The Distinction Between English Synonyms 英语同义词辨析

The Distinction Between English Synonyms Thesis Statement: English synonyms can be mainly distinguished in three ways: meaning, coloring and usageOutline:Introduction1. Differences in Meaning1.1. Differences in dimension1.2. Differences in emphasis1.3. Differences in weight2. Differences in Coloring2.1. Differences in emotion2.2. Differences in formality2.3. Differences in dialect3. Differences in Usage3.1. Differences in grammatical features3.2. Differences in object3.3. Differences in collocationConclusion12The Distinction Between English Synonyms (Foreign Languages Department, Taiyuan Normal University, Taiyuan, 030012,China) Abstract: A large number of new words and terms flock in the English vocabulary and English has a variety of expressive methods making it possible to express the same meaning by different words. Therefore English synonyms are so abundant that it is possible to describe the colorful world and to express the complicated, delicate human thought and emotions. But they bring people many problems such as the correct choice of words from synonyms. The reason for this problem is the insufficient knowledge of the distinction of English synonyms, which have differences in many aspects. This paper offers three main aspects in distinguishing English synonyms that include words meaning, coloring and usage.Key words: synonyms; distinguishing; words meaning; color; usage英语同义词辨析 摘要：英语中不断出现大量的新词，其表达方式也多种多样，使得人们能够用不同的单词或短语来表达同一个意思。英语同义词数量丰富，使得丰富多彩的世界和人们复杂细微的思想感情的表达成为可能。但是它也给人们带来了许多问题，诸如如何正确的选词。这个问题的原因在于缺乏对同义词区别的了解。各组同义词在许多方面有不同的差异。本文对同义词差异主要从词义、色彩和用法三方面来予以辨析。关键词：同义词；辨析；词义；色彩；用法 The Distinction Between English SynonymsIntroduction It is an uncontroversial fact that English vocabulary is of great number. With the development of economy, the improvement of society, and the ever-changing science and technology, a large number of new words and terms flock in the vocabulary. Besides, English has a variety of expressive methods, making it possible to express the same meaning by different words. Therefore, English synonyms are so abundant that it is possible to describe the colorful world and to express the complicated, delicate human thoughts and emotions. While the abundant synonyms offer English users opportunities to show their language competence, they bring them many difficulties in mastering the expressions. One common problem is the correct choice of words from synonyms. One reason for this problem is the insufficient knowledge of the distinction of synonyms. Though English synonyms are abundant, they have differences in limited aspects. They can be mainly distinguished in three ways: meaning, coloring and usage.Synonym means a word or phrase with the same or nearly the same meaning as another word or phrase in the same language. Some English meanings have a variety of expressions. For example, statistically, there are “ 18 different words which can be used to express the same meaning of beautiful; 21 words for begin; 28 words for pure; and 42 for friendly.”(Collins, 1985: 96) In American English, the “money” has many synonyms such as beans, bucks, cash, chips, dough, funds, the needful, the wherewithal, etc. The synonyms are large in amount; therefore, a correct choice of them is important just as Ivor Brown said，“ The craftsman is proud and careful of his tools; the surgeon does not operate with an old razor-blade; the sportsman fusses happily and long over the choice of rod, gun, club or racquet. But the man who is working in words, unless he is a professional writer (and not always then), is singularly neglectful of his instruments.” (Brown, Internet) Choosing a wrong word can be imprecise or awkward, let alone convey an unwanted implication. The correct choice must depend on clear discrimination of synonyms. Differences always come up when one talks about synonym because no two absolute synonyms are actually identical. There must be differences in each group of synonyms.1. Differences in meaning1.1 DimensionEnglish synonyms usually have the same literal meaning but a few semantic differences. A conspicuous character of English synonym groups is that in a group of synonyms there is often one word containing a large dimension of meaning and used in common, while the others only have an aspect of meaning of the word and are often used on a certain occasion with various special semantic meanings. For example, in the synonymous group “look, glance, peep, gaze, stare, eye”, the word “look” has a large dimension of meaning and is of common use, while the other words mean looking in a special way and are always used on limited special occasions: “glance” means a short, quick look; “peep” means a secret glance; “gaze” means a long, steady look, often caused by surprise or admiration; “stare” means a very surprised look or a very