2007-02-26 09:36:56 · 2 answers · asked by DeViLaYa 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
Two words are cognitive synonyms if they have the same syntactic function (i.e. noun, verb) and if the sentence remains equally true (or false) no matter which of the two words you use.
For example, "car" and "automobile" are cognitive synonyms. They are both nouns, and if the sentence, e.g.
"Tom's car is blue." is TRUE, then "Tom's automobile is blue" must necessarily also be true (and vice versa).
The difference between cognitive synonyms and full synonyms is that to qualify as full synonyms, two words would have to be completely equivalent in all contexts. However, "car" and "automobile" are not - "Tom, go get the car," sounds perfectly natural, but "Tom, go get the automobile," (while grammatically correct) sounds decidedly odd - most people just don't talk like that. So the two words are not fully equivalent in all contexts, and hence not full synonyms.
Some linguists even argue that full synonyms never exist in a language, or at least never for long. They say that if a language has two words with truly equivalent meanings, either one will fall out of use, or their meanings will be differentiated soon, and speakers will start using them in slightly different contexts. I believe there are a few exceptions to this, but by and large, it seems an accurate observation.
2007-02-26 10:42:41 · answer #1 · answered by Ms. S 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Cognitive Synonym
2016-10-06 01:09:34 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