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Introductory
In the course of its long history the English language has adopted a great
many words from foreign languages all over a world. One of the consequences of
extensive borrowings was the appearance of numerous derivational affixes in the
English language. Under certain circumstances some of them came to overlap
semantically to a certain extent both with one another and with the native affixes.
Synonyms (Gr. Synonymous of like meaning, syn. with onyma
name).
We shall now submit to consideration words alike in meaning though
entirely different in shape, which we generally call synonyms. Synonyms are
usually defined as words different in form but denoting different shades of a
common meaning. Every group of synonyms represents a certain unity for they
denote one concept characterising it from different sides. Synonyms may express
various peculiarities of that concept, they may express subtle shades of emotional
colouring or modal meaning.
English is very rich in synonyms. An elementary dictionary of synonyms
which is not at all exhaustive, contains over 8000 synonyms. Various reasons
account for that. Borrowings from various languages account for a great number of
cases, for one thing. [8, c. 67]
And now we can proceed to definition: a synonym is a word of
similar or identical meaning to one or more words in the same language. All
languages contain synonyms but in English they exist in superabundance. Theyre
no two absolutely identical words because connotations, ways of usage, frequency
of an occurrence are different. Senses of synonyms are identical in respect of
central semantic trades but differ in respect of minor semantic trades. [4]
In OE there were already cases of thirty and more words to
denote one and the same object (hero, sea, battle, etc). Old English
poetry made use of a great number of synonyms used to make the
description more vivid and flowery, e. g. battle: cumbol gehnsest.

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In Modern English a great number of synonyms serve to
differentiate the meanings of words, their colloquial or bookish
character. Most of bookish synonyms are of foreign origin, while
popular

and

colloquial words

are mostly

native.

Many

native

synonyms were either restricted in meaning or ousted altogether by

foreign terms.
The existence of numerous groups of native and foreign synonyms is one of
the characteristic features of English.
It is a matter of common observation that in every group of native and
borrowed synonyms the native word is generally more emotional, warm, popular
while the French word is often more formal, more polite, less emotional.
Synonyms Germanic in origin are mostly concrete in their meaning while Romanic
synonyms have generally abstract and transferred meanings. [8, c. 68]

1.

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Sources of Synonymy
The distinction between synchronic and diachronic treatment is so
fundamental that it cannot be overemphasized, but the two aspects are
interdependent and cannot be understood without one another. It is therefore
essential after the descriptive analysis of synonymy in present day English to
take up the historical line of approach and discuss the origin of synonyms and the
causes of their abundance in English.
The majority of those who studied synonymy in the past have been
cultivating both lines of approach without keeping them scrupulously apart, and
_ican_d their attention on the prominent part of foreign loan words in English
synonymy, e.g. freedom: liberty or heaven: sky, where the first elements are native
and the second, French and Scandinavian respectively. O. Jespersen and many
others used to stress that the English language is peculiarly rich in synonyms
because Britons, Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans fighting and settling upon
the soil of the British Isles could not but influence each others speech. British
scholars studied Greek and Latin and for centuries used Latin as a medium for
communication on scholarly topics. [2, c. 177]
Synonymy has its characteristic patterns in each language. Its peculiar
feature in English is the contrast between simple native words stylistically neutral,
literary words borrowed from French and learned words of Greco-Latin origin.
This results in a sort of stylistically conditioned triple keyboard that can be
illustrated by the following:
Native English words
To ask

Words borrowed from French

To question

Words borrowed from Latin

To interrogate

Belly

Stomach

Abdomen

To gather

To assemble

To collect

Empty

Devoid

Vacuous

To end

To finish

To complete

To rise

To mount

To ascend

teaching

guidance

instruction

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English also uses many pairs of synonymous derivatives, the one Hellenic and the
other Romance, e.g.: periphery: circumference: hypothesis: supposition; sympathy:
compassion; synthesis: composition
The pattern of stylistic relationship represented in the above table, although
typical, is by no means universal. For example, the native words dale, deed, fair
are the poetic equivalents of their much more frequent borrowed synonyms valley,
act or the hybrid beautiful. [3]
This subject of stylistic differentiation has been one of much controversy in
recent years. It is universally accepted, however, that semantic and stylistic
properties may change and synonyms which at one time formed a stylistic
opposition only, may in the course of time become ideographically cognitively
contrasted as well, and vice versa.
The important thing to remember is that it is not only borrowings from
foreign languages but other sources as well that have made increasing
contributions to the stock of English synonyms. There are for instance words that
come from dialects, and, in the last hundred years, from American English in
particular. As a result speakers of British English may make use of both elements
of the following pairs, the first element in each pair coming from the USA:
gimmick: trick, dues: subscription, long distance (telephone) call: trunk call,
radio: wireless. There are also synonyms that originate in numerous other dialects
as, for instance, girl: lass, lassie or charm: glamour (from Scottish).
The role of borrowings should not be overestimated. Synonyms are also
created by means of all word-forming processes productive in the language at a
given time of its history. The words already existing in the language develop new
meanings. New words may be formed by affixation or loss of affixes, conversion,
compounding, shortening and so on, and being coined, form synonyms to those
already in use.
Of special importance for those who are interested in the present-day trends
and characteristic peculiarities of the English vocabulary are the synonymic
oppositions due to shift of meaning, new combinations of verbs with postpositives

