2.2 Types of homophones
There are two types of homophones the low frequency and high frequency. In a study from Homophone Effects in Visual Word Recognition Depend on Homophone Type and Task Demands, Kerswell (2007) found two types of homophones. The first one was presented as “low-frequency homophones with higher-frequency mates that are not animal names (e.g., maid – made), and 2) low-frequency homophones with mates that are, on average, of equivalent frequency and are animal names (e.g., foul – fowl)”. Kerswell (2007) mentions that those kinds of homophones can be produce and empathized in the task, namely and orthographic processing.
This research wants to examine the interaction between phonological aspects, orthographic, and semantic aspect. As it was mentioned before homophones are word like maid and made, where phonological aspects corresponds to more than one spelling and more than one meaning. Kerswell & Siakaluk (2007). The author specified the meaning of homophone in order that readers can know what the purpose of this piece of research is.
The study the author made was select word and names and both were randomized together, each word had to be spoken and pronouncing in order to stimulate the students’ listening. So it is important that students train their listening skill in order they have a better understanding and they will be capable to identify homophones in context.