Semantic groupings

I Synonymy

Synonyms—w-s similar in general meaning but different in the shade of meaning, phonetical shape, connotation & collocation. They m.b. based on the common denotational component. Their stylistic reference & emotive charge m.b. different.

As the majority of E. w-s are polysemantic, w-s have many synonyms. One & the same w-d m. belong to several synonymic groups. Thus, the w-d “part” is known to belong to 9 synonymic groups:

1) piece, parcel, section, segment, fragment;

2) member, organ, constituent, element, component, ingredient;

3) share, portion, lot;

4) concern, interest, participation;

5) allotment, lot, divident, apportionment;

6) business, charge, duty, office, function, work;

7) side, party, interest, concern;

8) character, role, cue, lines;

9) portion, passage, clause, paragraph.

As a rule, syn-s belong to the same p. / speech. Very often we deal with the so-called contextual syn-s, ~ are interchangeable only in some contexts: broad & wide m.b. interchangeable in some contexts, but not in others: the broadest sense & the widest sense, broad (wide) road, wide (broad) river, etc.., but only wide interest & broad mind.

Classification of synonyms

I Absolute syn-s are very rare—coincide in their shades of meaning & in all their stylistic characteristics:

языкознание – языковедение semasiology - semantics

fatherland – homeland spirant – fricative (in phonetics)

functional affix – flexion - inflection

II Ideographic syn-s express the same idea but aren’t fully identical in their referential content:

loving – affectionate – devoted – fond – doting

loving, devoted are used in the positive evaluation

affectionate, fond — neutral

doting m. render disapproval — She is doting on her baby.

loving describes the inner emotional state;

affectionate —a tender feeling, ~ m. b. displayed in caressing & other manifestations;

devoted manifests one’s faithfulness, readiness to spend time & effort to do smth.; sometimes it c.b. used in mockery;

doting — a foolish exaggerated feeling.

III Stylistic syn-s—w-s denoting the same thing, having the same denotational component, but different in style:

Visage – countenance – face – phyz (ֽphysi´ognomy) – muzzle (морда – Big Muzzy) – snout (рыло) – clock (вывеска – lower than physiognomy) – mug (lower than snout).

The object (referent) is the same. We m. use different w-s to express our attitude.

A w-d m. possess both an additional implication & stylistic difference:

To eat – to partake – to peck – to wolf — denotes “to take food”

to eat has a general meaning;

to partake means to take food in company with others — a literary w-d;

to peck suggests to take food in small quantities bit by bi t —a colloquial w-d;

to wolf implies to eat greedily & voraciously — a vulgar w-d.

Among ideographic syn-s we distinguish:

1) very close in meaning: answer – reply;

2) differ in meaning considerably:

a) differ in the degree of a given quality: to look – to glance – to gaze – to stare – to peep;

to want – to desire – to long for;

b) differ in the volume of concept: malady – ailment – illness – disease;

journey – voyage – trip – travel.

One of the w-s in the ֽsynon´ymic group m. possess the meanings of other members & it m.b. called a synonymic dominant — a w-d, ~ expresses the notion common to all syn-s in the most general way, & both stylistically & emotionally neutral, can stand for each member of the synonymic group.

anger (Sc) – wrath (very strong anger) – rage (wild uncontrolled anger) – fury (a feeling of very strong anger that usually doesn’t last very long) – indignation (feelings of anger about an unfair situation or about someone’s unfair behaviour).

Sources of synonyms

1) borrowings from other languages:

freedom – liberty (F-L), heaven – sky, begin – start (L.), girl – lass (Scand)

Native < French < Latin

to ask to question to in´terroֽgate

to gather to assemble to collect

to end to finish to complete

to rise to mount to ascend

belly stomach abdomen

empty devoid vacuous

2) borrowings from dialects & variants of the E. language:

charm – glamour (Scottish var.), my dear – my bonny (Scot.),

liquor – whiskey (Irish), child – bairn (Scot.)-дитя, clover – shamrock (Ir.)

flat – apartment (Amer.), lift – elevator (Am.), trick – gimmick (Am.)

radio – wireless (Am.), long distance (telephone) call – trunk call (Am.)

3) word-building:

to abandon – to give up, to postpone – to put off, to lift – to pick up,

to quarrel – to fall out.

They supply material for further word-formation. Very many compound nouns denoting abstract notions, persons & events are correlated with them:

arrangement – layout, conscription (воинский призыв / набор) – call-up,

regeneration – feedback, reproduction – playback, resistance – fight-back,

precipitation – fall-out (осадки)

Conversion: to verbalize – to verb (< the noun “verb”)

to moisten – to wet (< the adj. “wet”)

4) partial conversion:

to smile – to give a smile, to smoke – to have a smoke, to walk – to take a walk.

5) euphemistic substitution

Euphemisms—w-s, ~ replace unpleasant, offensive, harsh & disagreeable lex. units for w-s of more or less pleasant or at least inoffensive connotation.

unspeakables, unmentionables — штаны в викторианское время

Эта вещичка дурно себя ведёт. — плохо пахнет

He is no more, he went the way of old flesh, he crossed the Styx. — to die

deranged, he has rats in the attic, he is queer — a mad person

other people, not one of us — болезнь Дауна, шизофрения

poor & unemployed people — underprivileged

lavatory—water-closet, WC, the usual conveniences

pregnant — in the family way, big with a child

Some professions seem not to be prestigious:

garbage collector — мусорщик

dog catcher, animal welfare officer — ловец беспризорных собак

(All the rest information in the textbook “English Lexicology” by G.B.Antrushina pp. 210-216)

Function of synonyms

~ to avoid repetition of one & the same w-d;

~ to express the idea more clearly, to precise the meaning;

~ expressive stylistic function: “It was a great surprise to see so great a crowd of people assembled evidently for some great occasion…” = “It was a great surprise to see such a large number of people assembled evidently for some important occasion…”

Homonymy

Homonyms—identical in sound & spelling, or at least, in one of these aspects, but different in their meaning.

date — дата, date — финик, финиковая пальма

band — отряд, группа людей; оркестр, band — тесьма, лента, обруч, поясок

— they’re homonyms proper.

