LINGUISTIC_INVESTIGATION_OF_ABSOLUTE_SYN
.pdfInternational Conference, English language, British and American studies, International Balkan University in Skoplje, 29 May 2015, coauthors: Samina Dazdarevic, Admir Gorcevic, Fahreta Fijuljanin
LINGUISTIC INVESTIGATION OF ABSOLUTE SYNONYMS
WITH CORPUS BASED DATA
Samina Dazdarevic PhD
Fahreta Fijuljanin MA
Admir Gorcevic PhD
International University of Novi Pazar
Internatinal University of Novi Pazar
State University of Novi Pazar
samina.d@uninp.edu.rs
fahreta.f@hotmail.com
agorcevic@gmail.com
Abstract
The aim of the study presented in this paper is to examine and compare absolute synonymous
pairs on their lexical, syntactical and stylistic levels. Synonyms can be regarded as the treasure of the language’s expressive resources. Synonymy is one of the modern linguistics’ problems. The
duality of synonyms is their most confusing feature. These words are distinguished by different shades of meaning, connotations and stylistic features. There are two major categories, that is absolute synonyms as opposed to partial ones. A pair of absolute synonyms may persist in the vocabulary because they belong to different dialects. This is the case in pairs of synonyms in BrE and AmE (lorry/truck, lift/elevator, jail/prison).
The prevailing view among linguists of various linguistic provenance is that such absolute synonyms are either an extremely rare occurrence or – according to the majority of linguists – their existence is altogether questionable.
In carrying out this study, the data were derived from two major sources: dictionaries and concordance lines. Corpus of Contemporary American English and British National Corpus are used for the need of investigating absolute synonyms. Finally, all the hypothesis resulted in the favor of a corpus-based data as a powerful tool to supplying information in the sphere of linguistics.
Keyword: absolute synonyms, corpus based data, COCA, BNC
Introduction
A word can stand for a representative of an infinite indications, connotations and denotations opposed or similar to its ‘dictionary’ meaning. Every single word has its nuances of
meanings and senses according to the expression or condition used in. One must be very prudent when choosing the word for a specific situation. That word must carry a desired meaning for a
International Conference, English language, British and American studies, International Balkan University in Skoplje, 29 May 2015, coauthors: Samina Dazdarevic, Admir Gorcevic, Fahreta Fijuljanin
wanted expression in order to avoid unnecessary implications. Sometimes, especially for nonnative speakers, choosing the right word can be very challenging task whether in speaking or writing. It brings up a problematic question for teachers and lecturers of language – how to choose an appropriate word?
The role of an EFL learner can be easily illustrated in an example of a confused driver at
the intersection with two roads in front of him. One path is a dictionary path with the definitions of the words while the other one is a ‘real English’ path. Which one to choose? Leitner (Leitner 50), for example, doubts ‘‘that dictionaries come close to represent ‘real English’ and that they
give appropriate examples to illustrate the meaning.’’ However, the aim of this study is to prove
that corpus-based study interlaces the dictionary meaning of the words with real, authentic and natural language called ‘real English’ since corpora, as Gries (Gries 4) claims, ‘‘are based on
naturally-occurring language samples.’’ Therefore, the objectives of the paper are:
1.To examine the lexical information, such as referential and connotative meanings with collocations, of the pair synonyms lorry/truck, lift/elevator, jail/prison.
2.To scrutinize the stylistic information, such as formality and context in which given synonyms occur.
3.To compare information given in a learner’s dictionaries with concordances in corpora
4.To compare and contrast the synonyms in BNC corpus and COCA corpus
These objectives, based on quantitative linguistic analyses, are successfully achieved through the work utilizing corpora data along with the different online dictionaries.
Apart from the comparative analysis between two dialects, British and American English, this paper also deals with the problem and phenomena of synonymy in English language citing many eminent authors about the issue.
1. Phenomena called synonymy.
"I have always liked you very much, I admire your talent, but, forgive me, — I could never love you as a wife should love her husband."
(From The Shivering Sands by V. Holt)
Synonymy, as one of the most disputable and questionable linguistic problem, arises many difficulties and dilemmas when one wants to give a precise, exact and concrete definition. Different linguistics schools differently explain and define this sense-relation between synonyms because of its complex nature and essence of their mutual relationship.
