• stylistic synonyms (variants): doc – doctor; San Francisco – Frisco; the Japanese – Japs;

• etymological doublets: chapman - chap; fanatic – fan; fantasy – fancy; mistress – miss;

• Intermediate cases.

Shortening can be combined with derivation: nightie – night-dress; teeny – teenager; with ellipsis and substantivization: the big sitdown instead of sitdown demonstration.

Sign – material carriers of meaning, which means that ss. always stand for something else, which we call their meaning. The relation between a sign and its meaning can be of three different kinds – based on contiguity, similarity and convention. This serves the basis for discrimination between three possible signs – indexes, icons and symbols:

- index (indexical sign) (from Gr. 'index' – 'pointing finger') – links form and meaning on the basis of contiguity, when things that are contiguous can stand for each other. The clearest case of an indexical sign is a signpost for traffic pointing in the direction of the next town (so the signpost has the meaning: "Go in this direction to get to Bath"). Facial expressions such as raising one's brows are also indexical signs: they 'point' to a person's internal emotional states of surprise or anger.

- iconic sign (icon) (from Gr. 'eikon' – 'replica') – provides a visual, auditory or any other perceptual image of the thing it stands for, hence applying the general principle of similarity – using an image for a real thing. An iconic sign is similar to the thing it represents (e.g. a road sign that warns drivers to look out for children near a school pictures two children crossing a road on a zebra crossing).

- symbolic sign (symbol) (from Gr. 'symbolon' – 'a token of recognition') – has a conventional link between its meaning and form (military emblems, currency signs – $, ₤, flags, most of the language). The term 'symbolic' as used in linguistics is understood in the sense that, by general consent, people have 'agreed' upon the pairing of a particular form with a particular meaning. – See Law of the sign, Asymmetry of the linguistic sign

Signification – 1) one of the basic notions of semasiology (q.v.) referring to the virtual ability of linguistic signs to bear the information about their denotata in terms of their indispensable and ascribed properties. According to D. Crystal, s. is that aspect of word's meaning which stresses that 'sign' function of linguistic expressions. Lexical items are viewed upon as signs within the sign system of language vocabulary. The relationship between sign and thing or sign and concept is s. S. as the word's systemic meaning within the structure of the lexicon is opposed to denotation as what the word is used to name, hence the opposition significatum (q.v.) vs. denotatum (q.v.). When words are used literally in their factual objective primary meanings denotation and s. coincide – are brought into agreement. Semantic changes however go beyond signification, because when words are used to refer to a new object or concept (to name a new thing), they depart from the systematised structure of their meaning (signification), and acquire a new dimension. Their reference (denotation) is thus being extended to bring about new shades or nuances of meaning. It can be the process of semantic derivation or the process of the appearance of new connotations. However, in modern semantics the term s. developed a second (somewhat narrower) reading: 2) significative meaning – type of lexical meaning, non-referential by its nature, which reflects the concept of property/feature as opposed to the concept of class, reflected in denotative meaning (which can thus be termed referential) – See Denotation-2). Significative meaning is actualised primarily by verbs and adjectives, articles, morphemes.

Significative meaning – see Signification-2