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Homograph disambiguation is critically important
in speech synthesis, but otherwise, homonyms are
mostly curiosities, of limited linguistic interest
compared to the strong functional roles of
antonyms and
synonyms. See pun, however. See also polysemy for a closely related idea.
In scientific classification
In scientific
classification, homonyms are scientific names that
are identical but pertain to different organisms.
The rule of scientific nomenclature is that the
first name to be published is valid (the senior
homonym); any others are junior homonyms and must
be replaced with new names.
For example, Georges Cuvier proposed the genus
Echidna in 1797 for the spiny anteater. However,
Johann Reinhold Forster had published the name
Echidna in 1777 for a genus of moray eels.
Forster's use thus has priority, with Cuvier's
being a junior homonym; Johann Karl Wilhelm
Illiger published the replacement name
Tachyglossus in 1811.
Quotation
His death, which
happen'd in his berth,
At forty-odd befell:
They went and told the sexton, and
The sexton toll'd the bell
Thomas Hood, "Faithless Sally Brown"
also see
Synonyms (in
ancient Greek syn 'συν' = plus and onoma 'όνομα' =
name) are different words with similar or
identical meanings. Antonyms are words with
opposite or nearly opposite meanings. (Synonym and
antonym are antonyms.) |
