Synonymy in language and speech. Synonymic condensation
Классификация – излекций
Synonyms can be defined in terms of linguistics 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 any considerable alteration in denotational meaning, but differing in morphemic composition, phonemic shape and connotations.
Interesting- fascinating - compelling (захватывающий)- stimulating - gripping - absorbing
Income- wage- pay- salary- earnings
Collect- gather- accumulate- amass (наращивать)
Exactly- just- precisely
Wife- married woman, matron, spouse, help-meet( спутникжизни), consort(супругаофиц.), partner, better half
Decidedly, unquestionably, indubitably( несомненно, бесспорно), incontrovertibly (неопровержимо, неоспоримо),past all the disputes (вневсякихсомнений)
The sources of synonyms
- the formation of phrasal verbs
To reject- to turn down, to establish- to set up
- borrowings
City (borrowed), town (native)
- American or British English
Fall- autumn
- abbreviation
MP (Member of Parliament), ad (advertisement), fridge (refrigerator)
Classification of synonyms
- total synonyms
Total synonyms can replace each other in any given context, without the slightest alteration in denotative or connotative meaning.
It is a rare occasion.
Example: word-formation- word-building
Language tries to get rid of total synonyms, because our memory is limited.
To teach- teacher, to work- worker, but not steeler- thief
Ideographic synonyms
They bear the same idea but not identical in their referential content
Examples: dumpy (esp. a woman or a child, is fat or very short)
Tubby (short and has a fat)
Stout (a middle-aged person)
Words for describing a beautiful woman
Beautiful
- extremely good-looking, much more so than most women
good-looking
- pleasant to look at
pretty
- good- looking
attractive
striking, handsome, lovely, gorgeous, stunning, ravishing, of great beauty, elegant
Dialectical synonyms
Pertaining to different variant of language from dialectal stratification point of view.
Examples: queue (BE)- line (AE)
Underground (BE)- subway (AE)
Contextual synonyms
Words with different meaning can become synonyms in a certain context.
Examples: to buy- to get- to purchase- to acquire- to snap out- to pick out- to splash out (an expression used especially in brE, meaning to buy smth you want as as expensive meal..)
To get
-receive/obtain
-bring
-punishment
-broadcast
-BUY- to get smth, to receive smth regularly
Which newspapers do you get?
Stylistic synonyms
Belong to different styles
Examples: child-infant-kid
To impress someone very much- dazzle- knock smb out- wow
Dazzle
To impress someone very much by doing something special, unexpected, or unusual.
Knock smb out
An informal expression meaning to impress someone so much that it makes them feel full or admiration and surprise.
Wow
An informal word to impress someone very much by doing something very exciting.
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Paradigmatically the metaphoric meaning of practical is described as "sensible, because it does not involve anything too difficult or risky" in The Longman Language Activator; in The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English sensible and effective are used to define the adjective practical.
In the present context however this adjective functions not as a general concept word with a broad range of meanings but as a more precise word. Its semantic scope develops to include references to other semantically related words and sets of meanings. Practical acquires an evoked connotation, which links it with the synonymic set beginning with the Key-word ordinary (прозаический): average, standard, regular, down-to earth. The last item seems to be closest to the meaning and connotation to what is implied by practical in the present context.
One type of context that apparently exerts a modifying influence on the meanings associated with lexical items is synonymic condensation. According to the definition this term refers to situations when writers or speakers bring together several words from one the same thematic group (or "words which bear on the same idea") to enhance the purport, to make more detailed and more refined a certain underlying sense, to add conviction and force to their statements or, simply, to make for greater prosodic prominence of the 'thing-meant' (Minajeva, 1982, p. 120-121).
