[Lexicog] Synonymy

[Fritz Goerling]

It is my pet peeve as a Bible translation consultant when teams answer to my
question
about the meaning of two ""synonymous"" words "they mean the same." I speak
one
African language fluently and have no problem to convince speakers of this
language
that certain words do not mean the same, by generating examples in which one
word has to be used over another. But this becomes a challenge in other
languages
which I do not know when the translators say "no, they are just the same."
What
usually helps is to use an example from a common language (national or trade
language) which shows how so-called "synonyms" differ connotatively.

FWIW,
Fritz Goerling


  Wayne wrote:

        What kinds of experiences have you all had when trying to elicit
        synonyms
        from speakers of a language?

        Do you sometimes get a response something like, "Oh, there is a
        little
        difference between those words," confirming what many lexicographers
        and
        semanticians has claimed, that there are seldom true synonyms in a
        language?

        Wayne
        -----
        Wayne Leman
        Cheyenne website: http://www.geocities.com/cheyenne_language

  I'd think more likely would be "no, they are just the same." That's what I
  might answer for English "own" and "possess", for example. But then you
  start investigating their actual usage, and you find that they are not
  completely substitutable for each other. Then the fun begins to find out
  why.

  Mike Cahill




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