Groups of synonyms & antonyms are created by the vocabulary system with a particular purpose, whereas homonyms are accidental creations, therefore — purposeless.

The most widely accepted classification is that recognizing homonyms proper, homophones & homographs. Hom-s proper — w-s identical in pronunciation & spelling:

fast — n. a period of time when you eat no food or very little food, often for religious reasons;

fast — adj. quick

homophones — w-s of the same sound but of different spelling & meaning:

been & bean, I & eye, night & knight, air & heir (ч-л. второстепенное),

him & hymn, not & knot, rain & reign, bye – buy – by, write – rite – right,

isle & I’ll, deer & dear.

homographs — the same in spelling but different in sound:

to bow [bau] — поклониться row [rəu] & row [rau]

bow [bəu] — лук tear [tiə] - tier [tiə] - tear [tεə]

lead [li:d] & lead [led] wind [i] & wind [waind]

lower [ləuə] & lower [lauə] (смотреть угрюмо, хмуриться)

A.I.Smirnitsky—classification: 2 large classes: 1) full hom-s & 2) partial hom-s.

(“Enflish Lex-y” by G.B.Antrushina pp.174-175)

Sources of homonyms

1) convergent sound development—2 / > w-s of different origin accidentally coincide in sound—in the course of their historical development → they become hom-s.

write (wrītan) & right (reht, riht), sea (sæ) & see (seon),

sound (gesund) & sound (sund—swimming) now — strait — узкий пролив +

sound (< F-L sonus)—what is or m.b. heard + the verb “sound”—to measure the depth;

2) from polysemy through divergent sense development —2 / > hom-s can originate from different meanings of the same w-d, when for some reason, the semantic structure of the w-d breaks into several parts—split of polysemy

box (< L. buxus) → box1—a kind of small evergreen shrub (самшит вечнозелёный);

box2—receptacle made of wood, metal cardboard &

usually provided with a lid;

box3—v. to put into a box;

box4—slap with the hand on the ear;

box5—a sport term: to fight with fists in padded glovesSuch Such hom-s m.b. partly derived from one another but their common point of origin lies beyond the limits of the E. lang. With the appearance of a new meaning, very different from the previous one, the semantic structure of the parent w-d splits. The new meaning receives a separate existence & starts a new semantic structure of its own. The whole concept is based on stating whether there is any connection between the meanings or not< & is very subjective; we can rely only on intuition & individual linguistic experience. It’s easier to see the connection between

Beam1—a ray of light & beam2—the metallic structural part of a building if you know the original meaning of the w-d—tree (Germ. Baum); the same element—in such compounds: hornbeam (граб) & whitebeam (рябина ария);

3) borrowing—a borrowed w-d may, in the final stage of its phonetic adaptation, duplicate in form either a native w-d or another bor-ng:

rite (< L.) – write – right straight – strait (<F-L.strictus—сильная связь)

seas – sees – seize (<F-L.) rain – reign (< F-L.)

4) word-building — treated synchronically

a) conversion:

bossy (начальнический) & bossy (шишковатый),

springlike (весенний) & springlike (пружинистый),

girly / girlie (девчушка) & girly (девический),

null (недействительный) & null (делать недействительным);

b) shortening:

Am (<American) – am (< ammunition), Dec (< December) – dec (< deceased)

Min (< Minnesota) – min (< minute), sig (< signal) – sig (< signature);

c) sound-imitation:

bark (лай) – bark (кора), lumber (громыхание, грохот) – lumber (ненужные громоздкие вещи, брошенная мебель; хлам)

In all the mentioned cases (except for (2) & (4a)) the hom-s developed from 2 / > different w-s, & their similarity is purely accidental.

Polysemy & homonymy

One of the problems of paramount importance for different branches of applied linguistics (lexicography, foreign language teaching, machine translation) is the criteria distinguishing homonymy from polysemy. On the synchronic level this problem is hard to solve. The semantic criterion ~ ultimately is reduced to distinguishing between w-s that “have nothing in common semantically” & those that “have smth. in common” & therefore m.b. taken as 1 lex. unit, is very vague & hopelessly subjective. There exists no universal criterion for the distinction between polysemy & homonymy. The criteria used in the synchronic analysis of homonymy are: 1) the semantic criterion of related or unrelated meanings; 2) the criterion of spelling; 3) the cr-n of distribution.

(1)—it is observed that different meanings of 1 w-d have certain stable relationship which is not to be found between the meanings of 2 homonymous w-s. Similar relationships, however are observed between the meanings of 2 partially homonymic w-s, e.g., to run – a run (in the stocking). Moreover in the synchronic analysis of polysemantic w-s we often find meanings that can not be related in any way: the meanings of “case” (example / instance; situation affecting smth.; legal matter for court; reasons for / against smth.; situation / person; container / cover; in language);

(2)—any formal difference of w-s is felt as indicative of the existence of 2 separate lex. units. Conversely lexical homonyms identical both in pronunciation & spelling are often apprehended as different meanings of 1 w-d;

(3)—the context serves to differentiate meanings but is of little help in distinguishing between homonymy & polysemy.

Consequently, we have to admit that no formal means have been found to differentiate between several mean-s of 1 w-d & the mean-s of its homonyms.

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