Some Aspects of Term Synonymy

ASTA MITKEVIČIENĖ

Lietuvių kalbos institutas

KEYWORDS: synonymous terms, term synonymy, lexical synonyms, grammatical synonyms, aspectual synonyms, motivating feature, identification of synonymous terms, hyperonyms, hyponyms

The issue of synonymy among terms is particularly relevant in terminology; it is important both for its theory and for terminological planning. In Lithuanian terminology, synonymous terms and synonymy among terms have been studied on numerous occasions. The causes of synonymy and the evaluation of terminological synonymy have been discussed (Keinys 2005 [1974], 1980; Kaulakienė 1994; Gaivenis 2002, etc.); derivational synonyms in terminology have been examined (Keinys 2005 [1966]); synonymy between Lithuanian and international terms in terminography has been studied (Klimavičius 1975); and the specific nature of synonymy in terminology has been surveyed (Zemlevičiūtė 2001), among other topics. In addition, the synonymy of terms in individual fields has been studied from various perspectives (mainly origin, structure, and standardization): synonymous terms in land reclamation (Keinys 2005 [1974]), computing (Auksoriūtė 1997; Kaulakienė 2000; Šilobritaitė 2010), physics and engineering (Kaulakienė 1994; Gaivenytė 2000), phonetics (Kazlauskaitė 2000), medicine (Zemlevičiūtė 2001), law (Umbrasas 2004), philosophy (Mikelionienė 2004), construction (Stunžinas 2005, 2010), architecture (Kitkauskienė 2005), religion (Rimkutė 2007), mathematics (Šilobritaitė 2007), electrostatics (Stankevičienė 2012), synonymous plant names (Labanauskienė 2014), as well as synonymy in Latvian-language terminology dictionaries (Kvašytė 2000), among others. In general, other articles examining the terminology of a particular field or source also frequently discuss terminological synonymy, at greater or lesser length¹.

¹ In some studies, terminologists call different equivalents of the same foreign-language term, some of which are synonyms, unterminologized-word variants (see Umbrasas 2004, 2010; Šilobritaitė 2010).

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This article briefly surveys conceptions of synonymous terms and the boundaries of term synonymy, discusses types of systematic synonymous terms distinguished according to term structure, language levels, and term roots, and reviews some difficulties in identifying synonyms in texts. It does not aim to cover all aspects of term synonymy; rather, it analyzes certain aspects of this semantic relation that have been less studied or not studied at all in Lithuanian terminology. The statements in this article are illustrated with examples of terms from the humanities (linguistics, literary studies, musicology, art, architecture, aesthetics, etc.)².

Synonyms in terms of normative status are not discussed in this article, although term synonymy can be both a cause and a consequence of standardization. It is assumed that, without judging synonymous terms according to which is better, a somewhat different picture of term synonymy than the customary one might emerge.

UNDERSTANDING SYNONYMS AND THE SCOPE OF SYNONYMY IN TERMINOLOGY

Synonyms in terminology are understood in different ways. Some consider only terms with the same meaning to be synonyms, while others also include terms with similar meanings. Accordingly, a distinction is made between synonyms and near-synonyms³, and between absolute and partial synonyms.

The relationship between synonyms and variants is problematic. According to Rita Miliūnaitė, “the most important feature of synonyms—the semantic commonality of linguistic units with different forms—hardly distinguishes them from broadly understood variants” (Miliūnaitė 2009: 181). In terminology, various things are called term variants: both minor differences between terms (for example, spelling) and, for example, cognate synonyms, as well as long and short forms of terms (for more on the concept of term variants, see Mitkevičienė 2004). Term synonymy in terminology is explained as variation (Татаринов 2006: 173); variants are considered part of synonymy, or synonyms and variants are discussed as unrelated units.

The principal features of synonyms—1) the same (or very similar) meaning, 2) different forms—are found in terminology not only in terms. The same science

²Dictionaries of the humanities include terms from other fields that are used in the texts of those disciplines (for example, a dictionary of art may contain printing terms). This article also does not exclude such terms, since there are no strict boundaries between the terms of individual sciences.

³Near-synonyms have almost identical intensions and can replace one another in some contexts (ISO 704: 25).

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a concept can be designated not only by two or more terms, but also by a term and its definition, description, explanation, equivalent in another language, abbreviation, and so on. Terminology sometimes even distinguishes definitional synonymy. This is the relationship between a term and its definition (see Головин, Кобрин 1987: 57–58, cf. Nissilä, Nuopponen 2011: 254). Some works on terminology discuss interlingual synonymy, in which linguistic units in different languages that designate the same concept are considered synonyms (Gerstenkorn 1993: 29–30); in Lithuanian terminology, these are usually considered equivalents. María Teresa Cabré mentions the following cases of synonymy understood very broadly, encompassing various linguistic and non-linguistic units: 1) the relationship between a designatum and its definition, 2) the relationship between a designatum and an illustration of the same concept, 3) the relationship between equivalents in different languages, 4) the relationship between designata belonging to different functional styles, 5) the relationship between alternative designata in the same language (Cabré 1999: 109–110). All this shows that synonymy can be understood very broadly.

