Homophony is a common phenomenon in languages and various studies on homophony have been conducted. However, homophones are just generally understood as different lexical units with similar or identical pronunciation but different meanings. This paper analyzes different views on homophones in existing literature and presents a comprehensive, complete and scientific view on homophony in languages. | HOMOPHONY RE-VISITED Ha Quang Nang* Vietnam Institute of Lexicography and Encyclopedia, Hang Chuoi, Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi, Vietnam Received 16 October 2017 Revised 17 November 2017; Accepted 23 November 2017 Abstract: Homophony is a common phenomenon in languages and various studies on homophony have been conducted. However, homophones are just generally understood as different lexical units with similar or identical pronunciation but different meanings. This paper analyzes different views on homophones in existing literature and presents a comprehensive, complete and scientific view on homophony in languages. Keywords: homonym, homonymy, homophone, homophony, homograph 1. Statement of the problem Homophony is phonetic duplication of at least two linguistic units. Homonyms, pursuant to the most conventional and common understanding, are words having the same pronunciation, but different meanings. Homophony occurs in all languages as a natural necessity, since linguistic signs (the signifiers) are limited while what they represent of the real world (the signified) is infinite. Although all authors in existing literature have the same understanding of homophony, there has not been a uniformed definition of homonyms. The most general definition, among dozens of these, recognizes uniformity of language units in terms of representation and their difference in terms of meanings. However, there is serious disagreement as to which elements of the signifier and the signified should be regarded as fundamental causes of homophony and how they are related to each other. There could be an alternative solution: homophones may be considered words or linguitsic units of different levels. Bally’s definition of homophones was one of the earliest, which states, “two signs sharing the same signified but represented by different signifiers are homophones” * Tel.: 84-944040808 Email: nanghaquang@ (Bally, 1955). There cannot be agreement to the contrary, but this definition .