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and compound nouns formed from them, shortenings, set expressions and
conversion. [2, c. 187]
2.

Problem of classification of synonyms

The only existing classification system for synonyms was established by

Academician V.V Vinogradov, the famous Russian scholar. In his classification
system there are three types of synonyms: ideographic (which he defined as words
conveying the same concept but differing in shades of meaning), stylistic (differing
in stylistic characteristics) and absolute (coinciding in all their shades of meaning
and in all their stylistic characteristics).
However, the following aspects of his classification system are open to
question.
Firstly, absolute synonymy are rare in the vocabulary and, on the diachronic
level, the phenomenon of absolute synonymy is anomalous and consequently
temporary: the vocabulary system invariably tends to abolish it either by rejecting
one of the absolute synonyms or by developing differentiation characteristics in
one or both (or all) of them. Therefore, it does not seem necessary to include
absolute synonyms, which are a temporary exception, in the system of
classification.
There seems to be right no rigid demarcation line between synonyms
differing in their shades of meaning and in stylistic characteristics. There are
numerous synonyms which are distinguished by both shades of meaning and
stylistic colouring. Therefore, even the subdivision of synonyms into ideographic
and stylistic is open question. [6, c. 191]
According to the criterion of interchangeability in context synonyms are
classified into total, relative and contextual.
Total synonyms are those members of synonymic group which can replace
each other in any given context, without the slightest alteration in denoting

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meaning or emotional meaning and connotation. They are very rare. Examples can
be found mostly in special literature among technical terms and others:
Fatherland motherland;
Suslik gopher;
Noun substantive;
Functional affix flection, inflection;
Scarlet fever scarlatina.
Some authors class groups like ask beg implore, or like love adore,
gift talent genius, famous celebrate eminent as relative synonyms, as they
denote different degree of the same notion or 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 meaning of two words is contextually neutralized, e.g buy and get
would not generally be taken as synonymous, but they are synonyms in the
following examples: Ill go to the shop and buy some bread. [6. c. 192]
Ill 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 cant stand it, I cant bear
it.
A more modern and a more effective approach to the classification of
synonyms may be based on the definition describing synonyms as words differing
in connotations. It seems convenient to classify connotations by which synonyms
differ rather than synonyms themselves. It opens up possibilities for tracing much
subtler distinctive features within their semantic structures. [6, c. 193].
I. The connotation of degree or intensity can be traced in such groups of
synonyms as
To surprise to astonish to amaze to astound;
To satisfy to please to content to gratify to delight to exalt;
To shout to yell to bellow to roar;

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To like to admire to love to adore to worship.
Some words have two and even more connotative components in their
semantic structures. In the above list the synonymic groups headed by to satisfy
and to like contain words which can be differentiated not only by the connotation
of intensity but also by the connotation of manner. Each of them describes a
feeling of a different type, and not only of different intensity.
II. In the group of synonyms to stare to glare to gaze to glance to
peep to peer all the synonyms except to glance denote a lasting act of looking at
somebody or something, whereas to glance describes a brief, passing look. These
synonyms may be said to have a connotation of duration in their semantic
structure.
Other examples are: to flash (brief) to blaze (lasting); to shudder (brief)
to shiver (lasting); to say (brief) to speak, to talk (lasting).
All these synonyms to share to glare to gaze are differentiated from the
other words of the group by emotive connotations, and from each other by the
nature of the emotion they imply.
In the group alone single lonely solitary, the adjective lonely also has
an emotive connotation.
She was alone implies simply the absence of company, she was lonely
stressed the feeling of melancholy and desolation resulting from being alone. A
single tree on the plain states plainly that there is only one tree, not two or more. A
lonely tree on the plain gives essentially the same information, that there was one
tree and no more, but also creates an emotionally coloured pictures.
In the group to tremble to shiver to shudder to shake, the verb to
shudder is frequently associated with the emotion of fear, horror or disgust and
therefore can be said to have an emotive connotation in addition to the two others.
One should be warned against confusing words with emotive connotations
and words with emotive denotative meaning e.g to love to admire to adore
worshiping; angry furious enraged; fearing terror horror.

