Re: Homonyms. (was: ``Ken and I being on the radio together'')

On Jan 31, 9:54 am, Adam Funk <a24...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 2008-01-29, Peter T. Daniels wrote:

[AF]

I was thinking of the two "bank" nouns, for example (sloping surface
of earth vs. financial institution): both have the same pronunciation,
spelling and part of speech (as well as related verbs), but
dictionaries generally give them separate entries because they have
different etymologies.

But native speakers do not necessarily not realize they are
"different" --- so for some purposes should they be classified as the
same word?
[PTD]
Why do you say that?

I'm not claiming they are the same word; I'm asking for others'
opinions, including yours.

What similarity do the two banks have?

Same pronunciation, spelling and part of speech.  They're
etymologically distinct (although as Nathan reminded me, ultimately
from the same root) --- but that doesn't count in synchronic
linguistics.

(For comparision, I'm trying to think of an example of the "opposite"
situation: a word that has two sets of meanings just as diverse as the
two banks, but that dictionaries treat as one word because the
meanings historically go back to the same thing.  I can't think of
anything at the moment.)

A far better example is "ear."

Because the "organ of hearing" and "head of grain" are (as far back as
the OED can tell) totally etymologically distinct?  I don't see the
two meanings as more mutually different than the two types of bank
are.

It seems perfectly reasonable to me to suppose that an ear of grain
was called that because of its resemblance to a human or mammalian
ear. Cf. the eye of a potato.
.

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