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SYNONYMY
Synonyms are words belonging to the same morphological class which have
the same core meaning, though they may differ in shades of meaning,
connotation, distribution, collocation and idiomatic use.
Synonyms may be arranged in synonymic series containing two or more
elements. In such series, one of the terms acquires a dominant position,
being the most general among the others and the most frequently used in
the language = synonymic dominant (the head in dictionaries):
master, stress and strain, each and every, liberty and freedom,
really and truly, last will and testament, exiled and banished.
TYPES OF SYNONYMS
Loose synonymy is illustrated by at least two types of synonyms, ideographic and stylistic.
b) ideographic synonyms. This class comprises synonyms which share the core meaning
but differ in shades of meaning in that certain notes characteristic of the notion,
phenomenon, object denoted by these words are accented. They may also differ in
connotation, collocation patterns and idiomatic use. In the pair of synonyms to love to
adore, to love is rather neutral, while to adore bears connotations of worship or passion.
Crowd refers to a disorganized group of people, while its synonym, mob refers to the
same group, but connotes the idea of riotous intentions as well.
c) stylistic synonyms. The category of stylistic synonyms includes words having the same
notional components of meaning, but differing in their stylistic reference or degree of
formality.
to die - to breathe ones last (breath, gasp), to depart this life, to pay ones debt to
nature, to go to ones last home, to go the way of all flesh, to kick the bucket, to hop
the twig, to join the majority, to be no more, to buy a pine condo, to cross the river to
reach the eternal reward, to go to the other side
a stupid person - has a couple of eggs shy of a dozen, a few beers short of a sixpack, a few clowns short of a circus, a few bricks short of a wall, a kangaroo loose in
the paddock, s/he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, not the brightest light in the
harbour/on the Christmas tree, not tied too tight to the pier, knitting with only one
needle, not firing on all cylinders, s/he is as useful as a wooden frying pan, as a screen
door on a submarine or as tits on a bull, s/he is a person whose elevator stuck
between floors, who got into the gene pool when the lifeguard wasnt watching, who
fell out of the family tree or who goes fishing in Nebraska
SOURCES OF SYNONYMY
The rich synonymy in English is due to the fact that it has borrowed an
impressive number of words from other languages.
Native
swine
ox
calf
body
ghost
friendship
help
ship
world
room
end
ask
answer
buy
French
pork
beef
veal
corpse
spirit
amity
aid
vessel
universe
chamber
finish
request
reply
purchase
Native
player
wire
bodily
heartly
brotherly
learned
happy
hard
Native
French
Latin
strength
time
forerunner
bond
outstanding
end
ask
power
age
herald
bail
glorious
finish
question
energy
epoch
precursor
security
splendid
conclude
interrogate
Latin/Greek
actor
telegram
corporeal
cordial
fraternal
erudite
fortunate
solid
ANTONYMY
Antonymy is the sense relation holding between words belonging to the same
morphological class and having opposite meanings.
Characteristics of antonyms
Antonymy is possible only if the words entering this semantic relationship share a
common component of their senses. Thus, old and young share the component
age, long and short share the component length, while deep and shallow
both refer to depth.
Another context in which antonyms are typically employed is when reference is made to a
change of state as in The exhibition opens at nine and closes at noon or The poet was
born in 1924 and died in 1991.
Polysemantic words have different antonyms, for each of their senses. Thus, if
even refers to numbers and means devisible by two, its antonym is odd; if
it refers to character or mood and means calm, its antonym is agitated; for
its meaning dull, it enters an antonymic relationship with interesting, while
sharp may be considered its antonym when it means unable to cut. On the
other hand, ploysemantic words may have a number of antonyms for some of
their meanings and none for others. Thus, criticism in the meaning of blame
has the antonyms praise, approval, while in the meaning of writing critical
essays it has no opposite meaning correspondent.
Antonyms appear in a great number of idioms (to make neither head nor tail of
something, to see something in black and white) and proverbs (What
soberness conceals, drunkness reveals, What is done cannot be undone, A
small leak will sink a great ship, You cant teach an old dog new tricks, One
mans loss is another mans gain), as well as in several figures of speech
extensively used in literature (oxymoron, irony, antithesis, etc.): Youth, which is
forgiven everything, forgives itself nothing; age, which forgives itself everything,
is forgiven nothing.