In the above shown rejection of marriage proposal, the author used the similar verbs to describe admiration, affection and attraction – like, admire, love, but the duality of these synonymous verbs can be quite confusing. On the first sight they are really similar, but if we observe them separately, they become dissimilar. How to define what synonym is and what is not?
Lyons (Lyons 428) defined lexemes synonymous ‘‘if substituting the one with the other did not alter the truth semantic meaning of the utterance.’’ Cruse (Cruse 265) generalized synonyms a little bit more when he asserted that ‘there are sets of words or lexical items which
International Conference, English language, British and American studies, International Balkan University in Skoplje, 29 May 2015, coauthors: Samina Dazdarevic, Admir Gorcevic, Fahreta Fijuljanin
point towards a special similarity.’ Later on, he (Cruse 154) claimed that ‘‘synonymy should not simply be considered as sameness of meaning because the analysis of identical meaning is unnecessary and redundant.’’ We can’t help but notice that definitions of synonyms have been
noticeably expanded as time goes by. So Divjak (Divjak 21) now labels them as synonyms if they delineate ‘‘one and the same situation, they name it in different ways; they represent it from different perspectives.’’
According to the above given definitions and the ones we encountered while researching, synonyms are lexical varieties that don’t necessarily have to be interchangeable, but semantically
have to correspond to each other whereas correspondence in meaning implies agreement in the core essence of the utterance. All these mentioned definitions are illustrated through ‘LLC time circle’1 whose content is increasing and enlarging from period to period till the very present.
Diagram 1. Illustration of increasing definition of synonyms through periods.
1 LLC time circle (Language, Literature, Culture time circle) is a unique and authentic linguistic illustration that represent any language, literature or culture change through the time beginning from early periods until the present day. F.F.
International Conference, English language, British and American studies, International Balkan University in Skoplje, 29 May 2015, coauthors: Samina Dazdarevic, Admir Gorcevic, Fahreta Fijuljanin
1.2.Absolute, strict or simply non-existing synonyms?
There are many divisions of synonyms according to criteria of interchangeability, scale of synonymy, dialect, kind of ‘sameness’ and different shades of meanings. Famous Russian
scholar, Vinogradov established three types classification of synonyms: ideographic (the same concept but different shades of meaning), stylistic (differing in stylistic characteristics) and
absolute (coinciding in all their shades of meaning and in all their stylistic characteristics). However, Cruse (Cruse 268) divided synonyms into ‘absolute, cognitive and near-synonyms.’
Among all mentioned types of synonyms, the emphasis of our research is on absolute or strict synonyms. If we are guided by the theory of interchangeability, we may define the primary feature of absolute synonyms as one that is possible to interchange in all language contexts. In addition, we would have to prove this statement and check all these possible contexts which is literally impossible. That means that existing two words with identical meaning is rare, uncommon and even non-existent because, as Edmond and Hirst (Edmond and Hirst 107)
declare, ‘‘the semantic meaning of words is constantly reinvented.’’ In addition to this claim, McCarthy, O’Keeffe and Walsh (McCarthy, O’Keeffe and Walsh 2010) also stated that this kind
of synonyms is ‘‘extremely rare and not existent claiming it is uneconomical because it leads to unnecessary redundancy in a language.’’
On the other side, the division on meaning that Leech (Leech 9) has employed is especially significant for this research:
1)‘conceptual’ meaning (sometimes called ‘denotative’ or ‘cognitive’ meaning)
2)‘connotative’ meaning
3)‘social’ meaning
4)‘affective’ meaning
5)‘reflected’ meaning
6)‘collocative’ meaning
7)‘thematic’ meaning
While Leech named it cognitive synonyms, Palmer (Palmer 89-91) divides cognitive synonyms into five groups:
1) they belong to different dialects of the language – e.g. fall (USA) and autumn
(GB)
2)they are words used in different styles – e.g. a nasty smell and an ’orrible stink
3)they differ only in their emotive or evaluative meaning – e.g. liberty and freedom
4)they are collocationally restricted – e.g. rancid occurs with bacon or butter but not with cheese
5)synonyms as the words that are close in meaning, or whose meanings overlap – e.g. for mature possible synonyms are adult, ripe, perfect and due
The group or type of synonyms that grabbed our attention is the one called social by Leech, or dialect, called by Palmer. Leech (Leech 14) described social meaning as ‘‘a piece of language that conveys about the social circumstances of its use.’’ There are several dimensions of socio-stylistic variations but we will mention and focus on variation according to dialect or, to be even more specific, on the language of geographical region.
