Synonyms and their challenges for first year students at the english department, university of languages and international studies, vietnam national university

Therefore, using synonyms flexibly and effectively is really a challenge for studentslearning a foreign language.First year students at English Department, College of Foreign Languages,

Lý thanh tú

Synonyms and their challenges for first-year students at the English department, university of languages and international studies, Vietnam national university (Từ đồng nghĩa và những thách thức của

nó đối với sinh viên năm thứ nhất khoa Anh, Đại học Ngoại ngữ, Đại học

Quốc gia, Hà Nội)

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.15

HANOI, 2009

Lý thanh tú

Synonyms and their challenges for first-year students at the English department, university of languages and international studies, Vietnam national university (Từ đồng nghĩa và những thách thức của

nó đối với sinh viên năm thứ nhất khoa Anh, Đại học Ngoại ngữ, Đại học

Quốc gia, Hà Nội)

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.15

Supervisor: Dr Hà Cẩm Tâm

HANOI, 2009

Table of contents

1 Rationale of the study……… 1

2 Scope of the study……… 2

3 Aims of the study……… 3

4 Organization of the study……… 3

DEVELOPMENT 4 Chapter 1: literature review 4 1.1 Overview of synonyms……… 4

1.1.1 Synonymy as a sense relation……… 4

1.1.2 Definition of synonyms ……… 4

1.1.3 Characteristics of synonyms ……… 5

1.1.4 Classification of synonyms……… 6

1.1.4.1 Absolute synonyms ……… 6

1.1.4.2 Non-absolute synonyms………

1.2 Factors distinguishing synonyms ………. 7

1.2.1 Connotation……… 7

1.2.2 Formality of the context……… 9

1.2.3 Collocation……… 10

1.2.4 Denotation……… 12

1.3 Componential analysis……… 14

Chapter 2: methodology 16 2.1 Research design……… 16

2.1.1 Research questions……… 16

2.1.2 Data collection instruments……… 16

2.1.3 Informants……… 17

2.1.4 Procedures……… 17

2.2 Analytical framework……… 17

Chapter 3: Data analysis and discussions 3.1 Discussion of the results of the test ……… 19

3.1.1 Result of exercise 1……… 19

3.1.2 Result of exercise 2……… 25

3.1.3 Result of exercise 3……… 28

3.1.4 Result of exercise 4……… 30

3.2 Major findings……… 33

Conclusion 35 1 Concluding remarks……… 35

2 Implications of the study results……… 36

3 Suggestions for further research……… 38

1 Rationale of the study:

Synonyms do exist in almost every language, including English English, as HowardJackson states, is a language rich in pairs of synonyms These pairs (or groups) of synonymsgive us various choices when we want to convey one and the same idea They make alanguage flexible and varied However, to choose the appropriate word among a group ofsynonyms for a specific situation is not simple If we can do this, we may feel absolutelysatisfied because we have expressed ourselves not only correctly but also lively andemotionally We can create a mental picture for the reader by using words that are specific andaccurate Thank to this, our utterances or sentences are very persuasive and appealing toreaders or listeners On the contrary, if the word we use is not suitable, we may feelembarrassed and even uneasy

This fact proves one thing that pairs or groups of synonyms are not substitutable inevery situation Two words may be synonymous and equally appropriate for one context, butnot so in another There are some underlying factors that make them different from oneanother Even native speakers, who are aware of these factors, sometimes find it hard toexpress themselves by not being able to choose the most suitable word An example inVietnamese is that when a young girl wore a new orange T- shirt with the pattern of a butterfly

on it, her mother liked it very much and wanted to pay a compliment to her However, shehappened to find no words to say what she wanted to Her mind seemed to be empty, and shefelt very confused She said to her daughter that “Thoa hôm nay có cái áo sặc sỡ thế!” Yet shewas completely dissatisfied with her word choice because in Vietnamese “sặc sỡ” has aneutral, or sometimes rather negative sense, whereas her comment on her daughter‟s T- shirtwas entirely positive After a while, a friend of the girl came and saw the T- shirt, sheexclaimed: “¤i, chị có cái áo thật là rực rỡ!” Then the girl‟s mother appeared to be releasedfrom her uneasiness and confusion now that she found the key to her problem of vocabulary

“Rực rỡ” is exactly the word she wanted to use for her compliment, and that word gives anextremely different impression of how she felt about the T- shirt

Therefore, using synonyms flexibly and effectively is really a challenge for studentslearning a foreign language.

