Each of the writers - whether it is a primary school student or a venerable writer - had to deal with this phenomenon. It is as interesting - both linguistically and psychologically - as difficult to describe. After all, if synonyms in general are words that are similar in meaning, belonging to the same part of speech, differing either in stylistic coloring or shades of meaning, then contextual synonyms are not amenable to such a description.
In a specific text, everything depends not so much on the capabilities of the language, but on the intentions of the author. It is the author who is engaged in verbal balancing act, exercising in originality and uniqueness. It is the author who turns contextual synonyms into words similar in meaning. Let's give an example: "indescribable, blue, tender" - this is from the lyrics of the great Sergei Yesenin. It would seem that what is common between the designation of color, sensual relationship and"inexpressible in words"? However, these adjectives in this poem are an example of what contextual synonyms are. They converge in meaning only and exclusively by the will of the author. His individual interpretation of the word, his metaphors and associations do not obey the logic of language. Or another example: "thin lemon moonlight" - "lemon" and "moon" in this case are also contextual synonyms.
What are these means of expression used for? Contextual synonyms are needed primarily in order to avoid tautologies. For example, "statue of Peter I", "The Bronze Horseman" and "He" will be synonyms that can be used interchangeably. Common language synonyms are words of the same part of speech that differ both in spelling and in sound, but have the same or very close lexical meaning.
Stylistic synonyms may differ from each other in stylistic coloring: “eyes” - “eyes” - “eyes” - “eyes” - it's all about the same organ of vision, only by different stylistic means. But, let's say, if in the text we meet "her blue eyes, these two aquamarines" - then we have contextual synonyms. Since in the language "eyes" and "aquamarines" are not at all close in meaning. When it is said about some hero "our hero" - "Maxim" - "he" - "reckless daredevil" - these will also be contextual synonyms. In this way, the author can avoid unnecessary and unjustified repetitions and enrich his speech.
It is worth noting other types of synonyms. We have already mentioned stylistic ones. Along with them, there are also semantic synonyms, that is, words that are close in meaning, but have a unique shade of meaning. For example, can the words "crimson" and "scarlet" be considered synonymous? Yes, only semantic: crimson is a thick dark red color, and scarlet is a bright red, rather light. But the word "poppy" or "wine" is a contextual synonym, which will not necessarily have the meaning "red", but will acquire it only in a specific sentence. For example: “this ruby, wine dawn” or “scarlet, poppy scarf.”
Along with semantic and stylistic there are absolute synonyms in the language: spelling is the same as spelling, linguistics is the same as linguistics. Mastering the synonymous richness of the Russian language is necessary for all writing people, and a dictionary of synonyms will be a good help in this.
