[00:27.52]Test Five
[00:29.60]SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
[00:32.12]In this section, you will hear a mini-lecture.
[00:35.40]You will hear the lecture ONCE ONLY.
[00:37.91]While listening, take notes on the important points.
[00:41.52]Your notes will not be marked,
[00:43.49]but you will need them to complete a gap-filling task after the mini-lecture.
[00:47.68]When the lecture is over,
[00:49.86]you’ll be given two minutes to check your notes,
[00:52.17]and another 10 minutes to complete the gap-filling task.
[00:55.34]Now listen to the mini-lecture.
[00:57.74]English has the largest vocabulary
[01:01.24]and the most synonyms of any language in the world.
[01:04.85]This richness is due to the fact
[01:07.70]that the English language has grown over the centuries
[01:11.09]by constantly incorporating words from other languages.
[01:15.14]Even before the Norman Conquest in 1066,
[01:19.29]the Anglo-Saxon vocabulary included words borrowed
[01:22.79]from Latin, Greek, Celtic and Scandinavian.
[01:26.83]After the Norman Conquest,
[01:28.59]the English vocabulary was doubled by the addition of French words,
[01:33.18]especially those words reflecting a higher standard of living
[01:36.79]and a more complex social life:
[01:39.19]for example, words connected with food,
[01:42.18]such as sugar, vinegar, boil, fry, roast, etc.;
[01:46.45]and words connected with clothing such as garment, robe, mantle, gown, etc.;
[01:52.79]and words connected with law, such as plaintiff, legacy,
[01:56.94]and words connected with social rank and organization,
[02:00.99]such as prince, duke, mayor etc.
[02:04.39]While much of the new French vocabulary described new ideas and activities,
[02:09.74]much of it duplicated the pre-existing Anglo-Saxon vocabulary,
[02:14.34]thus giving the writer or speaker a choice of synonyms:
[02:18.93]cure or heal, labour or work, assemble or meet,
[02:25.06]burglary or stealing, assault or hitting.
[02:29.21]With the enormous expansion of classical learning in the Renaissance,
[02:33.37]there was a great influx of words of Latin
[02:36.10]and Greek origin into the English language.
[02:38.84]Also, the larger world discovered through travel and exploration
[02:43.98]was a great stimulus to culture and language.
[02:47.59]In the sixteenth century,
[02:49.34]there also arose a fashion to ornamenting one’s discourse
[02:54.04]with what were then called “aureate” terms drawn from Greek and Latin.
[02:58.75]As some English-speaking people traded and traveled
[03:03.01]around the world in modern times－
[03:05.52]in Europe, North America, India, Australia, Africa;
[03:09.68]their adventures also expanded the vocabulary.
[03:12.85]Words were borrowed from Dutch, Spanish, American Indian, Eastern Indian,
[03:18.43]Italian, Australian, Mexican, Japanese, Malay and many others.
[03:23.47]Furthermore, the United States,
[03:25.98]as a separate nation with its own life and character and institutions,
[03:30.79]has added vastly to the English vocabulary.
[03:34.18]With the rise of the United States
[03:36.70]to a position of world influence in politics,
[03:39.98]science, industry, trade and popular arts,
[03:42.82]American words and phrases have gained
[03:45.67]recognition and prestige everywhere.
[03:47.85]Ice cream, jeep and rock-and-roll are internationally known terms.
[03:53.87]Moreover, American terminology for many things exists side by side
[03:59.44]with an English terminology,
[04:01.20]thus placing another whole group of synonyms at our service.
[04:05.35]For example, sidewalk in American English refers to the same thing
[04:10.05]as the British term pavement does.
[04:13.44]More examples are railroad and railway,
[04:16.39]elevator and lift, fall and autumn,
[04:19.89]druggist and chemist, gasoline and petrol,
[04:23.28]installment plan and hire-purchase system
[04:26.45]and so on through an almost interminable list.
[04:30.28]So we can see that synonyms in English are of many kinds.
[04:34.54]Some groups of synonyms are just words of different origins
[04:39.03]but refer to the same thing.
[04:41.00]For example, foreword, preface,and introduction.
[04:44.83]Foreword is an Anglo-Saxon word;
[04:47.89]preface is from French, and introduction from Latin.
[04:52.05]Some groups, like plain, prairie, tundra,
[04:55.43]refer to geographical variants of the same kind of thing.
[04:59.70]Other groups of synonyms, like teach, educate, instruct, school, tutor,
[05:05.83]differ from one another principally in degrees of abstraction:
[05:09.98]teach is certainly the most general word of this group,
[05:13.49]while the others are more specialized in application.
[05:16.77]It can be argued that there really are no exact synonyms－
[05:21.58]no exact equivalences of meaning.
[05:24.31]By “meaning” here we refer to the total range of contexts
[05:28.57]in which a word may be used.
[05:30.76]Certainly there are no two words that are interchangeable in all contexts.
[05:36.01]But within a given context, there is often exact synonymy.
[05:41.70]For example: I mislaid my wallet and I misplaced my wallet.
[05:46.73]However, in a slightly different context the two words are not interchangeable:
[05:52.85]it would not be idiomatic to say I mislaid my suitcase.
[05:58.10]Because mislay applies only to small objects
[06:01.71]while misplace is applicable to both small and large objects.
[06:07.08]This example shows again
[06:08.64]that words which are synonymous in one of their meanings
[06:12.24]may be different considerably in their other meanings.
[06:15.53]Some groups of words describe the same actions,
[06:18.81]but imply different relationships among the parties concerned.
[06:22.74]We accompany our equals;
[06:25.26]we attend or follow those to whom we are subordinate;
[06:29.09]we conduct those who need guidance, and escort those who need protection;
[06:34.12]merchant ships are convoyed in time of war.
[06:37.86]Womanly and womanish are much alike in referring to female characteristics,
[06:43.44]but the second applies only to males,
[06:46.06]and in a derogatory sense.
[06:48.25]Some differences in locution reveal differences
[06:51.54]in the degree of formality of the occasions described.
[06:54.93]For example, a luncheon as distinguished from a lunch.
[06:59.41]Sometimes different locutions reveal differences not in the situations described
[07:05.10]but in the formality of discourse about them.
[07:07.95]For instance, He went to bed as compared to He hit the sack.
[07:13.31]Semanticists and linguistic scholars continue to remind us
[07:18.01]that words change in meaning according to time and place and circumstance.
[07:22.61]Such warnings are certainly not to be ignored.
[07:25.89]Yet there are remarkable elements of stability in a vocabulary.
[07:30.48]The distinctions between fury and rage,
[07:33.87]between thought and deliberation,
[07:36.28]have remained remarkably constant since Shakespeare’s day
[07:39.99]in all English-speaking countries.
[07:42.07]Nothing is so important to clear and accurate expression
[07:46.12]as the ability to distinguish between words of similar,
[07:49.51]but not identical meaning.
[07:51.48]In a given context, one particular word is certain
[07:55.25]to be more appropriate than the other.
[07:57.33]To choose wrongly is to leave the hearer or reader
[08:00.83]with a fuzzy or mistaken impression.
[08:03.57]To choose well is to give both illumination and delight.
[08:08.05]The study of synonyms will help us come closer to saying
[08:12.21]what we really want to say.
