SYNONOMS AND ANTONYMS Lexical units may be classified

SYNONOMS AND ANTONYMS Lexical units may be classified by the criterion of semantic similarity and semantic contrasts Two types of semantic relatedness are synonymy and antonymy

Synonymy is often understood as semantic equivalence

Synonyms are traditionally described as words different in sound-form but identical or similar in meaning

Synonyms may be found in different parts of speech and both among notional and function words.

For example, though and albeit, on and upon, since and as are synonymous because these phonemically different words are similar in their denotational meaning.

Differentiation of synonyms may be observed in different semantic components — denotational or connotational

look, seem, appear, e.g., are viewed as members of one synonymic set as all three of them possess a common denotational semantic component “to be in one’s view, or judgement, but not necessarily in fact”

BUT! there is a certain difference in the meaning of each verb: seem suggests a personal opinion based on evidence, look implies that opinion is based on a visual impression, appear sometimes suggests a distorted impression.

Similarity of denotational meaning of all members of the synonymic series is combined with a certain difference in the meaning of each member.

The difference in connotational meaning: START, COMMENCE, BEGIN Ideographic and stylistic synonyms

Synonyms are words different in their sound-form, but similar in their denotational meaning or meanings and interchangeable at least in some contexts

The English word-stock is extremely rich in synonyms which can be largely accounted for by abundant borrowing. Quite a number of words in synonymic sets are usually of Latin or French origin: begin (start) — commence (Fr.) — initiate (L.); rise — mount (Fr.) — ascend (L.)

ANTONYMY The term antоnуms is to be applied to words different in sound-form characterised by different types of semantic contrast of the denotational meaning and interchangeable at least in some contexts

Types of Antonyms 1. Contradictories which represent the type of semantic relations that exist between pairs like dead and alive, single and married, perfect and imperfect, etc.

To use one of the terms is to contradict the other and to use not before one of them is to make it semantically equivalent to the other, cf. not dead=alive, not single=married

Contraries. This may be observed in cold — hot, and cool and warm which seem to be intermediate members. Thus we may regard as antonyms not only cold and hot but also cold and warm.

Incompatibles. The relations here are of exclusion but not of contradiction. A relation of incompatibility may be observed between colour terms since the choice of red, e.g., entails the exclusion of black, blue, yellow and so on.