Abstract
This paper discusses issues of lexical synonymy. Two German adjectives with the core meaning ›very good‹ are in focus: vorzüglich and vortrefflich. Our empirical data is taken from the Leipzig Corpora Collection. According to the »classical« view, near-synonyms differ from each other semantically. Hence the aim of synonym analysis is to arrive at definitions by finding out distinctive semantic features. We show that near-synonyms can possess individual combinatorial properties without clear semantic distinctions. Combinatorial preferences or restrictions often go back to usage based co-occurrences. The semantic class of co-occurrence partners is also an important factor. Furthermore, combinatorial preferences can go back to affinity with certain thematic domains, discursive practices, stylistic registers etc.
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Dalmas, M., Dobrovol’skij, D., Goldhahn, D. et al. Bewertung durch Adjektive. Ansätze einer korpusgestützten Untersuchung zur Synonymie. Z Literaturwiss Linguistik 45, 12–29 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03379889
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03379889