Analysis Of Homonyms In Contemporary American English

THE ANALYSIS OF HOMONYMS THAT FOUND IN “THE CORPUS OF

CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN ENGLISH”

I. INTRODUCTION

Language is a tool for humans to communicate with each others. It uses

sounds, signs, and symbols which have meaning. The people use language in daily

conversation to share their ideas and information. Lado (1957:18) says that language

is the system of speech sound by which human beings, communicate with one

another. Meanwhile in the dictionary.com divides the meaning of language into some

parts which are a body of words and the systems for their use common to a people

who are of the same community or nation, the same geographical area, or the same

cultural tradition, communication by voice in the distinctively human manner, using

Verhaar (1978) stated that homonymy is ungkapan (berupa kata, frase atau

kalimat) yang bentuknya sama dengan ungkapan lain tetapi maknanya tidak sama.

Lyons (1982: 72; Oxford Wordpower 2000:366; Richards and Schmidt 2002:241; and

Yule 2006:107) define “homonyms” as a term in semantics for lexical items that are

identical in spelling and pronunciation but have different meanings. Example of

homonyms is lie as in you have to lie down and lie in Don’t lie, tell the truth. Every

language surely has the words which have the same form but have different meaning,

including Indonesian, there are so many words which can be found for example the

word “tahu” that word has two meanings which means “knowing something” and

“food”. To be able to know the meaning of the word “tahu” is “knowing something”

or “food” we have to pair or make the words into a sentence.

Some people think when they are talking or finding a word the

misunderstanding is always happen because they are just looking for the word not the

sentence. A word of homonym is based on its sentence because a word is not

These are some words

of homophones that found in the Corpus of Contemporary American English.

a. Meat and Meet

Sentence Explanation

The meat is heated over a charcoal grill in

the center of the table. James F. Lee.

2015

How have you differentiated a lesson to

meet the needs of all students?. Clement,

Mary. 2015

b. Hear and Here

Sentence Explanation

It'll be very helpful to hear your

reflections on your personal engagement

in the work as well as your perceptions of

others' engagement. Jennifer. 2015

We say, today we are here with you to

work on instructional strategies, but know

that, for us, it fits in a bigger picture - a

bigger framework. Quinn, Angela E.

2015

c. To and Too

Sentence Explanation

Visits to the school library are also

important. Haggard, Geraldine L. 2015

And suddenly I understand what Gramps

was really asking Gran. He had listened

to that nurse too. He got it before I did.

Glaus, Marci. 2015

d. Buy and By

Sentence Explanation

You can go out on the streets by yourself

and go buy stuff. Julie Zauzmer. 2015

The high school was rated as

Academically Acceptable by