Classification of synonyms

Synonyms (Gr. synonymous “of like meaning”, syn – “with”, onyma – “name”) are words belonging to the same part of speech, differing in sound form, and possessing one or more identical or nearly identical (similar) denotational meanings.English is very rich in synonyms. An elementary dictionary of synonyms contains over 8 000 synonyms. The existence of the so-called absolute synonyms (e.g. looking-glass/mirror, fatherland/homeland, etc.) is a very rare phenomenon because in the course of language development numerous old names for the same object underwent the process of differentiation and the words came to have either a different shades of meaning or usage. Thus, we devide synonyms into the following groups: ideographic, stylistic, contextual, total and phraseological synonyms.

Ideographic synonyms denote different shades of meaning or degrees of a given quality. They sometimes called relative synonyms,

e.g. beautiful, fine, handsome, pretty, pleasant / different, various / large, great, huge, tremendous, colossal

Stylistic synonyms differ in usage and style, e.g. doctor (official), doc (familiar) / examination (official), exam (coll.) / to commence (official), to begin (coll.)

Contextual (context-dependent) synonyms are similar in meaning in certain context. For example, the verbs to buy and to get would not generally be taken as synonyms, but they are synonyms in the following context: I’ll go to the shop and buy some bread/ I’ll go to the shop and get some bread.

Total synonyms can replace each other in any given context without the slightest alteration in denotative or emotional meaning and connotations. Examples of this type can be found in special literature among terms belonging to this or that branch of knowledge. It must be noted that it is a very special kind of synonymy: neither ideographic nor stylistic oppositions are possible here. Thus, in linguistics the terms noun and substantive, functional affix, flexion and inflection are identical in meaning.

Phraseological synonyms. The same misunderstood conception of incherchangeability lies at the bottom of considering different dialect names for the same plant, animal, etc. Thus, the cornflower is so called because it grows in cornfields; some people call it bluebottle according to the shape and colour of its petals.

Each group of synonyms comprises a synonymic dominant – the unit possessing the most general meaning of the kind, e.g. to shine: to flash, to blaze, to gleam, to glisten, to sparkle, to glitter, to shimmer, to glimmer.