[Lexicog] Synonyms

[Lou Hohulin]

I have been following the discussion about synonyms with interest.

There are no 'true' synonyms in either of the Austronesian languages that I am most familiar with: Tuwali Ifugao and Keley-i Kallahan. Even loan words that tend to designate the same concepts tend to fill what speakers consider to be a 'semantic gap' in the language.

These languages tend to have many words within domains that share some semantic components, but will differ in other components, e.g. cut -- all cut verbs share the idea of the structure of an object being changed by an action using a sharp instrument. However, they all differ by what kind of sharp instrument is used (different kinds of knives), the type of object being cut, the manner of the action, or the resulting structure of the object. In our databases, we call this lexical relation - hyponomy rather than synonymy. The hyponyms are listed within the entries, and in another view of the databases, they are shown as tree-type structures.

Another interesting fact about these languages is that the speakers don't tend to classify words in their languages as antonyms. Speakers who have been educated in English are able to produce antonym relations, but they often are hesitant to make this claim. In the past, I have prepared young speakers of these languages to take the English sections of pre-college exams. Without exception, they have difficulty with English antonyms. There are, however, structures at a higher level than the word to express contrast.

Lou Hohulin
SIL - US & Philippines



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