A device and related methods for word-sense disambiguation during a text-to-speech conversion are provided. The device, for use with a computer-based system capable of converting text data to synthesized speech, includes an identification module for identifying a homograph contained in the text data. The device also includes an assignment module for assigning a pronunciation to the homograph using a statistical test constructed from a recursive partitioning of training samples, each training sample being a word string containing the homograph. The recursive partitioning is based on determining for each training sample an order and a distance of each word indicator relative to the homograph in the training sample. An absence of one of the word indicators in a training sample is treated as equivalent to the absent word indicator being more than a predefined distance from the homograph.