TYPES OF SYNONYMOUS TERMS

In terms of structure, sets of synonymous terms consist of:

1) single-word terms, 2) multi-word terms, or 3) terms with different numbers of components (single-word and multi-word terms, two-word and three-word terms, etc.). For example:

1) fleronas, kryžažiedis “a decorative architectural feature tapering upwards, shaped like stylized leaves or flowers arranged crosswise” (ArchŽ);

konektyvai, interfiksai, tarpdėliai “connecting elements between morphemes” (LKE);

memuarai, atsiminimai “a work recounting events in which the author personally participated or which they witnessed” (LEM);

obertonas, virštonis “any component of a complex tone (a partial tone) whose frequency is higher than that of the fundamental tone” (MuzE III);

palatalizacija, minkštinimas “the articulation of consonants with an additional raising of the middle of the tongue” (LKE);

pertvara, atitvara “a small fence or grating separating part of a church (the altar or the Crucified One) or a room from the rest of the space” (ArchŽ);

plectrum, pick, plectrum “a small plate (or ring) with a pointed projection, used to pluck the strings of some plucked chordophones (kantele, zither, mandolin)” (MuzE III);

outer bailey, castle suburb “a fortified settlement near a castle. It was inhabited by soldiers, artisans, merchants, and farmers” (DailŽ);

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bud, crab “in Gothic architecture, a decorative sculptural form of stylized leaves or flowers used to adorn the capitals and bases of columns, archivolts, towers, pediments, and the edges of pinnacles, and also to reinforce vimpergs” (ArchŽ);

refrain, chorus “a metrorhythmic unit of a poem that recurs exactly or approximately at the end of a stanza or after each stanza” (LiterŽ II);

calculations, numbers “rhymed improvisational texts created by counting and selecting words that rhyme with numbers <...>” (LEM);

2) derivational subtype, derivational model “a formal or semantic variant of a derivational type arising from limited variation in at least one feature of the derivational type (variation that does not contradict the identity of the type)” (LKE);

animal motif, zoomorphic motif “an image of a real or fantastic animal (or part of one), e.g. a griffin. Widespread since ancient times in works of architecture and art, and in craft objects” (DailŽ);

hierarchiniai ryšiai ir hierarchiniai santykiai (Jakaitienė 2010: 114, 124);

relative keys, parallel keys “two keys, one major and one minor, that share the same scale” (MuzE II);

Perpendicular style, vertical style “late English Gothic, which emerged in the 14th century, flourished in the 16th century, and reached into the 17th century; the longest-lived style (lasting as long as 300 years)” (ArchŽ);

predicative attribute, predicate attribute “a sentence element with dual subordinate relations: to the predicate and simultaneously to the subject or object” (LKE);

3) Alcaic verse, Alcaic line “classical verse forms whose metrical structure was devised by the Aeolian poet Alcaeus (c. 600 BC). Alcaic verse belongs to the Aeolian metres” (LiterŽ II);

environmental art, otherwise environmentas or invaironmentas “multipart spatial compositions which, unlike installations, are intended to be experienced by the viewer from within” (EstE);

inessive, interior locative “one of the four postpositional locative forms in Lithuanian, retained and widely used in the standard language to express place and time” (LKE);

cruciform buildings, cross-plan buildings “Christian sanctuaries with a cross-shaped ground plan” (DailŽ);

planographic printing, planographic printing process “a printing method used in graphic arts and the printing industry. The printing areas and the non-printing spaces lie in the same plane” (DailŽ).

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Taigi terminologijai, kaip ir lingvistinei stilistikai (žr. Župerka 2012), aktuali daugiau nei vieno kalbos lygmens vienetų sinonimija. Pagal kalbos lygmenis sinoniminiai terminai būtų leksiniai sinonimai (vienažodžiai sinoniminiai terminai, t. y. žodžiai) ir sintaksiniai sinonimai (sudėtiniai sinoniminiai terminai, t. y. žodžių junginiai) (žr. leksinių ir sintaksinių sinonimų apibrėžtis KalbŽ). Lietuvių kalbotyroje paprastai skiriami sisteminiai leksiniai sinonimai ir gramatiniai sinonimai, pastarieji skirstomi į morfologinius ir sintaksinius sinonimus (Pikčilingis 1969: 10; Župerka 1983: 29–30, 2012: 30–31; KalbŽ; LKE). Skiriama, nors ir ne visų minima ir ne visų vienodai traktuojama, dar viena sinonimų rūšis – darybiniai sinonimai (Keinys 2005 [1966]: 258; Pikčilingis 1969: 45, 2010: 569–570; Župerka 1983: 29–30, 2012: 30–31; Vaskelienė 2000, 2013; TermŽ 60; Jakaitienė 2010: 125–126; Vaskelienė, Kučinskienė 2012 ir kt.), kuriuos Juozas Pikčilingis dar vadina leksiniais-morfologiniais sinonimais, „nes jie yra tarsi tarpinis leksinių ir morfologinių sinonimų tipas“ (Pikčilingis 1969: 45)⁴.

According to the types of synonyms distinguished in Lithuanian linguistics, one-word synonymous terms are either lexical or derivational synonyms. Derivational synonyms may be regarded as a separate type of synonym or as a subtype of lexical synonyms (Vaskelienė 2013: 208). Lexical synonyms include, for example, atlanka, atverstinis “prints of two adjacent book pages” (DailŽ), juodinimas, nielas “a metalwork decoration technique. A design is engraved on metal (usually silver), and the grooves are filled with a mass of sulfides of silver, copper, tin, and borax, resembling black or garnet-colored enamel” (DailŽ); derivational synonyms include, for example, atminimai, atmintys “one of the names for album poetry, a form of lyric poetry akin to folklore but recorded in writing (stereotypical motifs, clichéd symbols, etc.); often dedicatory in nature, these are uncomplicated in form, with uncomplex versification, and consist of short, sentimental poems or stanzas intended to express goodwill toward the addressee” (LLE), šventykla, šventovė “a building intended for the worship of a deity and the performance of religious rites” (ArchŽ), and so on.

A typical and especially important case of lexical term synonymy in terminology is the synonymy of international and Lithuanian terms⁵, for example, asmenvardis, antroponimas “a proper name of a person: Vytautas, Žymantienė,

⁴ Darybinių sinonimų sampratą apžvelgė Jolanta Vaskelienė (2000: 5–10).

