Synonymy and paraphrase: some considerations

Abstract

This text is a contribution to the study of synonymy and paraphrase, from an onomasiologic point of view. If, on the one hand, the idea of characterizing paraphrase as a relation of semantic identity (absolute synonymy) is rejected, on the other, the possibility of the perception of semantic equivalence is recognized. Based on empirical data obtained from the “Atlas Lingüístico-Etnográfico da Região Sul (ALERS)” (Linguistic-Ethnographic Atlas of the South Brazil Region), it is demonstrated that it is not possible to consider synonymy outside the context in which the words are used, that synonymy is gradual and that the choice of one or another paraphrastic structure is never random.