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Test Five
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
In this section, you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening, take notes on the important points. Your notes will not be marked, but you will need them to complete a gap-filling task after the mini-lecture. When the lecture is over, you'll be given two minutes to check your notes, and another 10 minutes to complete the gap-filling task. Now listen to the mini-lecture.
English has the largest vocabulary and the most synonyms of any language in the world. This richness is due to the fact that the English language has grown over the centuries by constantly incorporating words from other languages. Even before the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Anglo-Saxon vocabulary included words borrowed from Latin, Greek, Celtic and Scandinavian. After the Norman Conquest, the English vocabulary was doubled by the addition of French words, especially those words reflecting a higher standard of living and a more complex social life: for example, words connected with food, such as sugar, vinegar, boil, fry, roast, etc.; and words connected with clothing such as garment, robe, mantle, gown, etc.; and words connected with law, such as plaintiff, legacy, and words connected with social rank and organization, such as prince, duke, mayor etc.
While much of the new French vocabulary described new ideas and activities, much of it duplicated the pre-existing Anglo-Saxon vocabulary, thus giving the writer or speaker a choice of synonyms: cure or heal, labour or work, assemble or meet, burglary or stealing, assault or hitting.
With the enormous expansion of classical learning in the Renaissance, there was a great influx of words of Latin and Greek origin into the English language. Also, the larger world discovered through travel and exploration was a great stimulus to culture and language. In the sixteenth century, there also arose a fashion to ornamenting one's discourse with what were then called "aureate" terms drawn from Greek and Latin. As some English-speaking people traded and traveled around the world in modern times－in Europe, North America, India, Australia, Africa; their adventures also expanded the vocabulary. Words were borrowed from Dutch, Spanish, American Indian, Eastern Indian, Italian, Australian, Mexican, Japanese, Malay and many others.
Furthermore, the United States, as a separate nation with its own life and character and institutions, has added vastly to the English vocabulary. With the rise of the United States to a position of world influence in politics, science, industry, trade and popular arts, American words and phrases have gained recognition and prestige everywhere. Ice cream, jeep and rock-and-roll are internationally known terms. Moreover, American terminology for many things exists side by side with an English terminology, thus placing another whole group of synonyms at our service. For example, sidewalk in American English refers to the same thing as the British term pavement does. More examples are railroad and railway, elevator and lift, fall and autumn, druggist and chemist, gasoline and petrol, installment plan and hire-purchase system and so on through an almost interminable list.
So we can see that synonyms in English are of many kinds. Some groups of synonyms are just words of different origins but refer to the same thing. For example, foreword, preface,and introduction. Foreword is an Anglo-Saxon word; preface is from French, and introduction from Latin. Some groups, like plain, prairie, tundra, refer to geographical variants of the same kind of thing. Other groups of synonyms, like teach, educate, instruct, school, tutor, differ from one another principally in degrees of abstraction: teach is certainly the most general word of this group, while the others are more specialized in application.
It can be argued that there really are no exact synonyms－no exact equivalences of meaning. By "meaning" here we refer to the total range of contexts in which a word may be used. Certainly there are no two words that are interchangeable in all contexts. But within a given context, there is often exact synonymy. For example: I mislaid my wallet and I misplaced my wallet. However, in a slightly different context the two words are not interchangeable: it would not be idiomatic to say I mislaid my suitcase. Because mislay applies only to small objects while misplace is applicable to both small and large objects. This example shows again that words which are synonymous in one of their meanings may be different considerably in their other meanings.
Some groups of words describe the same actions, but imply different relationships among the parties concerned. We accompany our equals; we attend or follow those to whom we are subordinate; we conduct those who need guidance, and escort those who need protection; merchant ships are convoyed in time of war. Womanly and womanish are much alike in referring to female characteristics, but the second applies only to males, and in a derogatory sense.
Some differences in locution reveal differences in the degree of formality of the occasions described. For example, a luncheon as distinguished from a lunch. Sometimes different locutions reveal differences not in the situations described but in the formality of discourse about them. For instance, He went to bed as compared to He hit the sack.
Semanticists and linguistic scholars continue to remind us that words change in meaning according to time and place and circumstance. Such warnings are certainly not to be ignored. Yet there are remarkable elements of stability in a vocabulary. The distinctions between fury and rage, between thought and deliberation, have remained remarkably constant since Shakespeare's day in all English-speaking countries.
Nothing is so important to clear and accurate expression as the ability to distinguish between words of similar, but not identical meaning. In a given context, one particular word is certain to be more appropriate than the other. To choose wrongly is to leave the hearer or reader with a fuzzy or mistaken impression. To choose well is to give both illumination and delight. The study of synonyms will help us come closer to saying what we really want to say.