ill-mannered gaze; “eye” means to watch carefully. In the group “laugh, chortle, chuckle, giggle, guffaw, snicker, snigger, titter”, “laugh” is of great dimension of meaning, but others are used respectively in special ways and different situations. “Chortle” means loud chuckle of pleasure or amusement; “chuckle” means laughing quietly or to oneself; “giggle” means laughing lightly in a nervous or silly way; “guffaw” means a noise laugh; “snicker” means laughing in a suppressed, especially unpleasant way; “snigger” means half-suppressed unpleasant laugh, especially at something improper or at anothers misfortune; “titter” means short nervous laugh.1.2 EmphasisA word contains denotative and connotative meanings. Synonyms usually have the same denotative meaning but different connotative meanings that are shown by their emphases. English synonyms are abundant for its wide-ranging origin. However, each word in each group of synonyms has changed obviously towards different directions in the semantic distribution in the long course of development of the English language and has different emphasis under its basic meaning. For example, the group “ox, bull, bullock, calf, cow, heifer, steer, vealer” all mean a kind of family animal. “Ox” is the most common word in this group with a general meaning for both castrated or uncastrated animal in ox family, usually used for reproduction; “bullock” and “steer” both refer to the castrated bull, but the former usually emphasizes the one for land-plough, the latter is raised for its meat; “cow” and “heifer” both refer to the uncastrated female of any animal in ox family, but the former emphasizes the fully-grown one especially the domestic kind kept by farmers to produce milk and beef, the latter emphasizes the young cow, especially one that has not yet had a calf, while “calf” means young cattle of both sex; “vealer” means flesh of a calf used as meat. In the group “young, youthful, juvenile, adolescent”, their emphases are different. “Young” emphasizes youngness in age meaning the one of recent birth or origin; “youthful” means having qualities typical of youth; “juvenile” means the young person under 12 years old emphasizing the state of not being mature in physiology and intellect; “adolescent” emphasizes time of a persons childhood and mature adulthood that is roughly between the ages of 13 and 17.1.3 WeightIn every English synonymous group, each word carries different “weight” in meaning (i.e., they express the meaning of different extent or degrees of intensity). In degree of a given quality or in shade of meaning, some synonyms have the same denotative sense with differences in degree of intensity ( Zhang Yunfei, 1988: 193 ) For example, the group “cold, cool, chilly, frigid, frosty, icy” has the same basic meaning when they refer to temperature. However, “cool” means fairly cold; not hot or warm and as not as strong as “cold” to some extent. “Chilly” is just between “cool” and “cold”; “frigid” and “frosty” both mean very cold just under the freezing point, but the former is more serious than the latter in the extent of coldness; “icy” means the temperature reaches the freezing point which is as cold as ice. Another example is the group “break, crack, crush, demolish, destroy, shatter, smash”. “Break” is a common word meaning separating (a whole object) into two or more parts as a result of force or strain; “crack” means breaking something open but not into pieces; “crush” means pressing or squeezing something into pieces from outside to inside or from up to down; “demolish means pulling or knocking down a building etc; “destroy” refers to damaging something so badly that it no longer exists; “shatter” refers to breaking suddenly and violently into small pieces; “smash” means breaking completely into pieces by a burst of violence with sound. Another group “let, allow, permit” has same basic meaning, but they are different in “weight” of meaning. “Let” has the lightest meaning; “allow” carries a strong weight; and “permit” is the strongest among the three.2. Differences in coloring2.1 EmotionSome synonyms refer to the same thing but reflect peoples different emotional attitudes towards what the word refers to ( Qian Yuan, 1991:126) , often with one word neutral, one word carrying positive, affirmative and favorable color while another one carrying negative, derogatory and hateful color. For example, in the group “crowd, gathering, assembly, mob”, the word “crowd” is a neutral word; “gathering and assembly” have commendatory color while “mob” is of pejorative color. In the group “friend, comrade, crony”, “friend” is neutral; “comrade” contains favorable color, while “crony” reflects peoples derogatory attitude. When we talk about somebody who is too light in weight, we may say “underweight” which is of balanced emotive color, or we may say, “slim” showing our favorable attitude or “skinny” showing our negative attitude. It is more persuasive to compare the synonyms in sentences as follows: (1) Students admire her for her wide range of knowledge.