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A Corpus-based Study on English Synonym Differentiation
LIU Meng-xian, LIN Ying
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2025.03.011
Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
The study of synonyms based on corpus has become a hot topic in recent years, and the task of differentiating synonyms has always been a complex issue. The current study made an attempt to investigate the differences among English noun synonyms “opposition”, “resistance” and “defiance” from the perspective of frequency distribution, collocation and semantic prosody based on COCA. This research shows that in terms of frequency distribution, “opposition” and “resistance” are more frequently used than “defiance”. Both of the two are most commonly used in academic journals while “defiance” is most frequently used in fiction. All of these three words rarely appear in TV and movie subtitles. Second, from the perspective of collocation, “opposition” often collocates with words about politics and personal state, “resistance” usually appears with words concerning politics and medicine, and “defiance” mainly shows up in the fields of military, medicine, personal state and others. Third, from the dimension of semantic prosody, “opposition” presents negative semantic prosody, “resistance” has neutral semantic prosody, and “defiance” indicates mixed semantic prosody. The present study is able to enrich the relevant study on synonym differentiation, and highlight the importance of understanding the subtle differences among synonyms.
corpus, synonym, frequency distribution, collocation, semantic prosody
Journal of Literature and Art Studies, March 2025, Vol. 15, No. 3, 198-206
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