Statistics of operationally defined homonyms of elementary words

This computerized study of the homonyms of elementary words (roughly equivalent to monosyllabic words) has allowed the compilation of exhaustive lists of homonym sets, using phonetic transcriptions from five different dictionaries. Of the 5,757 elementary words, 2,966 were involved in at least one homonym set, indicating that homonyms will present a significant problem in mechanized word recognition. The effects on the homonym sets of changing from the phonetic transcription of one dictionary to another were tabulated, as were the effects of removing dialectal pronunciations. Since the effects of dialectal variations turned out to be relatively small, it was possible to categorize and list for study the actual words whose dialectal pronunciations caused homonym-type confusion with other words.