TYPES OF ANTONYMS
plant leaf, bud, petal, stem, root; day dawn, morning, noon,
afternoon, evening, etc.
HOMONYMY
Why did the teacher wear sunglasses? Her students were too
bright.
SEMANTIC CHANGE
A) Extra-linguistic causes of semantic change are determined by the close connection between
language and the evolution of human society. Being the most dynamic and flexible part of a language,
vocabulary reacts to almost every change in the outer reality it helps to picture. Thus, torch was used in
Middle English (ME) to designate a piece of cloth damped in oil, lit and held in hand in order to make
light. With the advance of technology, the word has come to also refer to the small electric lamp that
runs on batteries and serves the same purpose in modern times. The noun mill was initially used for a
building with machinery for grinding corn. Industrial developments influenced its meaning and extended
the reference of the word to factory - any kind of building with equipment for manufacturing processes
(we now have saw / cotton / silk / paper mills).
The evolution of culture and society - when academy was borrowed in the 15th century, it was used as the
name of a garden near Athens, where Plato used to teach. Two centuries later, it referred to the school
system of Plato, while, beginning with the end of the 17th century, it has been used to designate an
institution for the promotion of art or science.
Social causes such as the need for specialized terms in each branch of science that deals with specific
phenomena and concepts. The word cell, whose general meaning is compartment, has come to mean
the space between the ribs of a vaulted roof in architecture, the space between the nerves of the wings
of insects in entomology and a vessel containing one pair of plates immersed in fluid to form a battery
in electricity.
The need of expressiveness, taboo and euphemisms in language - one way of achieving expressive effects
in everyday language is through the use of slang words. In slang, everyday words and phrases acquire
new meanings. Thus, baby is used for girl or sweetheart, the bread basket is the stomach, to lamp
means to hit, a bag is an ugly woman or an objectionable unpleasant person, to rabbit is used for to
talk unceasingly, gear refers to illicit drugs and choice is used as an adjective meaning best, excellent.
Ellipsis consists of the omission of one part of a phrase. Quite frequently, the remaining
part takes on the meaning of the whole: sale, obtained by ellipsis from cut-price sale, has
come to be used with the meaning of the initial phrase an event or period of time during
which a shop reduces the prices of some of its goods.
Analogy occurs when one member of a synonymic series acquires a new meaning and this
new meaning is extended to the other elements in the series as well. In the synonymic
series to catch to grasp to get, the first verb acquired the meaning to understand,
which was later transferred to the verbs to grasp and to get.
The discrimination of synonyms is the result of the evolution of the meanings of certain
synonyms. In OE, land meant both solid part of the earths surface and territory of a
nation. Later on, in ME, the word country was borrowed from French and it became a
synonym of land. In short time, however, country restricted its meaning to territory of a
nation, while land remained to be used in everyday language for solid part of the earths
surface (when land is used to refer to an area with recognized political borders, it bears
connotations of mystery, emotion or obsolescence).
Borrowings from other languages may also lead to semantic changes. Deer used to mean
animal up to ME, when, under the pressure of the borrowed words beast, creature,
animal, it restricted its meaning to a large brown wild animal with long thin legs.
RESULTS OF SEMANTIC
CHANGE
TRANSFER OF MEANING
METAPHOR
The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of things in terms of another (Lakoff,
Johnson 1980: 5). In other words, metaphor involves an implicit comparison of two entities, based on an alleged
resemblance between them. This implicit comparison is contained in the meaning of a word or phrase that has come
to be different from its original meaning.
