A comparative study of synonyms based on BNC corpus: A case study of IGNORE and NEGLECT
He Ying · Lecture Notes on Language and Literature · 2024
In English, numerous words are considered synonymous, as dictionaries and thesauruses often provide identical definitions for them. This poses a significant challenge for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, as they may perceive synonymous words as interchangeable, leading to potential ambiguity or awkwardness in their language use. However, the emergence of corpora and concordancing programs has introduced a new approach to investigating and learning synonymous words in English. This study specifically examines the collocational behavior and semantic prosody of two ostensibly synonymous verbs, "ignore" and "neglect," using the BNC Corpus. The findings reveal that these "equivalencies" can be misleading, as these words are typically used in distinct ways. The research suggests that learners may not have a comprehensive understanding of the collocation and semantic prosody of "ignore" and "neglect." Their tendencies to underuse or overuse certain grammatical forms and lexical patterns may be influenced by their native language or the registers of their English writing, or a combination of both factors. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of corpus-based studies for vocabulary teaching and learning more broadly.