⁵ Many examples of this type of synonymy can be found in the electronic dictionary Borrowed Terms and Their Equivalents, available online at: http://sta.lki.lt/.

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Vaižgantas” (KalbŽ), būdvardėjimas, adjektyvacija “the movement of words functioning as attributes toward the class of adjectives and their conversion into adjectives” (LKE), hemistichas, puseilis “a part of a line before or after the caesura” (LiterŽ II), and so on. Such synonymy is justified in terminology. Rows of lexical synonyms in terminology also comprise an international term and a hybrid, for example, penkiakolonė, pentastilas “a Greek temple with five columns on its façade” (ArchŽ); an international term and a non-international borrowing, for example, strofa, posmas “1. a combination of the metrical-rhythmic units of verse—lines—in which both the principle of rhythm (meter) and the entire hierarchy of linguistic meter become apparent, and which is characterized by intonational unity and completeness” (LiterŽ II); two Lithuanian terms and one international term, for example, abėcėlė, alfabetas, raidynas “all the letters of a writing system, arranged in a particular order” (KalbŽ); and terms of other origins (the origins of synonymous terms are not discussed in greater detail in this article).

Rows of synonyms may comprise both lexical and derivational synonyms (one-word terms), for example, apibrėžtis, apibrėžimas, definicija “a comprehensive dictionary-style description that reflects the semes forming the core of a term’s meaning and conveys the content of a concept by revealing, at a certain level of abstraction, the essential features that distinguish it from neighboring concepts” (TermŽ). When a synonym row includes terms of different origins—an international term (a borrowing) and a hybrid with a root of international origin (formed in Lithuanian)—it seems not entirely accurate to speak of derivational synonymy, even though such terms do meet the criteria for derivational synonyms⁶, if the international term is considered a derived word; compare the synonym rows germanizmas, german ybė (and vokietybė) “a word or expression borrowed from Germanic languages” (KalbŽ), avanscena, priešscenis “the part of the stage in front of the curtain” (DailŽ), and so on. In terminology, it is quite convenient and probably more accurate to classify derivational synonyms as lexical synonyms⁷. Derivation is a source of such synonyms, but as words they belong to the lexical level.

Compound terms pose a more complex issue. When compound synonymous terms are analyzed linguistically, account must be taken of the relationship between both the head component of the term and its corresponding synonym component, and the secondary component and its corresponding synonym component,

⁶ Derivational synonyms are “root-related formations that have the same derivational meaning, identical or similar lexical meaning, and different derivational formants” (Vaskelienė 2013: 207).

⁷ From the perspective of term standardization, derivational synonymy, according to Stasys Keinys, is in many cases “easily avoidable and should be regarded as a consequence of the unstable state of terminology” (Keinys 2005 [1974]: 261).

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both the relationship of the entire compound term to its synonym. Compound terms are word combinations and therefore belong to a different level of language from one-word terms. In Lithuanian linguistics, syntactic synonyms are generally considered to be syntactic constructions with the same (or nearly the same) lexical composition but different grammatical structures and closely related or similar meanings (Pikčilingis 1969: 49; Župerka 1983: 54–55, 2012: 47; Valiulytė 1998: 9). The same lexical composition is understood to mean independent lexemes that are identical or share the same root (Valiulytė 1998: 12). In terminology, such synonyms constitute one of the types of compound synonymous terms. A characteristic form of compound synonymous terms is one in which the secondary components are expressed by a noun in the genitive case and an adjective with the suffix -inis. Pranas Kniūkšta (1976: 123, 124) calls synonyms of this form mixed, or, more broadly, grammatical. Kazimieras Župerka (1983: 57–58, 2012: 50) discusses them among syntactic synonyms—word combinations. A few examples of such terms are: antoniminė pora ir antonimų pora (Ermanytė 2008: 15), pakraščių tarmės, pakraštinės tarmės (see Kardelis 2014 and the sources cited there), ritminis vienetas, ritmo vienetas ‘a recurring segment of a process’ (LiterŽ II)⁸, sinoniminis santykis ir sinonimijos santykis (Jakaitienė 2010: 121, 122), dažninis žodynas, dažnumų žodynas ‘a dictionary of a given language in which words are arranged according to their frequency of use in various texts’ (LKE) (cf. dažnumų žodynas, dažnuminis žodynas (KalbŽ)), etc.⁹

In some Lithuanian terminological works, not only one-word synonymous terms but also the synonymous components of compound synonymous terms are divided into lexical and derivational synonyms (see, for example, Stunžinas 2005; Šilobritaitė 2007, etc.)¹⁰. The main components of compound terms are often (and sometimes their secondary components as well) one-word terms, which may have lexical synonyms, including derivatives (for example, kalbotyra – lingvistika → taikomoji kalbotyra – taikomoji lingvistika,

⁸ Not all definitions of terms in the sources are precise, but this article refrains from evaluating the definitions.

⁹ Such synonyms are included in dictionaries only to a limited extent, since they are regarded as a sign that terminology has not yet become established; however, they can be found in scholarly texts (either in the same text, or with one synonym occurring in one text and the other in another).

¹⁰ In Regina Kvašytė’s Mokomajame terminologijos žodynėlyje, the definition of the terminological term sinonimas is as follows: ‘one of a pair or group of lexical units—a simplex term or any component of a compound term—that shares a seme’ (TermŽ; here and below, emphasis mine. – A. M.). It may be understood that compound terms themselves are not synonyms. Compound terms that are not themselves synonymous with one another may also have synonymous components, for example, the linguistic terms atgalinis darinys ir retrogradinė daryba (examples from Keinys 1999: 113).

