lecture_9.pptVIP

Sense Relations (2) Synonymy Antonymy Semantic field Synonymy The word synonym is derived from Greek word synonymon, of like meaning or like name [“syn-together + onyma, a name”]. Kinds of synonyms Synonymous patterns The choice and appropriate use of synonyms Kinds of synonyms Complete synonyms Relative synonyms Complete synonyms Complete or absolute synonyms are very rare. Two words are totally synonymous only if they are fully identical in meaning and interchangeable in context without the slightest alteration in connotative, affective and stylistic meanings. They may be found in scientific terms which are precisely delimited in affective and stylistic meaning. Examples are spirants and fricatives in phonetics, word-formation and word-building in lexicology, etc. Relative synonyms Relative synonyms, or more accurately quasi-synonymous words, differ from complete synonyms in the following respects: In degree of a given quality or in shade of meaning. In affective meaning and stylistic meaning In collocation and distribution In degree of a given quality Some synonyms have the same denotative sense with differences in degree of intensity. Small, tiny, diminutive, minute, microscopic, infinitesimal are synonyms, but they denote different degrees of smallness. In shade of meaning Decline is the most courteous of these terms and is used chiefly in respect to invitations, offers, or service. (She declined the chair the Judge pushed towards her.) Refuse is more positive, often implying decisiveness, even ungraciousness. (The employer refused to recognize the unions.) It, however, may imply, as decline does not, the denial of something expected or asked for. (refuse a child permission to go out). Reject stresses a throwing away, a discarding or abandoning: it implies a refusal to have anything to do with a person or thing. (those who accepted the offer and those who rejected it) In affective meaning: Poor little (not small) boy Other examples: thrifty/frugal—nig