Synonymous With Modern Russian Research

The current dissertation introduces and illustrates the past and the present studies on Russian lexical meaning and synonyms. It explores the criteria for judging Russian synonyms and analyses the relation between synonyms, autonyms and homonyms. In particular, it discusses how synonyms come out, how synonyms develop in three ways, and the various features of synonyms in meaning, rhetoric and collocation; also, it summarizes three major functions of synonyms: lexical substitution, meaning clarification and pragmatic evaluation. At last, it highlights its contribution to Russian teaching in how to cultivate students'ability of synonym collocation.The study is carried out in five chapters. Chapter 1 reviews studies on Russian lexical meaning and synonyms synchronically and diachronically; Chapter 2 explores the definition of synonym by distinguishing the relation between synonyms and autonyms, synonyms and homonyms, synonyms as langue and parole; Chapter 3 diachronically analyzes how synonyms form and develop as well as synchronically categorizes synonyms; Chapter 4 illustrates the distinctive features of synonyms in lexical meaning, rhetoric and collocation as well as generalizes lexical substitution, meaning clarification and pragmatic assessment as the three major functions of synonyms; Chapter 5 analyses the typical errors among Chinese students in using synonyms, emphasizes the importance of developing the students'ability of synonym collocation, labels logic, meaning, convention and rhetoric as the four factors influencing synonym collocation, and puts forward several suggestions to avoid students'failure in using synonyms.