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tradicinė kalbotyra – tradicinė lingvistika (KalbŽ), apibrėžtis – apibrėžimas – definicija → ekstensinė apibrėžtis, ekstensinis apibrėžimas, ekstensinė definicija; neigiamoji apibrėžtis, neigiamasis apibrėžimas, neigiamoji definicija (TermŽ)), so compound synonymous terms formed with one-word synonyms could also be regarded as lexical (or derivational) synonyms. Such synonymy is not determined by syntactic relations. When the secondary components of compound synonymous terms are synonymous adjectives or adjectival words, the syntactic relation is marked in the same way—by agreement in both cases—for example, daugiasluoksnis stiklas, sluoksniuotas stiklas ‘glass consisting of two or more layers’ (DailŽ), sietinis (arba susijęs) kamienas ‘a stem that differs from an independent (free) stem in that it cannot by itself constitute a word stem (or inflectional stem) and always occurs (as a primary stem) together with a suffix, prefix, or another stem’ (Urbutis 2009: 144), etc. P. Kniūkšta regards some such synonymous cognate adjectives—for example, adjectives with the suffix -inis and the suffix -iškas—as derivational or, more broadly, grammatical synonyms (Kniūkšta 1976: 123; cf. Vaskelienė, Kučinskienė 2012: 155–156). J. Pikčilingis (1969: 50) classifies an attributive adjective and a participle used synonymously as syntactic synonyms, although it would seem that the differences between such synonyms are morphological rather than syntactic. He himself justifiably considers the distinction between morphological and syntactic synonyms to be a matter of perspective: ‘whether we call grammatical synonyms morphological or syntactic depends in many cases on whose perspective we adopt—that of a morphologist or of a syntactician’ (Pikčilingis 1969: 50).

Compound synonymous terms with different grammatical structures may contain synonymous constituents that do not share a root, for example: differential features, distinguishing features “linguistic features by which elements of a given class differ from one another” (LKE), inflectional stem, inflectional base “the stem-final part of inflected words, the form of which determines their inflectional type” (LKE; cf. the one-word synonyms inflection, declension), language policy, linguistic policy “a system of measures applied by state, political, and public institutions to regulate a language and its use” (KalbŽ), and so on. Compound synonymous terms may have no shared constituent at all, so the synonymy linking such terms is likewise not of a single type, for example: descriptive linguistics, descriptive language science “a school of American structural linguistics (whose best-known representative was Leonard Bloomfield) that sought to describe language comprehensively using the method of distributional analysis”

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formal elements according to its internal structure’ (FonoLŽ) (these terms have other synonyms as well: deskriptyvinė kalbotyra, deskriptyvizmas, aprašomoji kalbotyra (KalbŽ)), literatūros sąjūdis ‘an organized group of writers (whose members share common aesthetic and ideological principles)’ (LEM), and literatūrinis judėjimas (in the article Audra ir veržimasis, LEM), etc.

In Lithuanian linguistics, it is customary to discuss synonyms belonging to the same level of language¹¹, with a few exceptions, such as compounds or derivatives and word combinations synonymous with them. In terminology, as noted, we encounter synonymy between a one-word term and a compound term, a two-word term and a three-word term, and so on. Such synonymous terms have traditionally been called short and long term variants (see Keinys 1980: 101, 103). On the other hand, it has been observed that researchers of lexical synonyms also discuss synonymy between a word and a word combination. For example, in her lexicology textbook Evalda Jakaitienė gives the compound banerio synonyms kaičioji reklama, reklaminis skydelis, reklaminė juosta, reklaminė užsklanda (Jakaitienė 2010: 124). These examples are terms as well.

Terms of different structures such as viduriniai amžiai – viduramžiai ‘a period in the development of society that follows antiquity. It spans the period from the fall of the Roman Empire (476) to the late 15th–early 16th century’ (VLE XXV), sociolingvistika – socialinė lingvistika ‘a branch of linguistics that studies the relationship between language and society, the dependence of language functioning on the conditions of social life, the links between language and culture, and problems of bilingualism’ (LKE), etc., can be considered mixed synonyms. J. Pikčilingis (1969: 73) calls words and word combinations of this form morphological-syntactic, or mixed, synonyms (according to him, the synonymous relationship links a morphological form with a syntactic construction or combination). K. Župerka (2012: 40) discusses derivatives or compounds together with word combinations of similar or identical meaning as derivational synonyms, but calls them by a broader term—konkurentai. In terminology, terms of this form are classified as syntactic synonyms (see TermŽ 61) or, for example, are regarded as variants rather than synonyms (see Kaulakienė 1994: 52).

As the overview shows, term synonymy is highly diverse in nature; a single synonym set (especially a longer one) includes or may include synonyms of various types (cf. the term deskriptyvinė lingvistika and its synonyms). In seeking

¹¹ In the Encyclopedia of the Lithuanian Language definition of terminological synonymy is as follows: “a relation of equal meaning between two or more language units of the same level” (LKE 488).

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To avoid repetition and systematize synonym descriptions, it is useful to classify synonymous terms with respect to their root as root-sharing and non-root-sharing synonyms¹².

Types of synonyms distinguished according to language levels, term roots, and term structure are shown in the diagram (following the Lithuanian linguistic tradition). It shows that the simplest—binary—classification of synonymous terms is with respect to their roots. Root-sharing synonyms and non-root-sharing synonyms constitute a significant opposition in terminology. When terms do not share a root, they or their synonymous components are most often of different origins, or the motivational feature of such terms differs¹³. The origin of the synonymous components of root-sharing grammatical synonyms is irrelevant in an opposition between synonyms of this kind.

Types of synonyms according to language levels, term roots, and term structure

¹² Compound synonymous terms that contain at least one non-root-sharing component could be considered non-root-sharing synonyms. Alvydas Umbrasas (2004: 101, 2010: 171) emphasized the convenience of classifying synonymous terms according to their roots.

