The usage functions of synonyms in different types of text

The purpose of this study is to characterize semantic features of synonyms usage in different types of text. We prove the hypothesis that synonymy differently implements semantic features in various types and genres of text. Our study is based on the text of the novel by A. Bely “Petersburg” and publications of various genres presented in mass media and in the Russian National Corpus. Results of the study show that the synonyms usage in the artistic text correlates with the peculiarities of the narrative and substantial organization of the text and forms the expressive, ideological content of the text. Synonyms in such texts create connectivity and semantic integrity of the text. Publicistic texts characterized by the predominance of substitution function connected with the development of text coherence. However, in certain publicistic genres, synonyms usage is capable of creating complex evaluative content of the text. In the scientific and official speech genres synonyms usage is limited, and the main method of coherence is the repetition of the same word. In some genres of these types of speech there are synonyms which are used in the substitution function to create coherence. Based on the analysis of the study results, we prove that in accordance with the communicative strategy of the genre, the linguistic personality can implement different models of synonymy. The most complex and variable model is implemented in artistic texts, where a large number of words connected by semantic and associative links become semantically close. In scientific and official texts there is a communicative strategy focused on accuracy of presentation, therefore, the use of synonyms is limited.

lexical semantics, lexicology, synonymy, usage functions of synonyms, communicative strategy, type of text, genre