Jahangirnagar University

Assignment No-01

Topic: Lexical sense relation analysis: Synonym.

Submitted by Submitted to
Md. Golam Mowla Mr. Md. Afaz Uddin
MA in ELT (MAPW) Associate Professor &
ID# 1192058 Course Instructor, ELT-032
Course Code-ELT-032 Department of English
Course Title: Semantics Jahangirnagar University

Submission Date: 23/12/2022

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Assignment -01

Topic: Lexical sense relation analysis: Synonym.

Whenever we discuss the linguistic phenomenon of synonymy, a highly controversial question
emerges, that of the linguistic units between which the synonymy relation is established. The
traditional approach considers words as units of synonymy between the members of a synonymous
pair or group. There is even a more “radical” view of synonyms, restricting them to words of the
same part of speech. For example, there are a number of definitions by various authors who
consider the word as the synonymy unit. Here are some of them:
“synonyms are words of identical or nearly identical meaning” (French, 2004:146)
“near-synonyms are words which share a salient common core of meaning, but differ in relatively
minor respects.” (Aronoff, 2002:9)
“two or more words with very closely related meanings are called synonyms” (Yule, 2006:104)
“synonym – a word or expression that has the same or nearly the same meaning as another in the
same language” (OALD, 2000:1319)
The term ‘Lexical relation sense’ means investigating the meaning of a word by studying the
relationships between its meaning and the meaning of others.
The types of lexical sense relations which are usually analyzed are as follows:
• Synonyms Homophony, Homonymy and polysemy
• Antonyms Metonymy
• Hyponyms etc. Collocation
• Prototypes Collocation
What is synonym in lexical relation?
Synonyms are different words with almost identical or similar meanings. Words that are
synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The
word comes from Ancient Greek ‘syn’ (with) and ‘onoma’ (name). The words car and automobile
are synonyms. Similarly, if we talk about ‘a long time’ or ‘an extended time’, long and extended
become synonyms. It is to be noted here that synonyms are defined with respect to certain senses
of words; for instance, ‘he expired’ means the same as ‘he died’, yet 'my passport has expired'
cannot be replaced by 'my passport has died'.
Generally, a word can be treated as ‘Container’ or as fulfilling ‘roles ‘but they can also have
‘relationships’ with other words. In our everyday talk, we frequently use the meanings of words in
terms of their relationships to other words.
For example, meaning of ‘fine’ is the same as well. (Synonym)
 Meaning of ‘easy’ is the opposite of difficult’ (Antonym)
Meaning of ‘Spoon’ specify the meaning of Cutlery’ (Hyponym) etc.
What is Synonym in lexical sense of relation?
When two or more lexical forms with very closely related meaning, which are often, but not
always, intersubstitutable (interchangeable) in sentences are called Synonym.
Example-almost/nearly, big/large, broad/wide, buy/purchase, cab/taxi, car/automobile,
coach/sofa, freedom/liberty, dead/expired etc.
▪ For example, in the appropriate circumstances, we can say, ‘What was his answer? Or
What was his reply?’ With much the same meaning.
▪ In different occasion, one word may be appropriate in a sentence, but its synonym would
be odd: for instance, ‘he expired’ means the same as ‘he died’, yet 'my passport has expired'
cannot be replaced by 'my passport has died'.
▪ The idea of sameness is not always ‘total’ sameness
Broad and wide can both be used to describe a street in a similar way, we only talk about
being in broad agreement (not wide agreement) and to describe the whole -worldwide (not
world broad).
There are also regional differences in the case of synonymous pairs:
American English British English
Cookies Biscuits
antenna aerial
fall autumn
attorney barrister, solicitor
mad angry
Synonymous forms may also differ in terms of formal versus informal uses, For example
• My father purchased a large automobile. My dad bought a big car
These two sentences have virtually the same meaning. with four(underlined) synonymous
replacements, but the second version sounds much more casual or informal than the first.
To conclude, synonymy must be analyzed both in terms of inner and outer relationships. Being a
lexical relation, synonymy cannot avoid interrelating with other lexical relations such as
antonymy, polysemy or even homonymy. Studying them in terms of interconnection and
interdependence may help language users better manage the use of the appropriate word in a given
context.
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