SYNONYMS AND TYPICAL ERRORS MADE BY the 1st YEAR STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF TOURISM, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF CULTURE

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES VIETNAM UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF HANOI POST GRADUATE DEPARTMENT ============ SYNONYMS AND TYPICAL ERRORS MADE BY the 1st YEAR STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF TOURISM, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF CULTURE Subject Semantics Name Nguyen Thanh Tam Group K18C Lecturer Dr Ha Cam Tam Deadline 2862010 Hanoi – June, 2010 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1 Rationale Each person in their life gets involved in many kinds of com.

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES VIETNAM

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF HANOI POST-GRADUATE DEPARTMENT

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SYNONYMS AND TYPICAL ERRORS MADE BY

TOURISM, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF CULTURE

Subject: Semantics

Name : Nguyen Thanh Tam Group: K18C

Lecturer : Dr Ha Cam Tam Deadline: 28/6/2010

Hanoi – June, 2010

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

Each person in their life gets involved in many kinds of communication One obvious thing is that different words used have different effect on the success of communication To communicate successfully, we have to use sounds in the form of words, structures, sentences and choose suitable ones for different communication Among them, words can be said the most basic unit Choosing the right word is not easy at all because it requires the knowledge of speakers of words In fact, there are many words that are very similar in meaning but different in shade of meaning

Sometimes, students get confused in determining what word is more correct For

example, students may wonder whether they should use ‘persuade’ or ‘convince’,

‘brilliant or wonderful’, ‘die or pass away’ The wrong choice may lead to serious

problems Therefore, I find that studying into ‘Synonyms and typical errors made by the 1 st year students at the Faculty of Tourism, Hanoi University of Culture’ is very

important This will help students to choose and use suitable words in their communication to improve the effect of communication

1.1 Aims and objectives of the study

This study is aimed at:

- Giving theoretical background on synonyms: definitions, classification and sources

- Making clear about the typical errors in using synonyms by the 1st year students at the Faculty of Tourism, Hanoi University of Culture

- Giving some suggestions to help students understand the shade of meaning and use suitable synonyms in different communicative situations

1.2 Scope of the study

The study, due to the limit of length, cannot cover the whole field relating to English synonyms It only focuses on the following points:

- Major theoretical background on synonyms

- Investigation into using synonyms of the 1st year students at the Faculty of Tourism, Hanoi University of Culture

1.3 Methods of the study

The study uses the following methods:

- Qualitative: interviewing 20 first year students, interpreting the students’ drafts to see what they had done

- Quantitative: collecting typical errors made by students in their daily conversations and their writings

2 DEVELOPMENT

2.1 English synonyms

2.1.1 Definition of English synonyms

The word synonym is a composite of two Greek words: The prefix “syn” means

“together” and “onym” is “name.” Therefore, synonyms- naming the same thing

According to John I Saeed, (2003), “Synonyms are different phonological words

which have the same or very similar meanings”.

In ‘An Introduction to Semantics’, Nguyen Hoa defines synonyms as follows:

“Synonyms are actually words of the same parts of speech which have similar

meaning, but not identical meaning They may share a similar denotational or connotational meaning They can differ from each another in terms of denotation or connotation.”

In the book ‘English lexicology’, Nguyen Manh Hung writes “Synonyms are words belonging to the same parts of speech and possessing one or more identical or nearly identical denotational meaning interchangeable in some texts”.

This is the definition from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki:

‘Synonyms are different words with identical or very similar meanings Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy.’

In general, different scholars give different definitions about synonyms In short, synonyms are words or phrases which share the exact same meaning or a very similar meaning

For example:

 Beautiful-pretty

 Teenager-adolescent

 Baby-toddler

 Mother-mommy

Words from any part of speech (e.g nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs or prepositions) can have synonyms, as long as they both have the same part of speech

For example:

 Amazing, awesome, incredible, astonishing (adjectives)

 Car, auto, automobile, motorcar (nouns)

 Participate, take part, join (verbs)

 Quickly, fast, promptly (adverbs)

 On, upon (prepositions)

2.1.2 Classification of English synonyms

2.1.2.1 Absolute synonyms

Absolute synonyms are the words with fully identical meanings and stylistic

characteristics One can always be substituted for the other, e.g: fatherland,

motherland, etc.

