Any synonym book must be seen as a compromise that relies on the sensitivity of its users to the idiomatic nuances of the language. Today, the terms exist side by side in English, the older expression still in common use, the newer more frequent in the scientific and technical literature. The word tsunami was borrowed from Japanese in an attempt to describe the phenomenon more accurately, but it was later pointed out the tsunami means 'tidal wave' in Japanese. For example, scientists some years ago expressed dissatisfaction with the term tidal wave, for the phenomenon was not caused by tides but, usually, by submarine seismic activity. In some instances, where a new coinage or a loanword has been adopted inadvertently duplicating an existing term, creating 'true' synonyms, the two will quickly diverge, not necessarily in meaning but in usage, application, connotation, level, or all of these. In such pairs the native English form is often the one with an earthier, warmer connotation. Many examples of overlapping can be cited the more obvious ones in English are those that reflect a duplication arising from Germanic and Romance sources, like motherly and maternal, farming and agriculture, teach and instruct. Indeed, linguists have long noted the economy of language, which suggests that no language permits a perfect fit, in all respects, between any two words or phrases. People who study language professionally agree that there is no such thing as an ideal synonym, for it is virtually impossible to find two words or phrases that are identical in denotation (meaning), connotation, frequency, familiarity, and appropriateness. Party workers going door to door to solicit votes is not advertising in a sense intended here, nor does a report or editorial in the news media about a candidate or a political party qualify as advertising. The word advertising means presenting to the public information and appeals by means of paid-for space in newspapers and paid-for time on radio and television. So, the phrase does not include short-term visitors nor family members who shuttle in and out of the household during a six-month period. The phrase currently living in the United States refers to individuals who spend at least six months consecutively in the household. The purpose is to rule out unintended meanings that readers might reasonably assume unless they are told otherwise.
Sometimes it is desirable to tell not only what a key word is intended to mean, but also to explain what it is not intended to include.
It is also the case with Mexican heritage and related by blood in the second example and forms of advertising and active party workers in the third example. Such is true of the terms high school students and later success in college in the first of our examples. Sentence definitions often contain words that require further clarification in the form of additional sentences. Political party aspects on which the present investigation focuses are (a) amount of money spent on a local campaign, (b) the amount spent on different forms of advertising, (c) the number of active party workers, and (d) the socioeconomic composition of the registered party membership. The term Mexican-American family in this study means a group of people of Mexican heritage, currently living in the United States, who are related by blood and are members of the same household. The words comparative effectiveness, as intended throughout this thesis, refer to the relative accuracy of four methods of predicting high school students’ later success in college. This can occur with places ( Kalimantan= Borneo, Vanuatu= New Hebrides, Myanmar= Burma), people ( Muhammad Ali= Cassius Clay), institutions or agencies ( State Department=foreign relations department), or conditions (Downs’ syndrome=mongolism).Ī single sentence, or a few sentences, may be enough to explain the meaning the author assigns to a term within the boundaries of the author’s project. In the main, the only occasions on which synonyms are suitable are ones in which a new, unfamiliar word can be adequately clarified with a familiar word or phrase. Too frequently, they carry as many different meanings – or as many vague meanings – as the words they are supposed to elucidate. However, for the precision needed in research, synonyms rarely suffice. At first glance, it might seem that a synonym could clarify the meaning assumed for a keyword or phrase.
0 kommentar(er)
