3.3 Synonymy

Synonymy is a natural development at different levels of linguistic structure. It is a universal feature in all languages.

As for synonymy in grammar it is typical of grammatical forms and structures that coincide in their grammatical content but differ in subtle shades of their content or in stylistic value. In certain contexts grammatical synonyms are interchangeable.

Grammatical synonymic forms are traditionally classified into:

1. paradigmatic syno­nyms and

b) synonyms by function in speech, often referred to as contextual or situational.

Paradigmatic synonyms are found among the gramma­tical forms belonging in the paradigm of a given grammatical category.

Contextual synonyms are distinctly ones to be found on the speech level. Such grammatical forms go parallel by function in speech only.

Here are a few examples of paradigmatic synonyms:

Non-emphatic Emphatic

I come I do come

I came I did come

Come! Do come!

Compare also: However hard it should rain, we shall have to go

and However hard it rain, we shall have to go.

In these two sentences the grammatical forms 'should rain' and 'rain' are identical in their grammatical content but differ in stylistic value. The former is stylistically neutral, the latter is formal and bookish.

Functional transpositions at the grammatical level will furnish numerous examples of contextual synonymy. Here are some of them:

You always waste money on trifles — You are always wasting money

on trifles

I shall not come back to England — I am not coming back to

England

Syntactic synonyms may be well illustrated by such verb-phrases and their nominal counterparts as:

Birds are singing. — Birds are in song.

She thought deeply. — She was in deep thought.

The ice seemed suddenly appalingly — The ice seemed suddenly of thin. Appalling thinness. (J. Galsworthy).

Compression of sub-clauses through nominalization will also illustrate synonymy on the syntactic level.

We rely on it that he will come. — We rely on him to come, come.

We rely on his coming.

Study Questions

1. Give your examples of the grammatical forms based on the principle of opposition.

2. Point out and analyze the forms used in transposition in the following sentences:

1. That’s right too. I am always forgetting it.

2. This play reads well, much better than acts in fact.

3. The ship sails at twelve, doesn’t it?

4. Oh dear, when is the apple pie with custard coming?

3.Explain the following statement:

“ Grammatical polysemy is a result of metaphoric transference of meaning, based on association or analogy, on similarity or opposition”.