Types of metaphor:
A) live metaphors - conscious creations used by writers as stylistic devices
B) linguistic metaphors
standardized lexical metaphors in whose case the idea of similarity is lost. They are usually considered dead
metaphors and include examples such as daisy, whose origin is the OE daeges aege (the days eye) and
wind, coming from the OE windes aege (the winds eye).
degrading or fading metaphors in whose case the idea of similarity is still evident. Such metaphors
may rely on:
similarity of shape: the head of the pin, the mouth of the river, the foot of the hill, ball-point-pen;
similarity of position: head-word, headstone;
similarity of colour: red-admiral, blue-bell, blue-wing;
similarity of destination or purpose: blood bank, data bank;
space and duration in time: long run, long-lived, shortcircuit, shortcoming, short-dated;
physical sensations: cold war, warm congratulations, sweet dreams, bitter remark;
Ulmann (1970) offers another classification of degrading linguistic metaphors. According to him, they may be
grouped into:
anthropomorphic metaphors, involving the transfer of meaning from the human body and its parts to inanimate
objects: the mouth of the river, the lungs of the town, the heart of the matter;
animal metaphors: dogs tail (a plant), cat-o-the-nine-tails. People can also be called foxes, lions, doves, donkeys,
etc;
metaphors that translate abstract experiences into concrete terms: to throw light on, to enlighten, brilliant idea;
synaesthetic metaphors, involving the transposition from one sense to another: cold voice, loud colours, piercing
sounds.
METONYMY
Metonymy consists of the use of the name of one thing for that of something else, with which it is usually
associated. This association is not a mental process that links two independent entities, like in the case of
metaphor, but one that brings together entities which are in a certain proximity or contact.
According to the type of relationship established between the two elements in a metonymy, the following
types of associations are possible:
the use of the symbol for the thing symbolized: From the cradle to the grave, one has always something new to learn,
The Crown visited the soldiers on the battle field;
the use of the material an object is made of for the object itself: iron, glass;
the use of the holder for the thing held: The gallery applauded, He is fond of the bottle, You should save your pocket if
you want to buy a new computer;
the use of the makers name for the object made: I like the Rembrand on that wall, Put that Dickens away and listen to
me, I hate reading Heidegger, He bought a Ford;
the use of the place name where the object is or was originally made for the object itself: At dinner, they served the soup
in their best china;
the use of the instrument for the agent: They answered the door / phone, The sax has the flu today, The gun he hired
wanted 50 grants;
the use of the concrete for the abstract and of the abstract for the concrete: They dedicated their pens to a just cause,
He is of noble blood; The leadership took action against thefts;
the use of the name of an organization or an institution for the people who make a decision or work there: Exxon has
raised its prices again, The Senate thinks abortion is immoral;
the use of the place name where an event was recorded for the event itself: Do you remember the Alamo?, Pearl
Harbour still has an effect on Americas foreign policy;
the use of a place name where an institution is located for the institution itself: The White House voted against entering
war, Wall Street has been in panic these days;
the reference to the behaviour of a person experiencing a particular emotion for the emotion itself: She gave him a
tongue-lashing, I really chewed him out good;
the use of the part for the whole (also called synecdoche) and of the whole for the part: They hired ten new hands, We
dont accept longhairs here, She is wearing a fine fox.
LEXICAL STRATA
Diachronic
Synchronic
Archaisms = words and phrases, their senses or grammatical forms that were current at one time, but that have
passed out of use completely or are very rarely employed at present.
Archaisms are of two kinds:
Absolute archaisms = words that have disappeared completely from the language. Eg: alegar ale or beer which has
passed through the acetous fermentation and was used as a cheap substitute for vinegar, ballop the old name for the flap
in the forepart of the breeches which is buttoned up, buzznack an old organ, out of order and playing badly, upknocking
the employment of the knocker-up who went house to house in the early morning hours to awaken his working-class clients,
dawkin a fool, a sinpleton, gubbertushed having projected teeth, kidcote common jail, rax stretch oneself after
sleep;
Relative archaisms = words that are still used, but quite infrequently. They occur in a variety of contexts, for a multitude of
purposes and reasons. Thus, film makers and writers of historical novels use them to render the past times they focus on as
accurately as possible: druid, tournament, archer, thane (knight), gleeman (wondering minstrel), witan (kings council),
oracle, etc. A similar desire to evoke a former age justifies the use of relative archaisms in circumstances where doing so has
political or emotional connotations, or when the official new name of a country, city or province is not generally accepted (such
as Persia instead of Iran, Bombay rather than Mumbai, and Madras as the older variant of Chennai). So, a restaurant seeking
to conjure up historic associations might prefer to call itself Old Bombay or refer to Persian cuisine, avoiding the employment of
the newer place names. A notable contemporary example is the name of the airline Cathay Pacific, which uses the archaic
Cathay for China. In science and technology, fields of continuous and dynamic development, some specialized words or
meanings may follow the trend and fall into disuse quite quickly. However, the emotional associations that some of these
presuppose have kept them in use, even if within very narrow limits this is, according to the explanations in Wikipedia, the
case of the meaning radio that the generation of Brits that lived through the Second World War still associate with the word
wireless. Phrases associated with religion, rituals and traditions, though not considered common if they occur in general speech
or writing, continue to be used in the circumstances in which they appeared long in the past. For example, thou shalt and
thou shalt not are considered archaic in general use, but being part of the common English translation of the Ten
Commandments, they continue to be repeated and used in that context without calling attention to themselves
(http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-archaisms.htm). Similarly, the archaic I thee wed is perfectly consonant with a present
day wedding ceremony.