¹³ According to Aloyzas Gudavičius, “a new word or a new meaning in a language has a basis, is motivated, which means that when we name something new or name something old for a second time, we also say why we have named it so, emphasizing one or another property or aspect of the thing being named. The basis of a name expressed in a word—its motivation—constitutes its inner form” (Gudavičius 2007: 147). The inner form of a term (in the case of a compound term, the semantic structure of its constituent components) connects the logical and linguistic aspects of the term (Никитина 1987: 46).

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The diagram does not cover all cases of term synonymy according to the three criteria being compared (language level, root, structure); compare the term deskriptyvinė lingvistika, already discussed, and its synonyms. When comparing non-root-sharing synonyms, it is not difficult to identify terms whose motivational feature is not the same, e.g.: aktualioji sakinio skaida, funkcinė sakinio perspektyva “the division and analysis of a sentence in view of the differing information load of its parts” (LKE), antrinės spalvos, išvestinės spalvos, tarpinės spalvos “chromatic colors obtained by mixing primary colors in equal proportions” (DailŽ), aukso pjūvis, geometrinė proporcija “a proportion established by the Pythagoreans of antiquity, used to explain the order of the world and the beauty of works of art” (EstE) (cf. aukso pjūvis, dieviškoji proporcija (DailŽ)), miško stiklas, žaliasis stiklas “1. a type of glass: greenish glass made in primitive glassworks, usually set up at the edge of a forest, by mixing local raw material—wood ash (potash)—into the glass batch” (DailŽ), pamatinis kamienas, darybos kamienas “the common stem of the members of a derivational opposition (a derivative and its base word)” (LKE), prancūziškasis parkas, barokiškasis parkas “a park that developed in France in the 17th century by adapting the principles of the Italian garden to flat, level terrain” (DailŽ), sudėtinis terminas, daugiažodis terminas “a term consisting of two or more words that names, most often, a specific concept in a particular field” (TermŽ), etc.¹⁴ The lexical meanings of words serving as synonymous components are neither identical nor similar; therefore, it is inaccurate to consider the aforementioned and similar terms or their components lexical synonyms. Such synonyms are called aspectual synonyms in terminology (a subtype of denotative synonyms), are classified as conditional synonyms (see Гринев 1993: 112), or are considered quasi-synonyms (GTT). It is pointless to compare aspectual synonyms or investigate their origins as one does other non-root-sharing synonyms. However, comparing such synonymous terms by the common semantic components of their constituent words might perhaps reveal matters relevant to terminology.

Similarly, the diagram does not accommodate, according to all three criteria, synonyms of differing structure such as atvirkštinė žodžių tvarka, inversija “a word order that differs from the prevailing word-order tendency in a language” (LKE), atliepiamieji žodžiai, koreliatai “pronouns and adverbs of generalized meaning used to strengthen and highlight the links between the clauses of a subordinate sentence” (LKE), baltieji pigmentai, baltalai “a group of coloring substances. From

¹⁴ Jonas Klimavičius states that terminology dictionaries also contain pairs of synonyms in which one member is a term and the other is a non-term, for example, magnio sulfatas – karčioji druska (Klimavičius 1975: 100).

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“various minerals have been used since ancient times: chalk, white clays, gypsum” (DailŽ), derivational meaning, structural meaning of a derivative “is the meaning that follows from the word-formation form of a word, i.e. from the structural components of a derivative (the derivational base and formant) and their relationship” (LKE), Jugend, Jugendstil “a variant of Art Nouveau that developed in Germany” (DailŽ), op art, optical art “a trend in abstract art of the 1960s, based on the physiology and psychology of vision and the creation of optical illusions of depth, movement, pulsation and flickering” (DailŽ), dialect convergence and decline, dialect leveling “the reduction and disappearance of features that distinguish dialects” (LKE), etc. Some of these are so-called equivalents of international terms, e.g.: inverted word order, inversion; correlative words, correlates, and in part also dialect convergence and decline, dialect leveling. The compound term optical art could also, in part, be regarded as a Lithuanian (more precisely, more Lithuanian-sounding) equivalent of the one-word term op art. Unlike the compounds and multiword terms discussed earlier (the Middle Ages and the middle ages), these terms are no longer compounds (cf. -art and art). The terms white pigments and white paints are quite close to the synonymous same-root derivatives and word combinations distinguished in Lithuanian linguistics, while the one-word term is transformed, elliptical in relation to the compound term (cf. Gaivenis 2014: 505–506)¹⁵. In terminology, such terms are also called long and short term variants (Keinys 2005 [1974]: 255–256, 1980: 101). The term Jugend and the attributive genitive phrase containing a proper name (a compound term) Jugendstil are reminiscent of contextual synonyms (terms that are synonymous only in context); the main component of the compound term is a hypernym of the one-word term. Clearly, because of its head component style, the latter term appears clearer in form, but that component is also redundant¹⁶. The synonyms derivational meaning, structural meaning of a derivative and their related components are neither lexical nor grammatical synonyms. The concept is designated on different grounds.

Thus, terminology has expanded the criterion for synonyms customary in Lithuanian linguistics, according to which synonyms are units of the same language level.

¹⁵ Vincas Urbutis, discussing the relationship between word formation and syntax, argued that “word formation and the families of words related derivationally form a base (together with inflection) that makes it possible to transform (rework, rearrange) some syntactic constructions easily into others, into utterances of a different structure” (Urbutis 2009: 51).

¹⁶ According to Kazimieras Gaivenis, “when a term enters a foreign environment, another style, it sometimes becomes insufficiently clear, acquires additional explanatory words and is lengthened” (Gaivenis 2014: 122). Nevertheless, there are no criteria by which to determine when a particular word combination is a term and when it is some combination of a term and an explanatory word.

