2.1 The formation of synonyms with respect to their different etymological origin in English was studied by Jespersen, Mossé and Ullmann. Jespersen (19569: 99–101) seems to be the first to draw attention to the extensive use of synonyms in Middle English:
A greater assistance may perhaps have been derived from a habit which may have been common in conversational speech, and which was at any rate not uncommon in writing, that of using a French word side by side with its native synonym, the latter serving more or less openly as an interpretation of the former for the benefit of those who were not yet familiar with the more refined expression. Thus in Ancrene Riwle (about 1225): cherité, þet is luve / desperaunce, þet is unhope / Undestonde þet two manere temptaciuns – two kunne vondunges – beo. [...] It is well worth observing that in all these cases the French words are perfectly familiar to the modern reader, while he will probably require an explanation of the native words that served to interpret the others.
In a note Jespersen gives a quotation from Mandeville cited in (3).
1 The following article was previously published in Mazzon, G. (ed.) (2007): Studies in Middle English Forms and Meanings. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Verlag, 227–237.
Mossé (19582: 73–4) repeats some of Jespersen’s examples and mentions expressions containing synonyms like lord and master, goods and chattels. He points out the possibility of compounding synonyms into one word in English:
salt-cellar where cellar comes from French salière, mansion-house, haphazard, court-yard.
2.2. Double scale of synonyms Ullmann (1962: 145–6) writes:
The synonymic resources of a language tend to form certain characteristic and fairly consistent patterns. In English, for instance, synonyms are organized according to two basic principles, one of them involving a double, the other a triple scale. The double scale contrasts
“Saxon versus Latin”. There are in English countless pairs of synonyms where a native term is opposed to one borrowed from French, Latin or Greek. In most cases the native word is more spontaneous, more informal and unpretentious, whereas the foreign one often has a learned, abstract or even abstruse air. There may also be emotive differences: the “Saxon” term is apt to be warmer and homelier than its foreign counterpart. [...]
adjectives: sharp acute brotherly fraternal
verbs: answer reply
buy purchase
nouns: help aid
player actor
2.3 Triple scale of synonyms (Ullmann: 1962: 147–9)
Side by side with this main pattern there exists in English a subsidiary one based on a triple scale of synonyms: native, French, and Latin or Greek:
end finish conclude
rise mount ascend
food nourishment nutrition
In most of these combinations, the native synonym is the simplest and most ordinary of the three terms, the Latin or Greek one is learned,
abstract, with an air of cold and impersonal precision, whereas the French one stands between the two extremes. […]
The French synonymic pattern is a system with two scales, one native, the other borrowed from Latin or Greek. The latter, usually known as
“learned terms” (mots savants), have a cold, abstract, quasi-scientific air and belong to a completely different stylistic register than their native synonyms:
frêle ‘frail’ fragile ‘fragile’
froid ‘cold’ frigide ‘frigid’
sûreté ‘safety’ sécurité ‘security’
Each of the above pairs comes from the same Latin root: in the first column we have the ordinary French descendants of these words, showing the effects of normal sound-change, whereas the second column consists of normal borrowings from Latin. [...] The main factor responsible for the pattern of English and French synonymy is the presence of large numbers of foreign words: French and classical in English, mainly classical in French.
In discussing French influence on English vocabulary Taillé (1995: 66–9) speaks of the “bilinguisme de l’anglais qui se manifeste le plus par la présence de doublets. On qualifie ainsi la présence simultanée de deux termes synonymes, l’un d’origine française, l’autre d’origine germanique (encore que souvent le terme français ait une valeur plus «littéraire» que l’autre).” Taillé gives a long list of doublets, but his etymological classification (especially § b on p. 68) is unsound. The most reliable outlining of synonymic patterns in English and French remains to be that of Ullmann. It must be added, however, that this delicate subject is crying out for thorough analysis.
Ullmann refers to the present state of both the English and the French languages. In the course of their history, both languages borrowed an important number of Latin words in several periods. In the Middle English period (1100–
1450), Latin words were introduced into English either directly from Latin or through the medium of French. Görlach (1997: 141) remarks that “in Middle English the loanwords from Latin and French were largely indistinguishable, but the French element superseded the Latin”. Both languages were to adapt Latin words extensively in the sixteenth century. The number of French loans making their first appearance in English peaked during the fourteenth century and began to decline toward the end of the fourteenth century. The end of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth century correspond to the composition of the French original of the Travels and its Middle English translation.