First year students at English Department, College of Foreign Languages, VietnamNational University, have not learnt language theory, so a majority of them are not highlyaware of the factors underlying a pair or a group of synonyms As a result, they make a lot oferrors in using synonyms Nevertheless, these errors can be restricted and corrected if thestudents are warned about those factors

That is why this study is carried out, to investigate the factors underlying the use ofsynonyms, and to help first year students to improve their use of synonyms in writing

2 Scope of the study:

This study is confined to English synonyms only It is not a contrastive analysis ofsynonyms, so Vietnamese synonyms are not mentioned They are just given as illustrations forthe universal properties of synonyms Even within English synonyms, only several groups areinvestigated owing to the fact that the number of English synonyms is huge, and certainly aminor research can hardly cover all of them

Once the study is developed, it can be seen that there are several factors underlying theuse of synonyms; however, not all of these factors make synonyms become challenging tostudents, so only the factors that cause students to make errors are discussed in details Theother factors are just listed for reference

Although students at higher levels of English still make mistakes in using synonyms,only first year students are taken into consideration as they are appropriate subjects for thepurpose of the study

3 Aims of the study:

This study is carried out to serve three major purposes:

- To conduct an investigation into different aspects of English synonyms

- To address the issue of using some specific groups of synonyms of first year students

in English Department, College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University This is done

by making the students to do some tests Then their errors in the tests are picked up and examinedfor causes and sources

- To provide some recommendations for preventative and curative measures to help improve first year students‟ use of synonyms.

4 Organization of the study:

There are three main parts in this thesis The first part is INTRODUCTION in whichthe rationale, scope, aims, and design of the study are presented so that readers can have ageneral view of the thesis

The second part of the thesis is DEVELOPMENT This part is sub-divided into threemain chapters The first chapter deals with theoretical background and review of literature Inthis chapter, all the basic knowledge of synonyms, namely definition, characteristics, andclassification are reviewed Chapter 2 is about the methodology of the study It describes theresearch questions, informants, data collection instruments, and analytical framework Chapter

3, the backbone of the thesis, deals with data analysis and discussions This chapter mainlypresents the errors in using synonyms by first year students and discusses their causes as well

as suggests preventative and curative measures Through this last chapter, teachers andstudents may find useful methods to apply in their real teaching and learning

The CONCLUSION part presents concluding remarks, implications for teaching andlearning synonyms, and suggestions for further research

development Chapter 1: literature review

The knowledge of synonyms, factors distinguishing them, and the skill ofcomponential analysis are required for identifying and analyzing first year students‟ errors inusing synonyms Therefore, this chapter deals with the basic concepts and ideas to set thetheoretical background for analyses which will be carried out later in this study

There are different definitions and discussions on synonyms from various semanticists.Some representatives are John Lyon, W Kreidler, Michael McCarthy, Norbert Schmitt, etc.Their points of view on synonyms will be discussed and compared to establish acomprehensible and rich theoretical background that serves the purpose of the thesis

1.1 Overview of synonyms:

1.1.1 Synonymy - a sense relation:

Sense relation is an internal meaning relation that holds between words within thevocabulary system of the language In other words, it is the paradigmatic relation, the relationbetween different words that might have been chosen on the „vertical‟ axis The most obvioussense relations are those of „sameness‟, „oppositeness‟, and „including‟ Such terms assynonymy, antonymy, and hyponymy are used to refer to these relations respectively

So synonymy is a type of sense relation or lexical relation, a subject of semantics It isthe relation of sameness that holds between two or more words Therefore, the matter ofsynonymy and the use of synonyms are mentioned in almost all books on semantics andvocabulary

1.1.2 Definition of synonyms:

Many well- known linguists have given their own definitions of synonyms, mainly intheir books of semantics or vocabulary Though the ideas are quite similar, they are expressed

in different ways

Charles W Kreidler (1998:97) writes about synonyms in his book Introducing English

semantics According to him, synonymy is an instance of mutual entailment, and synonyms

are instances of mutual hyponymy He takes the following example:

(a) Jack is a seaman

(b) Jack is a sailor

Because the truth of (a) entails the truth of (b) and vice versa, and also the falsity of (a)

entails the falsity of (b) and vice versa, seaman and sailor are synonyms.

