On Cognitive Synonymy (A Case Study)

Mgr. Martina Hoffmanová

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

The thesis examines from a semantic point of view four selected prepositions of place (or space): under, underneath, beneath and below. Only their physical, not metaphorical, sense is studied. Since they are generally looked upon as synonyms, the paper endeavours to explore their possible meanings with the help of various dictionaries and above all with the assistance of the British National Corpus. With the support of this source, the most common as well as the most frequent expressions the four prepositions tend to collocate with are scutinized. The thesis is divided into two main parts: theoretical and practical. The theoretical part comprises several chapters dealing with prepositions in general. The practical part opens with the introduction of the four selected prepositions. The most important section deals with the facts gained in the British National Corpus. Using the data obtained there as well as the information from the dictionaries, the comparison is made between the individual lexemes, in terms of frequency of use and range of meanings. To receive as precise results as possible, three more techniques are employed. These are namely: componential analysis, graphic interpretation of the most frequent collocations and finally a survey on the four prepositions conducted in England among native speakers of English aiming to get up-to-date opinions.

Keywords

cognitive synonymy, synonyms, under, underneath, below, beneath, absolute synonyms, partial synonyms, the British National Corpus, componential analysis, prepositions of space, prepositions of place, physical sense, meanings, collocations

Language used: Czech

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 2. 6. 2008

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 5. 6. 2008
• Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Naděžda Kudrnáčová, CSc.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Bachelor programme / field:
Philology / English Language and Literature