Боргуль Н. М. Пособие по основам теории изучаемого языка, печать
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2. Synonymy Synonyms are words different in their outer aspects, but alike in their meaning. English is very rich in synonyms, because it has a lot of borrowings, e.g. hearty (native) – cordial (borrowing). 71 Synonyms can be interchangeable in certain contexts, but for the most part, they have different shades of meaning allowing the speaker to choose which word to use in this or that situation. Therefore almost all groups of synonyms have their synonymic dominant, that is the most general word in the group, a word that has in its meaning the elements of the meaning common to all the synonyms included in the group (as to begin in the group of to begin, to commence, to start, to initiate ). There are distinguished 3 main types of synonyms (this classification was elaborated by academician V.Vinogradov): Ideographic (relative) synonyms – words conveying the same concept but differing in shades of meaning. E.g. courage – bravery; fame – glory – repute; sweet – nice – lovely; interpreter – translator. Synonyms of this kind are very numerous in English Stylistic synonyms – words differing in stylistic characteristics. Such words differ in usage and style. E.g. examination (official) – exam (colloquial); to commence (mostly on an official occasion) – to begin (in everyday speech). They also show the attitude of the speaker towards the event, object or process described: to die – to depart – to kick the bucket – to go off the hooks; to chat – to babble – to jabber; face – mug. Absolute synonyms – words coinciding in all their shades of meaning and in all their stylistic characteristics. E.g. mirror – looking-glass ; fatherland – homeland; to moan – to groan . Absolute synonyms are very rare because in the course of language development numerous old names for one and the same object underwent the process of differentiation and the words came to have either a different shade of meaning or different usage. It should be noted that one and the same word can belong to different groups of synonyms ( to wish is a stylistic synonym in the group of to want – to wish and an ideographic synonym in the group to wish – to desire – to long for). Besides these 3 major types linguists also distinguish phraseological synonyms. Phraseological synonyms are those which do not necessarily differ materially in their meanings or stylistic value but differ in their combinative power. Thus, in such groups as few – little; many – much we can speak not so much of any immediate difference in the meaning of words as of their difference in application ( much time, little milk, many children, few books). Such groups as sunny – solar, moonlit – lunar can illustrate the difference in application quite vividly. We say a sunny day, moonlit night, but we should say the solar system, a lunar eclipse. Though to get up and to rise are very close in meaning, we prefer to apply the first to people and the second to the sun rising. We apply both high and tall to a tree but we do not apply ‗ high‘ to a man though we do say ‗ a tall man‘. |