:
370-
:
.
., 2012
Synonymy
Synonymy is often understood as semantic equivalence. Semantic equivalence however can exist between words and word-groups, word-groups and sentences, sentences and sentences. Synonyms are words different in sound-form but identical or similar in meaning. Synonyms are 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 any considerable alteration in denotational meaning, but differing in morphemic composition, phonemic shape, shades of meaning, connotations, style, valency and idiomatic use. The most famous existing classification system for synonyms was established by the Russian scholar V. V. Vinogradov. In his classification system there are three types of synonyms: ideographic, stylistic, absolute.
1. Ideographic synonyms are words conveying the same concept but differing in shades of meaning.
Synonyms: gaze, stare, glance, glare. These words mean to look (the semantic component present in all the members of the group) and have different shades of denotational meaning.
2. Stylistic synonyms differ in stylistic characteristics. Nouns: hope, expectation, anticipation. stylistic synonyms. They are considered to be synonymous, because they all three mean having something in mind which is likely to happen. Expectation may be either of good or of evil. Anticipation, as a rule, is a pleasurable expectation of something good. Hope is not only a belief but a desire that some event would happen. The stylistic difference is also quite marked. The Romance words anticipation and expectation are formal literary words used only by educated speakers, whereas the native monosyllabic hope is stylistically neutral.
3. Absolute (perfect, complete) synonyms - words coinciding in all their shades of meaning and in all their stylistic characteristics: pilot - airman flyer flyingman, semasiology semantics. Absolute synonyms are rare in the vocabulary.
A group of synonyms is called a synonymic set. Each synonymic set has a word which expresses the most general idea and holds a commanding position over other words. It is called the synonymic dominant.
Synonymic pairs like lord and master, pick and choose are very numerous in modern English phraseology and often used both in everyday speech and in literature. Synonymic pair is a pair of synonymic words that is used together as an idiomatic expression or collocation, usually conjoined by the word and: clean and neat; act and deed.
Synonymic sets of adjectives denoting negative traits of character
1 Synonymic set: naughty, mischievous, disobedient, rebellious, unruly, indocile, unamenable, recalcitrant, unduteous, undutiful. The word naughty is a synonymic dominant. The words disobedient, bad, mischievous, badly behaved, wayward, playful, wicked, sinful, fractious are ideographic synonyms. They have different shades of denotational meaning, e.g. the word mischievous means naughtily or annoyingly playful e.g. She rocks back and forth on her chair like a mischievous child. The word naughty is stylistically neutral.
|
|
|
2 Synonymic set: bad, poor, low, ill, inferior, black-hearted, wrong. The word bad is a synonymic dominant. The words poor, low, ill, inferior, black-hearted, wrong are ideographic synonyms. They have different shades of denotational meaning, e.g. the word bad means having undesirable or negative qualities: "a bad little boy" etc. The word bad is stylistically neutral.
3. Synonymic set: evil, vicious, wicked, puckish, angry, bad, bad-tempered, ill-natured, wicked. The word evil is a synonymic dominant. The words vicious, wicked, puckish, angry, bad, bad-tempered, ill-natured, wicked are ideographic synonyms. They have different shades of denotational meaning, e.g. the word angry means feeling or expressing annoyance, animosity, or resentment; enraged. The word evil is stylistically neutral.
