competition) /li:d/ and lead 2 (A soft heavy grey metal) /led/

In Vietnamese, the classification of homonyms is not similar to that in

English. Normally, there are two main kinds of homonymy:
homonymy among words and homonymy between words and
morphemes or monosyllables. Homonymy among words can be
divided into two smaller types: homonymy among words of same and
different word class. For example:

(1) Một chiều đi trên con đường này.

(2) Ăn nhiều đường chứa trong hoa quả tốt cho sức khoẻ hơn là sử
dụng đường tinh luyện

Both the word “đường”1 (street or road) in (1) and the word “đường” 2
(sugar) in (2) are nouns. So they are homonyms of same part of
speech.
For homonymy among words of different word class, the next
sentence “Hoa mua1 ai bán mà mua2.” Is a notable example. The word
mua1 is a noun, it means a kind of flower. Meanwhile, the world mua 2
means buying.

Another example of this kind is:

Vũ cậy mạnh, vũ ra vũ múa, vũ bị mưa, vũ ướt cả lông

1-2 3 4 5
Vũ : strength, vũ : dancing, vũ : raining, vũ : feather.

So they are homonyms among words of different word class.

Another type of homonymy in Vietnamese is homonymy between

words and morphemes. For example: “Thằng Bù nhìn thằng bù nhìn,
thằng bù nhìn không nhìn thằng Bù.”

“Bù” (a proper name), “nhìn” (look at) and “bù nhìn” (scarecrow or
man of straw) are homonyms between words (“Bù” and “nhìn”) and
morphemes (“bù” and “nhìn” in “bù nhìn”).

IV. Similarities and differences between homonymy in English

and Vietnamese

Homonymy is a phenomenon which exists in both English and

Vietnamese. However, there are some differences between homonymy
in English and Vietnamese. Here I just mention three main points
which make the differences. Firstly, English and Vietnamese belong to
different language families, English - an inflected language- belongs
to the Indo-European languages, Vietnamese - an uninflected
language- belongs to the Austro-Asiatic languages so words in
Vietnamese which are homonymous will be homonymous in any
context while English words which are homonymous in a context may
be not homonymous in another one. For example, “side” – “sighed”
are homonyms when “sigh” is in the past form “sighed”. When “sigh”
is in the present tense’s form, “side” and “sigh” can’t be homonyms. It
will be the same with “allowed” and “aloud”. Such things like that
won’t occur in Vietnamese homonymy. For instance, “đường”
(road/street) and “đường” (sugar) are homonyms in any context.
Secondly, as in Vietnamese, words are created by combining
morphemes, homonymy among words are the result of homonymy
among morphemes. For example, “Bù”, “nhìn” and “bù nhìn” are not
only homonyms among words (three words) but also homonyms
among morphemes (2 morphemes). Thirdly, in Vietnamese,
homonyms are words that share the same spelling and pronunciation
while homonyms in English can be similar in spelling but different in
pronounce or similar in pronounce but different in spelling or similar
in both spelling and pronounce.

Besides these differences, there is one thing we should take into

consideration. That’s conversion in English and in Vietnamese. In
linguistics, conversion is a kind of word formation. It’s the creation of
a word from an existing word without any change in form. There are
conversions from adjectives to nouns, nouns to verbs or vice versa.
For instance, “hammer” (a tool with handle and a heavy metal head,
used for breaking things or hitting nails) is a noun and “hammer” (to
hit something with a hammer) is a verb created from the noun. In
Vietnamese, we also have conversion. For example, “cưa” (a saw) is a
noun and from this word the verb “cưa” (to cut something by using a
saw) is created. Conversions may make us think that “hammer” (n) –
“hammer” (v) and “cưa” (n) – “cưa” (v) are pairs of homonyms. So be
careful with these kinds of words.

Implications

Homonymy is a popular phenomenon in both English and

Vietnamese. There are a lot of perfect homonyms, homophones and
homographs in English. People may misunderstand each other in cases
involving homonymous words. Learners of foreign language,
especially learners of English often get confused between words that
are homonymous, find it difficult to remember the spelling, the way of
pronouncing and meanings of these words as well as to catch the right
words especially homophones when they hear them in a particular
context. Therefore, teachers must spend some time on teaching
homonymous words and let students practice distinguish them one
from another and use them correctly in different contexts. When
students learn a new word, if it has homonyms, homophones and
homographs, teachers should remind students of homonyms,
homophones and homographs of this new word so that students can
have a full understanding of the new word itself and can enlarge their
vocabulary as well. The best way to teach homonymous words is that
teachers should let the students read these words in a context through
stories, situations or funny jokes first. Then teachers present form and
meaning, emphasizing on the different figures and how to use these
words in the right contexts. There are many kinds of activities teachers
can use in class to help students practice distinguish and using
homonyms, homophones and homographs. For example:

Task 1: Choose the right word to fill in the blanks:

1. He all his own clothes. ( sew, so, sow)

2. He seemed undecided to go or stay. (weather, whether)
3. Was she a seat belt? (ware, wear, where)
4. Could you a dog barking? (hear, here)

Task 2: Some words in the following poem are replaced by their

homophones. Identify them and put them back the correct words.

Homophones

Wood you believe that I didn’t no

About homophones until to the daze ago?

That day in hour class in groups of for

We had to come up with won or more.

Mary new six; enough to pass

But my ate homophones lead the class.

Then a thought ran threw my head

Urn a living from homophones, it said.

………………………

By George E. Coon

In conclusion, homonymy is a popular and interesting

phenomenon in English and Vietnamese. Teaching students about
homonymy in English is a necessary part in the whole teaching and
learning process. I hope that my paper can help learners of English
have an overall view of homonymy and teachers of English can
exploit some advantages of this paper so that they can prepare good
lessons for teaching homonymy in class.

REFERENCES

Richards, J.C. and Richard Schmidt. (2002). Longman Dictionary of

Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. Essex, England:
Pearson Education Limited.
Yule, G. (2006). The Study of Language. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Atichison, J. (1993). Teach Yourself Linguistics. London: Hoddor and
Stoughton.
Gramley, S. and Pätzold, K. (1992). A Survey of Modern English. London:
Routledge
Walter W. Skeat, Walter William Skeat - 2005 - Language Arts & Disciplines