[Lexicog] Re: Synonymy

[John Roberts]

Allan Johnson wrote:

> 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'.

NODE gives the primary sense of 'big' as "great in size or extent" and
'large' as "great in size, extent or capacity". So this gives 'large' a
primary sense with a wider scope of meaning than 'big'. And indeed in some
contexts expressing capacity I would prefer 'large' over 'big', e.g. 'she
gave me a large helping of ice cream' seems better to me than 'she gave me a
big helping of ice cream'. But then I also prefer 'large' in some contexts
involving 'extent'. For example, 'Bird flu affected large/?big parts of
Asia.' Also if you said to me 'Look at that big woman' I would expect to see
a woman that is tall and broad. But if you said 'Look at that large woman' I
would expect to see a woman that is mainly broad. So for me 'big' and
'large' are only synonymous in one aspect of their primary senses, i.e.
'great in size'.

What I see has happened in expressions like 'big mouth' is that the meaning
of 'big' has been reduced to 'great in whatever the nominal describes'. So
an expression like 'big business' means 'great in doing business' rather
than 'great in physical size'. With 'big mouth', 'mouth' is a metonym for
boasting, so it means 'great in boasting'. But since 'big' does not have
this reduced sense with all nominals it qualifies 'big mouth' has to be
analysed as a unified lexical expression - and it is listed as such in NODE.
With expressions like 'big boss', 'big cheese', 'big chief', 'big man' etc.
'big' has the second primary sense given in NODE of 'important' or 'great in
status'. 'large', on the other hand, does not have 'great in status' as a
secondary sense.

However, with the phrases including 'large', such as 'by and large', 'at
large', 'as large as life', and 'in large measure' it seems to be 'great in
extent' that is the primary component of meaning.

But you can only get at these nuances of senses and meanings if you have a
large (not big) corpus of text material to analyse. You don't really get
very far by asking a native speaker of English "Are 'big' and 'large'
synonyms?"

John Roberts




------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease?
Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/RzSHvD/UOnJAA/79vVAA/HKE4lB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->


Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    lexicographylist-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/