Dialects are linguistic varieties, often defined as sub-forms of languages, which may differ in vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar. There are many different dialect of English language but in this paper, we will deal with two major, British English and American English.
International Conference, English language, British and American studies, International Balkan University in Skoplje, 29 May 2015, coauthors: Samina Dazdarevic, Admir Gorcevic, Fahreta Fijuljanin
2. Lorry or truck? Pair synonymy in BrE and AmE.
“Two nations divided by a common language”
George Bernard Shaw
English language, globally recognized as lingua franca, has many varieties of dialects. The most important and famous are British and American English but even British and American have their many sub-dialects as shown in
figures 1 and 2.
If we carefully observe the map, we will notice a myriad of colours that mark different dialect areas depending on geographical region. There are Scotland, North, Midlands, East Anglia, South, West Country, Wales and Isle of Man and Ireland and every one of those has its own different sub-dialects varying from number 3 to 10.
On the other side, there is also the USA which has many and many dialects and subdialects as it is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 1. Dialects from across the United
Kingdom and Ireland
(http://www.mapsinternational.co.uk/blog/index.php/2013/01/16/mapping-dialect-and-its- influences/ )
The essential question arisen from these maps is: Do they really understand each other?
English-speaking people often use different terms and expressions to allude on the same thing, person or even a concept. So, the main misunderstanding can occur from using vocabulary in different
dialects.
Figure 2. Dialect map of American English
( http://robertspage.com/dialects.html )
International Conference, English language, British and American studies, International Balkan University in Skoplje, 29 May 2015, coauthors: Samina Dazdarevic, Admir Gorcevic, Fahreta Fijuljanin
Even though the terms candyfloss and cotton candy refer to a type of candy made from sticky threads of sugar around a stick, they sound completely different.
This kind of difference and entity question of such pair synonyms in vocabulary of British and American English dialects is the subject of investigation that this paper deals with. We carefully have chosen 3 groups of pair synonyms (lorry/truck, lift/elevator, jail/prison) in BrE and AmE and in the beginning of the qualitative analysis their definitions will be employed. The dictionaries we consulted are:
-Oxford Learner’s Dictionary ( OLD 2015)
-Merriam-Webster Dictionary ( MWD 2015)
-Cambridge Dictionaries Online ( CDO 2015)
-Dictionary (2015)
3.Dictionary definitions of pair synonyms autumn and fall, lorry and truck, lift and elevator, jail and prison.
Analysing the dictionary entries for lorry and truck, we have discovered that all four online dictionaries we have been using identify both searched words, lorry as well as truck as shown in table 1. Especially notable fact related to this pair is that lorry is being described as
truck or motor truck, thus using its synonym we are investigating, in three out of four dictionary definitions. While, on the other side, the word truck is usually being defined ‘as something large’, thus using a range of expressions to explain it physically where its synonym lorry is not mentioned at all. The primary meaning is explained as ‘a large vehicle for carrying heavy loads by road’ and the only suggestion we propose is an absolute synonymy based on dictionary
definitions.
