Ministry of the higher and secondary special education of the republic of uzbekistan state world languages university

Introduction 
Synonymy as a language phenomenon is a universal feature for all the 
languages. Although it seems to have been studied from various aspects and 
angles, still its scientific and practical relevance for language teaching and 
learning has never been diminished. On the contrary, with a renewed focus on 
the lexical approach to the language learning, the study of semantic classes of 
the vocabulary is prioritized.
In fact, language has long been analyzed as consisting of grammatical 
structures and a set of usually single vocabulary items. Grammar has been given 
priority over vocabulary. The latter has been seen as secondary in importance, 
merely serving to illustrate the meaning and scope of the grammar. In the lexical 
approach this dichotomy is unrrealistic and considered to be based on false 
assumptions about language. Language is basically its lexicon. The key 
principle of a lexical approach is that “language consists of grammaticalized 
lexis, not lexicalized grammar.” In other words, lexis is central in creating 
meaning, grammar plays a secondary role in managing meaning. When this 
principle is accepted, the logical implication for teachers is that we should spend 
more time helping learners develop their stock of phrases, and less time on 
grammatical structures. 
As we’ll see further in our research, the s tud y o f s yno nymy a nd it s
as pects is still very much an unsolved question. The discussion in the 
theoretical literature focuses mostly on clear-cut examples and avoids the 
broader issues, especially in the comparative aspect. 
 
The President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov expressed his 
concern about the low level of the foreign languages knowledge by our school 
and high school teachers. He issued a special Resolution for measures to 
improve the system of teaching foreign languages, especially English, which has 
become the lingua franca for the international and intercultural communication.
In his other publication, “Без исторической памяти нет будущего”, he 

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stressed the importance of the raising of the effectiveness and the efficiency of 
the scientific researches in our country by stating that eventually “science must 
turn into a means, a power that might serve as a foundation for the development 
of the society”.
1
In the attempts to make our national HE smart, sustainable and inclusive 
we have to ensure a multi-sided cooperation with higher education institutions’ 
leaders, teachers, researchers and students, with schools and colleges/lyceums 
and social partners, with government and with international bodies. The shared 
efforts will be crucial for achieving the goals set out in the Presidential 
Resolution concerning the improvement of the FLTT system in the country. 
Modern and effective higher education systems are the foundation of open 
and sustainable societies as well as of a creative and efficient knowledge-based 
economy, which is not perceivable without a strong command of foreign 
languages as means for intercultural communication.
These documents clearly demonstrate that the linguistic sciences should 
be capable of promoting the strategies in the declared priorities for FLT 
improvement and contribute to the improvement of language teaching and 
learning. Linguistic research, therefore, should be aimed at the solution of the 
topical issues in the language research which could be regarded as relevant for 
the improving of teaching and acquisition of the English language in our 
country.
2
One of the difficulties in learning English is its abundance in synonyms, 
which is due to its largely borrowed nature. As is known, about 70% of its 
vocabulary consists of loan words, and their influx has been continuing. English 
is both ‘taking’ and ‘giving’ language, its growing global influence has been 
expanding. Synonyms as a subsystem of the vocabulary dominate over others, 
and their learning is crucial for teaching and learning English. We can observe a 
1
О мерах по дальнейшему совершенствованию системы изучения иностранных языков.- остановление 
Президента РУз от 10.12.2012 (Газета «Народное слово», 11.12.2012 г., № 240 (5630))
2
И.Каримов. Без исторической памяти нет будущего / Свое будущее мы строим своими руками. Т.7. 
Ташкент: «Ўзбекистон», 1999г. - с. 146. 

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great number of scientific articles and research works dedicated to the issues of 
synonymy in English and other languages, dealing with various aspects of this 
phenomenon, and yet there is still a strong opinion among linguists that quite a 
few issues related to functioning of synonyms remain understudied. There is a 
lack of common agreement on many issues related to synonymy, which could 
present a more or less comprehensive and generally acceptable interpretation of 
the specific ambiguous features of this phenomenon, which accounts for