Comparative Study In The Homonym Differences Across The Strait

Due to the differences of history, geography and politics, the language and culture between mainland China and Taiwan have been different for the separating sixty years. Since the Three Direct Links between the mainland and Taiwan have started frequent interaction and connection among people, the language and cultural differences caused more and more problems and inconveniences in communication. Vocabulary is the greatest distinction in language between both sides across the strait. The word differences can be divided into the following types from the morphology and meaning:homonym, synonym and the special neologism. Although the number of homonym is few, the homonym is a major obstacle in communication.This thesis covered a simplified overview and made brief comments of currant studies about word differences by selecting and analyzing eight dictionaries published in Taiwan and mainland China. We selected 254 common homonyms and generated a complete glossary by referring to the previous researching and analyzing several powerful dictionaries on both sides of the straits. The thesis also inspected the actual usage of homonym via the corpuses.This thesis meticulously analyzed different types of homonym. Meanwhile, the causes of the phenomenon had been discussed from external and internal angles. The current combination and interaction of words between mainland China and Taiwan have also been briefly narrated. Furthermore, we proposed some specific ideas about cooperation in teaching Chinese of mainland China and Taiwan.