Linguistic semantics with a famous representative, John Lyon, defines synonyms as

“expressions with the same meaning” Similarly, Michael McCarthy (1997) says “synonymy

means that two or more words have the same meaning.” He takes series of examples as begin and start, sofa and settee, below, beneath and under(neath), etc D.A Cruse (1986) in the book

Lexical semantics states that synonyms are pairs or groups of lexical items bearing a special

sort of semantic resemblance to one another Howard Jackson (2000:92) also mentions

“sameness of meaning” that holds between two words when discussing synonyms

So each linguist uses a different expression, but they all agree that synonyms are pairs orgroups of words with the same meaning Only Lyon differs from other linguists in using theterm “expressions” He makes clear this point by explaining that his definition does not restrictthe relation of synonymy to lexemes, so lexically simple expressions may be synonymous tolexically complex expressions Denying this, Kreidler (1998:98) affirms that synonyms are

typically single lexemes of the same weight Therefore, Mr Jenkins is our postman and Mr.

Jenkins is the person who delivers our mail may have the same meaning, but postman and the person who delivers our mail are not synonyms.

For the purpose of this study, synonyms are confined to lexemes, but not necessarily

“single lexemes of the same weight”, and certainly they must be categorized as the same part

of speech So, die, pass away and kick the bucket are considered members of a group of

synonyms This will serve as a working tool in this thesis

1.1.3 Characteristics of synonyms:

Two words are synonymous only when they are compatible with the same subjects

For example, hard and difficult are synonyms when they are compatible with subject, so

“Integral calculus is a hard subject” also means “Integral calculus is a difficult subject”

However, while hard chair or hard knock is familiar, there are no such things as difficult chair and difficult knock This is to say that synonyms have different ranges of compatibility, the

ranges overlap but they are not co-extensive

Another characteristic of synonyms is that the bridging rule is not applicable for them,i.e the fact that A is synonymous with B and A is synonymous with C does not necessarily

means that B is synonymous with C Thus, funny is synonymous with humorous when compatible with story, and funny is synonymous with peculiar when compatible with feeling, but humorous and peculiar are not synonyms.

Funny story = humorous story

} humorous # peculiarFunny feeling = peculiar feeling

1.1.4 Classification of synonyms:

1.1.4.1 Absolute synonyms:

“Absolute synonyms” is the term John Lyon used for pairs or groups of synonyms thatcan be substituted for one another in any given context, whereas Jackson (2000) would rathercall this „strict synonyms‟ In this research, these two terms are used interchangeably Lyonestablishes a set of three criteria to assess whether a pair of synonyms is absolute or not

(i) all their meanings are identical

(ii) they are synonymous in all contexts (their collocational ranges are identical)(iii) they are semantically equivalent (their meaning or meanings are identical) on

all dimensions of meaning, descriptive or non-descriptive)More simply, Jackson states that the choice between strict synonyms would have noeffect on the meaning, style or connotation of what was being said or written Cruse alsomakes a short explanation of absolute synonyms with the condition that all their contextualrelations are identical

Although many linguists mention absolute synonyms and classified them as one type

of synonyms, they all agree that this type of synonyms is really rare Some linguists evenargue that absolute synonyms do not exist If they do, it is only when semantic change istaking place This means that when two words appear to become strict synonyms, either of

them will change its meaning or fallen out of use Jackson takes sky and heaven as an

example At first, these two words denoted both the physical firmament and the spiritual realm

of God and the angels Then sky came to denote just the physical, and heaven just the spiritual.

The scarcity of absolute synonyms is justified with different words as “uneconomical”,

“unnecessarily redundant”, “wasteful”, “luxurious”, etc We do not need a completely freechoice between two words for a particular context because we can well do it with only one

1.1.4.2 Non- absolute synonyms:

Non-absolute synonyms (or partial synonyms) should be distinguished from nearsynonyms, as Lyon proposed

Near synonyms are words which are more or less similar, but not identical in meaning

Some examples are mist and fog, stream and brook, dive and plunge, ask and beg, etc.

