Brazilian Linguistic Atlas: lexical items parasynonims

Abstract

The people who study semantics, since immemorial times, have highlighted particularly the problem of synonymies and from these studies, the most diverse questions are brought about the existence or not the synonyms. If they exist, as defined, how they work, what is their status, in cognitive and/or affective terms, if they are absolute or partials, if limited to the denotation or if are linked to the connotation in every particular context. From these questioning and discussions, the notion of para-synonymies, almost synonymies, partial synonymies and synonymies in speech, to designate “terms of same sense, where the distributions are not exactly equivalent”, as Galisson and Cost said. (Galisson and Cost 1976:399). Our work will try to find, in the specializes literature, answer to the question: the lexical items of the Linguistic Atlas constitute para-synonymies? As corpus to this analysis we will use some Regional Linguistic Atlas from Brazil, published until today: Bahia, Minas Gerais, Paraíba, Sergipe, Sergipe II and Amazonas.[...]