Abstract: Near synonyms discrimination has been key yet difficult in English study. Research of near-synonymous adverbs is therefore meaningful because of their flexibility and variability. With a corpus-based method, this study aims to investigate four frequently used near-synonymous adverbs, probably, maybe, perhaps and possibly, from four respects: register features, distribution patterns, functioning as modifiers and their collocations. The result shows that in the respect of register features, probably and maybe are more frequently used in spoken register than perhaps and possibly; in the respect of distribution patterns, maybe and perhaps are more frequently placed in the sentence initial position. Probably and possibly are more often used after a verb; when functioning as modifiers, maybe or perhaps is seldom used as an adjective or verb modifier; as for their collocations, probably, maybe and possibly all have their special collocations while perhaps does not. In view of the results, the author suggests that English teachers should raise students’ awareness of discriminating near synonyms, especially near-synonymous adverbs, through introducing the corpus-based method to the process of teaching. In addition, lexicographers should pay more attention to the discrimination of near-synonymous adverbs.
Key Words: near-synonymous adverbs; corpus; register feature; distribution pattern; collocation

摘要：近义词辨析一直是英语学习的重点和难点，副词本身的灵活性和多变性使对近义副词的研究具有意义。本文以probably，maybe, possibly和perhaps四个常用近义副词为研究对象，运用基于语料库的研究方法，从语域特征、目标词在句中的分布模式、目标词作为修饰语、搭配四个角度进行分析。研究发现，在语域特征方面，probably和maybe比perhaps和possibly更常用于口语中；在句中分布模式方面，maybe和perhaps更多地被用在句首的位置，而probably和possibly则更多地用在动词之后；当它们作为修饰语时，probably和possibly较多地用于修饰动词和形容词；在搭配方面，probably, maybe和possibly都有特殊的搭配，而perhaps没有。鉴于以上结果，笔者建议，在教学过程中教师可尝试将基于语料库方法引入教学过程以提高学生对近义词，特别是近义副词的辨析意识；再者，词典编纂应加强对近义副词之间区别的标注。
关键词：近义副词；语料库；语域特征；分布模式；搭配

Adverbs are very unique linguistic elements because of “their enormous semantic and syntactic flexibility, as well as their elusiveness” (Hasselgard, 2010:xvii). An example given in Greenbaum’s (1969:6) classic book about adverbs explains the unique nature of adverbs well:
1.    Strangely, he answered the questions.
2.    He answered the questions strangely.
Owing to the different positions strangely occupies in the two sentences, the meanings of the two sentences are different. The first sentence means “it is very strange that ‘he’ answered the questions” and the second one means that “he” answered the question in a strange way. As adverbs can modify many different structures including verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, and clauses, they have a much higher positional variation rate than words of other parts of speech. In addition, adverbs also vary in form.