Partial synonyms are synonyms which fail to satisfy all the three conditions forabsolute synonyms The failure of any of those three conditions makes a pair of synonyms

non-absolute Take big and large as an example They are partial synonyms because not all their meanings are identical Besides, they have different collocational ranges Big can collocate with house, sister, mistake, etc Large can also collocate with house and sister but it does not collocate with mistake.

Another classification of synonyms makes it easier for us to follow Apart fromabsolute synonyms, there are five other types, but only three of them are mentioned herebecause the other two types do not serve the aim of this thesis:

Semantic synonyms are synonyms which differ in denotation (like near synonymsdescribed above)

Stylistic synonyms are synonyms which differ in connotation For example, while thin

is neutral, skinny is pejorative and slender is flattering.

Semantic stylistic synonyms are synonyms which differ in both denotation andconnotation This type makes up the majority of synonyms in English

1.2 Factors distinguishing synonyms:

As indicated in the scope of the study, there are many factors underlying the use ofsynonyms, but for the purpose of the study, only the factors which cause difficulties forfreshmen at university are mentioned and investigated in this part of the research Hence, suchfactors as dialect difference (or geographical distribution) and syntactic behavior or pragmaticvalue are neglected

1.2.1 Connotation:

In addition to literal, dictionary meanings, words often have implied, emotional

meanings known as connotations These connotations play an important role in the search for

the „right words‟ because they sometimes clash with the writer‟s intended meaning or view.Distinguishing between two words that seem to mean the same but have different colors andshapes and suggestions, this is essential to the art of writing, and also of speaking Thedictionary can tell you only what a word points to, it cannot tell you what it feels like

Unspeakable in the dictionary means the same as unutterable but the former is always used to

mean something base or vile, while the latter usually means some rapturous or divine thought

or emotion

Another example is that in the following sentence, the word pushy conflicts with the

meaning in the rest of the sentence

The pushy citizen patiently waited for his turn at the microphone before confidently expressing his concerns about the city council’s recent decision to staff the fire station with volunteers.

A pushy individual probably wouldn‟t have waited patiently for his turn to speak, but

rather would have barged in whenever he felt emotionally led to do so Perhaps, a moreappropriate descriptive word for an individual who “patiently waited” before “confidently

expressing his concerns” might be assertive.

Two words may largely share a denotation, in referring to a particular entity, but they mayhave divergent associative and emotive meaning Therefore, it is very important for a writer tochoose words which have appropriate connotations; otherwise, it might cause offence to thereaders, or at least make the writer misunderstood Moreover, connotations can help the

description become not only more exact but also more lively and vividly Push and shove may

serve as an example here: their denotation largely overlaps, that is „forceful propulsion

forward‟; but shove connotes roughness or haste, which push does not So “The bus was so

crowded that I was shoved forward and back again ad again” sounds more descriptive than

“The bus was so crowded that I was pushed forward and back again and again”

The following table lists some group of words which have similar dictionary meanings butare different in connotative meanings

5. dignified reserved stiff-necked

6. persevering persistent stubborn

8. thrifty conservative miserly

9. self-confident proud conceited

10. inquisitive curious nosySome other examples are: (all the words on the left are neutral)

Ambiguous equivocal (deliberately)

Famous notorious (disreputably)

Hate loathe (with repugnance or disgust)

Misuse abuse (of privilege or power)

New novel (strikingly)

Obtain procure (with effort)

1.2.2 Formality of the context:

Language cannot be used in isolation from the context When something is said orwritten, vocabulary needs to be chosen carefully basing on who is saying, to whom, when,where and why It is the relationship between the content of a message, its sender and receiver,

its situation and purpose, and how it is communicated, which altogether make up register In

terms of register, Halliday proposes three key components which restrict the selection of

vocabulary They are field, tenor, and mode:

Field: the subject matter and purpose of a message (travel‟s brochure, etc.)

Tenor: the relationship between sender and receiver (boss to employee, friend to friend,

etc.)

