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Let’s Talk About Business: A Corpus-Based Study of ‘Business’ Related Near-Synonyms and Their Teaching in Chinese as a Second Language

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Chinese Lexical Semantics (CLSW 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 14515))

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Abstract

The inherent semantic relatedness and closeness of near-synonyms pose difficulties to second language (L2) learners in comprehending and applying lexical knowledge in real situations. Previous studies have shown a sophisticated corpus-based method of distinguishing Chinese near-synonyms from a more ‘theoretical-based’ approach, the application of corpora in learning near-synonyms in an L2 classroom, however, is underexplored. This study reports both the ‘theoretical-based’ and ‘pedagogical-application’ of using corpora in studying ‘business’ related near-synonyms, and a significant gap between the ‘theory’ and the ‘application’ is identified. Our findings not only affirm the ‘theoretical-based’ method in capturing subtle nuances of near-synonyms but suggest implications of ‘pedagogical-application’ in teaching and learning near-synonyms with corpora.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Beijing Language and Culture University Corpus Center (BLCU Corpus Center, BCC) is an online corpus with a size of around ten billion words including Chinese and other languages.

  2. 2.

    Eyes on China: an intermediate-advanced reader of modern Chinese is a textbook for intermediate to advanced level students. This book covers a range of timely China-related topics, including the problem of air pollution, corruption, infrastructure development, the development of high-speed rail, the prevalence of knock-off products in the marketplace, new tech trends, the contemporary art scene, and the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan.

  3. 3.

    From the Chinese Web 2017 (zhTenTen11) corpus data, accessed in the Sketch Engine.

  4. 4.

    logDice score indicates how strong the collocation is; the higher the score, the stronger the collocation (for the algorithm of logDice score, see [26]).

  5. 5.

    Chinese WordNet is a platform provides an ontological network of semantic meanings of a word coupled with their semantic relations, including hypernyms, hyponyms, synonyms, among others. Accessed at https://lopentu.github.io/CwnWeb/.

  6. 6.

    An online Chinese dictionary; accessed at https://www.zdic.net/.

  7. 7.

    生意 also reads shēngyì, which means ‘life and vitality’ as in 生意盎然. We will not discuss this meaning in this paper.

  8. 8.

    Note that this meaning is not existed in contemporary Chinese, therefore, we will not discuss this usage here.

  9. 9.

    This meaning is not used in contemporary Chinese too.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Language Education, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR

    Yin Zhong & Yujing Rao

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  1. Yin Zhong
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  2. Yujing Rao
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Correspondence to Yin Zhong .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Infocomm Research, Singapore, Singapore

    Minghui Dong

  2. National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Jia-Fei Hong

  3. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Jingxia Lin

  4. Leshan Normal University, Leshan, China

    Peng Jin

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Zhong, Y., Rao, Y. (2024). Let’s Talk About Business: A Corpus-Based Study of ‘Business’ Related Near-Synonyms and Their Teaching in Chinese as a Second Language. In: Dong, M., Hong, JF., Lin, J., Jin, P. (eds) Chinese Lexical Semantics. CLSW 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 14515. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-0586-3_28

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-0586-3_28

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  • Print ISBN: 978-981-97-0585-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-97-0586-3

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