Absolute or perfect synonyms are very rare in the vocabulary and in the diachronic level, the phenomenon of absolute synonyms is anomalous and consequently temporary the vocabulary system invariably tends to abolish it either by rejecting one

of the absolute synonyms or by developing differentiation characteristics in one or both

of them

For example:

Semantic vs semasiology Noun vs substantive Flexion vs inflexion

2.1.2.2 Semantic synonyms

They are words differing in the shades of meaning They make up a large number of English synonyms

e.g: beautiful, pretty and handsome.

All of them have the criterion of common denotation ‘good looking’ Each of them

creates its own feature of human beauty

‘To stare’, ‘to glare’, ‘to gaze’, ‘to glance’ all denote an act of looking at somebody or something but ‘stare’ is looking steadily lastingly in surprise and curiosity ‘Gaze’ is a steady looking with admiration and ‘glance’ is brief looking.

The words which belong to this kind make clear the objective difference of the object mentioned They are less interchangeable

2.1.2.3 Stylistic synonyms

They are words differing in the stylistic aspects They often differ not so much in meaning as in the emotional saturation They are exactly the same meaning but differ

in the use sphere (used in poetry, spoken language, formal and informal language) In such a synonymic group, there is a ‘central’ word or ‘neutral’ word or synonymic dominant Other words denote the notion common but with different color

For example, ‘to die, to pass away’; ‘Policeman, cop, officer’ are synonyms When conveying neutral emotion, you can use ‘policeman’ but when you express your contempt, the word ‘cop’ is used.

In this synonymic group, the use of archaic synonyms is a common stylistic device Older words are often rich in connotation Archaisms or attempt at their revisal to a desire for novelty, a feeling foe a less worn expressing Poet always uses old words:

1 Billow – wave 4 Changer – merchant

2 Maid – girl 5 Mere – pond, late

3 Be like – probably 6 oft – often

Semantic synonyms concern with euphemisms They are used to avoid the words that are considered indecent, indelicate, rude, too died or impolite For example, the word

‘glance’ and ‘look away’ are synonyms We know that ‘look’ is the most neutral member and simply mean ‘turn one’s eyes in a particular direction in order to see’ On the other hand, apart from these semis, ‘glance’ suggests ‘a quick and stolen look’ Meanwhile, ‘pregnancy’ is another topic for ‘delicate’ references Here are some of the euphemisms used as substitutes for the adjective ‘pregnant’: an interesting condition,

in the family way, with a baby coming

2.1.2.4 Semantic stylistic synonyms

They are words differing in both the shades of meaning and the stylistic aspect E.g: to

dismiss, to fire, to sack In which of them, ‘to dismiss’ is a neutral word, the idea of

giving permission to go is often implied However, ‘to fire’ is slang and used with the

idea of forcing to go unwillingly

For example, ‘to agree’ and ‘to consent’ are the most general words, the idea of

agreement with what someone else has stated or proposed is express without any

qualification ‘She agreed to his plan but she was prettily sure that his mother would a

stop to it’ ‘Consent’ expresses the more complete agreement It involves the will or the

feeling and it is a literary word

2.1.2.5 Phraseological synonyms

They are the words that have the same meaning in certain collocations and another in others Such synonyms are called phraseological synonyms Words of this group

belong to the same stylistic type E.g: to make and to do

Tea, coffee

An error

A fire Money

Business Exercises Homework Painting

‘To do’ and ‘to make’ in regard to person are both used in the sense of voluntarily exerting a power to bring a thing to pass but ‘to do’ applies to the ordinary business of

contrivance or purposes What is done once may have been brought into existence

Here, the meaning of ‘make’ is to produce or construct and the meaning of ‘do’ is ‘to

carry out, to perform’ However, ‘make’ and ‘do’ often deviate from their meanings if

used idiomatically Such idiomatic use can only be mastered by experience Or another

example, ‘meaning’ and ‘sense’, we can say ‘The word has two senses or the word has

two meanings’ but not ‘He is a man of meaning’ We can only say ‘He is a man of sense’.

