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A corpus-based study of the synonyms 'flexible' and 'adaptable' |
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| รหัสดีโอไอ | |
| Title | A corpus-based study of the synonyms 'flexible' and 'adaptable' |
| Creator | Kwanticha On-aiem |
| Contributor | Rangsiya Chaengchenkit, Advisor |
| Publisher | Thammasat University |
| Publication Year | 2568 |
| Keyword | Synonym, Corpus-based study, Degree of formality, Collocation, Semantic preference |
| Abstract | ABSTRACTThis corpus-based study aimed to investigate the degree of formality of the English adjectives ‘flexible’ and ‘adaptable’ and to examine their similarities and differences in terms of noun and adverb collocations and semantic preferences. The data were collected from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). The findings revealed that ‘flexible’ and ‘adaptable’ had a broadly similar degree of formality, as both occurred more often in written genres than in spoken and entertainment-related genres. Regarding noun collocations, both adjectives shared semantic preferences related to organizational systems, workplaces, and physical objects. However, ‘flexible’ was additionally associated with time and planning and finance, while ‘adaptable’ was particularly associated with biological entities, conditions and environments, and technical tools. Their adverb collocates also shared semantic preferences of degree, evaluation, continuity, and domain. The main difference was that ‘flexible’ showed a semantic preference for strategy, whereas ‘adaptable’ showed a preference for ease of adjustment. These findings may help EFL learners recognize differences between words with similar meanings and use them more appropriately according to context. Overall, ‘flexible’ and ‘adaptable’ are near-synonyms because their different collocational patterns and semantic preferences prevent them from being used interchangeably in all contexts. Keywords: synonym, corpus-based study, degree of formality, collocation, semantic preference |
