[Ads-l] perfect synonyms

[Laurence Horn]

I have always brought up “synonymy” and “synonymity” as another unexciting (if apt) pair to dredge up when I’m not feeling particularly furzy/gorsy, but I now see that according to Oxford Reference, they’re not (or not always?) quite perfect synonyms:

https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199661350.001.0001/acref-9780199661350-e-5792

I find the explanation somewhat less pellucid than I’d like, though, especially since “synonymity” is elucidated by reference to “synonymousness”.

LH  

> On Feb 25, 2024, at 9:02 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> At long last, two synonyms that are even more nearly perfect semantically
> and orthographically than "gorse" and "furze."
> 
> They're not very exciting though:
> 
> "inalienable"
> 
> "unalienable"
> 
> Unlike "gorse" and "furze," this pair has the advantage of being routinely
> interchanged when quoting from the U.S. Constitution.
> 
> OED has "un" from 1611 and "in" from 1647.
> 
> JL
> 
> On Fri, Dec 29, 2023 at 9:25 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com <mailto:wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>>
> wrote:
> 
>> To return briefly: "whin" isn't so exact a synonym as "gorse" and "furze."
>> Not only is it four, not five, letters; it shares no letters with "gorse"
>> and "furze," and it doesn't appear till ca1400.
>> 
>> Both "gorse" and "furze," though, come from Old English.
>> 
>> JL
>> 
>> On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 4:35 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>> Subject:      Re: perfect synonyms
>>> 
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> 
>>> At 10:50 AM -0400 7/10/09, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>>> Years ago I revived the claim that the two most nearly synonymous words
>>> in
>>>> English are "gorse" and "furze."
>>> 
>>> This pair also has a distinguished history in the philosophy of
>>> language, going back (at least) 30 years to a famous paper by Saul
>>> Kripke in "A Puzzle About Belief" (1979).  His point was that an
>>> otherwise competent speaker of English could acquire both terms
>>> through ostensive definitions without realizing that they refer to
>>> the same thing, so that "X believes that gorse is gorse" and "X
>>> believes that gorse is furze" could differ in truth value, which
>>> might to taken to suggest that (on one view of synonymy) they're not
>>> synonyms after all.
>>> 
>>>> Not only do they designate the same
>>>> referent; they are both monosyllabic and even bear a minor phonetic
>>>> resemblance.
>>>> 
>>>> I can now reveal two comparably synonymous English words. They are
>>>> so mundane, however, that no one will be impressed.
>>>> 
>>>> The envelope please:
>>>> 
>>>> "Flapjack" and "slapjack."
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> The former no doubt arising from the latter on the occasion when John
>>> Donne spelled "slapjack" with one of those f-ish-looking s's in an
>>> otherwise obscure erotic poem.
>>> 
>>> LH
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org <http://www.americandialect.org/>
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org <http://www.americandialect.org/>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org