Abstract:
This paper sets out to examine the understanding of English
homographs by Lecturers of Semantics in Tanzania’s
Universities. Homographs are words with the same spelling but
different pronunciations and semantics scope. The paper
demonstrates that most of the semantics lecturers of Tanzania
confuse English homographs with non-English homographs.
For instance, 75% of lecturers of semantics acknowledge that the
lexeme bank and present are English homographs. Such
perception is incomplete which has motivated the present study
to examine groping an indulgence on homographs to
instructors. The study qualitatively applied the interpretive
paradigm to five Tanzania Universities. Documentary reviews
and questionnaires were the instruments of data collection. The
analysis was done by using Referential Theory which articulates
the context of the situation in which the lexeme is articulated
and in which the meaning reflects that which is being
articulated. It was found that most of the Lecturers of semantics
in Tanzania’s Universities confuse English homographs with
non-homographic words and that what they instruct in their
lectures is incomplete; thus, words that are not English
homographs are acknowledged as English homographs.
Moreover, some lecturers of semantics confuse stress on the
syllable with homographic words; others do not know the
qualification of a certain word to be homograph. It was
concluded that Lecturers of semantics in Tanzania’s
Universities should admit continuous reading and training on
any matter of facts pertinent to their area of specialization. This
would make them competent in the content they lecture in
classes.
