homonymy vs. synonymy

[MorphemeAddict@wmconnect.com]

In a message dated 9/24/2006 4:21:47 AM Central Standard Time, ecartis@digitalkingdom.org writes:


> I came upon a collection of writeups by Jim Hurford, one of which is 
> called "Why Synonymy is Rare". He ran an experiment to find out why homonyms 
> are common, even in languages which don't borrow from other languages, while 
> synonyms are rare and are usually the result of borrowing. In Lojban 
> homonymous brivla are forbidden, while synonyms exist, resulting from two 
> people borrowing different words from another language or using different 
> phrases to make lujvo. 
> http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/author/jhurford.html
>
> phma


More specifically:
http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford03ECAL.html

stevo