The linguistic phenomena mainly associated with the creation of neologisms are borrowing and
word formation by various techniques.
Borrowing: from French: aestheticienne beautician, aromatherapy - a type of health treatment in which
nicely smelling oils are rubbed into somebodys skin to make the person feel relexaed, ballotin small
pacakage, bustier a piece of clothing for women that does fits close to the body and does not cover the
shoulders and the arms, diamantaire diamond seller); from Spanish (aficionado supporter, huaquero
robber of ancient thombs in Chile, Peru and Bolivia, morcilla a special type of sausages that contain pig
blood, mucho much); from Russian (Afghantsi former Soviet soldier in Afghanistan, khozraschrot
economic liability, demokratizatsiya process of democratization of society and its institutions, perestroika
ample process of social, political and economic reform initiated in 1987 by M. Gorbaciov in the USSR); from
German (bedienung mention on a bill that the final amount indicated contains the waiters tip, kletten prinzip
means of supervising hooligans in a crowd so as to prevent their riotous intentions); from Japanese (basho
traditional Japanese fight championship, karaoke the singing by amateurs of the lyrics of songs against
recorded tunes, mawashi the competition attire of sumo fighters, Nikkei index of the relative prices of
stocks at the Tokyo Stock Exchange); from Czech (eyelyser optical apparatus for measuring the level of
alcohol in ones blood, colourization process of colouring a film initially made in black and white); from Italian
(libero the last player at the back of the football field, mascarpone Italian cottage cheese), etc.
Word formation: Affixation: biodegradable which decomposes naturally, without harming the environment,
biofuel fuel obtained from organic matters, depowerment the loss by the masses of their capacity to decide
upon their own fate, derecognize to retrieve the official recognition of an organization, institution, etc,
deselect to reject, to eliminate, to exclude, ecopolicy the strategy of an environmental movement,
ecorefugee person who has left an area in which pollution made living almost impossible, proactive s/he
who takes the initiative the first, pro-choice in favour of a womans right to opt for abortion, supercollider
big and powerful particle accelerator, supersite double-sized advertising hoard, unplugged (about musical
instruments) acoustic, without electronic components, unscoopy without sensational news, boring, unwaged
- unemployed, etc. Compounding: airhead beautiful, but stupid woman, alcohol-abuse excessive
consumption of alcoholic drinks, fuzzword word with an ambiguous sense, used to impress the interlocutor,
hack-and-slash about games, which promotes violence, lockdown period of time when the inmates in a jail
are isolated, middlemarket of average quality, meant for middle class consumers, shoutline text printed in
italics at the beginning of an advertisement, etc.
Geographical varieties
The spread of English as a global language
may be described in terms of the wellestablished three concentric circles model
suggested by Kachru (1989): the inner
circle, the outer circle and the
expanding circle.
The outer circle groups together territories in Asia and Africa to which English
was first transported in colonial contexts and where it has since existed
alongside very different local languages. Many people use English as a second
language within these multilingual contexts and the language also has an
institutional and administrative importance (Davies 2005: 47).
