CHAPTER 2 ADJECTIVE MEANINGS
B. Sense relations relevant to adjectives
1. Synonymy
Synonym is equivalence of sense. Synonyms are words that are similar.
Or have a related meaning, to another word. They can be lifesavers when you want to avid repeating the same word over and over. Also, sometimes the word you have in mind might not be the most appropriate word, which is why finding the right synonyms can come in handy.
Words can be synonymous when meant in certain senses, even if they are not synonymous in all of their sense. For example, if one talk about a long time or an extended time, long and extended are synonymous within that context. Synonyms with exact meaning share a seme or denotational sememe, whereas those with inexactly similar meanings share a broader denotational or connotational sememe and thus overlap within a semantic field.
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Some other pairs of synonymous adjectives are listed in
Silent noiseless
brave courageous
polite courteous
rich wealthy
It is important to realise that the two-way, forward-and-back entailment pattern illustrated in the example word above is defining for synonymy. Huge and big are related in meaning, but they are not synonyms, as confirmed by the fact that, while The bridge is huge entails The bridge is big, we do not get entailment going the other way; when The bridge is big is true, it does not have to be true that The bridge is huge (it might be huge, but it could be big without being huge).
Synonymy is possible in other word classes, besides adjectives, as illustrated in.
truck lorry (nouns) depart leave (verbs) quickly fast (adverbs)
outside without (prepositions)
In principle, synonymy is not restricted to pairs of words. The triplet sofa, settee and couch are synonymous.
Paraphrases is a sentence with the same meaning.
For example:
1. Andy is impudent.
2. Andy is cheeky
Sentence no.1 dan sentence no. 2 can be paraphrase, provided it is the same Andy at the same point in time. Sentence no. 1, if it is true, entails – guarantees the truth of – sentence no.2, provided it is the same Andy at the same point in time. When sentence no.1 is true, sentence no.2 must also be true.
Take a look at the following sentence 3. Andy is impudent but he isn’t cheeky.
4. Andy is cheeky but he isn’t impudent.
Sentence no. 3 and sentence no.4 are contradictions, because entailments cannot be cancelled. When an entailed sentence is false, sentences that entail it cannot be true. What has been said about the synonyms impudent and cheeky
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can be employed in two different directions. One way round, if you are doing a semantic description of English and you are able to find paraphrases such as (sentence no.1 and sentence no.2) differing only in that one has cheeky where the other has impudent, then you have evidence that these two adjectives are synonyms of each other. Alternatively, if someone else’s description of the semantics of English lists impudent and cheeky as synonyms, that would tell you that they are predicting that sentences such as (sentence no.1 and sentence no.2) are paraphrases. The claim that impudent is a synonym of cheeky predicts that sentences such as (2.2d, e) are contradictions; or the contradictions can be cited as evidence that the two words are synonymous.
Paraphrase between two sentences depends on entailment, since it is defined as a two-way entailment between the sentences. The main points of the previous paragraph are that entailments indicate sense relations between words, and sense relations indicate the entailment potentials of words. How can one find paraphrases? Well, you have to observe language in use, think hard and invent test sentences for yourself, to try to judge whether or not particular entailments are present.
Take look at these examples, with using the conjunction so can be used in test sentences for entailment.
Sentence no.1 You said Andy is cheeky, so that means he is impudent.
Sentence no.2 You said Andy is impudent, so that means he is cheeky.
So generally, signals that an inference is being made. When we are dealing with sentences out of context, as in cases when it does not matter who the Andy in (sentence no.1 and sentence no.2) is, then the inferences are entailments rather than some kind of guess based on knowledge of a situation, or of the character of a particular Andy (sentence no.1) is an entirely reasonable argument. People who accept it as reasonable accept (tacitly at least) that Andy is cheeky entails that ‘Andy is impudent’. Sentence no.2 is also an entirely reasonable argument. People who accept it as reasonable are accepting that Andy is impudent entails ‘Andy is cheeky’. If both of the arguments (sentence no.1 and sentence 2) are accepted as reasonable, then we have two-way entailment – paraphrase – between Andy is cheeky and Andy is impudent and we can conclude that the two adjectives are synonymous with each other. (People who do not accept (sentence no.1 and sentence no.2) as reasonable arguments perhaps do not know either or both of the adjectives in
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question, or use meanings for one or both of these words that are different to those used by the author of this book, or they are focusing on a difference that is the concern of other branches of linguistics: sociolinguistics and stylistics.)