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ENGLISH LEXICOLOGY Nguyen Thanh Loan

SYNONYMY & ANTONYMY ED - HANU

REVISION

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IDENTIFY THE SEMANTIC CHANGE

oDiploma: official state document à certificate issued by

an educational institution
oLiquor: any liquid à a specific kind of alcohol
oBarbecue: a rack for cooking meat over a fire à a social
event at which food is cooked over a fire
oSalary: money paid for soldiers to buy salt à money that
people receive for doing their job.

IDENTIFY THE TYPE OF TRANSFERENCE

I went through a rollercoaster of emotions watching that
movie.
Having a helicopter parent left a lot of children in a
constant state of anxiety when they grew up.
His words cut deeper than a knife.
Former President Trump blamed blue states for high
COVID-19 cases in the US.

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SYNONYMY

DEFINITION
Synonym = syn (Gr., plus) + onoma (Gr., name)
Synonyms: words belonging to the same part of speech, close
in meaning and interchangeable at least in some contexts.
Synonyms represent the same thing/ phenomenon in different
aspects (shades) of meaning.
E.g.: found vs. discovered
­ Mandy _______ the stuffed bear in the toy box.
­ I _______ it difficult to finish the term paper in one day.

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Synonyms and antonyms are considered the treasure in a

language, being the most important expressive means of
language.
Synonyms are used extensively in idioms & proverbs, e.g.:
out of hand (= out of control).
English, like others, is a synonym-rich language (Why?)
Where to find synonyms? à Thesaurus

An ancient synonym
list on clay tablet
(7th century BCE)
N eo-Assyrian period
(The British Museum, London)

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DUALITY
(DUAL CHARACTERISTICS)

E.g.:
“Isn’t she stunning?
- I would certainly have called her attractive."
à While they share the same denotation, their connotations
are different.
à The use of synonyms should be made with consideration.

TRADITIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF
SYNONYMS

Absolute synonyms
Ideographic synonyms
Stylistic synonyms
Contextual synonyms
Dominant synonyms
V. V. Vinogradov (1895 – 1969)

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TRADITIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF SYNONYMS:

ABSOLUTE SYNONYMS
Also known as Perfect or Strict synonyms.
Words that coincide in all shades of meaning and in all stylistic
characteristics.
According to the linguistic economy principle, two words with the
same reference object cannot co-exist for long in one language.
à Absolute synonyms are extremely rare!
E.g.: sofa - couch
enemy – foe
motherland – fatherland - homeland

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TRADITIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF SYNONYMS:

IDEOGRAPHIC SYNONYMS
Are you sure that he loves Jen?
Princess Diana was adored all over the world.
Ideographic synonyms convey the same notion, but
different shades of meaning (degree in the given quality).
to like – to be fond of – to love – to adore

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TRADITIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF SYNONYMS:

STYLISTIC SYNONYMS
Stylistic synonyms are words which are distinguished stylistically,
without explicitly displaying semantic difference, e.g. formal –
informal, standard – slang, neutral – poetic, technical – non-technical.
father - Dad
sodium bicarbonate – baking soda
incision – cut
Japan – Land of the Rising sun
to die – to pass away - to sleep with worms
helmet - brain bucket
unemployed - between jobs – on benefits
Etc.

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TRADITIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF SYNONYMS:

CONTEXTUAL SYNONYMS
Contextual (context-dependent) synonyms are similar in
meaning only under some specific contexts).
E.g. 1:
­ His uncle died last week = His uncle expired last week.
­ My visa card will expire next month, but NOT My visa card will die
next month.
E.g. 2:
My family has 5 mouths (to feed) = My family has 5 people.
Vietnam has over 96 million people, but NOT Vietnam has over 96
million mouths.

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TRADITIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF SYNONYMS:

DOMINANT SYNONYMS
Dominant synonym is the center of the groups of synonyms.
Dominant synonym has the most neutral meaning and can
substitute any word in the group.