Mode: the channel of communication (phone call, written report, notice, etc.)

Basing on these three components, contexts are often divided in such types as formal vs.informal/slang/colloquial, written vs spoken, technical vs non-technical

As a result, one word in a pair of synonyms may be used in a more formal context thanthe other; or one of the pair may belong to slang or colloquial English, while the other is inmore general use The level of formality you write should be determined by the expectations

of your audience and your purpose For example, if you are writing a cover letter for a jobapplication or a college academic essay, you should write in a formal style If you are writing

a letter to a friend, something personal, or even something for a humorous or special interestmagazine when informal writing is expected, you would use a more informal style Formalityexists on a scale, from formal to semiformal, and to informal

Formality of the context is very important in writing in the sense that if the writer writes

in a wrong style, it may cause offence or create a distance between the writer and the readers.For instance, if the writer uses colloquial language or slang in an application form, the readermay feel that they are offended Consequently, the applicant is likely to be refused On thecontrary, while writing to a close friend, if the writer uses too formal words, the reader willthink that the writer stands on ceremony with him/her, and so keeps a distance from the writer.Following are some examples of synonym pairs, the ones on the left are usually used in

an informal or less formal context while the ones on the right in a more formal context:

Informal/ less formal Formal

Two things should be marked in Jackson‟s idea Firstly, collocation is not only aboutsynonyms It is structural or syntagmatic relation held between a word and any word that canco-occur with it in a sentence Besides, collocation most clearly occurs in specified syntacticrelation, e.g S + V (kettle + boil), or V + O (boil + kettle), or A + N (red + wine) Theseshould be called „grammatical collocation‟, in order to differentiate it from „lexicalcollocation‟, which is the subject of this study

Secondly, collocation is predictable It is a relation of mutual expectancy or habitualassociation The occurrence of one word predicts the greater than chance likelihood thatanother word will occur in the context The statistical terms „greater than chance likelihood‟suggest that the mutual expectancy of two words could be stronger or weaker, depending onboth the direction of expectancy and the number of alternative predictable words For

example, between kettle and boil, the collocation from kettle to boil is stronger than that from

boil to kettle because the number of verbs that regularly co-occur with kettle is less than the

number of nouns that regularly co-occur with boil Similarly, wreak has a stronger collocational relation with its object nouns than does settle because wreak occur predominantly with only two nouns (havoc and revenge) whereas settle occurs with a whole range of nouns: dispute, argument, stomach, nerves, child, etc.

In agreement with H Jackson, Michael McCarthy (1997) claims that there is a bindingforce or a „marriage contract‟ between words, and some words are more firmly „married‟ to

each other than others He takes example of blond and brown Both can co-occur with hair, but the relationship between blond and hair is stronger than that between brown and hair (given blond, there is hardly anything else to think of besides hair, but given brown, we can

think of a large number of other nouns) McCarthy gives high opinion of collocation, sayingthat it is fundamental in the study of vocabulary, and it deserves to be a central aspect ofvocabulary study

An example taken from McCarthy‟s book “Vocabulary” illustrates the influence ofcollocation on word choice Some everyday words denoting size are considered to see howthey collocate with a random selection of single nouns:

v= collocates ?= questionable x= does not collocate

One remarkable thing about collocation is that until relatively recently, the intuitivemethod was the only one possible for lexicologists to discover it, and it is the method that isreflected in the content of most dictionaries Adult native speakers also have a good intuitiveknowledge of typical collocations However, it is not a reliable method for investigating astatistical probability, which implies a degree of accuracy This, fortunately, have been cured

by today‟s corpora of a hundred million words Computers scanning huge amounts of text canconfirm and augment those intuitions, or can make explicit what we use automatically in oureveryday language Vietnamese learners, unfortunately, have not been familiar with thesecorpora The traditional way of learning still have influence on them, so they often learn just

the meaning of each individual word but not a lexical chunk or phrase That is why collocation

is really challenging to them

1.2.4 Denotation:

Denotation is the most obvious aspect of meaning, so it is the first thing people areoften concerned about when they learn or use a word However, it is listed as the last factor inthis part because denotations of words, if learnt carefully, are not very troublesome Therefore,