The best represented outer circle variety of English, according to the number of
speakers that use it, is Indian English, characterized by a number of peculiar
phonetic, grammatical and lexical features. Words and phrases that are said to
be peculiar of Indian English include: shift (move from one apartment to
another), weatish complexion (light, creamy brown complexion), expire (to
die, especially in reference to ones family member), acting pricey (playing
hard to get), dearness allowance (payment given to employees to
compensate for the effects of inflation), chargesheet (to file charges against
someone in court), on the anvil (used frequently in the Indian press to mean
about to happen, to take place), out of station (out of town), etc. Local
words and expressions often intersperse with English ones. Dhobi-wallah
(laundryman), bandh (local strike), lakh (one hundred thousand), crore
(ten million), bheris (fish farms), etc.
nouns that have been assigned Romanian gender by various means, such as the presence of a
Romanian indefinite or definite article or Romanian inflections for number, case, gender
(masculine: am fost nsoii de un bodyguard we were accompanied by a bodyguard;
designerii ne surpind constant designers constantly surprise us; feminine: sunt o fan
Liza Minelli I am a Lisa Minelli fan; fanele mai pot spera the fans can still hope; neuter:
completeaz cu un blush roz add a pink blush; target-ul l reprezint copiii the target
is represented by children);
nouns whose gender is assigned by the presence of a pronominal adjective or modifier marked
for gender (neuter: cum poi pstra acest look how you can preserve this look;
masculine: este noul superstar al rockului he is the new superstar of rock);
nouns obtained by derivation with Romanian suffixes, from English roots (diploma de cea mai
bine mbrcat coolgirli diploma for the best-dressed coolgirli; o fashionist precum
actria K.B. a fashionist like the actress K.B.; Eti cea mai dulce maroonic You are
the sweetest maroonic);
adjectives used in the Romanian comparative and superlative degrees (cea mai cool pereche
de balerini the coolest pair of shoes; foarte simplu i foarte cool very simple and very
cool);
verbs conjugated according to the Romanian pattern (poi uploada fotografii you can
upload photographs; nu tiu s managerieze problemele sufleteti they cannot manage
soul problems; pe unde am mixat, lumea s-a distrat people had fun wherever I mixed
music).
the African American Vernacular English (AAVE) spoken by about 90 percent of the black population of
African origin in the United States, the majority of which
comes from inner-city and working class backgrounds
Just like AAVE, Chicano English has a number of characteristic features in terms
of its phonetics, grammar and vocabulary.
Ethnic varieties of English (and of any other language, for that matter) play
an important role in preserving the shared identity of a particular minority
group within a majority mass. It is because of this that members of an
ethnic minority will not give up using its characteristic vernacular (although,
on occasions, the standard language is used, especially by the upper
educated classes) and will fight, by cultural and political means, to ensure
its survival.
What SE is not:
Eg. The old man was bloody knackered after his long trip - SE, though couched in a
very informal style (Trudgill 1999: 120)
Father were very tired after his lengthy
journey - non-standard English (due to the grammatically incorrect agreement between
the subject and the verb), couched in a rather formal style (Trudgill 1999: 120).
There was two eskers what we saw in them U-shaped valleys is a nonstandard
What SE is:
the most obvious features that make SE differ from other non-standard English
dialects lie at the level of grammar. Some of these features are:
Standard English fails to distinguish between the forms of the auxiliary forms of the
verb do and its main verb forms. This is true both of present tense forms, where many
other dialects distinguish between auxiliary I do, he do and main verb I do, he does,
and the past tense, where most other dialects distinguish between auxiliary did and
main verb done, as in You done it, did you?;
Standard English has an unusual and irregular present tense verb morphology in that
only the third-person singular receives morphological marking: he goes versus I go.
