Exercises. I. Give as many synonyms for the italicized words in the following jokes as you can

 

I. Give as many synonyms for the italicized words in the following jokes as you can. If you do not know any of them consult the dictionaries.¹

1. "I hear there's a new baby over at your house, Wil­liam," said the teacher. "I don't think he's new," re­plied William. "The way he cries shows he's had lots of
experience."

2. A little boy who had been used to receiving his old
brother's old toys and clothes remarked: "Ma, will I
have to marry his widow when he dies?";

3. Small boy (to governess): Miss Smith, please
excuse my speaking to you with my mouth full, but my
little sister has just fallen into the pond.

4. A celebrated lawyer once said that the three most troublesome clients he ever had were a young lady who wanted to be married, a married woman who wanted a divorce, and an old maid who didn't know what she wanted.

5. В о s s: You are twenty minutes late again. Don’t you know what time we start to work at this office? New Employee: No, sir, they are always at it when I get here.

6. H e (as they drove along a lonely road): You look lovelier to me every minute. Do you know what that’s a sign of? She: Sure. You are about to run out of gas.

7. Husband (shouting upstairs to his wife): For last time, Mary, are you coming? Wife: Haven't I been telling you for the last hour that I'll be down in a minute.

8. "Oh, Mummie, I hurt my toe!" cried small Janey, who was playing in the garden. "Which toe, dear?" I inquires, as I examined her foot. "My youngest one," sobbed Janey.

II. Carry out definitional and transformational analysis on the italicized synonyms using the explanations of mean­ings given below. Define the types of con­notations found in them.

1. Old means having lived a long time, far advanced in years; elderly means approaching old age, between middle and old age, past middle age, but hardly old; aged is somewhat old, implies greater age than elderly; ancient is so old as to seem to belong to a past age.

2. To create means to make an object which was not previously in existence, to bring into existence by in­spiration or the like; to manufacture is to make by la­bour, often by machinery, especially on a large scale by some industrial process; to produce is to work up from raw material and turn it into economically useful and marketable goods.

3. To break is to separate into parts or fragments; to crack is to break anything hard with a sudden sharp blow without separating, so that the pieces remain to­gether; to shatter is to break into fragments, particles and in numerous directions; to smash is to destroy, to break thoroughly to pieces with a crashing sound by some sudden act of violence.

4. To cry is to express grief or pain by audible lamen­tations, to shed tears with or without sound; to sob is to cry desperately with convulsive catching of the breath and noisily as from heart-rending grief; to weep means to shed tears more or less silently which is sometimes expression of pleasurable emotion.

5. Battle denotes the act of struggling, a hostile en­counter or engagement between opposite forces on sea or land; combat denotes a struggle between armed forces, or individuals, it is usually of a smaller scale than battle, less frequently used in a figurative sense; fight denotes a struggle for victory, either between in­dividuals or between'armies, ships or navies, it is a word of less dignity than battle, fight usually implies a hand-to-hand conflicts.

III. Say why the italicized synonyms in the examples giv­en below are not interchangeable.

1. a) The little boys stood glaring at each other ready to start a fight, b) The Greek myth runs that Narcissus gazed at his own reflection in the water until he fell in love with it and died. 2. a) She is a very pretty Ameri­can girl of twenty-two, with fair hair and blue eyes.

¹ A. Gandelstnan. English Synonyms Explained and Illus­trated. M., 1963; G. Crabb. English Synonyms. H. Y. Grosset and Dunlap, 1945; N. Webster. Webster's Synonyms, Anto­nyms and Homonyms. N. Y., 1962; Ю. Д. Апресян, В. В. Ботякова, Т. Э. Латышева и др. Англо-русский сино­нимический словарь. М., 1979.

 

 

IV. Within the following synonymic groups single out words with emotive connotations.

1. Fear— terror— horror. 2. look— stare — glare — gaze — glance. 3. love — admire — adore — worship. 4. alone — single — solitary — lonely. 5. tremble — shiver — shudder — shake. 6. wish — desire — yearn — long.

 

V. Identify the stylistic connotations for the following italicized words in the jokes given below and write their synonyms with other stylistic connotations.

1. "I must say these are fine biscuits!" exclaimed the young husband. "How could you say those are fine bis­cuits?" inquired the young wife's mother, in a private interview. "I didn't say they were fine. I merely said I must say so."

2. "Willie," said his mother, "I wish you would run across the street and see how old Mrs. Brown is this morning." "Yes'm," replied Willie and a few minutes later he returned and reported: "Mrs. Brown says it's none of your business how old she is."

3. "Yes, she's married to a real-estate agent and a good, honest fellow, too."

"My gracious! Bigamy?"

4. W i 11 i e: Won't your pa spank you for staying out so late?

T o m m y (whose father is a lawyer): No, I'll get an injunction from ma postponing the spanking, and then
I'll appeal to grandma and she'll have it made perma­nent.

5. A man entered the bar and called for "a Marti-nus". The barman observed as he picked up a glass, "You mean Martini, sir!" "No, indeed I don't," the man re­plied. "I was taught Latin properly and I only want one."

6. A foreigner was relating his experience in study­ing the English language. He said: "When I first discov­ered that if I was quick I was fast; that if I was tied I was fast; and that not to eat was fast, I was discouraged. But when I came across the sentence, 'The first one won one-dollar prize' I gave up trying."

7. J a n e: Would you be insulted if that good-look­ing stranger offered you some champagne?

J o a n: Yes, but I'd probably swallow the insult.