Table 1. Dictionary definitions of lorry and truck
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Cambridge |
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Dictionary |
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Dictionary |
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Dictionary |
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Dictionaries Online |
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Lorry |
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-a large vehicle for |
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-motor truck |
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-a truck |
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-a motor truck, |
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carrying heavy loads by |
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especially large one. |
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road |
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1.a large vehicle for |
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1.barter |
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1.a large road vehicle that |
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-any of various forms |
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carrying heavy loads by |
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2.commodities appropriate |
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is used for transporting |
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of vehicle for carrying |
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road |
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for barter or for small trade |
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large amounts of goods: |
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goods and materials, |
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2. an open railway |
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3.close association or |
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2. a part of a train that is |
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usually consisting of a |
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vehicle for carrying |
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connection <will have |
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used for carryinggoods or |
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single self-propelled |
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Truck |
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goods or animals |
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no truck with crooks> |
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animals: |
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unit but also often |
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4.payment of wages in |
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composed of a trailer |
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goods instead of cash |
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hauled by a tractor unit |
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5.vegetables grown for |
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market |
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6. heterogeneous small |
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articles often of little |
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value; also : RUBBISH |
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International Conference, English language, British and American studies, International Balkan University in Skoplje, 29 May 2015, coauthors: Samina Dazdarevic, Admir Gorcevic, Fahreta Fijuljanin
Table 2 represents a combination of different expressions used to describe lexemes that we were searching for, lift and elevator, in order to mean ‘a machine used for carrying people and things to different levels in a building’, in its basic sense. The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary
did not offer lift as a noun in this sense, while the Dictionary did not define it as a machine or
device, but as an act. Observing only dictionary definitions, one can easily conclude it is an absolute synonymy we are talking about here. By all definitions summarized, it is ‘a device that carries people or good from one floor to another in a building.’
Table 2. Dictionary definitions of lift and elevator
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Oxford |
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Merriam- |
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Webster |
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Dictionary |
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-a device (as a |
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-a device like a box that |
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1.the act of lifting, raising, or |
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handle or latch) for |
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moves up and down, carrying |
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rising |
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lifting |
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people or goods from one |
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2.the distance that anything |
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floor of a building o another |
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rises or is raised |
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or taking people up and down |
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underground in a mine: |
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lifted |
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5.an act or instance of helping |
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to climb or mount |
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6.a ride in a vehicle, especially |
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one given to a pedestrian |
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7.a feeling of exaltation or |
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uplift |
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-a machine that |
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1.a device like a box that |
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1.a person or thing that |
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carries people or |
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carrying people and |
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moves up and down, carrying |
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elevates or raises |
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goods up and |
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things to different |
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people or goods from one |
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2.a moving platform or cage |
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down to different |
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levels in a building |
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floor of a building to another |
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for carrying passengers or |
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Elevator |
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levels in a |
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or taking people up and down |
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freight from one level to |
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building or a mine |
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underground in a mine |
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another, as in building |
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2. a conveyor (= moving |
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strip) that can be used for |
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devices for raising objects or |
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removinggoods from a ship, |
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materials. |
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putting bags onto an aircraft, |
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movinggrain, etc. |
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The following example, Table 3, is one model more of two different words explaining and denoting the same. Both prison and jail are defined ‘as a place or a building where criminals are being kept for their crimes’ as a primary meaning. Only CDO and MWD are being more
specific because they relate prison with a place where criminals are forced to live, while other dictionaries mention waiting for trials. The essential semantic meaning of both expressions is the same, and according to this table, they are considered to be absolute synonyms.
Table 3. Dictionary definitions of jail and prison
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Oxford |
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Cambridge Dictionaries |
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Learner’s |
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-a prison |
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-a place of confinement for |
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-a place where criminals are |
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-a prison, especially one |
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persons held in lawful |
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kept to punish them for |
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for detention of persons |
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Jail |
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custody; specifically : such a |
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their crimes, or where |
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awaiting trial or convicted |
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place under the jurisdiction of |
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people accused of crimes |
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of minor offenses |
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a local government (as a |
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are kept while waiting for |
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county) for the confinement |
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their trials: |
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of persons awaiting trial or |
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International Conference, English language, British and American studies, International Balkan University in Skoplje, 29 May 2015, coauthors: Samina Dazdarevic, Admir Gorcevic, Fahreta Fijuljanin
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those convicted of minor |
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crimes — compare PRISON |
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-a building where |
-a place of confinement |
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1.a building for the |
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people are kept as a |
especially for |
criminals are forced to |
confinement of persons |
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punishment for a |
lawbreakers; specifically : an |
live as a punishment: |
held while awaiting trial, |
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crime they have |
institution (as one under state |
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persons sentenced after |
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committed, or while |
jurisdiction) for confinement |
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conviction |
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they are waiting for |
of persons convicted of |
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2.state prison |
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trial |
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3.any place of |
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compare JAIL |
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confinement or |
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involuntary restraint |
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4.imprisonment |
4. Corpus based data results
In carrying out this challenging study about pair synonyms and questioning the existence of absolute synonymy, the data in this part of study were drawn from one major source, concordance lines and comparative analysis along with it. In order to make the results and research authentic and factual, two great corpora were being employed, BNC (British National Corpus) and COCA (The Corpus of Contemporary American English).