Many other dialects use either zero for all persons or -s for all persons;
Standard English lacks multiple negation, so that no choice is available between I dont
want none, which is not possible, and I dont want any. Most nonstandard dialects of
English around the world permit multiple negation;
Standard English has an irregular formation of reflexive pronouns with some forms
based on the possessive pronouns e.g. myself, and others on the objective pronouns
e.g. himself. Most nonstandard dialects have a regular system employing possessive
forms throughout i.e. hisself, theirselves;
Standard English fails to distinguish between second person singular and second person plural
pronouns, having you in both cases. Many nonstandard dialects maintain the older English distinction
between thou and you, or have developed newer distinctions such as you versus youse;
Standard English has irregular forms of the verb to be both in the present tense (am, is, are) and in
the past (was, were). Many nonstandard dialects have the same form for all persons, such as I be,
you be, he be, we be, they be, and I were, you were, he were, we were, they were;
In the case of many irregular verbs, Standard English redundantly distinguishes between preterite
and perfect verb forms both by the use of the auxiliary have and by the use of distinct preterite and
past participle forms: I have seen versus I saw. Many other dialects have I have seen versus I seen;
Standard English has only a two-way contrast in its demonstrative system, with this (near to the
speaker) opposed to that (away from the speaker). Many other dialects have a three-way system
involving a further distinction between, for example, that (near to the listener) and yon (away from
both speaker and listener)
What is considered SE from a grammatical point of view should be regarded without losing
sight of the fact that language is continuously changing and that it might very well happen
that what is labeled non-standard at a certain moment should become the norm. The
reverse phenomenon is also possible what is today considered standard language might
enter the category of non-standard forms in the future.
Slang - the attribute of lower social classes chiefly. It may be contrasted with jargon
(technical language of occupational or other groups) and with argot or cant (secret
vocabulary of underworld groups), but the borderlines separating these categories
from slang are greatly blurred, and some writers use the terms cant, argot, and jargon
in a general way, to include all the foregoing meanings (Varanakov online: 4).
However, just like in the case of SE, this does not mean that slang is never used by
speakers not belonging to the upper classes of a society.
It is characterized by the use of very informal and generally short-lived non-standard words,
phrases and meanings
It originates in various subcultures or occupational groups in a society (police, medical
professionals, computer specialists, sports groups, religious denominations, drug addicts,
criminals, etc.). Within these, slang words and phrases are initially suggested by an individual,
usually, as a way of expressing hostility, ridicule or contempt (Varanakov online: 5) either
towards the members, values, attitudes or behaviour of her / his own group or of a different
group. However, only after these lexical elements are widely adopted by the group or
subculture within which they were created do they have chances of becoming real slang (a one
time usage does not guarantee their survival as part of the language variety under discussion).
Following this stage, if the group or subculture has an extensive enough contact with the
mainstream culture, these words and phrases may spread and become known to a greater
number of language users.
the previously well drawn separation line between the two has become quite blurred recently, under
the influence of the development and more and more extensive use of communication channels such
as the email, mobile phones and online chat rooms. Thus, new varieties of English, specific to
electronic communication, have evolved.
Spontaneous speech, one form of oral communication, occurs when people talk naturally and
informally, without having planned in advance what they are going to say. This is not to mean that
spontaneous talk is just small talk for the sake of talking, that the interlocutors have no conscious
aim in their talk whatsoever, but rather that linguistically, they have not already worked out what
form of the language they are going to use to express what they want to say. In their heads, they
may well have quite clear intentions, but they will actually express these intentions spontaneously, if
and when they get the chance to in the course of the conversation.
Although informal conversation does not seem to be closely controlled, a set of rules is still applied
by the speakers, even if unconsciously most of the times: the use of formulas to open or close a
dialogue, of greetings or pragmatic idioms (adjacency pairs of the kind Im George. / Nice to meet
you; Im sorry! / No problem.; Have some more cake! / No, thank you, Ive had enough, etc.), to
giving feedback (by using, for example, discourse markers such as yes, I know, exactly, sure, etc.),
asking and answering questions, making and responding to suggestions, signaling the intention to
keep or to yield the floor (in the former case, by, for instance, pausing at a moment when the
sentence is still incomplete and when, therefore, the interlocutor feels discouraged to take over; in
the latter, by pausing when an idea has been completely expressed, directly asking for the
interlocutors opinion or displaying suggestive body language looking more steadily to the person
to whom the speaker is willing to give the floor, nodding, etc).
always get the tickets from theres a new box office down
you know, when you go through that new shopping archade
repetition
(often
combined
with
hesitation),
such
as
speeches thought over and maybe even drafted before they are
delivered to the listeners
drama, in whose case lines are learned by heart by the actors and
then reproduced before the spectators.