When we speak of synonymy, we mean ‘loose’ or ‘relative’ synonymy, where we find not only a significant overlap in meaning between two words, but also some contexts where they cannot be used interchangeably.
John found/discovered the basketball in the grass.
Maria Curie discovered radium in 1898.
*Maria Curie found radium in 1898.
discover: be the first one to come across something
Absolute (strict) synonyms refer to two words which are identical in meaning in all its aspects. They are interchangeable in all contexts. Strict synonyms are very rare, and some linguists even argue that strict synonyms do not exist. Strict synonymy is uneconomical; it creates unnecessary redundancy in a language. When two words are in danger of becoming strict synonyms, one of them would either change its meaning, or fade away from the language and become an archaic word.
Jackson (ibid. 67) coins a term “loose synonymy” for a sense relation between words, mentioned in the last category (v) of Palmer‟s division of differences between synonyms. Loose synonyms have the same general reference and the words can substitute each other in a wide range of contexts yet not in all of them.
Comments by phucaqe
phucaqe commented on the word relative synonym
When we speak of synonymy, we mean ‘loose’ or ‘relative’ synonymy, where we find not only a significant overlap in meaning between two words, but also some contexts where they cannot be used interchangeably.
John found/discovered the basketball in the grass.
Maria Curie discovered radium in 1898.
*Maria Curie found radium in 1898.
discover: be the first one to come across something
find: experience something in some way
June 19, 2015
phucaqe commented on the word absolute synonym
Absolute (strict) synonyms refer to two words which are identical in meaning in all its aspects. They are interchangeable in all contexts. Strict synonyms are very rare, and some linguists even argue that strict synonyms do not exist. Strict synonymy is uneconomical; it creates unnecessary redundancy in a language. When two words are in danger of becoming strict synonyms, one of them would either change its meaning, or fade away from the language and become an archaic word.
June 19, 2015
phucaqe commented on the word loose synonymy
Jackson (ibid. 67) coins a term “loose synonymy” for a sense relation between
words, mentioned in the last category (v) of Palmer‟s division of differences between synonyms. Loose synonyms have the same general reference and the words can substitute each other in a wide range of contexts yet not in all of them.
June 19, 2015
phucaqe commented on the word strict synonymy
Jackson (1986: 66) defines strict synonymy as two words being interchangeable
in all sentence contexts.
June 19, 2015