One of the best tools to determine whether a word has a synonym and the scale of that synonymy is certainly a collocation. Since collocation is the most important unit of the vocabulary of every speaker, we decided to present our pair synonyms through this significant parameter in the following tables.
Tables that are going to be displayed below are extracted from both corpora and the first column called WORD is a collocation of the words searched. The next columns called W1 and W2 represent words that are compared with each other. Numbers shown below are the numbers of collocations occurrences of the first and the second word. A comparison of the collocates should provide us an authentic insight into differences or similarities in meaning between two words compared.
While described as being absolute in section 3 in the part of dictionary definitions, this pair synonyms, lorry and truck, detected through both corpora don’t seem to match each other’s
collocations which is, by some linguists, one of the main features of absolute synonymy. The only collocations, there are 6 out of 10 420 detected in the first 17 entries, seem to be possessive adjectives my and his. This collocations are not encountered as a real collocations since all nouns can have their determiners in the forms of possessive adjectives (called personal pronouns by some grammarians). Observing the first 17 collocations of the word lorry, it is noticeable that it mostly collocates with prepositions, articles and determiners, but in this case there is a vice versa situation comparing the first with the second word. The word1, lorry, has much more collocations than the word2, truck – 415:66148 detected collocations in COCA as shown in figure 3. This enormous difference stems from the dialect basis of the pair synonyms and the corpus (COCA) we have been using for investigating.
International Conference, English language, British and American studies, International Balkan University in Skoplje, 29 May 2015, coauthors: Samina Dazdarevic, Admir Gorcevic, Fahreta Fijuljanin
Figure 3. Collocation comparisons of pair synonyms lorry and truck in COCA
Figure 4. Collocation comparisons of pair synonyms lorry and truck in BNC
It is quite evident that numbers can say more than words if we carefully observe the huge amount of zeros in the places of W2, whether looking at collocations of lorry or truck. This is another evidence of non-existing absolute synonymy.
As we are more searching for absolute synonyms, it more seems that we are proving there is no such phenomena in language. The following comparison, figure 5, is another example how corpus can help non-native speaker (but native also) to determine and recognize different linguistic changes in the process of adopting foreign language. Low numbers in the column titled W2 in regard to column titled W1 can be a remarkable indicator of nonentity of absolute synonymy. W1s and W2s proportion in collocations, 810:24 and 2921:5, stands for an excellent indication in favour of those who claim that absolute synonymy in language is possible.
International Conference, English language, British and American studies, International Balkan University in Skoplje, 29 May 2015, coauthors: Samina Dazdarevic, Admir Gorcevic, Fahreta Fijuljanin
Figure 5. Collocation comparisons of pair synonyms elevator and lift in COCA
Thorough and profound linguistic investigation of synonymy in English language is the
main objective of this study for any further research in the field of lexicology. Hoping that this paper represents an exploration basis for curious ‘language detectives’, in the following table, the COCA corpus hasn’t been mentioned due to lack of space, but only BNC corpus. The main
reason is the similarity between the results obtained comparing COCA and BNC.
Figure 6 is a visual representation of the last group of pair synonyms we have investigating, prison and jail. Of course, featuring that the figure shows British English speakers, it is common to get these numbers in columns of W1 and W2. Collocations of the word jail occurs only 127 times and has its matches 68 times for prison collocations. So far, it is the smallest difference in collocations between pairs compared. In the other part of table, the number of prison collocates is far higher than jail collocations, 1192:11, which, contrasting the first proportion, is a hint for defining absolute synonymy. Another characteristic of this pair of synonyms is that the most collocations for both jail and prison are mainly proper names like Baghdad, America, Pentonville, Fazakerley and others.
Figure 6. Collocation comparisons of pair synonyms prison and jail in BNC