ation. The assimilation of synonyms consists in parallel development. An example of this is furnished by the sense development of Middle English adverbs meaning `swiftly«, and subsequently `immediately». This law was discovered and described by G. Stern. HA Treble and GH Villains give as examples the pejorative meanings acquired by the nouns wench, knave and churl which originally meant `girl«, `boy» and `laborer 'respectively, and point out that this loss of old dignity became linguistically possible because there were so many synonymous terms to hand. The important thing to remember is that it is not only borrowings from foreign languages ??hut, other sources as well that; have made increasing contributions to the stock of English synonyms. There are for instance words that come from dialects, and, in the last hundred years, from American English in particular. As a result speakers of British English may make use of both elements of the following pairs, the first element in each pair coming from the USA: gimmick: trick, dues: subscription, long distance (telephone) call: trunk call, radio: wireless . There are also synonyms that originate in numerous other dialects as, for instance, clover: shamrock, liquor;: whiskey (from Irish), girl:; lass, lassie or charm: glamour (from Scottish).
The role of borrowings should not be overestimated. Synonyms are also created by means of all word-forming processes productive in the language at a given time of its history. The words already existing in the language develop new meanings. New words may be formed by affixation, or loss of affixes, conversion, compounding, shortening and so on, and being coined, form synonyms to those already in use.
Of special importance for those who are interested in the present-day trends and characteristic peculiarities of the English vocabulary are the synonymic oppositions due to shift of meaning, new combinations of verbs with postpositive and compound nouns formed from them, shortenings, set expressions and conversion.
Set expressions consisting of a verb with a postpositive are widely used in present-day English and may be called one of its characteristic features. l Many verbal synonymic groups contain such combinations as one of their elements. A few examples will illustrate this statement: to choose: to pick out; to abandon: to give up; to continue: to go on; to enter: to come in; to lift: to pick up; to postpone: to put off; to quarrel: to fall out; to return: to bring back. E.g. By the way, Toby has quite given up the idea of ??doing those animal cartoons. (PLOMER)
The vitality of these expressions is proved by the fact that they really supply material for further word-formation. Very many compound nouns denoting abstract notions, persons and events are correlated with them, also giving ways of expressing notions hitherto named by somewhat lengthy borrowed terms. There are, for instance, such synonymic pairs as arrangement: layout; conscription: call-up; precipitation: fall-out; regeneration: feedback; reproduction: playback; resistance: fight-back; treachery: sell-out.
An even more frequent type of new formations is that in which a noun with a verbal stem is combined with a verb of generic meaning (have, give, take, get, make] into a set expression which differs from the simple verb in aspec...
