Scribd
Upload
212 views10 pages

SYNONYMS

This document discusses synonyms and their classification. It defines synonyms as words that have identical or nearly identical meanings but differ in connotations and stylistic characteristics. Synonyms are classified as either ideographic or stylistic. Ideographic synonyms denote different shades of meaning, while stylistic synonyms differ in emotive or stylistic usage rather than core meaning. Synonyms are also classified as total, relative, or contextual based on the degree to which they can substitute for each other across contexts.

Uploaded by

Елизавета Гармаш
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
212 views10 pages

SYNONYMS

This document discusses synonyms and their classification. It defines synonyms as words that have identical or nearly identical meanings but differ in connotations and stylistic characteristics. Synonyms are classified as either ideographic or stylistic. Ideographic synonyms denote different shades of meaning, while stylistic synonyms differ in emotive or stylistic usage rather than core meaning. Synonyms are also classified as total, relative, or contextual based on the degree to which they can substitute for each other across contexts.

Uploaded by

Елизавета Гармаш
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 10

SYNONYMS

Garmash Liza
326 group
Synonymy is the coincidence in the essential meaning of words
which usually preserve their differences in connotations and
stylistic characteristics.

Synonyms are two or more words belonging to the same part of speech
and possessing one or more identical or nearly identical denotational
meanings, interchangeable in some contexts. These words are
distinguished by different shades of meaning, connotations and stylistic
features.

Today's weather is awful.


Today's weather is terrible.
The synonymic dominant is the most general term
potentially containing the specific features rendered
by all the other members of the group.

The words face,visage, countenance have a common


denotational meaning "the front of the head" which makes
them close synonyms.

Face is the dominant, the most general word; countenance is


the same part of the head with the reference to the expression
it bears; visage is a formal word, chiefly literary, for face or
countenance
In a great number of cases the semantic difference
between two or more synonyms is supported by the
difference in valency. An example of this is offered
by the verbs win and gain both may be used in
combination with the noun victory: to win
a victory, to gain a victory. But with the word war
only win is possible: to win a war.
Classification of Synonyms
According to whether the difference is in denotational or connotational
component synonyms are classified into ideographic and stylistic.

Ideographic synonyms denote different shades of meaning or


different degrees of a given quality.
They are nearly identical in one or more denotational meanings and
interchangeable at least in some contexts, e.g. beautiful - fine -
handsome -pretty

Beautiful conveys, for instance, the strongest meaning; it marks the


possession of that quality in its fullest extent, while the other terms
denote the possession of it in part only. Fineness,
handsomeness and prettiness are to beauty as parts to a whole.
Stylistic synonyms differ not so much in denotational as in
emotive value or stylistic sphere of application.

Literary language often uses poetic words, archaisms as


stylistic alternatives of neutral words, e.g. maid for girl, bliss
for happiness, steed for horse, quit for leave.

Calling and vocation in the synonymic group occupation, calling,


vocation, business are high-flown as compared to occupation
and business.

In many cases a stylistic synonym has an element of elevation in


its meaning, e.g. face - visage, girl - maiden. Along with
elevation of meaning there is the reverse process of
degradation: to begin - to fire away, to eat - to devour, to
steal - to pinch,
face - muzzle.

According to the criterion of interchangeability in context


synonyms are classified into total, relative and contextual.
Total synonyms are those members of a
synonymic group which can replace each other in
any given context, without the slightest alteration
in denotative meaning or emotional meaning and
connotations. They are very rare. Examples can be
found mostly in special literature among technical
terms and others, e.g. fatherland - motherland,
suslik - gopher, noun - substantive, functional
affix - flection, inflection, scarlet fever -
scarlatina
Relative Synonyms.

Some authors class groups like ask - beg


- implore, or like - love - adore, gift -
talent - genius, famous - celebrated-
eminent as relative synonyms, as they
denote different degree of the same
notion or different shades of meanings
and can be substituted only in some
contexts.
Contextual or context - dependent synonyms are
similar in meaning only under some specific distributional
conditions. It may happen that the difference between
the meanings of two words is contextually neutralised ,
E.g. buy and get would not generally be taken as
synonymous, but they are synonyms in the following
examples:
I'll go to the shop and buy some bread.
I'll go to the shop and get some bread.
The verbs bear, suffer, stand are semantically
different and not interchangeable except when used in
the negative form:
I can't stand it, I can't bear it.
That`s all!
Thank you for watching!

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy