“Similarity of meaning is “the most important lexical relation” in the WordNet model, and, in philosophy, Quine has identified synonymy (along with analyticity) as “the primary business of the theory in meaning.”
When writing a text about any topic, one does not want to use the same word every time. Imagine, the task is to write an article about young people. At first, they are called youth, but then the word adolescent is chosen. These two words are known to be synonyms, but it can be shown that words in English cannot have identical meaning and always are different in some way.
The question in this example is, whether youth and adolescent are fully interchangeable.
They are synonymous, because the OED, for example, defines synonyms as words that have the “same general sense[…]”, but they have “different shades of meaning or implications appropriate to different contexts[…]”.
When thinking about the German erledigen, one finds a lot of words in English that should be considered in a translation, like to attend, to settle, to handle, to do, to finish, to dispatch etc.
Some of them are used in different situations or have the same core meaning, but differ in “[…]minor ways, or in emotional and stylistic connotation.”
This seminar paper will focus on the analysis of synonymous words and sentences. Based on the notion that identity means “oneness” , it must be understood that a perfectly identical meaning can therefore not exist between two or more synonymous words or sentences.
This seminar paper does not aim to prove that words can have the same sense in some cases. It is rather based on the theory that they only have identical meaning, if it is similar in all contexts. This would be valid, if words like youth and adolescent differed only in form. The objective is to show, by using the British National Corpus (BNC) and other thesauruses, what distinctions random synonyms such as these may have and why they cannot be easily interchanged.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Comparison of synonymous words and sentences in English
2.1. Stylistic differences
2.2. Differences in connotation
2.3. Differences in affect
2.4. Difference in regional usage
2.5. Collocational differences
2.5.1 Differences in grammatical usage
2.5.2 Difference in logical semantic usage
2.6. Differences in general use
2.7. Differences in tone
2.8. Differences in frequency
3. Conclusion
Research Objectives and Key Topics
This paper examines the linguistic concept of synonymy in English, focusing on the hypothesis that perfectly identical meaning between synonyms does not exist. Through the analysis of data from the British National Corpus (BNC), the research aims to demonstrate why synonymous words and sentences are rarely fully interchangeable due to subtle semantic and pragmatic distinctions.
- Analysis of stylistic variations in register and formality.
- Examination of connotative and affective differences between synonyms.
- Impact of regional varieties on word choice and usage.
- Investigation of collocational restrictions and grammatical usage.
- Assessment of frequency-based distinctions in synonym pairs.
Excerpt from the Book
2.2. Differences in connotation
The additional meaning, called connotation, is often different between synonymous words in English. Most of the similar words have the same core meaning, or denotation, but nevertheless not an identical meaning.
Christian Mair gives an example according to which the synonyms youths and youngsters have the same denotation, but the first expression has an additional positive and the second an additional negative connotation. This can be confirmed by consulting the British National Corpus: youngsters is employed more often, but in the context with attacked the word youths is more often used. Also, it states that it is more common to say ‘The youths were arrested’. Thus, it can be concluded, that youths is used, when one wants to say something negative about them. Another word that can be translated into the German Jugendlicher and called a synonym to youths and youngsters, is adolescent, which was used in the example at the beginning. The question is now, what additional connotation it has. Although youths, youngster, and adolescents all “refer to people of about the same age, only the latter word has the meaning of ‘immature’ in a phrase such as ‘He’s such an adolescent!’” An informal expression of Jugendlicher would be teener (see in 2.1. Stylistic differences), which is also a synonym of adolescent. Yet another synonym is teenager, which can be called neutral, because it does not have any positive or negative connotation like youths and youngster, nor an additional meaning of immaturity like adolescent. The latter has a synonym with the same expression – juvenile. Both are used for a very childish young person, but even here one can determine, that they do not have identical meaning, because juvenile derives from Latin and is
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: Outlines the theoretical premise that words cannot be fully interchangeable and introduces the BNC as a tool for analysis.
2. Comparison of synonymous words and sentences in English: Provides a detailed linguistic breakdown of factors that differentiate synonyms, including style, connotation, affect, and regional variety.
2.1. Stylistic differences: Discusses how formal and informal registers influence word choice.
2.2. Differences in connotation: Examines how different emotive or social associations distinguish synonymous terms for young people.
2.3. Differences in affect: Analyzes how speakers' attitudes toward a subject influence their selection of synonymous terms.
2.4. Difference in regional usage: Explores how geography affects the synonymy and comprehensibility of terms.
2.5. Collocational differences: Explains how the tendency of words to appear with specific other words limits interchangeability.
2.5.1 Differences in grammatical usage: Investigates how different verbs of motion and their corresponding prepositions function.
2.5.2 Difference in logical semantic usage: Looks at how fixed phrases prevent the substitution of synonyms.
2.6. Differences in general use: Describes how specialized vocabulary creates synonyms that are limited to specific professional or social contexts.
2.7. Differences in tone: Analyzes the influence of French and Latin origins on the perceived "tone" of English words.
2.8. Differences in frequency: Investigates whether high-frequency usage in certain contexts prevents absolute synonymy.
3. Conclusion: Summarizes the findings, asserting that synonyms are never truly identical, comparing the nuance of words to the uniqueness of individuals.
Keywords
Synonymy, English Lexicology, British National Corpus, BNC, Connotation, Collocation, Register, Semantics, Lexical Relations, Denotation, Linguistics, Language Variety, Utterances, Word Usage, Stylistic Differences.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core argument of this seminar paper regarding synonymy?
The paper argues that absolute synonymy does not exist in English. It contends that while words may share a denotation, they will always differ in other aspects like style, context, or frequency, making them not fully interchangeable.
What is the primary objective of this research?
The objective is to demonstrate, using the British National Corpus (BNC) and other sources, why certain synonyms cannot be easily interchanged by highlighting their subtle linguistic distinctions.
Which scientific methodology is employed in the study?
The author uses a corpus-based approach, analyzing real-world usage patterns in the British National Corpus to compare tokens and occurrences of synonymous pairs.
What are the central themes discussed in the paper?
The themes include stylistic variation, connotation, speaker affect, regional varieties, collocational restrictions, and the role of lexical frequency.
What is covered in the main section of the paper?
The main section categorizes different types of differences between synonyms, ranging from grammatical constraints and collocation to emotive, stylistic, and regional disparities.
Which terms characterize this research?
Key terms include synonymy, lexical relations, corpus linguistics, registers, and collocations.
How do "collocations" prevent the interchangeability of synonyms?
Collocations are habitual or customary word combinations. Because synonyms often differ in which prepositions or nouns they can combine with, they are restricted in their grammatical and semantic usage within these fixed phrases.
How does the author explain the difference between 'youth', 'youngster', and 'adolescent'?
The author distinguishes them based on their connotations: 'youths' often carries a negative connotation, 'youngsters' is generally more neutral, and 'adolescent' specifically implies a sense of immaturity.
What role do regional varieties play in this synonymy study?
Regional varieties show that words like 'lift' and 'elevator' are not just synonyms, but markers of geographical identity; choosing the wrong term for a specific region can sound "weird" or lead to potential misunderstanding.
- Citation du texte
- MA Daniel Schroeder (Auteur), 2011, Corpus Study of Synonymy in English, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/284375