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PROBLEMS IN IDENTIFYING SYNONYMOUS TERMS IN TEXT

Some researchers believe that terms are terms when they are used in certain contexts (Dubuc, Lauriston 1997: 84; Pearson 1998: 36). Terms in context are studied in vivo (Dubuc, Lauriston 1997: 80). It is sometimes even argued that only discourse terms should be analyzed (Temmerman 2000: 224)¹⁷.

According to Valentina Skujinė, contextual requirements cause certain changes in the form or other aspects of a term, giving rise to various variants of term usage (Skujinia 1983: 19). Writing about the synonymy of international and Lithuanian terms in terminography, J. Klimavičius emphasizes that “the use of such synonymy in scholarly texts has its own specific features. Texts contain more borrowings that have already been displaced from the language system, neologisms that are only just becoming established, and, generally, greater variety, fluctuation and dynamic change. Only from texts can the statistical and stylistic differentiation of international and Lithuanian terms be established” (Klimavičius 1975: 93).

According to V. Skujinė, “although synonyms are presented in the sphere of codification, varying expression in the same context through different term synonyms and doublets is undesirable here, since this may lead to misunderstandings about the content” (Skujinia 1983: 25)¹⁸. However, this requirement or recommendation applies only to systemic synonyms, because “in scholarly texts, where the same term may be repeated frequently, it is nevertheless possible and even desirable to vary expression using so-called contextual synonyms” (ibid.; see also Skujina 1993: 54).

Thus, contextual synonyms are possible and are used in scholarly texts. How can they be distinguished from systemic synonyms?¹⁹ Terms cannot be separated from their definitions (Gaivenis 2002: 14), but definitions in a text may be implicit. When identifying synonymous terms in texts and attempting to distinguish them from contextual synonyms, one encounters various problems of synonym identification and selection. The practical effort to distinguish contextual from systemic synonyms can be a considerable challenge for terminologists, terminographers, or even subject specialists, especially when seeking to identify synonymous terms in non-contemporary texts. Subject special-

¹⁷ Juan C. Sager emphasizes that terminology must distinguish between original and translated texts, since the latter may contain both authentic terms of the target language and merely translated equivalents (Sager 1990: 142).

¹⁸ The fact that the requirement to avoid monotony in a text does not apply to terms is emphasized in stylistics (Župerka 2012: 36). Systemic synonymous terms have no aesthetic function in a text, unlike synonyms in general vocabulary.

¹⁹ In some studies of synonymous terms (for example, Rimkutė 2007), contextual synonyms are not distinguished from systemic synonyms.

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Specialists may lack linguistic training, while linguists may lack detailed knowledge of the subject (if it is not linguistics) (see Sager 1990: 213).

Several main problems in identifying systematic synonymous terms can be distinguished; they are discussed in somewhat greater detail below.

A characteristic semantic difference between synonyms in non-specialized language is breadth of meaning – the meaning of one word is broader, while that of another is narrower (Župerka 1983: 31, 2012: 32)²⁰, but in terminology such semantic differences often lead to different terms rather than synonyms. For example, in the Dictionary of Synonyms (2002), the synonym of the word daina is giesmė²¹, but in literary studies the terms daina and giesmė are not synonyms; compare: daina “a vocal music genre combining poetic text and melody. Folk songs and art songs (created by poets and composers) are distinguished. Folk songs are works of sung poetry transmitted orally from generation to generation” (LLE), giesmė “1. a verse composition of a confessional nature, part of church liturgy, one of the genres of ecclesiastical literature,” “2. a verse epic composition, a poem or part of one” (LLE).

A few more examples:

words

terms

atspalvis 1. (“a slight difference in color”: A scarf with a bluish tinge) – nuance, tone, tint rare (SŽ)

atspalvis, pustonis – “a slight difference between similar colors, a transition from one color tone to another, a gradation of tones of the same color” (DailŽ); tonas – “1. the chromatic quality of a color, its hue, described by comparison with the principal color of the spectrum (e.g., reddish, emerald, azure, rusty Δ). The term also denotes the predominant hue in a painting, which gives unity to the composition’s color scheme (e.g., the work’s silvery, golden, warm, cool Δ). 2. Δ is sometimes used to mean the brightness of a color (e.g., light, dark, grayish Δ)” (DailŽ);

naujadaras (“a newly coined word”) – neologism, new word bookish (SŽ)

neologizmas, naujažodis – “a new word in a language, formed by morphological word formation (ansamblietis, mėnuleigis, priešoperacinis, -ė, puolus, -i), by creating abbreviations (autokelias, pramprekyba, telelaida), by borrowing lexemes from other languages (kosmonautas, lavsanas, mazeris, telereportažas), and so on. <...>” (KalbŽ); naujadaras – “a word newly formed using the resources of one’s own language”; compare neologizmas (KalbŽ);

²⁰In non-specialized vocabulary, the relationships between a dominant term and the members of a synonym series resemble hierarchical relationships (Jakaitienė 2010: 124).

²¹The words daina and giesmė are partial synonyms; compare giesmė (usually solemn: Church hymn) (SŽ).

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words

terms

narrative (“a folk tale about extraordinary events or persons”: Narratives about the founding of Vilnius) – legendary tale (“a story about the origin of the world and natural phenomena”: etiological tales) and saga obsolete, legend (usually of a religious nature), myth (“a story about extraordinary heroes and supernatural beings”: the myths of Heracles) (SŽ)

narrative “a genre of narrative folklore whose works use artistic imagery to explain the origins of natural and historical monuments and recount past events associated with particular places or with the deeds of mythical ancestors and historical figures” (LLE); legend “2. A literary genre. An epic narrative with a fantastic religious or mythological plot about a particular place, person, gods, or saints. <...> Close to the genres of legendary tale and narrative” (VLE XI); legendary tale “a type of narrative folklore whose works display a pronounced tendency to depict past events as realistic. Δ are divided into the genres of etiological tales, mythological tales, narratives, legends, and stories” (LLE); myth “a collective narrative about the origins of the world, gods, humans, natural phenomena, life, and death, reflecting a primordial conception of reality” (VLE XV).