it is considered just as a minor factor in this thesis

In fact, it is denotative meaning of words that creates the type of synonyms which JohnLyon identified as near synonyms Near synonyms, in nature, are the synonyms whose

denotations are more or less similar but not identical Involve and include can serve as an example here According to Oxford dictionary, involve means to have or include something or

somebody as a part, an element, a condition, or a result, whereas include means to have something as part of a whole The remarkable thing is that involve specially refers to a

situation or an event, but include does not Thus, it should be „The accidents involved several

vehicles‟, but not „The accident included several vehicles‟

The difficulty with denotation is often caused by the translation into L1 Obviously,there are always lexical gaps between any two languages As a result, a word in L2, whichdoes not have any exact equivalent in L1, will be at risk of being translated without beingstored its original meaning If the learners choose the word in L1 first, and translated it into

L2, there is great likelihood that they will make mistake For example, both remark and

evaluate can be translated into Vietnamese as „nhận xét, đánh giá‟, their denotations in

English are quite different Remark means „to write or to say something as a comment, to observe something‟, while the denotation of evaluate is „to assess or to form an idea of the

amount, quality, or value of somebody or something‟ Hence, it is more suitable to say „I

can‟t evaluate his ability without seeing his work‟ than to say „I can‟t remark his ability without seeing his work.

It seems that concrete words with similar denotations are quite easy to be distinguishedbecause the difference is visible However, the problem becomes much harder when it

concerns abstract words Ask and beg, for instance, are sensitive words, which are just slightly

different Which word to choose will be determined by the writer‟s evaluation on the attitude

of the agent of the action

Generally speaking, these four factors have the function of distinguishing synonymsand help writers to take a word out of a pair or a group of synonyms to express their idea mostappropriately It is worth noting that synonyms in a pair or a group are not alwaysdistinguished by only one factor Two or more factors can be combined to distinguish the

same pair or group of synonyms For instance, big and large are different not only in terms of their collocation but also of their formality Big can collocate with sister while large cannot Besides, large is more formal than big.

1.3 Componential analysis:

Some semanticists and lexicologists have suggested that meanings of words can beanalyzed into a finite number of features or components, which are universal to all languages,and from which the meanings of all words can be composed by new, unique combinations

This approach is called „componential analysis‟ The features or components enable us to

organize lexical fields in terms of what the entities within them have in common and whatdistinguishes them from one another The common feature among the members of a lexical

field is a semantic marker The markers and the distinguishing features are put together in a table in componential analysis The squares in the table are filled with plus (+) or minus (-) to

show that a specific entity has or does not have the feature Sometimes both plus and minus(+/-) are used for a square to indicate that either may apply Following is an example

judgements vary This is because our lexical competence is highly variable, is dynamic, inconstant change and development Therefore, a learner‟s analysis may be different fromothers‟ Jackson (2000) also affirms that there is no sure way of establishing what theuniversal set of semantic components might be Only the analysis of considerable numbers oflexemes in many different languages will reveal what such a set of components mightplausibly look like And it may well be the case that the meanings of many lexemes cannot beexhaustively described by means of semantic components, especially those lexemes that have

a more abstract reference (e.g nạve, aware, wise, foolish, sophisticated, etc.).

In spite of the difficulties in identifying the semantic components of a word, there arefour major components of word meaning that are helpful for us They are listed below

- denotation, which includes conceptual and referential meaning; denotation exists by virtue of what it refers to

- connotation, including stylistic, affective, evaluative, and intensifying, is the pragmaticcommunicative value the words acquires by virtue of where, when, how, and by whom, for whatpurpose and in what context it is or may be used

- structural meaning, which is the meaning of a word acquired by virtue of its

membership in a system or a set

- categorical meaning, which serves as a classificatory basis

chapter 2: methodology

This chapter presents the methodology of the study Part 2.1 describes research design,which is sub-divided into research questions (2.1.1), data collection instruments (2.1.2),informants (2.1.3), and procedures (2.1.4) Part 2.2 deals with the analytical framework of thestudy, i.e componential analysis

2.1 Research design:

2.1.1 Research questions:

From the observation of real teaching and learning, the researcher believes that firstyear students make many errors concerning the use of synonyms Classifying andunderstanding the causes of those errors are therefore necessary for teaching and learningvocabulary; therefore two research questions were raised:

- What errors do first year students often make in using synonyms?

