Synonymy

Synonyms are words belonging to the same part of speech, different in their sound-form and spelling but similar in their denotational meaning or meanings and interchangeable at least in some contexts (to buy — to purchase; answer-reply, brotherly — fraternal). Synonyms usually differ in shades, of denotational meaning, emotive charge, stylistic reference (connotational meaning), and valency.

Let us analyze a group of synonymous nouns: hope, expectation, anticipation. They are considered to be synonymous because they share the denotational meaning "having smth in mind which is likely to happen". They differ in the following shades of the denotational meaning. Expectation may be either of good or evil. Anticipation is a pleasurable expectation of something good. Hope is not only a belief but a desire that some event would happen. The stylistic reference of the words is different too. The Romance words anticipation and expectation are formal literary words used only by educated speakers, whereas the native word hope is stylistically neutral. Moreover, they differ in idiomatic usage (in valency).

Only hope is possible in the following expressions: to hope-against hope, to lose hope. Each synonymic group comprises a dominant element. This synonymic dominant is the most general term potentially containing the specific features rendered by all the other members of the synonymic group. Synonyms are often used in phraseological units (by leaps and bounds; to give a look, a glance, a glimpse).

The English word-stock is extremely rich in synonyms, which can be largely accounted for by abundant borrowing. A lot of synonyms are of the pattem including the native and the borrowed words. E.g.. native versus Latin (bodily-corporal); native versus French (answer-reply, fiddle-reply, fiddle-violin). The native word is neutral, whereas the borrowed word is bookish. Subjects prominent in the interests of a community tend to attract a large number of synonyms. E.g., there are 37 synonyms for "hero" in the poem "Beowulf” (OE). This linguistic phenomenon is called the law of synonymic attraction. When a particular word is given a transferred meaning, its synonyms tend to develop along paral1el lines. The verb "to overlook” developed the meaning “to deceive” in 1596. Half a century later we find oversee, a synonym of "overlook" employed in the meaning of "deceive". This form of analogy is referred to as radiation of synonyms (in Mod E both verbs have lost the meaning "deceive").

There are two famous dictionaries of English synonyms: "The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Synonyms" and "Англо-русский синонимический словарь" by I.D. Apresyan.

To sum up the discussion of synonyms we shall quote a passage from Shakespeare's "As You Like It" (Act 5) in which 6 synonyms occur. One of the personages speaks to another one: "Therefore, you clown, abandon, — which is in the vulgar leave, — the society, — which in the boorish is company, — of this female, — which in the common is woman; which together is abandon the society of this female, or, clown, thou perishest...".