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In the latter, emotion is expressed by the leading semantic component
whereas in the former it is an accompanying, subsidiary characteristic.
IV. The evaluative connotation conveys the speakers attitude towards the
referent, labeling it as good or bad. So in the group well-known famous
notorious celebrated, the adjective notorious bears a negative evaluative
connotation and celebrated a positive one.
In the group to produce to create to manufacture to fabricate, the verb
to create characterizes the process as inspired and noble. To manufacture means
to produce in a mechanical way without inspiration originality. So, to create can
be said to have a positive evaluative connotation, and to manufacture a negative
one.
V. The causative connotation can be illustrated by the examples to sparkle
and to glitter: ones eyes sparkle with positive emotions and glitter with negative
emotions. However, this connotation of to sparkle and to glitter seems to appear
only in the model Eyes + Sparkle/ Glitter.
The causative connotation is also typical of the verbs to shiver and to
shudder, in whose semantic structures the cause of the act or process of trembling
is encoded: to shiver with cold, from a chill, because of the frost, to shudder with
fear, horror etc.
To blush and to redden represent similar cases: people mostly blush from
modesty, shame or embarrassment, but usually redden from anger or indignation.
Emotive connotation can be easily be traced in both these verbs.
VI. The connotation of manner can be singled out in some groups of verbal
synonyms. The verbs to stroll to stride to trot to pace to swagger to
stagger to stumble all denote different ways and types of walking, encoding in
their semantic structures the length of pace, tempo, gait and carriage,
purposefulness or lack of purpose. The verbs to peep and to peer also have this
connotation in their semantic structures: to peep = to look at smb. / smth.; to peep
= to look at smb. / smth. with difficulty or strain.

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VII. The verbs to peep and to peer are connotations of duration and manner.
But there is some other curious peculiarity in their semantic structures.
One peeps at smb./ smth. through a hole, crack or opening, from behind a
screen, a half-closed door, a newspaper, a fan, a curtain, etc. It seems as if a whole
set of scenery were built within the words meaning. Of course, it is quite so,
because the set of scenery is actually built in the context, but, as with all regular
contexts, it is intimately reflected in the words semantic structure thus
demonstrating the connotation of attendant circumstances.
This connotation is also characteristic of to peer: one peers at smb./ smth. in
darkness, though the fog, though dimmed glasses or windows, from a great
distance; a short-sighted person may also peer at things. So, in the semantic
structure of to peer are encoded circumstances preventing one from seeing clearly.
VIII. The synonyms pretty, handsome, beautiful are more or less
interchangeable. Yet, each of them describes a special type of human beauty:
beautiful is mostly associated with classical features and a perfect figure,
handsome with a tall stature, a certain robustness and fine pro portions, pretty with
small delicate features and a fresh complexion. This connotation may be defined as
the connotation of attendant features.
IX. Stylistic connotations stand somewhat apart for two reasons. Firstly,
some scholars do not regard the words stylistic characteristic as a connotative
component of its semantic structures. Secondly, stylistic connotations are subject to
further classification namely: colloquial, slang, dialect, learned, poetic,
terminological, and archaic. [6, c. 188]
Meal. Snack, bite, snap, repast, refreshment, feast.
These synonyms, besides stylistic connotations, have connotations of
attendant features.
Snack, bite, snap all denote a frugal meal taken in a hurry; refreshment is
also a light meal; feast is a rich or abundant meal.
Girl. Girlie, lass, lassie, bird, birdie, jane, fluff, skirt, maiden, damsel.

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To leave. To be off, to clear out, to beat it, to hoof it, to take the air, to
depart, to retire, to withdraw.
According to weather 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 giving 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. [6, c. 189]
stylistic synonym context modern

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Conclusion
English is very rich in synonyms. An elementary dictionary of synonyms
which is not at all exhaustive, contains over 8000 synonyms. Various reasons
account for that. Borrowings from various languages account for a great number of
cases, for one thing.
We have already commented on some of the causes of the appearance of
synonyms. Among them the logical reasons of the development of language as a
means of human intercourse, the development of abstract thinking, of a finer
differentiation between various sides of one and the same concept should be
considered predominant. Any extra touch of emotional colouring may create a
synonym. The change in words is often a change in style and the effect is quite
different. [8]

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