The Interplay of Synonymy and Polysemy

functional synonyms
.
Imagic meaning allows a speaker to know that 
father
and 
daddy
are not the same 
thing completely, neither are 
mob
and 
crowd
, nor 
lanzar
and 
arrojar
. The pairs of words may 
mean similar things, they may be close in meaning, but they are not the same. Imagic 
meaning is the type of meaning that is relevant to the no-synonymy perspective.
Arrojar
and 
lanzar
are functionally synonymous in (7), but they are not imagically 
synonymous. I am accepting all the assumptions of the no-synonymy view, but also accepting 
the use of truth-conditions or interchangeability for positing synonyms. Throughout this 
paper, I will discuss functional synonymy. When two verbs can be used to express a similar 
concept they will be highlighted as functional synonyms.
I do not adopt the three-way classification of synonyms proposed by Cruse (1986) and 
Murphy (2003) (see §2.1). Absolute synonyms, words that mean exactly the same thing, are 
rare if they exist at all. The distinction between cognitive synonymy and near-synonymy is 
mostly based on a division of pragmatics and semantics. Cognitive synonyms are 
pragmatically different, while near-synonyms differ semantically. Since I view pragmatics 
and semantics as lying on a scale, the difference between cognitive synonyms and near-
synonyms is one of degree not one of kind. Functional synonyms encompass both cognitive 
and near synonyms.
Murphy (2003) makes a convincing argument that synonymy (and other semantic 
relations) can be derived productively, they can vary by situational context, from speaker to 
speaker and even from conversation to conversation. But still, there are some synonyms that 
will be kept in memory. I disagree, though, with her assessment that synonymy is extra-
linguistic knowledge. Synonyms can be captured as part of the mental lexicon of speakers.

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27 | 
Take the following data from the study. In the corpus, both 
lanzar 
and 
tirar
can 
combine with nouns that refer to hits, expressing the notion of throwing or giving 
someone/thing a hit.
(11) arrojar un golpe 
‘to throw (give) a hit’ 
(12) lanzar un bofetón
‘to throw (give) a slap’ 
Though there are few examples in the corpus, we can state that 
lanzar
and 
tirar
can 
occur with similar nouns to express similar meanings (throwing hits). There are no examples 
of 
arrojar 
or 
echar 
with any noun referring to hits. A speaker of Spanish will know that you 
can 
lanzar
hits and you can 
tirar
hits but you do not 
echar 
hits. This is information regarding 
the way the verbs are used; information on the verbs’ meaning and the types of complements 
each can appear with. Therefore it is information that a speaker knows about how to use the 
language. 
This knowledge is also knowledge of synonymy. A speaker is capable of making the 
connection between 
lanzar
and 
tirar
when it comes to nouns referring to hits. She can notice 
that in this case the two verbs are functional synonyms, and share a similar meaning. This 
knowledge can be captured using schemas.