Abstract

Synonymy refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning. Words that are close in meaning are called synonyms. English vocabulary contains plentiful synonyms for the sake of historical reasons.
On the other hand, the meaning of a word has two aspects: denotative and connotative. A word’s denotation is what it literally means, while it’s connotation emphasizes on the feeling and idea implied within the word.
This thesis makes dimensional analysis on studying the connotative meanings of English synonyms from the perspectives of stylistic coloring, degree of tone, emotional coloring, context, emphasis, collocation and semantics. 1) The difference between begin and commence lies in stylistic coloring. 2) The difference of tone can be viewed by large and big. 3) Little and small reflect emotional coloring. 4) The difference of context is reflected by buy and purchase. 5) Quiver and tremble show the difference of collocation. Words of the same denotation may differ in their connotations. Through the dimensional analysis of connotations, this paper intends to help English learners in China obtain a better understanding of lexical meaning and discriminate between synonyms A good knowledge of differences between synonyms’ connotations can help English learners avoid duplication as well as tactfully express their thoughts in a more precise way as well.

Key Words: English synonyms; connotative meaning; differences
 
摘  要

近义关系指的是词语语义相同或相近，因此，词义相近的词语成为近义词。由于历史等原因，英语近义词词量相当丰富。
另一方面，词义分为两个方面，即字面语义和隐含语义。字面语义指词语的最基本含义，即字典上诠释的意义。而隐含语义则是指代词语基本含义背后暗指的情感或者思想。
本文通过从语体，语势，情感色彩，语境，语义，侧重，搭配等方面对英语近义词的的隐含语义进行了多维分析。1）begin和commence体现了语体的不同。2）large和big体现了语势的不同。3）little和small体现了情感色彩的不同。4）buy和purchase的用法体现了语境的不同。5）quiver和tremble体现了搭配的不同。相同字面语义的词语，其隐含语义会有所不同。通过这种全方位多角度分析，本文旨在帮助国内的英语学习者更好的掌握词汇含义，区分近义词的差别。掌握英语近义词的隐含语义之间的差别，也可以更好的帮助英语学习者避免用词重复，同时又能委婉，准确的表达自己的思想。

关键词：英语近义词；隐含语义；差异性