1.3. Sources of synonymy.

One of the sources of synonymy is borrowing. Synonymy has its characteristic patterns in each language. Its peculiar feature in English is the contrast between simple native words stylistically neutral, literary words borrowed from French and learned words of Greco-Latin origin.

Native English French Borrowing Latin borrowings

to ask to question to interrogate

to end to finish to complete

to rise to mount to ascend

teaching guidance instruction

belly stomach abdomen

There are also words that came from dialects, in the last hundred years, from American English, in particular, e.g. long distance call AE ― trunk call BE; radio AE ― wireless BE.

Synonyms are also created by means of all word-forming processes productive in the language.

It must be noted that synonyms may Influence each other semantically in two diametrically opposite ways: one of them is dissimilation or differentiation, the other ― the reverse process, i.e. assimilation.

Many words now marked in the dictionaries as “archaic” or “obsolete” have dropped out of the language in the competition of synonyms, others survived with a meaning more or less different from the original one. This process is called synonymic differentiation and is so current that is regarded as an inherent law of language development. Cf.

soil French borrowing ― a strip of land.

eorpe, land, folde OE synonyms ― the upper layer of earth in which plants grow. → soil, earth, ground ― the mould in which plants grow.

The assimilation of synonyms consists in parallel development. This law was discovered and described by G. Stern., H.A. Treble and O.H. Vallins In their book An ABC of English Usage, Oxford, 1957, p. 173 they give as examples the pejorative meanings acquired by the nouns wench, knave and churl which originally meant “girl”, “boy”, and “labourer” respectively, and point out that this loss of old dignity became linguistically possible because there were so many synonymous words of similar meaning. As the result all the three words underwent degradation in their meanings:

wench → indecent girl;

knave → rascal;

churl → country man.

2. Homonyms.

Homonyms are words which are identical in sound and spelling, or, at least, in one of these aspects, but different in their meaning.

E. g. bank, n. — a shore ↔ bank, n. — an institution for receiving, lending, exchanging, and safeguarding money

ball, n. — a sphere; any spherical body ↔ ball, n. — a large dancing party

Both meanings of the form “liver” are, for instance, intentionally present in the following play upon words: Is life worth living ? ― It depends upon the liver.

English vocabulary is rich in such pairs and even groups of words. Their identical forms are mostly accidental: the majority of homonyms coincided due to phonetic changes which they suffered during their development.

The pun is a joke based upon the play upon words of similar form but different meaning (i.e. on homonyms) as in the following:

“A tailor guarantees to give each of his customers a perfect fit.”

fit, n. — perfectly fitting clothes; ↔ fit, n. — a nervous spasm.