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Part of
Current Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse: Global context and diverse perspectives
Edited by Yun Xiao and Linda Tsung
[Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse 10] 2019
► pp. 137–153

Chapter 7
Chinese near-synonyms jian (建), zao (造), gai (蓋) ‘to build’ revisited

 | National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan
This study reexamines Mandarin Chinese near-synonyms jian (建), zao (造), gai (蓋) ‘to build’ and their shared patterns in written and spoken genres. Three independent variables – including word length of the object NP, preverbal locative phrase, and building purpose – were tested by a logistic regression analysis (Rbrul) to account for the multiple crosscutting and interacting factors that influence language usage. Multivariate analyses show that word length and building purpose can account for the differences among these verbs in both genres. The analyses suggest that the use of jian (建) and zao (造) possess more written properties, while gai (蓋) favors the spoken genre. The current study contributes to a growing number of studies in Chinese near-synonyms by focusing on genre variation.
Keywords: Mandarin, near-synonym, regression analysis, word length, written, spoken, genre variation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Definition
    • 2.2Data sources
    • 2.3Data collection
    • 2.4Data coding
      • 2.4.1Word length of the object NP
      • 2.4.2Preverbal locative phrase
      • 2.4.3Building types
    • 2.5Statistical analysis
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1The interpretation of jian
    • 3.2The interpretation of zao
    • 3.3The interpretation of gai
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 15 April 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/scld.10.07hau
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