(2) It is unwise of you to be jealous of others and to speak evil of others.(3) Miss Zhangs beauty is the envy of a lot of women. Though “admire”, be jealous of and “envy” refer to the same basic thing, they reflect peoples different attitudes. The first one is of positive color; the second is just opposite to the first one, the third one contains both attitudes of the above two.2.2 FormalityWords in a group of synonyms always can be distinguished from the extent of their formality that is a stylistic color though they refer to the same thing. Some word is suitable to be used on a common occasion, and some word is a little bit formal while the others are informal. The degrees of formality are determined by the role, relationships, number of hearers, and contexts of situation The formal English is found in official documents, regulations, and business letters of ceremonial speeches. Informal English is found typically in private conversations or personal letters. It is also used nowadays in advertisements and popular newspapers(ibid.:212). The synonyms should be used according to the styles of different articles. In the group criticize, upbraid, knock, “criticize” is a common word; “upbraid” is formal and often used in written English; “knock” belongs to informal style. There are many other examples as follows: Common Words Formal Words Informal Wordsartificial factitious fakecowardly pusillanimous chickenexcitement impassion turn-ongo to bed retire sack outhome residence padstop desist cut it outwife spouse ball and chainHWFowler once remarked that “in official announcements commence is appropriate; the playbill tells us when the performance will commence, though we ask each other when it beginsThe grave historical style justifies commence, and historians, phrases, such as commence hostilities, keep their form when transferred to other uses, though we begin and do not commence a quarrel; similarly we commence operations, but merely begin a dinner.” (Fowler, Internet) Commence is of formal stylistic color and suitable to be used on formal occasions. Though “begin” is synonymous with “commence”, it is always used on common or informal occasions. Simeon Potters remark is worthy of quotation: Language is like dress. We vary our dress to suit the occasion. We do not appear at a friends silver wedding anniversary in gardening clothes nor do we go punting on the river in a dinner jacket. (Potter, 1999:130)2.3 DialectEnglish synonyms have differences in another kind of stylistic color that is dialect, which means that people from different regions use different words to express the same meaning. In other words same concept or reference, different word.(Qian Yuan, 1991:154) British English and American English have the most obvious dialectal differences because each possesses large vocabulary of conventionally special usage, which is well-known to all British people and Americans, such as elevator (AmE), lift (BrE); can (AmE), tin (BrE); gasoline (AmE), petrol (BrE). Some words in one nation may make the majority of another nation who speak different standard language feel perplexed, such as trunk (AmE), boot (BrE); eraser (AmE), rubber (BrE); cover (AmE), report (BrE). Let us compare the following two sentences:(1) I have an assignment to cover the conference. (AmE) (2) I have instructions to report the conference. (BrE) “Assignment” in sentence (1) means task or duty that is assigned to somebody; “instructions” in sentence (2) refer to orders or directions given. Though they are synonyms, they have regional differences. “Cover” and “report” are also synonyms both meaning interviewing and giving an account of the conference in the two sentences, but the former is American English, the latter is British English. Besides, in some synonymous groups of different dialects, one word that is standard in one nation can only be used in a certain context in another nation. For example, “shop” in British English is equivalent to goods or services sold to the public. However, “shop” means a specialized small store in American English, such as barbershop and shoe-repair shop.3. Differences in usage3.1 Grammatical FeaturesGrammatical features of words play an important role in distinguishing English synonyms. Their grammatical features in usage mainly reflect some differences of synonyms. For example, “much” an “many” refer to the same basic meaning, so do “little” and “few”. However, they contain different grammatical features. “Much” and “little” are used to modify uncountable nouns, while “many” and “few” are used to modify countable noun. They are changeable on no occasion. “Bare” and “naked” both contain the meaning without clothing, but the latter can be used as attributive and predicative; the former can only be used as predicative. It is right to say: “The man is bare or naked”, but wrong to say: “a bare man”. In the group “answer, reply, respond,” “answer” and “reply” are both transitive and intransitive verbs, while “respond” can only be used as an intransitive verb. Take the following sentences for example: (1) For the next few minutes the spokeswoman answered questions. (2) China replied to America s violation of the Sino-US trade agreement with imposing punitive tax on American exports to China.