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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
WANG Lu-han
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2025.03.018
Wuhan University of Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, China
This paper explores the differences between the near-synonyms “initially” and “firstly” using the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and the theory of extended units of meaning. The study analyzes the two words from five perspectives: word frequency, collocation, colligation, semantic preference, and semantic prosody. Results show that “initially” is more frequent, especially in academic writing, while “firstly” is common in blogs and informal contexts. “Firstly” often collocates with nouns and expresses logical sequence, while “initially” collocates with adjectives and describes initial states or scientific processes, often with negative connotations. This study highlights the effectiveness of corpora in distinguishing near-synonyms and offers insights for English vocabulary learning.
synonym, collocation, semantic preference, semantic prosody
Journal of Literature and Art Studies, March 2025, Vol. 15, No. 3, 248-250
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