For example:
"Life now, by comparison, was wonderful for Martha. People, children, houses, conversations, food, drink, theatres – even, now, a career. Martin standing between her and the hostility of the world – popular, easy, funny Martin beckoning the rest of the world into earshot." (Fay Weldon)
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What we have here is a description of Martin's various properties which taken together make up for a certain general impression created on the basis ofsynonymic condensation. The items in question are not synonyms proper: however they become close in the connotation they express. The meaning of the adjective popular here is 'sociable', which is not registered in the dictionary where we have more general meanings: "liked by many people", "common", "wide-spread", "from the general public". In the present context popular acquires a derived (extensional) meaning, which brings it together with words, such as sociable, friendly, outgoing.
Similarly the adjectives easy and funny acquire context-bound meanings. Easy means "easy going", "friendly", "warm", "amiable". Although easy and popular are not truly synonymous, in the present context they develop transferred meanings which bear on the same idea, and are used together to enhance a certain underlying purport. Funny becomes a member of the synonymic set: "cheerful", "contented", "friendly".
What we can see is that the three adjectives 'popular', 'easy' and 'fanny' occur as elements within synonymic condensation. Although not synonymous paradigmatically, they are used as such in the given context. Their syntagmatic realisation brings them together in the semantic set under the Key-word "friendly" - "pleasant", "nice", "easy to get along with", "outgoing", "sociable". Of the three adjectives only 'easy' is included in the dictionary under the general concept word "friendly". As for the other two items their use in the meaning of "friendly", "sociable", cheerful" is determined by the context and does not go beyond the limits of contextual syntagmatic relationships.
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Having discussed the above examples we may conclude that within synonymic condensation a word can become not only more expressive and powerful in its connotations but is also capable of changing its meaning thus displaying a broader semantic scope. The acquired meaning can bring it into a syntagmatic relationship with a new set of meanings.
This is reflected at the level of prosody which distinguishes synonymic condensation from other types of syntactic construction with semantically related parts. Let us consider the following utterance:
“…for she was an infant once ... a playful, chubby, gleeful, curious, active, giggling, responsive baby, easily pleased, quickly interested, and happily diverted”. (Joseph Heller)
The first observation that can be made is that synonymic condensation is -indissolubly connected with the prosodic and rhythmical aspects of the utterance. Units brought together within synonymic condensation are pronounced emphatically: there is a succession of falling tones to help us distinguish between this type of arrangement and constructions with homogeneous parts (the latter are pronounced with an ordinary descending scale). The looseness of the semantic relationship in synonymic condensation is made up for by the tightness of the prosodic arrangement.
A closer look at the words in question reveals that they cannot be considered synonyms proper:
playful - full of fun, not serious
chubby - plump, round-faced
gleeful -full of joy, joyous
curious - eager (to learn, know)
active - able to do things, doing things, energetic
giggling -laughing in a nervous and silly way
responsive - answering easily and quickly.
What we are confronted with here is a description of various properties of an 'infant' which together make up for a certain general impression created by means of synonymic condensation. The associative links become clear as we consider the meanings of these words: the closest of them being, probably, playful and gleeful. But all of them 'agree' in the connotation they express, they help the author to create the image of a chubby child, being playful and at the same time curious, active and responsive by nature.
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The expressive effect produced by synonymic condensation is further enhanced by parallel syntactic constructions: easily pleased, quickly interested, happily diverted.
Synonymic condensation is deeply rooted in the history of the English language where a French word was customarily explained by adding to it a native synonym, e. g.: safe and sound, lord and master, first and foremost. English translations of divine texts included two-word rhythmical cadences: wills and affections, honour and glory, nature and property. Similar combinations are often rein- forced by alliteration, assonance, rhyme, etc. These peculiarities of synonymic condensation are easily observed in idiomatic phrases like:hale and hearty, might and main, modes and manners, rack and rain, secure and safe, turn and twist, stress and strain.
The category of synonymy like other lexical taxonomies can be approached in a number of ways. In the strictest sense synonymy is realised between semantically related words which "manifest a high degree of semantic overlap, and also have a low degree of implicit contrastiveness" (Cruse, 1986, p. 266). This type of lexical items can be regarded as synonyms proper, which represent the semantic relationship of (partial) meaning equivalence within the system of language vocabulary. For example:
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