Лекции по лексикологии английского языка. Гусева Г.В. - 38 стр.

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Conversion can also serve to form synonyms. laughter – laugh.

There are also cases of different affixation: effectivity – effectiveness. It can

be treated as a lexical variant but not a synonym. Variants can also be phonetical

(vase [veiz] - [va:z]) and graphical (to-morrow - tomorrow).

The peculiar feature of English is the contrast between simple native words

which are stylistically neutral, literary words borrowed from French and learned

words of Greko-Latin origin, e.g.:

to ask to question to interrogate

belly stomach abdomen

to end to finish to complete

II. Paronyms

Paronymy is an intermediate phenomenon between homonymy (identical

sound-form) and synonymy (similar meaning).

Paronyms are words which are partially similar in form but different in

meaning and usage: proscribe-prescribe. The coinciding parts are not morphemes

but meaningless sound-clusters. Pairs like historic-historical (words containing the

same root-morpheme) are usually treated as synonyms. Yet words of both groups

are easily confused in speech even by native speakers: sensible- sensitive, prudent-

prudish.

Improper usage of learned and sonorous language results in the so-called

malapropisms. to have a supercilious (superficial) knowledge in accounts. This

kind of word confusion is due to ignorance and produces a humorous effect.

Malapropisms may be viewed as a kind of paronyms. The words are attracted to

each other because of their partial phonetic similarity.