Thus, general dictionaries of synonyms or other dictionaries of non-specialized vocabulary, even if they include the words in question, cannot always help identify synonymous terms; conversely, in a text, a broader-meaning term may replace a narrower-meaning term.

Thus, one feature of the use of terms in texts is the use of a broader-meaning term instead of a narrower-meaning term. For example, instead of the term metaphorical meaning, its hyperonym figurative meaning is used in the text, e.g.: “by m e t a p h o r i c a l t r a n s f e r, based on the similarity of the impression produced by the action, another f i g u r a t i v e m e a n i n g of this verb [išsižioti. – A. M.] arose: ‘to crack, tear, split’” (Jakaitienė 2010: 91); the term derivative is replaced in the text by its hyperonym formation, e.g.: “This is already a description of the meaning of group derivation, which applies not just to one f o r m a t i o n, but to all suffixal –idė d e r i v a t i v e s” (Urbutis 2009: 189).

Viktoras A. Tatarinov calls the use of a hyperonym instead of a hyponym hyponymic variation and considers it a stylistic device (Татаринов 2006: 142). The terminology literature states that in specialized language the nearest hyperonym is generally chosen (Sager 1990: 215, citing Hope 1984).

Contextual synonymy of the type under discussion is not always easy to distinguish from systemic synonymy, especially if the terms of the subject field are not established, systematized, etc. More noticeable is elliptical (lexical) shortening—the one-word

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or the use of a compound term in place of a compound term with more constituents, to which it is related hierarchically²²; for example, folk specialized vocabulary is replaced by specialized vocabulary: “Our folk specialized vocabulary is mostly related to agriculture and crafts. <...> On the other hand, specialists in various branches of science who work on terminological standardization in their fields often lack more precise information about Lithuanian specialized vocabulary” (Gaivenis 2002: 51–52); translation of terms is replaced by simply translation: “Many specialists in various fields also have a distorted understanding of the translation of terms themselves. Translation is often understood as copying the structure or motivation of terms” (Gaivenis 2002: 85). This phenomenon is also called textual synonymy (Гринев 1993: 112).

There are more complex and less clear-cut cases of term use; for example, the term French feminist criticism is replaced by French feminism: “The most established classification of feminist criticism divides it into two main currents—Anglo-American and French. <...> Unlike early American criticism, French feminism was openly theoretical, drawing its fundamental ideas from the work of poststructuralists” (XXLT 2006: 175). Are these terms, like the terms feminist criticism and feminism, linked by a synonymous or a hierarchical relationship?

What is the relationship between the compound linguistics terms common word and common name? The terms word and name are not synonyms, yet common words and common names in the Encyclopedia of the Lithuanian Language are presented as synonyms (their international synonym is appellatives).

On the other hand, the same term may have more than one meaning, one of which may be broader and encompass another. For example, the music encyclopedia gives two meanings for the term tone: “1. In other words, tonal sound. 2. A constituent of a tonal sound (partial tone: fundamental tone, harmonic, overtone)” (MuzE III). Thus, in a text, the terms tone and tonal sound may be linked either by synonymy or by a whole–part (partonymic) relationship. In both cases, these would be systematic rather than contextual relationships.

Texts contain periphrases. These are descriptive formulations of terms (on periphrases, see Pikčilingis 1975: 231–233, 2010: 151–156; Župerka 1983: 35–36, 2012: 36; KalbŽ; LKE), which are not always possible to distinguish precisely from systematic synonyms. In scholarly and popular-science literature, periphrases are used to explain to readers terms that are not always clear or understandable to them

²² For more detail, see Gaivenis 2002: 43, 2014: 28–29, 196.

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terms; logical periphrases are explanations in dictionaries that consist of many words (Pikčilingis 1975: 231). According to V. Skujinis, descriptive expressions can be used in a text as contextual synonyms in place of conventional terms (Skujinia 1983: 26).

For example, a periphrasis for euphony is harmony of speech sounds (LKE), harmony of speech sonority (LiterŽ II); a periphrasis for antonyms is words of opposite meaning (KalbŽ; LKE), and so on. Some periphrases can also be understood as terms. For example, Angelė Kaulakienė (2009: 131), discussing the development of Lithuanian physics terminology, mentions the synonymy of one-word terms and descriptive names used to designate corresponding fields of science. In present-day scientific language, this would correspond to the relationship between the term terminology and the periphrasis the science of terms, and between the term morphology and the periphrasis the science of word forms (cf. terminology ‘the science of terms’ (KalbŽ), morphology ‘the science of word forms, encompassing both the formation and inflection of forms’ (Palionis 1999: 37)); these are probably not considered systematic synonyms by anyone, although at a certain stage in the development of terminology they may have been understood as systematic synonyms. Nevertheless, literary studies and the science of literature remain purely systematic synonyms (cf. literary studies, the science of literature ‘the science that studies works of belles-lettres, writers’ creative work, the literary process, its conditions and regularities, phenomena of literary life, and the functioning of literature in society’ (VLE XIII)). Thus, in scholarly texts, periphrases can function as contextual term synonyms, systematic synonyms, and minimal definitions.

Terms may or may not designate the same concept (this is not always clear from texts), but their motivational feature differs; examples include figure of speech, stylistic figure, and rhetorical figure. When such synonyms are presented in dictionaries as headwords, their synonymy is presumably not in doubt.

