Synonymy - статья на английском языке

I. Differences between Synonyms
In contemporary linguistics it has become almost axiomatic that complete synonymy does not exist. <...>
Nevertheless, it is perfectly true that absolute synonymy runs counter to our whole way of looking at language. When we see different words we instinctively assume that there must also be some difference in meaning, and in the vast majority of cases there is in fact a distinction even though it may be difficult to formulate. Very few words are completely synonymous in the sense of being interchangeable in any context without the slightest alteration in objective meaning, feeling-tone or evocative value.
Professor W. E. Collinson has made an interesting attempt at tabulating the most typical differences between synonyms. He distinguishes between nine possibilities:
(1) One term is more general that another: refuse-reject.
(2) One term is more intense than another: repudiate — refuse.
(3) One term is more emotive than another: reject-decline.
(4) One term may imply moral approbation or censure where another is neutral: thrifty-economical.
(5) One term is more professional than another: decease-death.
(6) One term is more literary than another: passing-death.
(7) One term is more colloquial than another: turn down refuse
(8) One term is more local or dialectal than another: Scots fle-sher-butcher.
(9) One of the synonyms belongs to child-talk: daddy-father.
Some of the above categories include several subdivisions. Under (6), literary terms may be divided into poetic, archaic and others; under (7), colloquial language comprises several varieties such as familiar, slangy and vulgar speech.
If one looks more closely at this series one notices that the nine categories fall into several distinct groups. Numbers (8) and (9) stand apart from the rest since dialect and child-talk are really outside, or at best on the fringes of, Standard English. Number (1) refers to objective differences between synonyms, number (2) combines objective and emotive factors, (3) and (4) are emotive, whereas (5), (6) and (7) involve evocative effects which, as we already know are a special type of emotive meaning. .
The best method for the delimitation of synonyms is the substitution test recommended by Macaulay. This, it will be remembered, is one of the fundamental procedures of modern linguistics, and in the case of synonyms it reveals at once whether, and how far, they are interchangeable. If the difference is predominantly objective, one will often find a certain overlap in meaning: the terms involved may be interchanged in some .contexts but not in others. Thus, broad and wide are synonymous in some of their uses: the 'broadest sense' of a word is the same thing as its 'widest sense', etc. In other contexts, only one of the two terms can be used: we say 'five foot wide', not broad; a 'broad accent', not a wide one, etc. If, on the other hand, the difference between synonyms is mainly emotive or stylistic, there may be no overlap at all: however close in objective meaning, they belong to totally different registers or levels of style and cannot normally be interchanged. It is difficult to imagine any context — except a deliberately comical or ironical one — where stingy could replace avaricious or where pop off could be substituted for pass away.
One can also distinguish between synonyms by finding their opposites (antonyms). Thus, the verb decline is more or less synonymous with reject when it means the opposite of accept, but not when it is opposed to rise. Deep will overlap with profound in 'deep sympathy', where its opposite would be superficial, but not in 'deep water', where its antonym is shallow.
Yet another way of differentiating between synonyms is to arrange them into series where their distinctive meanings and overtones will stand out by contrast, as for instance the various adjectives denoting swiftness: quick, swift, fast, nimble, fleet, rapid, speedy.
2. Synonymic Patterns
The synonymic resources of a language tend to form certain characteristic and fairly consistent patterns. In English, for instance, synonyms are organized according to two basic principles, one of them involving a double, the other a triple scale. The double scale — 'Saxon' versus 'Latin', as it is usually called — is too well known to require detailed comment. There are in English countless pairs of synonyms: where a native term is opposed to one borrowed from French, Latin or Greek. In most cases the native word is more spontaneous, more informal and unpretentious, whereas the foreign one often has a learned, abstract or even abstruse air. There may also be emotive differences: the 'Saxon' term is apt to be warmer and homelier than its foreign counterpart. <...>
It will be sufficient to quote a few examples of this synonymic pattern. All major parts of speech are involved in the process:

verbs:
answer reply
buy purchase

nouns:
fiddle violin amity
friendship <...>

adjectives:
bodily corporeal
brotherly fraternal

Side by side with this main pattern there exists in English a subsidiary one based on a triple scale of synonyms: native, French, and Latin or Greek:

begin (start) commence initiate
end finish conclude
In most of these combinations, the native synonym is the simplest and most ordinary of the three terms, the Latin or Greek one is learned, abstract, with an air of cold and impersonal precision, whereas the French one stands between the two extremes.
(From "Semantics" by St. Ullmann)