[Lexicog] Re: Law of synonyms

[Rudolph Troike]

One dimension that has been neglected in this discussion is regional
difference. There are numerous cases in most, probably all, languages
(provided that they are spoken by more than one person, or perhaps
one community) where there are regionally different equivalents for
the same object/activity/condition. British vs American English furnishes
numerous examples: lorry vs truck, lift vs elevator, etc., etc. Surely
these are exact synonyms, either abstractly or for those who know both,
and the contexts of usage would be the same in different speech-communities.

There is a relevant psychological "law" which has been proposed (I'd have
to check on the source) which says essentially that people abhor the
coexistence of identical referential terms, and when this situation occurs,
speakers will *create* differences in order to justify the continued
existence of both. Research on regional differences in American English
(like Raven McDavid, I try to avoid the confusing term "dialect") has turned
up some amusing examples. In the lower South, where mosquitos abound,
dragon flies, which allegedly feed on mosquitos (I've never read up on
their eating habits) are called "mosquito hawks". In the upper South, folklore
has led to their being called "snake doctors". There is a part of Georgia
where the two usages overlap, and there informants said that mosquito hawks
were larger than snake doctors. As it happens, westward migration brought
the two regional varieties into contact again in southeast Texas, where
speakers again recognized both terms, but said that snake doctors were
larger than mosquito hawks!

This process of secondary differentiation of meaning affects even
coexisting diffences in pronunciation. Surely, for example, the Northern
U.S. pronunciation of "greasy" with an /s/ and the Southern pronunciation
with /z/ would count as synonyms -- even the identical lexical item. But
there is an area along the northern border of Pennsylvania where these two
pronunciations have come to collide, and in this area, people say that
/griysiy/ refers to 'clean' grease, e.g. used in cooking, while /griyziy/
refers to the dirty black stuff which drips from a car.

A second neglected dimension affecting synonymy is diachrony. I say "ice
box" for the appliance that my wife calls a "refrigerator", and my students
call a "fridge". While there is occasional confusion between speakers who
are not familiar with one or the other of these terms, for those who are,
the terms are understood as synonymous in reference, differing primarily in
connotation regarding the typicality of the speaker using one or the other.
(Some speakers, not realizing the synonymy, and searching for meaning for
the term "ice box" which they have heard, have secondarily differentiated
its meaning by applying it to what others call a (portable) "ice chest".)

I think that diachrony, and cultural lag, are responsible for the variation
in "laptop" vs "notebook" computer. When so-called "portable" (or "luggable")
computers were replaced by 10-pound lightweights that could be conveniently
placed on the lap, they were called "laptop computers". When these in turn
were replaced by truly portable smaller 4-pounders, these were initially
called "notebook computers", to distinguish them from the earlier heavier
form factor. For a time, while both were still in use, the distinction was
useful to maintain. As the heavier predecessors were gradually replaced and
disappeared, the distinction became synchronically meaningless, and for
some reason, there was a resurgence of the term "laptop", which was not
retired along with its referents, while others continued with the newer
term. The result has been a tolerated synonymy along the "ice box"/"fridge"
line, though the technological change occurred too rapidly to produce a
clear age-grading in usage. Probably for younger speakers in general, who
did not experience the shift in technology, and mainly use a notebook/laptop,
it becomes simply an unmarked "computer", while the "PC" (an ancient term!)
is retronymically labeled a "desktop".

   Rudy Troike





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