Discrimination of English Synonyms Based on Corpora 近义词辨析.docVIP

Discrimination of English Synonyms Based on Corpora Abstract: Discrimination of English synonyms has become an indispensable part of our English learning. But it is of great difficulty for numerous?EFL?and?ESL?learners to grasp the nuances of different English synonyms when only several isolated illustrative sentences are available. While based on the abundant examples provided by corpora, we can have a clearer picture of the meaning, collocation and semantic prosody of those synonyms. This paper cites an example of synonym discrimination between “dreary”, “dull” and “boring” from the TEM-4 exam paper in 2013, and analyzes the subtle differences of the three words based on COCA. Key words: English synonyms; corpora; COCA; dreary; dull; boring Introduction Apart from the words and expressions derived from Anglo-Saxon, English borrowed largely from other languages like French, Latin and Greek. On the one hand, the extensive number of loanwords enriches English vocabulary and diversifies the means of expression for British. On the other, a great many synonyms occur as a result of the loanwords. Close as the synonyms are in the meaning, there exist great distinctions in their semanteme and other aspects. Therefore, to figure out the discrimination of English synonyms will contribute to our understanding of the words and to make use of the distinctions can enhance the effect of our expression. So we should first make sure what synonyms are. Words or expressions with the same or similar meaning are said to be synonymous. In other words, synonyms are words or expressions that share common semantic features. [1] People hold that synonyms can be roughly divided into “complete synonyms” and “relative synonyms”. As Professor Yang puts it, true synonyms are rare. In most cases, synonyms may differ in origin, the shades of meaning, social-expressive meaning, stylistic meaning and collocation and distribution. [1] After understanding the definition of synonyms, how can we truly