What do the terms Synonymous Specifiers and Synonymous Replacers denote?

Synonyms-substitutes (substituting synonyms) are words used to denote objects or action, supplementing new additional details, which helps to avoid monotonous repetitions, e.g. But he had no words to express his feelings and to relieve them would utter an obscene jest; it was as though his emotion was so violent that he needed vulgarity to break the tension. Mackintosh observed this sentiment with an icy disdain /W.S.Maugham/.
Substituting synonyms are characterized by contextual similarity giving rise to emotive-evaluative meaning. That is why some synonyms can be treated as such only in context. Synonyms-substitutes are widely used in publicist style. They are also regarded as situational synonyms.
Synonyms-specifiers (specifying synonyms) are used as a chain of words which express similar meanings. Such synonyms are used for a better and more detailed description of an object or person, when every other synonym adds new information about it. There are two ways of using specifying synonyms: 1) as paired synonyms, and 2) as synonymic variations, e.g. …the intent of which perjury being to rob a poor native widow and her helpless family of a plantation-patch, their only stay and support in their bereavement and desolation /M.Twain/.
These synonyms specify the utterance, adding some new information. Though the given synonyms are very close in their meaning, they are different in stylistic colouring. Synonymic variations specify the utterance, intensifying its emotional value. Such synonyms are widely used in fiction and the publicistic style. In scientific prose and official style, their usage is limited.

 

Figures of replacement. Figures of quantity.

Figures of Replacement (Tropes) are divided into two classes:

Figures of quantity which are hyperbole or overstatement, i.e. exaggeration and meiosis or understatement, i.e. weakening. Litotes

Figures of quality which are metonymy, metaphor, irony.

Figures of quantity

Hyperbole is a stylistic device in which emphasis is achieved through deliberate exaggeration (V.A. Kucharenko). Hyperbole is a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a feature essential (unlike periphrasis) to the object or phenomenon (I.R. Galperin). It does not signify the actual state of affairs in reality, but presents the latter through the emotionally coloured perception and rendering of the speaker. e.g. My vegetable love should grow faster than empires. (A. Marvell); e.g. I was scared to death when he entered the room. (J.D.Salinger)

Meiosis deliberately expresses the idea, there less important than the action is. Meiosis is dealt with when the size, shape, dimensions, characteristic features of the object are intentionally underrated. It does not signify the actual state of affairs in reality, but presents the latter through the emotionally coloured perception and rendering of the speaker. e.g. ”The wind is rather strong” instead of “There’s a gale blowing outside”; e.g. She wore a pink hat, the size of a button. (J.Reed)

Littotes differs from meiosis by both its contents and structure. Litotes presents a statement in the form of negation. Like rhetorical questions, litotes can be regarded as the transposition of a syntactical construction. Litotes has a specific semantic and syntactic structure: the usage of not before a word with a negative prefix, e.g. Julia was not dissatisfied with herself (W.S. Maugham).
This EM is used in oral speech to weaken positive characteristics of a thing or person; to convey the speaker's doubts as to the exact value or significance of the object of speech, e.g. Her face was not unpretty (K. Kesey).

In scientific prose litotes underlines carefulness of judgement or stresses the writer's uncertainty.