The Interplay of Synonymy and Polysemy

2.1 Synonymy 
The verbs under study share a similarity in meaning. When words share the same or a 
similar meaning they are called synonyms. Most speakers can recognize and name 
synonymous words. Thesauri provide lists of words that share semantic similarity. Synonymy 
has been the object of linguistic research too, where some have described the characteristics 
of synonyms and made distinctions between kinds of synonymic relations. 
In linguistic research, primarily two factors have been used to test for synonymy: 
semantic similarity and substitutability in syntactic structure. The former is the main factor in 
determining synonymy. Though there may be several factors at play in deciding whether 
words are synonymous, semantic similarity is the most important (Murphy 2003:137).
The second major factor for synonymy is substitutability; one synonym should be able 
to replace another within a sentence. For example, Cruse (1986:88) uses a definition whereby 

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if a word X can replace Y in a declarative sentence and still maintains equivalent 
truth-
conditions
, then the words are synonyms. The following pair of sentences exemplify.
(1)
a) He is my father. 
b) He is my daddy. 
Assume that sentence (1a) is true of the world. If we replace 
father
for 
daddy
, as in 
(1b), the result is a sentence which is also true. The sentences are said to have the same truth-
conditions. If we determine that two words have the same truth-conditions in the same 
sentence, as in (1), then Cruse (1986) considers them synonyms.
These two factors, closeness in meaning and ability to be replaced in a given 
structure, form the general basis for characterizing types of synonyms. At least three types of 
synonymic relations have been described in the literature. A first kind is termed