A corpus-based analysis of English synonyms : ruin, demolish, destroy

Name: Chuleeporn Ruenroeng

keyword: Synonyms

LCSH: English language -- Synonyms and antonyms

; Corpus-based data

LCSH: Corpora (Linguistics)

; Degrees of formality

; Grammatical patterns

; Collocations Connotation

Abstract: This corpus-based study aims to investigate three synonymous verbs: ruin, demolish, and destroy. These words are used differently in terms of grammatical patterns, degrees of formality, collocation, and their distribution in different genres. One hundred concordance lines for each word from COCA, or Corpus of Contemporary American English, was used for data analysis, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary Online (2011) was used as the main reference for the data in connotation, example usage, and grammatical information of the synonyms. The present study reveals the following findings. The definitions of the three synonyms are not absolutely the same. Even if they share a core meaning, they each convey different meanings. The grammatical patterns of these three words are not completely identical. They just share some patterns. Furthermore, these words usually collocate with an object noun. In addition, the degrees of formality among these synonyms are not the same. While ruin and destroy are not often used in formal contexts, the word demolish is often used in formal contexts. Although ruin, demolish, and destroy are synonymous, they cannot act as substitutes for each other in all contexts due to the differences in degree of formality, grammatical patterns, and collocations. For this reason, ruin, demolish, and destroy are near-synonyms, but not perfect or absolute synonyms

Thammasat University. Thammasat University Library

Address: BANGKOK

Email: preserv@tu.ac.th

Name: Supakorn Phoocharoensil

Role: advisor

Created: 2014

Modified: 2022-01-25

Issued: 2022-01-25

วิทยานิพนธ์/Thesis

application/pdf

DOI: 10.14457/TU.the.2014.20

eng

DegreeName: Master of Arts

Level: Master's Degree

Descipline: English for Careers

Grantor: Thammasat University

©copyrights Thammasat University

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