2.1.2.6 Territorial synonyms

They are words that belong to different countries and have the same meaning large territories for many centuries for territories and economical reasons It is not only the official language of the Britain but also USA, Canada and Australia In these countries, there appear many words that exist with exact British equivalents All of them form the territorial synonyms

For example:

Autumn Vest Toilets Waistcoat Car park Trainers Cinema Jumper

Fall Undershirt Restroom Vest Parking lot Sneakers Movie theatre Sweater

All synonyms are less different in connotation Using them depends on where you live

It is simply a matter of people speaking different form of the language having different vocabulary items

What are mentioned above are kinds of synonyms Among them, semantics stylistic synonyms are the most important They take up the majority of English vocabulary They are used vary much to represent the same phenomenon in different aspects, shades and variations

2.1.3 Sources of synonyms

2.1.3.1 Borrowings

Many words were borrowed from Greek, Latin and French and they become synonyms

to native words forming the synonymic groups in which the native words are usually neutral, French words are literary, Latin and Greek are bookish or scientific

e.g: to end – to finish – to complete

belly – stomach – abdomen

2.1.3.2 The change of meaning

The word ‘hand’, for example, acquired the meaning ‘worker’ and became synonym to this word, then the meaning ‘side, direction’ (hand side), signature (hand signature).

2.1.3.3 Word building

Creation of phrasal verbs

e.g: to rise, to get up; to get off the ground, to take off the ground

Conversion

e.g laughter – laugh

Shortening

e.g: popular -pop

bicycle -bike

microphone -mike

Means of deviation and composition

e.g: deceptive –deceitful

trader – tradesman

periphery – circumference

2.2 Errors made by the 1 st year students at the Faculty of Tourism.

Through the results of the test, especially some information collected from the interview with 20 1st year students at the Faculty of Tourism, errors in using English synonyms of students are found out

Most of the students who are interviewed said that synonyms could be used interchangeably and substituted in all contexts They cannot tell the difference between words in each synonymic group As a result, they have problems in learning synonyms among which how to understand their shade of meaning and use suitable synonyms in different contexts are the biggest

It cannot be denied that vocabulary errors manifest one or more kinds of dissonance between the word and its context From the collected data, the four dissonances that interfere with encoding by students are stylistic, syntactic, collocational and semantic

2.2.1 Stylistic errors

e.g: dunk the chicken pieces in the beaten egg mixture

2.2.2 Syntactic errors

e.g: The author purports that tobacco is harmful.

2.2.3 Collocational errors

e.g: I used to be a large smoker.

This kind of error seems to be often made by students For example, they think that the two sentences ‘She is making a big mistake vs she is making a large mistake’ are the same In fact, the sentence ‘She is making a large mistake’ is grammatically well formed, meaningful However, it is unacceptable collocationally Unfortunately, it is very difficult for students to find out the correct words in these situations

2.2.4 Semantic errors

e.g: I was badly damaged in the accident.

2.3 Suggestions to avoid mistakes

Above, some typical mistakes made by the 1st year students at the Faculty of Tourism are pointed out It is clear that how to understand the shade of synonyms’ meaning and use suitable ones in different contexts are the biggest

Some of these errors are the result of the first language transfer but the majority are interlingual, i.e., they reflect confusion between and among items in the second

language itself Hence, with the aim to help teachers and students of English to avoid mistakes, I would like to present several suggestions which I hope useful and advisable

First of all, teachers cannot hope to present new vocabulary so thoroughly that students will never misuse it, but they can aspire to prevent some of the misconceptions that lead to erroneous use The real challenge comes when a student choose a wrong word when speaking or writing; the teacher has the delicate task of explaining what has gone awry rather than merely telling the students to discard one word in favor of another – a procedure that usually leaves the students mystified and in no position to avoid a similar misstep in the future

Besides, teachers should design more activities and give students more exercises on synonyms to practise for “practice makes perfect” If these activities happen with high frequency, they will help strengthen students’ concept of words and develop their vocabulary Moreover, teacher should encourage students to use synonyms to add flavor to their speech and writing because if everything (person, place, object…) in the world had only one word to refer to it, the world would be a very boring place

For their part, students should not learn passively what teachers ask to or in the way teachers instruct In stead of that, they should have their own methods It is obvious that regular practice and a good way of learning will bring them solid theoretical knowledge

3. CONCLUSION

This assignment has been an attempt at providing readers with background knowledge

about synonyms In the assignment, a theoretical background on English synonyms has

been given Through the analysis, there emerges some problems of students’ learning synonyms among which how to understand their shade of meaning and use suitable synonyms in different contexts are the biggest