The strength of language lies in its ability to help people express ideas clearly and variably, describe the world, processes, feelings. Synonyms are a treasure of any language. They allow you to more accurately present the idea, convey the finest semantic connotation of thought, endow speech with artistic beauty and variability, avoid repetition, cliches, stylistic oversights.
Absolutely all the great writers used and use in their works the enormous pictorial 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 be 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 "homonymous". By synonyms we mean words that differ in spelling and sound, but are close or even identical in meaning. There are two types of synonyms:
1. Complete, they are also called absolute, they completely coincide in their meaning.
For example: boundless - boundless; seafarer - seafarer; 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: to fall - to crash - to overthrow; house - chamber - shanty; beautiful - magnificent - 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 - angry; lightning fast.
c) Semantic-stylistic, mixed synonyms, at the same time there are semantic and stylistic shades, for example: food - zhrachka - eat - food - food; to ask - to beg - to beg.
Synonyms are connected in synonymous series consisting of two or more elements. Only words that relate to one part of speech can be included in rows. In addition, they include both single words and phrases. Synonymous series begin with a keyword called dominant. Examples of rows:
• red - crimson - scarlet - purple - greasy - bloody - crimson;
• run away - fly off - fly away - give the strekach - tear the claws - drape - lubricate the heels - roll off.
Reasons for the emergence of synonyms
The causes and mechanisms of the occurrence of synonyms in the English language, as in Spanish, Chinese, Russian, are identical. Language development is based on the desire of people to more deeply and clearly describe being and their own ideas, share thoughts and information, and synonyms are one of the best tools for this purpose. They help to formulate and convey the subtle nuances of meanings and emotions. Therefore, synonymous series are constantly replenished with new words. Four main ways of occurrence of synonyms in the Russian language can be distinguished.
Borrowing from other languages
The Russian language does not live apart, it actively absorbs successful words from other languages, the emergence of synonyms on the basis of similar in meaning foreign words significantly expands the expressive capabilities of the language. For example, in the following pairs, the first word penetrated from another language and got along well in Russian: preventive - preliminary; agrarian - land; import - import; preamble - introduction; memoirs - memories; sphere - region; the embryo is the embryo; vaccination - vacation; meeting - meeting.
Word formation
Sometimes the emergence of synonyms is the result of the emergence of new words. As a rule, the root does not change, the suffixes and prefixes vary, as a result, a new synonym word with a different semantic meaning is obtained. Examples: equipment - equipment; innocent - innocent; digging - digging; Catholicism - Catholicism; timekeeping - timekeeping; aerobatics - piloting.
Word splitting
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 bold - selfless - brave in the phrase "dashing warrior" or in the meaning of difficult - difficult - 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 sometimes a good - quality - solid horse.
Dialect and professional words
One of the most common ways synonyms arise is the penetration of words from all kinds of slangs, professionalisms, jargon, dialects. This is an inexhaustible source for the emergence of synonyms. Examples: crook - thief; steering wheel - steering wheel; get on - set up; mouth - lips; beetroot - beets; to gutar - to speak; attribute - property; overlay - an error; stubble is stubble.
The disappearance of synonyms
Language is mobile and economical, it gets rid of words that cease to be used or their meaning loses relevance, for example, a phenomenon or object can leave a trace of the world without a trace. This happens with synonyms, some words gradually fall out of synonymous pairs and series. Such pairs of identical synonyms as a helmet with helmets and sweet with licorice have almost completely disintegrated. The first synonyms in pairs disappear from everyday speech: lanites - cheeks; finger - finger; the belly is the stomach.