2. Sources of homonymy

The main sources of homonyms are:

1) phonetic changes, e.g. night – knight;

2) borrowing, e.g. write, v – right, adj. (native origin) – rite, n (a Latin borrowing);

3) shortening, e.g. fan, n – an enthusiastic admirer of some kind of sport or of an actor, singer, etc. (is a shortening produced from “fanatic”) – fan, n – веер.

Very often homonyms appear as a result of split polysemy. That means that the semantic connection between the meanings of the word is lost and some of the meanings become independent words, homonyms. The meaning of a word can change in the course of time.

3. Synonyms. Classification of synonyms. Euphemisms

Lexical units may also be classified by the criterion of semantic similarity and semantic contrasts. The terms generally used to denote these two types of semantic relations are synonymy and antonymy.

A synonym (Greek same + name) is a word different in sound-form but of similar or identical meaning to one or more words in the same language. Fast and quick are synonyms. We can say “a hard task” or “a difficult task”, because hard and difficult are synonyms.

All languages contain synonyms. English is very rich in synonyms for the historical reason; its vocabulary has come from two different sources, from Anglo-Saxon on one hand and from French, Latin and Greek on the other. Word borrowing, semantic change, and other processes keep going on all the time, making English rich in synonyms. There are about 8,000 synonymic groups in English.

There are no two absolutely identical words because connotations, ways of usage are different. Polysemantic words cannot be synonymous in all their meanings, e.g. to close – to finish, to close – to shut. “Words are seldom exactly synonymous” (Dr. Johnson). Every word has its own history, motivation and contexts. Synonyms are words that may be interchanged in some contexts.

So, we can not speak about complete meaning equivalents. We speak about partial meaning equivalents. This type of equivalents expressed by words is called synonymy. Synonymy enriches the language because they let the speaker express different shades of meaning, e.g. to like – to love – to adore.

Synonyms are words which belong to the same part of speech and the same thematic group.

Thematic group is a group of words which closed in meaning and covers a certain part of extra linguistic reality. For example, adjectives brave, courageous, heroic (храбрый, смелый, отважный) belong to one thematic group.

Not all the words which belong to the same thematic group will be synonyms, only those words, which belong to the same part of speech, may be synonyms.

After that we have to use the so-called semantic criterion. That means we have to study the words in the dictionary, if they have a common semantic component in their definition, they are really synonyms. For example, the verbs to tremble, to shiver, to shudder (дрожать), to shiver and to shudder are explained through the verb to tremble (to shiver means to tremble with cold; to shudder means to tremble with fear or disgust). So, these verbs to shiver and to shudder are synonyms, because they have common semantic components. The word to tremble is the most general word and it’s called a dominant synonym.

Synonymic dominant is the central term of a thematic group possessing the following characteristic features: 1) high frequency of usage; 2) broad general meaning; 3) lack of connotations, i.e. stylistic neutrality; 4) it may substitute for other synonyms at least in some contexts; 5) it is often used to define other synonyms in dictionary definitions. For example, in the group strange – queer – odd – quaint, the synonymic dominant is strange.

Synonyms are subdivided into different groups:

1. Total (or absolute) synonyms are extremely rare and coincide in all their shades of meaning and in all their stylistic characteristics (e.g. word-building – word-formation, бегемот – гиппопотам).

2. Ideographic synonyms are words bearing the same idea but not identical in shades of meaning (e.g. change – alter – vary; understand – realize; to ascent – to mount – to climb; look – appearance – complexion – countenance. For instance, the verbs cry – weep – sob – wail are ideographic synonyms. These verbs mean “to make inarticulate sounds of grief, unhappiness, or pain”. Cry has the widest use and may be the result of unhappiness, joy, etc. or, especially with babies, of physical discomfort. Cry and weep both imply the shedding of tears, but cry more strongly implies accompanying sound. In comparison with cry, weep can suggest stronger emotions. Sob describes crying or a mixture of broken speech and crying marked by irregular and noisy breathing. Wail indicates long noisy crying in grief or complaint.

3. Dialectical synonyms are words belong to different varieties of the language, e.g. lift (Br. E.) – elevator (Am. E.); autumn (Br. E.) – fall (Am. E.).

4. Contextual synonyms are words which are similar in meaning only under some specific contextual conditions. For example, the verbs to buy and to get are not synonymous, but they are synonyms in the following sentences: I’ll go to the shop and buy some bread. I’ll go to the shop and get some bread.

Synonyms can reflect social usage, e.g. clever (neutral) – bright (only

speaking about younger people by older people) – brainy (is not used by

the higher educated people) – intelligent (positive connotation).

5. Stylistic synonyms are words differing in their stylistic characteristics, e.g. sky (neutral) – welkin (bookish); head (neutral) – attic (slang); child (neutral) – kid (colloquial) – infant (elevated).

Euphemism is a word which is thought to be less offensive or unpleasant than another word. For example, intoxication is a euphemistic substitution for drunkenness. The word to die (neutral) has the following euphemisms: to expire, to pass away, to depart, to join the majority, to kick the bucket (colloquial); pregnant – in the family way.

Several words with one and the same meaning can be brought together to make description more vivid: save and sound, first and foremost, safe and secure, stress and strain, by force and violence.