A Variation on a Homonym

It's not a homonym; it is a drawmonym.

From one of my favorite cartoonists, John Atkinson at Wrong Hands.

A visual homonym: drawings that look the same but have different meanings.

Creating the Perfect Pickup Line

It wouldn't be possible without homonyms.

From David Soames Design

Homophonic Commas

A cereal comma -

Serial, cereal commas -

I am a believer in serial commas for their use in preventing ambiguities.

Thank you 22 Words for the image.

Linguistics on Jeopardy - $600

In honor of the special Jeopardy tournament this week, I have decided to do a daily post with past Jeopardy clues related to language and linguistics.

The category: Homonyms

The $600 clue: It can be your best buddy, or the chopped bait used to attract fish.

Answers and episode credits will be posted at the end of the week. There will be a special prize for the first ten people that submit the correct answer (question) each day all week.

Holiday Homonym Humor

Image from butlerwebs.com

Happy Thanksgiving Homonym Humor

Tom's costume was quite the hit this past Halloween.

And then he had the bright idea that it would serve him well on Thanksgiving too.

Happy Turkey Day.

Image from here.

Fun with Homonyms

Found here.

Homonyms, Innuendo and Obama's Package

Though the original article is over a year old, this photo of a headline from Eastern Michigan University's The Echo just showed up in my e-mail this week.

At first glance, I assumed it was another poorly written headline similar to a crash blossom. I figured the article was probably about Obama's economic stimulus package and not about the type of package that Urban Dictionary defines as "Male genitalia (penis and scrotum together), often associated with large size." I had a good chuckle at how homonyms lend themselves to humorous interpretations of vague sentences (quite the innuendo in this case).

Then I decided to look for the original article.

I have never seen such an outstanding example of having fun with language. Not only is the headline an example of intentional wordplay, the entire article is a wonderful satirical innuendo. Great job Tom Brandt.

Here is the article in its entirety:

Republicans turned off by size of Obama's package

Republicans are not sparing the rod when it comes to beating up on President Obama’s economic stimulus package, but it’s clear they are unable to raise their membership to withstand the newly found vigor of his congressional muscle.

President Obama’s massive $819 billion spending-and-tax-cut package was rammed through the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday without the support of a single Republican member. Even with 11 Democratic representatives opposing the bill, the 244-to-188 count reflected the bulging Democratic majority that has now swollen the House.

Ever since the Republican fantasy of endless majorities began collapsing beneath a disgusting load of GOP lies and incompetence in 2006, Republicans have quickly come to realize they can look probably forward to many legislative defeats like Wednesday’s ahead.

For six long years, America gave the Republicans all the rope they wanted – and sure enough – now they have hung themselves.

While the lopsided tally of Wednesday’s House vote surely must have been hard on GOP members, President Obama was not about to stick it to Republicans, as he graciously invited Congressional leaders of both parties to the White House that evening for cocktails.

“He said he wanted action, bold and swift,” pointed out Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, according to the New York Times, as debate began Wednesday morning on Obama’s gigantic package, “and that is exactly what we we’re doing today.”

As debate over the dimensions of Obama’s package snaked through the House, the blame game over who bore responsibility for America’s current economic pickle grew predictably partisan.

According to the Times account, Rep. Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina, raised the familiar argument that GOP tax cuts in 2001 had stimulated years of job growth. The firmness of the U.S. economy had only flagged, Rep. Foxx complained, once Democrats fastened their grip on Congress in 2006.

These comments obviously pricked the ears of Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who noodled his GOP opponents by pointing out it was their member’s dysfunction that savaged America with “the economics that got us into this mess.”

Although conservative commentators like Fox News’s Glenn Beck have hammered the president’s stimulus package as somehow “socialistic,” arguing in his January 26th column that America should “call a spade a spade,” most observers view the Obama plan as much more likely to stimulate America’s flaccid free-market system than Bush and Paulson’s bailouts for the big banks – which shafted the country’s real working stiffs.

The meat of the Obama package consists of billions for the states, and programs to help families overcome the hardships brought on by six years of Republicans jimmying with government regulation and jacking up corporate welfare.

In the end, witnessing the Obama stimulus package being massaged by Congress is much like watching any government sausage being made; it’s not for the faint of heart. But this package is probably the best tool available to stimulate America’s soft economy – and in that, we can all take some satisfaction.

The Obama package may not be the best piece of stimulative legislation ever to enter the Oval Office, but it represents the best job harried congressional members are likely to come up with. And it certainly beats any package Bush ever raised.

A Homonym Makes for a Wonderfully Appropriate Advertising Slogan - No Ifs, Ands or Buts About It

"No Ifs, Ands or Butts."

Apparently Hebrew National has been running 15- and 30-second spot television commercials with the above illustration and slogan for a couple of years now. As I don't watch a whole lot of TV, I just saw saw the ad for the first time about a week ago and I love it.

I grew up loving hot dogs, all the while being told that they are made out of the least desirable parts of animals, so I love the homonymical wordplay involved with the cliche "no ifs, ands or buts about it," and with the word "butt."

The Linguistic Aspects of NCIS - Part II

I just caught last week's episode of NCIS and I still can't stop laughing about Agent DiNozzo's comment to a witness that he was driving to the office. He was talking to the witness (who happened to be a call girl) about the new director of the NCIS and he was so distracted by her attractiveness and demeanor that he re-emphasized his wording by stating, "I said 'new director' not 'nude erector'."

DiNozzo then said something about the two phrases being homonyms...well, kind of...but to be more technical they are actually oronyms (a string of words that sounds the same as another string of words but they are spelled differently and composed of different words with different meanings). Either way, the writers of NCIS sure do know how to have fun with language.

*more on NCIS linguistics and oronyms.

Pragmatics and Crossword Puzzles

Where crossword puzzles are concerned, pragmatics can be viewed as the ability of the solver to interpret correctly the meaning or sense the constructor had in mind when writing a clue. When a clue appears as a single word without other words to give it a context, the puzzle itself can be thought of as the context. Oftentimes, even a multi-word clue can leave open more than one interpretation of the meaning or sense of the clue and this is part of the art of writing clues.

A constructor can intentionally use a vague expression in a clue to challenge the solver by not giving an appropriate amount of information. Ambiguities, too, are used in a similar way because the possible alternative denotations provide the challenge. With homonyms, it is specifically homographs that pose a problem to solvers because in written language they can not be distinguished without context, whereas homophones can. Polysemes are similarly problematic as they too have the same spelling for different senses of a word.

A perfect example of how a constructor can creatively mislead a solver even with some contextual information would be the homographic clue; bank deposit. The answer could be cash if the referenced bank is a financial institute or silt if the referenced bank is a river bank. An example of misleading with a one-word clue using a polysemic word is the clue; hire. The answer could be engage or employ. With both examples each possible answer has the same number of letters and each of the answers would be acceptable for the clue. It is in instances such as these that a solver must also take into consideration answers from the crossing clues in the grid to help them choose the best response.