Belonging to a semiotic system linguistic science has paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations, i.e. semantic relations in the language and in the text. A paradigm is a group of elements having a common component but different in a certain part.
Paradigmatic relations include synonymy, antonymy, homonymy, hyponymy and inconsistency. Syntagmatic relations show how the system functions.
Syntagmatic relations are relations between science as a result of their combination. They exist only within larger linguistic units: word-combination sentences; texts.
Syntagmatic relations deal with semantic redundancy, semantic-grammatical agreement, valency etc. Synonyms are words different in their sound form but similar in their denotational meanings and interchangeable at least at some context. Additional characteristics of style, emotional colouring and valency peculiar to one of the elements in the synonymic groups may be absent in one or all the others. e.g.: look, seem, appear = to be in ones view or judgment. But there is some difference. Seem suggests a personal opinion based on evidence, but look and appear lack it. Similarity of denotational meaning of all members of the synonymic set is combined with a certain difference in the meaning of each member. Though in some cases there occurs semantic neutralization. It is absence of semantic opposition in some lexical contexts. Synonymic dominant is the most general term potentially containing the specific features rendered by all the other members of the synonymic group. One and the same word may belong in its various meanings to several synonymic groups. Synonyms may differ in emotional colouring which may be present in one element of the group and absent in allsome of the others. e.g.: lonely — emotional; alone — not. In a great number of cases the semantic difference between 2 or more synonyms is supported by the difference in valency. The difference in distribution may be syntactical, morphological and lexical. e.g.: to begin, to commence — they differ stylistically but they are also different distributionally. Begin becomes a semi-auxiliary when used with an infinitive, commence does not. Contextual synonyms are similar in meaning only under some specific distributional conditions. Bare, stand — semantically they are different but they become identical in a negative meaning.
Total synonymy, i.e. synonymy where a synonymic group can replace each other in any given context without the slightest alteration in denotation or emotional meaning and connotation. Total synonymy occurs very rare. The major type is technical terms. e.g.: inflexion = functional affix.
The peculiar feature of English synonyms is the contrast between simple native words stylistically neutral, literary words borrowed from French and learned words of Greco-Latin origin. e.g.: ask — question — interrogate. Words with the same denotational component but of different origin undergo a process of specialization of meaning or become obsoletearchaic in the so-called a competition of synonyms. This process is called synonymic differentiation and is regarded by some linguists as an inherent law of language development.
