Synonyms are two or more words belonging to the same part of speech and possessing one or more identical or nearly identical denotational meanings, interchangeable.

Präsentation zum Thema: "Synonyms are two or more words belonging to the same part of speech and possessing one or more identical or nearly identical denotational meanings, interchangeable."—  Präsentation transkript:

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2 Synonyms are two or more words belonging to the same part of speech and possessing one or more identical or nearly identical denotational meanings, interchangeable in some contexts.

3 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.

4 The words face, visage, countenance have a common denotational meaning "the front of the head" which makes them close synonyms. Face is the dominant, the most general word; countenance is the same part of the head with the reference to the expression it bears; visage is a formal word, chiefly literary, for face or countenance.

5 1.Ideographic synonyms denote different shades of denotational meaning or different degrees of a given quality. beautiful - fine - handsome –pretty 2.Stylistic synonyms differ in the connotational component of meaning face – visage, girl – maiden 3.Total synonyms can replace each other in any given context, without the slightest alteration in denotative or emotional meaning. fatherland – motherland, noun - substantive

6 4. Relative synonyms denote different degree of the same notion or different shades of meanings and can be substituted only in some contexts like - love – adore 5. Contextual or context-dependent synonyms are similar in meaning only under some specific conditions buy – get

7 6.Dialectal synonyms denote the same meaning in the different variants of the language (dialects), e.g. lift-elevator, lorry-track. 7.Phraseological synonyms are identical in their meanings and styles but different in their combinability with other words in the sentence, e.g. to visit museums – to attend classes.

8  Borrowings from French, Latin and Greek  Dialectical words which come from local dialects and are used in the English vocabulary as regular  Word-forming process which is productive in the language at a given time of its history.  Euphemisms and vulgarisms employed for certain stylistic purposes  Synonyms connected with the non-literal figurative use of words in pictorial language