Lingualogue Blog

The internet is set for the biggest single change in its 40 year history: ICANN, the non-profit organisation that governs domain names, is considering the move to allow website domain names (the actual name of the site) to be available in non-Latin script. This will open up the internet to a huge global market that was hitherto untapped and allow the emergence of new websites whose monikers could use non-Latin letters  such as Japanese, Arabic, Korean, or Thai.

I definitely hope this move is accepted as it is about time that other languages were recognised in that address bar.  As well as the obvious reasons that will make the internet a lot more accessible for non-English speakers and allow people to own or visit a website that is named in their own language (which I think is only fair), it is also true that it is necessary to expand the possible names for websites. After all, virtually every combination of english words you can think of has already been taken (albeit more often than not by those detestable portal squatters), so the obvious next step is to open it up to more languages.

I for one am all for it. Read the AP Article

I apologise for being a little lax with the blogs this month, but I have been on holiday and have found it difficult to keep on top of things. Hopefully I will get things back on track shortly, but for today I will simply post a small observation. Granted, this observation has nothing to do with languages as such, but is based on a different culture, which I guess falls very slightly within the hazy lines of this blog. Well it does now anyway.

In Thailand many people visit fortune tellers to discover what awaits them in their lives. You would be hard pushed not to find someone who has at least visited a monk and asked for a brief outline of his own destiny. Many people visit fortune tellers often; some as often as every month.

Now while I do not personally believe in fortune telling of any description, I know many people that do, and I have no problem with the belief  that someone can predict the future through cards, the palm of your hand, tea leaves, or pig entrails. Really I don’t. What I do have a problem with, well more of an exasperated confusion,  is the frequency with which one visits a fortune teller.

I have asked this question of many people and never received an acceptable answer: Does the fortune teller (or different fortune tellers) tell you the same future each time you go, or does he tell you different each time?

To me this question is hugely important. If he gives the same future each time then there can surely be no point going to see a fortune teller each month. If he / they give different versions of the future then why is this? Does the future change as you take different paths or make different decisions? Again if this is the case then surely a fortune teller is redundant as the future is not fixed.

I guess the only purpose of seeing a different fortune teller is to get a second opinion if you did not  like what the first one told you. I am sure you can keep going  until you find one that you do like.

Okay I must admit some people do visit fortune tellers with specific questions about business  or relationships that they want answering, but the majority of Thai people that I have met just want to find out if they will be rich and how many kids they will have. Now surely one time is enough for that.

Of course the problem with the specific questions is that you run the risk of creating self-fulfilling prophecies, and hence the fortune teller will undoubtedly be right. But that is for a different blog

Excuse the slight tangent from the usual today, but as they say “variety is the spice of life”.  But variety that has been predicted already must not be very spicy at all.

I was reading a blog the other day that seemed to have some confusion about the definition of the word homonym. I did some checking and was surprised to see that this confusion is much more widespread than I had previously thought. We are not just talking about confusion among the general public here, we are talking confusion between the big players–the education websites, the information portals, and even the heavyweight dictionary boys. Nobody can seem to give a definitive answer on the specific definitions of homonyms, heteronyms, homographs, and homophones.

If the main dictionaries can not agree does this mean that a definitive definition does not exist? Is it simply that people do not want to agree so each person must pick a homonym side and stick to it? It seems like one big argument that no side is willing to back down on. To me this is just plain stupidity: How can we teach children the meaning of a word if we don’t know ourselves, and there is no main authority from which we can get an answer because the authorities do not agree themselves.

My impression of the meaning of these words, and the one that seems to have the most support (albeit marginal) is as follows

Homograph: Words that have the same spelling but different meanings. The pronunciation may or may not be the same.
(Remember by homo – same, graph – image)

Homophone: Words that have the same pronunciation but different meanings. The spelling may or may not be the same.
(Remember by homo – same, phone – sound)

This is where the arguments begin: I have always understood that homophones and homographs are the umbrella sets that include homonyms and heteronyms, in other words homonyms and heteronyms are types of homograph and/or homophone. The rivals believe it is the other way around.

So in my understanding the definitions are as follows:

Homonym: Words with the same spelling AND the same pronunciation but different meaning
(This means that homonyms are both homographs AND homophones)
(Remember by Homo – same, nym – name)

Examples of homonyms

bear n. mammal of the Ursidae family / to carry
stalk n.  stem of a plant / track prey
fair adj. pleasant-looking / a gathering for a market, exhibition
bow n. the front of a ship / to incline the body or head in greeting

Heteronym: Words with the same spelling but different pronunciation and different meaning.
(This means that heteronyms are a type of homograph but not homophone)
(Remember by Hetero – different, nym – name)

Examples of heteronym

contest:  to compete in a match of skills/make an argument against something
does:  multiple female deer/to perform
lead:  to guide/a soft dense metal
resign:  to quit/to sign again
tear:  liquid drops secreted by the eye/to pull apart
wind:  to encircle/moving air

These definitions are what I believe to be the meanings of these words, but as I say, by the look of it I could just as easily be wrong. It is possible that a homophone is indeed a type of homonym and not vice-versa, or a homograph is indeed a type of heteronym and not the other way as I believe. If that is the case, then fine, I will gladly change my current thinking.

I just wish they would make up their minds and let me know.