In texts, long and short forms of terms compete. For example, the term gender (“the morphological category of nouns, adjectives, numerals, pronouns, and participles, distinguished according to word agreement expressed by inflections” (LKE)) is included in both the Dictionary of Linguistic Terms and the Encyclopedia of the Lithuanian Language. One subsection in Jonas Palionis’s textbook Fundamentals of Linguistics is entitled the category of gender. Further on, the text uses the grammatical category of gender, the category of gender, gender; cf.: “The g r a m m a t i c a l c a t e g o r y o f g e n d e r usually has one or another formal marker, otherwise

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in other words, it can be distinguished by its form. <...> In languages in which the category of gender is expressed by function words, cases of mixed expression of this category also frequently occur, i.e. when the marker of gender is a function word (usually an article) together with a suppletive root, or a function word together with an affix” (Palionis 1999: 132–133). In terminology in linguistics, their meanings are the same. Are these terms systematic synonyms, or merely contextual ones?²³

In her textbook on lexicology, E. Jakaitienė uses the single-word terms synonymy, synonymity and the multi-word terms synonymic relations, synonymic links: “It is difficult to reveal their differences and establish criteria for the semantic proximity of synonyms because problems of synonymy are closely connected with the problems of all systematic relations; synonymic relations intersect with all the other word relations mentioned in the previous chapter, whose boundaries are quite difficult to discern. <...> In the works of researchers of some languages, it is even considered the most important criterion of synonymity <...>. Synonymic links are particularly often formed between individual words and set phrases” (Jakaitienė 2010: 120–123). The single-word terms and their corresponding multi-word terms are close to aspectual synonyms and contextual synonyms, and belong to different classifications.

Some of the listed cases of terminological use in texts may be called term variation in the broad sense, or variation in term use (for a detailed discussion of variants and their conceptions, see Miliūnaitė 2009). It is useful in terminology to use the concept of “competitor,” introduced into Lithuanian linguistics by K. Župerka, which would encompass narrowly understood variants, systematic synonyms, and other terminological linguistic units competing in a text.

CONCLUSIONS

1. The conception of synonyms in terminology is not uniform. Synonymy is sometimes understood very broadly, encompassing not only different terms in one language that designate the same concept, but also a term and its definition, a term and its equivalents in other languages, and so on.

2. In terminology, synonymy is not a phenomenon confined to a single level of language. The traditional division of synonyms in Lithuanian linguistics into lexical and grammatical synonyms does not cover all types of terminological synonymy.

²³ It is also possible to consider whether their degree of terminologicality is the same.

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3. An important and useful opposition in terminology is that between cognate and non-cognate synonyms. Special groups of synonyms in terminology include aspectual synonyms, as well as long and short term variants.

4. Determining the type of synonymous terms is an important stage in the study of synonyms. For example, it does not seem meaningful to compare grammatical synonyms, or other cognate synonyms, or aspectual synonyms on the basis of their origin.

5. Scientific texts contain various contextual term synonyms—terms with a broader meaning used in place of terms with a narrower meaning, paraphrases, long and short term forms, and so on. These features of term use in texts must be taken into account when extracting synonymous terms, whether by traditional methods or by automated means.

6. When investigating term synonymy using linguistic methods, it is important to define what is considered a synonym and what is considered another kind of term competitor. Systematic and contextual synonyms must be distinguished, but this requires a thorough knowledge of the terminology system of the field under study.

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SOME ASPECTS OF SYNONYMY OF TERMS

The article deals with a significant terminology problem – synonymy of terms. It discusses some aspects of synonymy of terms, which have gained little or no attention in Lithuanian terminology. Statements are based on and illustrated with terms of humanities (linguistics, literary science, musicology, art, architecture, aesthetics etc.).

In the first section conception of synonyms and the limits of synonymy in terminology are briefly surveyed.

The second section deals with the types of synonymous terms by three criteria: structure of terms, level of language, root of terms. The traditional approach of the Lithuanian linguistics on synonymy is followed and some specific types of synonymous terms are identified.

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The third section discusses problems of identification of synonymous terms in texts, mainly caused by contextual synonymy.

The following conclusions are drawn:

1) The conception of synonymy in terminology differs. Synonymy sometimes is viewed very broadly, it includes not only different terms of one language naming the same concept, but also the term and its definition, the term and its equivalents in other language etc.

2) Synonymy in terminology is not the phenomenon of only one level of language. Division of synonyms into lexical (in linguistics: asmenvardis and antroponimas “personal name”) and grammatical synonyms (in versification: ritminis vienetas and ritmo vienetas “rhythmic unit”), which is traditional to Lithuanian linguistics, does not cover all types of synonymy of terms.

3) An important and convenient opposition in terminology is co-rooted vs. not co-rooted synonyms. Specific types of synonymous terms – aspectual synonyms as well as a term and its reduced or expanded form.

4) Identification of the type of synonymous terms is a significant stage of investigation into synonymy. For example, it seems not relevant to compare grammatical synonyms according to their origin, as well as other co-rooted or aspectual synonyms.

5) There are various contextual synonyms in scientific texts: terms with broader meaning are used instead of terms with narrower meaning, periphrases in place of terms, terms and their reduced or expanded forms etc. Peculiarities of the usage of terms in texts should be regarded when synonymous terms are extracted by both traditional and automated tools.

6) When terms are investigated applying linguistic methods, it is important to define what is considered a synonym and what is thought of as a kind of rival term. Systemic and contextual synonyms should be delimitated, but for that purpose, it is essential to know very well the term system of domain investigated.

Received 2015-06-22

Asta Mitkevičienė Lithuanian Language Institute P. Vileišio St. 5, LT-10308 Vilnius Email: [email protected]

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