[Lexicog] Re: Law of Synonyms

[Rudolph Troike]

O.K., I'll withdraw "lift/elevator" and "lorry/truck", but the general point
remains. When English-speaking settlers in North America encountered an
odiferous black and white animal, those in New England borrowed an Algonkian
term which emerged as "skunk", while those in the South applied the known
word "polecat" to the same animal based on similarities with an animal at
home. These are unquestionably exact synonyms, except in overlap areas such
as southern California, where a "skunk" is the black & white animal, while
a brown spotted animal receives the appellation "polecat". In Texas, where
city kids learn about the animal only from books printed in the North, they
have adopted the term "skunk", but have differentiated "polecat" to refer to
the unseen (or occasionally seen flattened) animal whose odor their parents
have identified as a "polecat".

At least until a few years ago, Canadians enjoyed snickering when US visitors
asked for a "napkin" in a restaurant, where "serviette" was the standard term,
"napkin/nappy" being reserved for a "sanitary napkin". When a server in a
Canadian restaurant asks if you want your tea "white", I take that to be an
exact synonym for "with milk/cream" -- all of the other meanings/uses of "white"
are irrelevant in this context, so it would seem irrelevant to bring all of
these in to deny that "white" and "with milk/cream" were exact synonyms in
this context. (Of course, Canadian usage may have changed, but that is
another matter.) When in England you order "fish and chips", and are surprised
to find "french fries" on your plate, it is certainly legitimate to suggest
that "chips" and "french fries" are exact synonyms, without going into detail
that the exact method of cutting them up or cooking them or eating them differs,
or that they can't be exact synonyms because "chip" has other meanings besides
referring to a potato cooked in a particular way, or other associations in
which they are eaten (e.g., with a hamburger vs fish). Carried to an extreme,
one can certainly say that the same "word" is never an "exact synonym" between
different speakers, as Ken Hill has noted for Hopi speakers, since no two
people have the exact same experience with any word or expression in their
language (or really, even the same "language", which is, after all, a
convenient fiction).

   Rudy Troike


------------------------------------

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    mailto:lexicographylist-digest at yahoogroups.com 
    mailto:lexicographylist-fullfeatured at yahoogroups.com

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    lexicographylist-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/