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Discrimination
3.4 Discrimination of Synonyms
Generally
speaking, there is no difference between absolute synonyms whereas relative
synonyms always differ in one way or another. The differences between
synonyms may boil down to three areas: denotation, connotation, and application.
¢¢¢¢ Denotation
1.
Difference in denotation. Synonyms may differ in the range
and intensity
of meaning. Some words have a wider range of meaning than others. For
example, Timid and timorous are synonymous, but the former
is applied to both the state of mind in which a person may happen to be
at the moment, and to the habitual disposition, and the latter only to
the disposition. Therefore, timid has a wider range of meaning
than timorous. It is the same with comprehend and understand.
The verb understand is used in a much more extended sense than
comprehend. Whatever is comprehended is understood,
but in many cases, comprehend cannot take the place of understand.
It would be quite correct to say, 'I did not comprehend his arguments,
although I understood the language, and all the sentences.'
Another
illustrative example is the synonymous group of extend, increase, expand.
They share a general sense but have different implications:
[27] The company has decided to increase its sales by ten per
cent
next year.
[28] The owner of the restaurant is going to extend the kitchen
by
ten feet this year.
[29] The metal will expand if heated.
Each of the three terms expresses a different kind of enlargement. This
can be illustrated by the following graphs.
Synonyms
may differ in degree of intensity. Take rich and wealthy
for example. A rich man and a wealthy lady are both rich,
but the wealthy lady is felt to possess more money and property than a
rich man. The same difference is found between work and toil,
the former being a general term having no special implications as 'light'
or 'heavy', and 'mental' or 'physical', and the latter usually suggesting
'heavy and tiring work', associated more with manual than mental labour,
e.g.
[30] The work was not hard and she soon learned to do it well.
[31] The wealth of industrial society could only come from the toil
of the masses.
Want,
wish, desire afford another example of the kind. Of the three terms,
want is the most general and has the widest range of meaning while
wish and desire are much narrower in sense. As far as intensity
is concerned, both are stronger than want and desire the
strongest of all.
¢¢¢¢ Connotation
2.
Difference in connotation. By connotation we mean the stylistic
and emotive colouring of words. Some words share the same denotation but
differ in their stylistic appropriateness. For example, the words borrowed
from French and Latin are generally more formal than native words: answer/respond,
storm/tempest, wood/forest, unlike/dissimilar, handy/manual, homely/domestic,
fleshy/carnal. In each pair, the first term is native and not style?specific
whereas the second term is borrowed either from French or Latin and is
more formal. These borrowings are more appropriate for formal and technical
writing.
The
group of policeman, constable, bobby, cop serves as another example.
Among them, policeman and constable are stylistically neutral,
yet the former is used both in British English and American English while
the latter is only British. Bobby is colloquial, used only in British
English and cop is slangy. Consider the synonymous group expressing 'request':
ask, beg, request. Ask is stylistically neutral, beg
is often used in conversations and request is quite formal in style.
Apart
from these, mention should be made of archaic and poetic terms, which
are self-suggestive. For example, ire/anger, bliss/happiness, forlorn/distressed,
dire/dreadful, list/listen, enow/enough, save/except, mere/lake and
such like are all synonymous pairs, but in each the second is standard
in usage whereas the first is old-fashioned and archaic, only found in
poetry, earlier writings, etc.
Many
synonyms have clear affective values (See discussion of affective meaning).
Take result/consequence for example. Result is neutral,
neither appreciative nor derogatory. Used with good it conveys
a positive attitude and with bad it expresses a negative meaning.
Consequence, however, always has a negative implication. There
is also clear difference between big and great. Big
is generally used to show the bigness of size, volume, extent, weight,
number, and so on, without any emotive colouring, whereas great suggests
'distinguished', 'eminent', 'outstanding', etc. e.g.
[32] 'Robert Burns is one of the world's greatest lyric poets.'
In this context, greatest can not be replaced by biggest.
Compare the italicized words used in the following sentences:
[33] Look at that lovely little boy.
[34] Look at that small boy.
[35] Look at that tiny boy.
The
three adjectives little, small, tiny all describe the smallness
of the boy. But little suggests 'attractiveness' and 'pleasantness',
tiny implies the abnormal growth of the child and small simply
conveys the idea of being not big. Therefore, little is appreciative,
small is neutral and tiny is derogatory. Look at more examples:
1)
in stylistic colouring
agree-concur
homely-domestic
prove-verify
small-diminutive
sure-certainly
ban-prohibition
effort-endeavour
fix-predicament
opening-aperture
bruise-contusion
fire-flame-conflagration
holy-sacred-consecrated
time-age-epoch
come
down-happen-occur
2)
in effective colouring
argue-quarrel
modest-humble
brave-foolhardy
statesman-politician
government-regime
accomplice-partner/collaborator
¢¢¢¢ Application
3.
Difference in application. Many words are synonymous in meaning
but different in usage in simple terms. They form different collocations
and fit into different sentence patterns. For allow and let
are synonyms, but we allow sb to do sth and let sb do sth.
It is the same with answer and reply. Answer is a
transitive verb and takes direct object while reply is an intransitive
verb and needs a preposition 'to' to function transitively. Therefore,
we say answer the letter but reply to the letter. Nevertheless,
answer the door is perfectly all right whereas reply to the
door is unacceptable. Sense and meaning are synonymous
and interchangeable in some cases. For instance, we say 'The word has
two senses' or 'The word has two meanings,' whereas 'He is a man of sense'
is acceptable, but 'He is a man of meaning' is unacceptable. Empty,
vacant, blank are synonyms, but their collocations are not the same:
Empty implies
that there is no one or nothing inside while vacant suggests that
something or some place is not occupied.
The
English words lump, slice, chunk, sheet, cake can convey the same
concept 'piece', but have various collocations, e.g. a lump of sugar,
a slice of meat, a chunk of wood, a sheet of paper, a cake of soap
and so on. Look at more examples:
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