LINGUISTIC_INVESTIGATION_OF_ABSOLUTE_SYN

International 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

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

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

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

International Conference, English language, British and American studies, International Balkan University in Skoplje, 29 May 2015, coauthors: Samina Dazdarevic, Admir Gorcevic, Fahreta Fijuljanin

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.