- What are the causes of those errors?

2.1.2 Data collection instruments:

To answer the research questions, a test has been designed It has been used to makestudents provoke their errors in using synonyms, basing on the belief that actual errors willcome up in spontaneous production, either by means of speaking or writing An analysis of theresult of the test will show the real situation of the freshmen in using several familiar groups

of synonyms

As shown in the literature review, there are four factors distinguishing synonyms,which are challenging to learners Therefore, the test was designed with four exercises, eachconcentrating on one factor Exercise 1 focuses on denotation, exercise 2 on collocation,exercise 3 on connotation, and exercise 4 on formality Exercises 1, 2, and 3 are of multiple-choice type, while exercise 4 asks for substitutions The pairs or groups of synonyms in theseexercises were chosen at random, not confined to any part of speech or a certain topic or field.The only criterion is that they are all words for intermediate level, which is the level of thefirst year students at ED, CFL, VNU The selection of exercises was made basing on the beliefthat synonyms of any part of speech and any specific field are distinguished by the samefactors in the same way Besides, students at ED, CFL, VNU learn different types of writing

such as description, narrative, letters (both formal and informal), and academic essays Theyare also exposed to different contexts of speaking such as everyday conversation, deliveringpresentation, etc Thus, the groups of words in the test should also be varied to cover as manytopics as possible.

on some general topics

In terms of time length in learning English, they all have spent at least seven years atsecondary school, and the first semester at the university

In general, the whole group is homogeneous in its age, cultural background andexperience, and knowledge of both mother tongue and foreign language

2.1.4 Procedures:

After the test had been carefully designed, they were delivered to the chosen subjects.Sixty students were gathered in a classroom, and the test was distributed to them The studentswere asked to do the test in 30 minutes without referring to any dictionary or source ofreference They were also encouraged not to talk to and consult their friends for the answer.When the allowed time was over, their works were collected whether they had finished or not

The papers were then searched for errors These errors made up the data for the thesis,and were analyzed to serve the goals of the thesis

2.2 Analytical framework:

The main framework of this research is componential analysis (or semantic feature

analysis) This technique of analysis is based on the components of word meaning as describes

in the literature review For a given group of words set in a specific context, their components

of meaning may be analyzed in terms of denotation, connotation, associative meaning, andcategorical meaning The identical components make up the semantic markers of the group,and the distinguishing features show that only one word is appropriate in the given context.Following is an example:

Their appearance _ me They told me yesterday that they could not come to the party.

A surprised B astonished C amazed D astounded

Firstly, the components of meaning of the four options are analyzed and compared, and thenshown in the following table:

with because because difficult so as to cause so as to leavewonder unexpected to believe confusion one helpless to

From the componential analysis, the semantic marker of the four words surprise/astonish/

amaze/astound is determined to be „with wonder‟ (i.e a pleasant feeling) Each of the four

options has its own distinguishing feature, which may be either the cause or the effect of theaction described in the verbs Next, the context is considered: The appearance of some peoplecaused „me‟ to feel wonder The reason is determined that „me‟ did not expect that thosepeople would come (unexpected)

The analysis of semantic components of the four options and the context makes it

evident that surprised is the right word to complete the sentence.

Chapter 3: Data analysis and discussions

After the data had been collected and suitable analysis techniques had been selected,

the data were carefully analyzed and the results are discussed in 3.1 to help the researcher

obtain the major findings, which are presented in 3.2

3.1 Results of the test:

Analysis and discussion of the test show how the students performed on some given

groups of synonyms, and how challenging each factor under investigation is to them Some

groups of synonyms are analyzed by means of componential analysis, while some others are

already clearly distinguished in terms of connotation, collocation, or formality of the context

The result of each exercise will now be discussed in order

3.1.1 Result of exercise 1:

This is type of multiple-choice exercise There were ten incomplete sentences with

each followed by four options The task of the students was to circle the options that best

complete the sentences The specific result of it is shown in the following table:

Sentence Key Option A Option B Option C Option D