(3) His audiences responded to his speech indifferently. Some synonymous words such as living and alive are put in different positions: “living” is usually put before a noun; “alive” is usually put after a noun. For example:(1) Jefferson once said, “The earth belongs to the living generation.” (2) You are the happiest children alive.” 3.2 ObjectEnglish vocabulary is large and the distribution of words meaning is comparatively definite and clear. Although some synonyms have the same meaning, coloring and grammatical feature, they are usually used for different objects, which mean things or people to which thought, feelings or actions are directed. Limited by different objects, the synonyms should be chosen carefully in different contexts. For example, in the group “beautiful, handsome, pretty, “beautiful” is always used for female, but when used for children, it can be used to describe both girls and boys. “Pretty” is not as strong as “beautiful” in meaning and is also only used for female or children; whereas “handsome” is mainly for the male. When “handsome” describes a female person, it only means that she is elegant. In the group “empty, vacant, hollow”, “empty” can be used to modify “house, room, cup, box, stomach, head, words, etc” meaning having nothing inside; “vacant” can be used to modify “position, room, house, seat, etc” meaning unoccupied; hollow can be used to modify tree, voice, sound, cheeks meaning “having a hole inside; insincere; false; or sunken. Besides, we have many synonymous words to express the sound of animal, but we use them for different objects, such as a lion roars; a bear growls; a wolf howls; and a fox yelps. We also have many natural sounds, which have clear distributions and objects, such as a saw bazzes; a whip lashes; the rain patters; a train rumbles. Synonymous verbs: say, speak, talk and tell have the same general meaning of expression in words, but we say something, speak language, talk business and tell the truth. Some synonymous nouns also show this kind of difference. The following is an example: a flock of sheep, a herd of cows, a school of dolphins, a pack of wolves, and a swarm of flies. Here we use different nouns to indicate the same meaning: a collection of, but we use them for different objects. 3.3 CollocationCollocation means the word or group of words with which a synonym is used correctly. (Zhang Yunfei, 1988:198) or occurrence or sets of words tend to turn up together in texts.(Qian Yuan, 1991:126) English language has many fixed collocation or set phrases and in theses collocations, especially common usages and idioms, the synonyms are not changeable. Limited by the collocations, the synonyms have different usages in different contexts. In the group “dismiss, discontinue, ban, revoke”, each word has its own collocation. Take the following sentences for example:(1) The official who is guilty of corruption and taking bribes has been dismissed from his post.(2) The U.S will suffer most if it discontinues Chinas most favored-nation status. (3) Departments in charge of industry and commerce are authorized by the government to ban speculation and profiteering.(4) His driving license has been revoked once and for all because of his violation of traffic regulations. These synonyms all have their own usage and are not exchanged. Another example is the group “effective, efficient”.(1) This patent medicine is effective against rheumatic arthritis. (2) The traffic policeman on point duty took effective measures to relieve traffic jams. (3) An efficient executive, he soon had matters running smoothly. (4) Efficient management is one of the factors, which will lower production cost. In the group “keep, hold”, both have their fixed collocations such as “keep at”, “keep down” in which “keep” cannot be displaced by “hold”. In the group “insist, persist , we have “insist on” and “persist in”. In the group “accuse, charge” we have “accuse of” and “charge with”. They all have their fixed collocations and cannot be replaced by each other. Therefore, we should pay attention to the different collocations of synonyms when we use them .Conclusion None of these different ways of distinguishing English synonyms are independent. Each word in e