A Contrastive Study Of Semantic Prosodies Of Near Synonyms In English And Chinese

The present study aims to explore the degree of correspondence of semantic prosodies of near synonyms in English and Chinese and their pedagogical and translational implications. It is conducted using methodology that combines both the quantitative approach of Corpus Linguistics and the qualitative approach of contrastive analysis. The data for this research are drawn from the online CCAE (Corpus of Contemporary American English) and CMLC (Chinese Modern Language Corpus). Based on their meanings as defined in a dictionary of synonyms and a bilingual dictionary, and their significance of occurrence in the corpus, four sets of semantically-related verbs are selected for investigation, which include: 1. DISPLAY and EXHIBIT versus展现and展示; FACE and CONFRONT versus面对and面临; MEET and ENCOUNTER versus遇到and遭到; REVEAL and DISCLOSE versus揭露and暴露. Frequency of occurrence, collocations, and concordances of the near synonyms are closely observed. On the basis of the semantic fields of recurrent collocations, we identify the semantic preference and semantic prosody of these lexical words, and the findings are compared and contrasted between English and Chinese.The general tendencies of the collocational behavior of the near synonyms revealed in the present investigation include: 1. The concordance analysis shows that it is the semantic preference of the collocations that builds up particular semantic prosodies. 2. The semantic prosodies of the verbs in English and Chinese as well incline to be complex. The so-called synonyms only exist in certain sense but not in all the senses . 3. The synonyms in both English and Chinese vary to a certain degree in their collocational behaviors and semantic prosodies. Some pairs of synonyms seem to be more synonymous than others in terms of collocations and semantic prosodies. 4. Compared with English, the Chinese verbs exhibit more prominent prosody features. 5. There are more gaps than overlaps between English and Chinese semantically related verbs in light of collocational behaviors and semantic prosody. By examining the collocational behaviors of the four sets of semantically-related verbs in a detailed manner, we have obtained the findings as follows:1. In the first semantic set, the English pair of synonymous verbs is mainly used in neutral contexts. DISPLAY shows a mixed semantic prosody, with the possibility to be chosen first for those favorable words; EXHIBIT also shows a mixed semantic prosody, with apparent tendency to favor those negatively evaluated nouns. Their Chinese counterparts展现and展示demonstrate apparent positive semantic prosodies. The English pair of synonymous verbs and the Chinese pair have some overlaps in collocational profile but show a major difference in semantic prosodies.2. In the second semantic set, when FACE collocates with those tangible nouns, its semantic prosody can be neutral or positive; however, when it collocates with abstract nouns, it is imbued with a negative semantic prosody. While CONFRONT seldom occurs with words referring to tangible objects, it is usually constrained to the negative contexts and is rarely used in positive contexts. As for their Chinese counterparts面对and面临, the former displays a mixed semantic prosody, while the later exhibits a negative one. For this semantic set of verbs, there is great resemblance in collocational behaviors and semantic prosodies between English and Chinese.3. In the third semantic set, MEET in all likelihood exhibits a mixed semantic prosody, while ENCOUNTER bears an apparent negative semantic prosody. As for the Chinese pair of synonymous verbs遇到and遭到, the former shows a statistical tendency for negative semantic prosody, while the later exhibits a definite negative semantic prosody. The prosody profiles of MEET and遇到diverge from each other, as the Chinese lexical item is more oriented to negative context than its English counterpart. ENCOUNTER and遭到resemble each other in semantic prosody.4. In the fourth semantic set, the semantic preferences of REVEAL point to a neutral semantic prosody, while those of DISCLOSE show a similar tendency, with occasional use in negative contexts. When it comes to the Chinese pair of near synonyms,揭露and暴露,, both exhibit typical negative semantic prosody. A sharp contrast in semantic prosody exists in the members of this semantic set, REVEAL, DISCLOSE and暴露,揭露.