[Lexicog] Re: Synonymy

[Allan Johnson]

from Allan Johnson -

I like the Cobuild examples that John showed in another message.  They show
quite plainly that there is a semantic distinction between 'big' and
'large', so I won't argue against that.  But it seems to me that the
semantic contrast between 'big mouth' and 'large mouth' doesn't necessarily
provide evidence of this semantic distinction between 'big' and 'large'.

The meaning for "big mouth" that strikes me first is a figurative meaning
where "to have a big mouth" means "to talk a lot".  But I think this
meaning is a semantic feature of the phrase, not necessarily reflecting the
meaning of the word "big" on its own.

I think the more literal meaning "to have a large-sized mouth" is also
possible.  But if that's what we mean, we will usually avoid using the
phrase "big mouth", probably saying "large mouth" instead, to avoid
confusion with the figurative meaning.

A few of the Cobuild examples from John's message also strike me this way:

8. by and large/*big
9. at large/*big
10. as large/*big as life

In these cases it looks like "large" has become part of a phrase that
carries its own unique meaning, somewhat independent of the meaning of the
word on its own.

Allan J.


----- Original Message -----
From: "David Costa" <pankihtamwa at earthlink.net>
To: <lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2005 2:52 AM
Subject: [Lexicog] Re: Synonymy


>
>
> One of my favorite examples of the difference between 'big' and 'large'
is
> the semantic contrast between 'big mouth' and 'large mouth'. Or,
> alternately, between 'big nose' and 'large nose'.
>
> Dave Costa
>
>
> > I was interested in Greg Mellow's mention of 'big' and 'large'. Like
Greg,
> > I would consider them synonyms, but in the past several years I've had
> > occasion to note the use of 'big' in papers by non-native English
speaking
> > grad students, and have somewhat compulsively felt the need to change
it
> > to 'large', as 'big' seems stylistically inappropriate for formal
writing.
> >
> > Rudy Troike
> > U of Arizona



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