Narrator: LATE LAST NIGHT:
God: T-REX HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF HOMOGRAPHIC HOMOPHONIC AUTANTONYMS
T-Rex: I have not!
God: OKAY SO HERE'S WHAT THEY'RE LIKE
Narrator: THIS MORNING:
T-Rex: Sorry, other word classes! I have a NEW girlfriend now!
T-Rex: A homographic homophonic autantonym is a word that is spelt AND pronounced the same, but has two opposite and contradictory meanings! For example, I can dust a crop (adding pesticides to it), or I can dust a counter (removing dust from it)! Way to go, dust! You are a winner; you are a word that contains multitudes.
Dromiceiomimus: Why do we let language get like this?
T-Rex: Probably because we want it to be incredibly awesome?
Utahraptor: And both "dust"s are the same part of speech there, too, so you can't use word order to determine meaning!
T-Rex: INDEED!
T-Rex: ALL YOU CAN DO is hope to use your real-world knowledge about crops and tables to figure out what's going on. And it's even worse with words like "overlook", meaning "examine" but ALSO meaning "miss noticing entirely". Can't rely on the noun there!
Utahraptor: How come you love words that make communication difficult?
T-Rex: What is not to like? They're words that do their job in the most sarcastic, sullen, passive-aggressive way possible, and they totally get away with it!
T-Rex: I just want to pat them on the head and ruffle their hair, you know?
