1. General
characeristics of synonymy
A synonym is a
word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase
in the same language. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a
synonym is called synonymy. The word comes
from Ancient Greeksyn (σύν) ("with") and onoma (ὄνομα) ("name").
An example of synonyms are the words begin, start, commence,
and initiate. Words can be synonymous when meant in certain senses, even if they are not synonymous
in all of their senses. For example, if we talk about along time or
an extended time, long and extended are
synonymous within that context. Synonyms with exact interchangeability share a seme or denotational sememe, whereas those with inexactly similar meanings share a broader
denotational or connotational sememeand thus overlap within a semantic field. Some academics call the former
type cognitive synonyms to distinguish them from
the latter type, which they call near-synonyms.
In the figurative sense, two
words are sometimes said to be synonymous if they have the same connotation:
...a widespread impression that
... Hollywood was synonymous with immorality...
Metonymy can sometimes be a form of
synonymy, as when, for example, the White House is used as a synonym
of the administrationin referring to the U.S. executive branch under a specific president. Thus a metonym is a type of synonym, and
the word metonym is a hyponym of the word synonym.
The analysis of synonymy, polysemy, and hyponymy and hypernymy is vital to taxonomy and ontology in the information-science senses of those terms. It has
applications in pedagogy and machine learning, because they rely on word-sense disambiguation and schema.
Examples
Synonyms can be any part of speech (such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs or prepositions), as long as both words belong
to the same part of speech. Examples:
verb
buy and purchase
adjective
big and large
adverb
quickly and speedily
preposition
on and upon
Note that synonyms are defined
with respect to certain senses of words; for instance, pupil as
the aperture in the iris of the eye is not synonymous
with student. Such like, he expired means the same
as he died, yet my passport has expired cannot be
replaced bymy passport has died.
In English, many synonyms emerged
in the Middle Ages, after the Norman conquest of England. While England's new ruling class spoke Norman French, the lower classes continued to speak Old English (Anglo-Saxon). Thus, today
we have synonyms like the Norman-derived people, liberty and archer,
and the Saxon-derived folk, freedom and bowman.
For more examples, see the list of Germanic and
Latinate equivalents in English.
Some lexicographers claim that no synonyms have exactly the same meaning (in all contexts
or social levels of language) because etymology, orthography, phonic qualities, ambiguous meanings,
usage, etc. make them unique. Different words that are similar in meaning
usually differ for a reason: feline is more formal than cat; long and extended are
only synonyms in one usage and not in others (for example, a long arm is
not the same as an extended arm). Synonyms are also a source
of euphemisms.
2. Types of synonyms (Cruse, Arnold, Molchova)
Synonyms
approached in two ways:
Necessary
resemblances and permissible differences and
Contextually
by means of diagnostic frames
Alsatian
and spaniel have common semantic
components but they are not synonyms. In other words, synonyms must not only
manifest a high degree of semantic overlap, they must also have a low degree of
implicit contrastiveness.
Synonyms are lexical items
whose meanings are identical in respect of ‘central’ semantic components but
differ, if at all, in respect of their ‘minor’ or ‘peripheral’ components.
Cruse
discusses synonyms in terms of pairs. Within the class of synonyms some pairs
are more synonymous than others, that is, they do not form one homogeneous
whole. Rather, they form a scale.
Absolute synonymy
Two
words are absolute synonyms if they are interchangeable in all contexts.
Absolute synonymy is rare.
Cognitive Synonymy
Plesionyms
Cognitive
synonyms explained in terms of semantic components
|
Cognitive meaning
|
|
Cognitive meaning
|
|
Expressive
meaning
|
daddy
mother and mum,
infant and baby, continue and go on, jolly and very
w
cognitive synonyms behave in sentences
X
is a cognitive synonym of Y if (1) X and Y are syntactically identical and (2)
any grammatical declarative sentence S containing X has equivalent
truth-conditions to another sentence, S’, which is identical to S except that X
is replaced by Y.
Her
father came into the room.
Her
daddy came into the room.
We
convey information in two types of modes: propositional and expressive mode
I just felt a sudden sharp
pain – in the propositional mode
Declarative
sentences express complete propositions
Imperative
and interrogative sentences express incomplete propositions
Semantics
studies the meaning of declarative sentences only
Pragmatics
studies the meaning of all sentence types
Ouch!
– the same information expressed in the expressive mode
Classification
of the vocabulary in English in terms of expressive meaning
1)
Expletives - Gosh! Wow! Bother! Ace! I’ll say!
Get that damn dog off
my seat.
Get that dog off my seat.
Damn
has no effect on the meaning of the sentence.
Already, still and yet
– the same as damn
He has already
arrived. He has
arrived.
He is still here. He
is here.
He hasn’t arrived yet. He hasn’t arrived.
2)
Words whose meaning contains both
cognitive and semantic components – daddy
and mummy
3)
Words that have an expressive capacity
but it may or may not be manifested depending on the context, e.g. baby
Mother and baby are
progressing satisfactorily.
The baby was born
prematurely.
In
this context baby has no expressive
traits
Oh, look – a baby! Isn’t she
adorable?
3)
Words incapable of conveying expressive
meaning, e.g. infant, neonate
Plesionyms
– if we replace one plesionym with the other, the replacement changes the
meaning of the sentence.
1.
it wasn’t foggy last Friday – just misty.
2.
You did not thrash us at badminton –
but I admit you beat us.
3.
He is by no means fearless, but he’s
extremely brave.
4.
She isn’t pretty, but in her way she
is quite handsome.
5. The loch
we were fishing is not a lake – it’s
open to the sea.
Arnold on synonyms,
The English Word
“Synonyms
are defined as two or more words of the same language, belonging to the same
part of speech and possessing one or more identical or nearly identical
denotational meanings interchangeable at least in some contexts without
considerable alteration in denotational meaning, but differing in morphemic
composition, phonetic shape, shades of meaning, connotations, affective value,
style, valency and idiomatic use”.
A
group of synonyms: experience, undergo,
sustain and suffer – all mean
experiencing something
to
experience – actual living through
sth. and coming to know it first hand;
to undergo – what someone or something
bears or is subjected to;
to sustain – undergoing affliction without
giving way;
to
suffer – implies ‘wrong’ or ‘injury’.
hope, expectation,
anticipation – having something in ind which is going to happen
hope
- a belief and a desire that an event
will occur;
expectation
– connote both good and evil;
anticipation
– something good will occur, connotes pleasure.
Native
words Words from Fr. Words from Lat.
to
ask to question to interrogate
belly stomach abdomen
to
gather to assemble to
collect
empty devoid vacuous
to
end to finish to complete
to
rise to mount to ascend
to
teach to guide to instruct
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