phonetics

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by Lenka

I can't understand how you can say that term "polysemy" isn't normally used... How do you call the words with more meanings (and the grammatical phenomenon), then? It's not "homography", apparently!

The terms homonym and polysemy describe words; the terms reduced forms, connected speech, known also as fast speech, describe an array of (connected) words:

want to
wanna

do you
ja

Do you want to?
Jawanna?

Click here: Authentic communication: Whyzit importan' ta teach reduced forms?

Does that help?

[bianca]

Originally Posted by Lenka

Aha... Thanks, bianca ... What do you mean (when you say it must be a good joke if you understand it)? Why does it make no sense?


Do I understand the joke well?
1st speaker: My wife's gone to the West Indies.
2nd speaker: Jamaica? (Did you make her (... go there??) ?)
1st speaker : No, she went of her own accord. (No, she went voluntarily.)

Exactly! You got it!

Just like 'kangaroo', 'Jamaica' is a sound immitation word or onomatopeic.

[BobK]

Originally Posted by Buddhaheart

Isn’t Jarkata a City in Indonesia??

'East Indies' is a vague, imprecise (and possibly slightly old-fashioned, though still current) term for an area that includes Indonesia (East Indies: Definition and Much More from Answers.com )

b

[Casiopea]

Correction
onomatopoeic ;-D

[bianca]

oh yes, you are totally right, it's Latin, thanks!!

[Lenka]

Originally Posted by Casiopea

The terms homonym and polysemy describe words; the terms reduced forms, connected speech, known also as fast speech, describe an array of (connected) words:

want to
wanna

do you
ja

Do you want to?
Jawanna?

Click here: Authentic communication: Whyzit importan' ta teach reduced forms?

Does that help?

Thank you, Casiopea (especially for the link!).

[Casiopea]

You're most welcome.