E.G.: beautiful – pleasant, charming, wonderful hope – expectation, anticipation.

Among synonyms there is a word, which is called dominant member, which possesses the highest frequency in use and plays important role in communication. It is a center of the group of synonyms. Its meaning is equal to denotation common to all synonymic group. This dominant is the most general term, containing the specific features, rendered by all the other members of the group.

The dominant synonym expresses thee notion common to all synonyms of the group in the most general way without contributing any additional information as to the manner, intensity, duration or any attending feature of the referent.

Any dominant member is a typical basic vocabulary word. Its meaning, which is broad and generalized, covers the meanings of the rest of the synonyms, so that it may be a substitution for any of them.

The characteristic features of dominant synonym are:

High frequency of usage. Broad combinability. Broad general meaning. Lack of connotations.

According to the difference of denotational and connotational components of meaning synonyms are classified into:

І Ideographic synonyms, which differ in denotational component, between which semantic difference can be observed. E.g.: courage–braver –fearlessnes –daring. fame–glory –repute

Among ideographic synonyms we distinguish:

1) very close in meaning. E.g.: horrible – terrible.

2) differ in meaning considerably. E.g.: translator – interpreter.

3) differ in manner of the action. E.g.: to look – to eye – to peep – to glance – to gaze.

4) differ in degree of a given quality, in the intensity of the action performed, intensity of emotions. E.g.: to want – to desire to work – to toil – to slave.

5) denote the same thing but differ in emotional colouring. E.g: small–little, boy–lad, big–great.

6)differ inthe volume of the concept they express.illness–ailment–disease–malady–indisposition

7) pairs of synonyms when one expresses continuity of action or state, the other – elementary action.E.g.: to speak – to say, to remember – to memorize, to hear – to listen.

ІІ.Stylistic synonyms – differ in connotational component, in all kinds of emotional, expressive and evaluative overtones.E.g:doctor–doc, it is–it’s, professor–prof, parent–father – Dad-papa.

According to criterion of interchangeability in linguistic context we distinguish:

1) Relative synonyms – which can substitute one another only in some contexts.

E.g.: to ask – to beg – to pray; to love – to adore.

2) Total synonyms – which can replace each other in any given context without alteration in denotation or connotation. flexion–inflexion–ending; physician–doctor; basement–foundation.

According to criterion of context synonyms are classified into:

1) Synonyms proper. 2) Contextual synonyms – similar in meaning only under some specific conditions. E.g.: I have bought a ticket. I have got a ticket.

ANTONYMS – words which are different in sound form and characterized by semantic polarity of their denotational meaning. E.g.: hot – cold; good – bad; healthy – ill; alive – dead.

Antonyms are classified into:

1) Absolute (root). are diametrically opposite in meaning and remain antonyms in any word combinations. E.g.: active–passive; alike–different; hot–cold; white–black; advance–retreat 2) Derivational are formed with the help of negative affixes:

a) prefixes: un- unhealthy; unhappy in- (ir-, il-, im-) immaterial; illegal; irregular.

b) suffixes, which give to the word the meaning of the presence or absence of quality or feature, indicated by a root: -ful, -less E.g.: helpful – helpless; tactful – tactless.

Antonyms may be:

1) Antonyms proper – the semantic polarity is relative, the opposition is gradual, it may include several elements characterized by different degree of the same property. They always imply comparison. E.g.: large – little, small; high – low, short, small.

2) Complementaries – are words characterized only by a binary opposition, which may have only 2 members. The denial of one member is stating of the other. male–female; prose–poetry.

3) Conversives – are words, which denote one and the same referent as viewed from different points of view – that of the subject and that of the object. Their interchangeability and contextual behaviour are specific. E.g.: He gave her flowers. – She received flowers from him.

ASSIMILATION OF BORROWINGS

Assimilation is the process of changing of borrowing according to the laws of the given language.

Borrowed words are adjusted in the three main areas of the new language system: the phonetic, the grammatical and the semantic.

The lasting nature of phonetic adaptation is best shown by comparing Norman French borrowings to later ones. The Norman borrowings have for a long time been fully adapted to the phonetic system of the English language: such words as table, plate, courage, chivalry bear no phonetic traces of their French origin. Some of the later (Parisian) borrowings, even the ones borrowed as early as the 15thc., still sound surprisingly French: regime, valise, matinee, cafe, ballet. In these cases phonetic adaptation is not completed.

Grammatical adaptation consists in a complete change of the former paradigm of the borrowed word (i. e. system of the grammatical forms peculiar to it as a part of speech). If it is a noun, it is certain to adopt, sooner or later, a new system of declension; if it is a verb, it will be conjugated according to the rules of the recipient language. Yet, this is also a lasting process.. Such English Renaissance borrowings as datum (pi. data), phenomenon (pi. phenomena), criterion (pi. criteria) have not yet acquired the English system of plural forms, whereas earlier Latin borrowings such as cup, plum, street, wall were fully adapted to the grammatical system of the language long ago.

By semantic adaptation is meant adjustment to the system of meanings of the vocabulary. It has been mentioned that borrowing is generally caused either by the necessity to fill a gap in the vocabulary or by a chance to add a synonym conveying an old concept in a new way. Yet, the process of borrowing is not always so purposeful, logical and efficient as it might seem at first sight. Sometimes a word may be borrowed "blindly", so to speak, for no obvious reason, to find that it is not wanted because there is no gap in the vocabulary nor in the group of synonyms which it could conveniently fill. Quite a number of such "accidental" borrowings are very soon rejected by the vocabulary and forgotten. But there are others which manage to take root by the process of semantic adaptation. The adjective large, for instance, was borrowed from French in the meaning of "wide". It was not actually wanted, because it fully coincided with the English adjective wide without adding any new shades to its meaning. This could have led to its rejection. Yet, large managed to establish itself very firmly in the English vocabulary by semantic adjustment. It entered another synonymic group with the general meaning of "big in size". At first it was applied to objects characterized by vast horizontal dimensions, thus retaining a trace of its former meaning, and now, though still bearing some features of that meaning, is successfully competing with big having approached it very closely, both in frequency and meaning.

The adjective nice was a French borrowing meaning "silly" at first. The English change of meaning seems to have arisen with the use of the word in expressions like a nice distinction, meaning first "a silly, hair-splitting distinction", then a precise one, ultimately an attractive one. But the original necessity for change was caused once more by the fact that the meaning of "foolish" was not wanted in the vocabulary and therefore nice was obliged to look for a gap in another semantic field.

Degrees of assimilation.

According to the degree of assimilation borrowings are classified into the following groups.

1. Completely assimilated borrowings which underwent all types of assimilation.

2. Partially assimilated borrowings which lack one of the types of assimilation:

a) words not assimilated semantically (denote objects of the country from which they came);

b) words not assimilated grammatically (e.g nouns from Latin, which keep their original plural forms); c) words not assimilated phonetically; d) words not assimilated graphically.

3. Barbarisms which are completely non-assimilated borrowings, used by English people in the original, though they have corresponding words and expressions in English.