E.g. 1: surprised – astonished – gobsmacked – shocked – stunned

E.g. 2: big – huge – gigantic – enormous

à Dominant synonym possesses the highest frequency of

use compared with its synonyms, and so plays an important role
in communication.
tiny – little – small – minute – minor – trivial?

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CAN YOU FIND THE DOMINANT SYNONYM

IN THE SETS?
aid, assist, support, encourage, back, wait on,
attend, serve
à
employ, utilize, exhaust, spend, expend, consume,
exercise
à

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SOURCES OF SYNONYMS

English is a synonym-rich language.

Borrowings: ask (En.) – question (Fr.) –interrogate (Lat.);
answer (En.) – reply (Fr.); end (En.) – finish (Fr.) – complete
(Lat.);
­ Dialectical words: football (BrE) – soccer (AmE); jam (BrE) – jelly
(AmE), lift (BrE) - elevator (AmE);

Euphemisms: bathroom – washroom – powder room –

restroom
Word-formation: laugh – laughter, effectual - effective

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PRACTICE

a) Her face blushed when she heard what he said about her.
b) Her face reddened after reading the letter.
a) Are you currently staying in HCM city? – No, I am living
in HCM city.
a) She began to sob hysterically. b) My cousin weeped at
the corner of the room.
a) Despite being an adult, Mary has a very childlike voice.
b) Can you stop being childish?

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ANTONYMY

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ANTONYMS

Antonyms = anti (Gr., opposite) + onoma (Gr., name)

Antonyms (or Opposites) are two words of the same
part of speech which have contrasting meanings.
Similar to synonyms, antonyms appear extensively in
literature and idioms.
Antonymy is possible only if the words entering this
semantic relationship share a common component of their
senses.

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Are word pairs like: hungry – dark, pretty – short or near -

light antonyms of each other?
à
How about long – short or deep – shallow?
à

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Most (not all!) antonyms are adjectives:

E.g.:
Adjectives: wide – narrow; rough – smooth; light – dark; deep
– shallow;
Verbs: bring – take; send - receive
Nouns: death – life; teacher - student
Adverbs: up – down
Prepositions: above – below

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CLASSIFICATION OF ANTONYMS

1. ROOT WORD (ABSOLUTE) ANTONYMS: divided into

3 main types (“Gradable”, “non-gradable” and
“relational”)
a. Gradable antonyms: two ends of the spectrum which
may have intermediate elements & always imply
comparison which is clear from context. (“more-less”
relationship)
E.g.: hot – cold; dry – wet; easy - difficult

hot warm cool cold

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b. Non-gradable antonyms: complementarity = binary

opposition; may include only 2 members. The presence of
one quality or state signifies the absence of the other and
vice versa. (“either-or” relationship)
E.g.: right – wrong; asleep – awake; alive– dead; remember
- forget

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c. Relational antonyms : relationship between members is

reciprocal. They are pairs of words which indicate such a
relationship that one of them cannot be used without
suggesting the other.
E.g., to teach – to learn; to come – to go, doctor – patient,
parent -child

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2. DERIVATIONAL ANTONYMS: words which are formed

by derivation (they originate from the same root).
E.g., broken – unbroken; correct – incorrect, qualify -
disqualify
Others?
Common affixes used to create antonyms: dis-, in-, un-,
mis-, non-, -less etc.

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CLASSIFY THE ANTONYMS USED IN THE

SENTENCES
Weed is completely legal in The Netherlands, while in
Vietnam, it is totally illegal.
Regina was accepted to study in Yale. Sammy was
rejected from Columbia, unfortunately.
Thin or fat is in the eye of the beholder.
The teacher asked the students to finish their homework.

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FIND & CLASSFY THE ANTONYMIC PAIRS.

WORD 1 WORD 2

shopkeeper singular
young expensive
cheap master
plural customer
servant old

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Next unit:
Homonymy - Euphemism

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