The strength of language lies in its ability to help a person express ideas clearly and in a variety of ways, describe the world, processes, feelings. Synonyms are the treasure of any language. They allow you to more accurately state the idea, convey the subtlest semantic shade of thought, endow speech with artistic beauty and variability, avoid repetitions, clichés, stylistic oversights.
Absolutely all great writers used and use in their works the enormous visual potential of synonyms. Without synonyms, speech and texts become dry, colorless and monotonous. For example, you can constantly call a cloudless sky blue in the text, but how much more figurative and multifaceted will the perception of the word "sky" with such synonyms for the word "blue" as azure, turquoise, indigo, blue, sapphire, cornflower blue.
The language is constantly evolving, enriched with new synonymous constructions. The emergence of synonyms is a natural and continuous process, in order to realize it, you need to know what a synonym is.
Synonym and synonymic series
The word "synonym" comes from the Greek word synonymos, which literally translates as "of the same name". Synonyms are words that differ inspelling and sound, but are close or even identical in meaning. There are two types of synonyms:
1. Full, they are also called absolute, they completely coincide in their meaning.
For example: boundless - boundless; navigator - sailor; lame - lame; linguistics – linguistics.
2. Incomplete, which are divided into:
a) Stylistic, coinciding in meaning, such synonyms refer to different styles of speech, for example: fall - crash - fall down; house - chamber - hut; beautiful - gorgeous - cool.
b) Semantic, also called ideographic, these synonyms are very close in meaning, but not identical, as complete, for example: silence - silence - silence; get angry - get angry; lightning fast - fast.
c) Semantic-stylistic, mixed synonyms, they simultaneously contain semantic and stylistic shades, for example: food - gobbler - food - food - food; ask - beg - beg.
Synonyms are combined into synonymous series, consisting of two or more elements. The rows can only include words that belong to the same part of speech. In addition, they include both single words and phrases. Synonymic rows begin with a keyword called dominant. Row examples:
• red - crimson - scarlet - purple - ruddy - bloody - crimson;
• run away - run away - run away - give a rush - tear claws - drape - lubricate the heels - roll off.
Causes of occurrencesynonyms
The causes and mechanisms of the emergence of synonyms in English, as well as in Spanish, Chinese, Russian, are identical. The development of language is based on the desire of people to describe life and their own ideas more deeply and clearly, to share thoughts and information, and synonyms are one of the best means for this purpose. They help to formulate and convey the finest nuances of meanings and emotions. Therefore, synonymous rows are constantly replenished with new words. There are four main ways in which synonyms appear in the Russian language.
Borrowing from other languages
The Russian language does not live in isolation, it actively absorbs successful words from other languages, the emergence of synonyms based on similar foreign words significantly expands the expressive possibilities of the language. For example, in the following pairs, the first word came from another language and got along well in Russian: preventive - preliminary; agricultural - land; import - import; preamble - introduction; memoirs - memories; sphere - area; embryo - embryo; vacation - vacation; rally - meeting.
Derivation
Sometimes the emergence of synonyms is the result of the emergence of new words. As a rule, the root does not change, suffixes and prefixes vary, resulting in a new synonymous word with a different semantic connotation. Examples: equipment - equipment; innocent - innocent; digging - digging; catholicism - catholicism; timing - timing; aerobatics - piloting.
Splitting the meaning of the word
Sometimes the lexical meaning of a word is split, one word becomes an element of different synonymous series. For example, the word "dashing" can be used in the meaning of brave - selfless - brave in the phrase "dashing warrior" or in the meaning of difficult - hard - dangerous in the phrase "dashing year". There are "upper layers of society" and there are "layers of cake or berry pie." There is a kind - benevolent - warm-hearted person, and there is a kind - high-quality - solid horse.
Dialect and professional words
One of the most common ways for the emergence of synonyms is the penetration of words from all kinds of slang, professionalism, jargon, dialects. This is an inexhaustible source for the emergence of synonyms. Examples: a swindler is a thief; steering wheel - steering wheel; incite - set up; mouth - lips; beetroot - beets; gutara - to speak; attribute - property; overlay - error; stubble - stubble.
Disappearance of synonyms
The language is mobile and economical, it gets rid of words that are no longer used or their meaning loses relevance, for example, a phenomenon or object can leave the world without a trace. This also happens with synonyms, some words gradually fall out of synonymous pairs and rows. Almost completely disintegrated such pairs of identical synonyms asa helmet - a helmet, sweet - licorice. The first synonyms in pairs disappear from everyday speech: cheeks - cheeks; finger - finger; womb - belly.
