汉英同情义近义名词语义韵对比研究

Exploring Semantic Prosody of Synonyms Across English and Chinese:A Corpus Analysis of “Sympathy” Words

近义词是词汇教学与习得研究关注的焦点。本文采用语料库语言学搭配研究方法,基于iWeb语料库与国家语委语料库,以表达"同情义"概念的英汉近义名词SYMPATHY,COMPASSION,"同情"和"怜悯"为研究对象,从跨语言角度对其语义倾向与语义韵特征进行了翔实的分析。分析结果发现,目标近义词项在各自语内层面存在主导语义倾向与语义韵微殊,在语际层面的对等词存在语义韵冲突。对比研究结果表明,语义韵是近义词语义甄别的关键要素,也是确立跨语言对等词的重要因素。语义韵研究在对于改善近义词教学与学习,促进双语词典中的对等译义词确立及其微观结构的译义建构等方面都具有一定的启示。

Synonymy is a common yet complex linguistic phenomenon gaining due attention in vocabulary acquisition and retention.Based on the iWeb corpus and the Chinese National Corpus,the present study makes a detailed semantic analysis on the collocational behavior and prosodic profiles of “sympathy” words across English and Chinese [namely SYMPATHY,COMPASSION and their respective Chinese equivalents 同情(tóngqíng) and 怜悯(liánmǐn)].The results show that prosodic conflicts of the synonymous groups under study arise at both intralingual and interlingual levels,and yet are not fully represented in bilingual learners’ dictionaries.The study shows that corpus-based semantic investigation is a useful approach not only to explain semantic preferences and prosodies of synonyms within a language,but also to help determine corresponding word units across languages.Finally,the article discusses the practical implications for future semantic prosody studies,and its relevance with vocabulary pedagogy and translation equivalence in bilingual dictionaries.