Calculating the Distance Between Near-Synonyms Across Languages: A Case Study on Chinese and Japanese

Shi Jianjun

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.15

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Calculating the Distance Between Near-Synonyms Across Languages: A Case Study on Chinese and Japanese

Shi Jianjun

Published in International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 7, Issue 2)

Received: 19 March 2019 Accepted: 26 April 2019 Published: 15 May 2019

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Abstract

The study of differences between near-synonyms across languages has always been a hot area of research in foreign language teaching and cross-language comparison. A linguistic phenomenon received special attention, Chinese-Japanese homographs often confuse learners since they have same forms yet differ slightly in terms of their meanings and usages. Traditional studies were unfolded mainly in two aspects: case studies on homograph discrimination and division of homographs according to meaning & usage distance. Researches concerning the latter aspect tend to distinguish near-synonyms between languages by means of a three-way classification, i.e. synonyms, heteronyms, and near-synonyms. However, this classification is far from satisfactory in that they cannot measure “near-synonymy” in an accurate and gradable manner since the term “near-synonymy” per se is too broad a term to define. This paper proposes a statistical method for calculating near-synonyms across languages by means of parallel corpus, where translation ratio, F-measure and inter-translation ratio are taken into account as parameters. By means of the F-value, this highly productive method is not only applicable in classifying synonyms, heteronyms, and near-synonyms between Chinese and Japanese, but also allows measuring the meanings & usage distance between cross-linguistic near-synonyms. To prove the effectiveness of this method, around 1900 pairs of Chinese and Japanese near-synonyms are compared and has gained good effects.

Published in	International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 7, Issue 2)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.15
Page(s)	85-92
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2019. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Near-Synonyms, Meaning & Usage Distance, Inter-Translation Ratio, F-measure

References

[1]	Shi J. J, Hong J. (2013) On a General Methodology for Contrastive Analysis of Chinese-Japanese Homographs. Foreign Language Teaching and Research, 45, pp 531-542.
[2]	Duan Y. G, Liu Y, Yu Sh. W. (2018) An Embedded Representation for "Tongyici Cilin" and Its Evaluation on Tasks, Journal of Xiamen University (Natural Science), 57(06), pp 867-875.
[3]	Li X. T, You Sh. J. Chen W. (2019), An Algorithm of Semantic Similarity between Words Based on Word Single-Meaning Embedding Model, Acta Automatica Sinica, DOI: 10.16383/j.aas.c180312.
[4]	Shi J. J. (2013) The Current Situation and Subjects of Synchronic Comparative Studies of Chinese-Japanese Homographs, Foreign Language Research in Northeast Asia, 1, pp 4-9.
[5]	The Agency for Cultural Affairs (1978) Kanji and their logographic Chinese counterparts, Research Materials for Japanese Language Education, pp 85-143.
[6]	Arakawa (1979) Chinese and Kanji: A Book Review on “Kanji and their logographic Chinese counterparts”, Aichi Forum on Language and Literature, 62, pp 388-361.
[7]	Oukouchi (1992) Homographs of Japanese and Chinese, Collection of Comparative Studies of Japanese and Chinese Languages, pp 179-215.
[8]	Shi J. J, Xu X. H. (2014) On Homographs in Chinese and Japanese Languages: a revisit. Journal of PLA University of Foreign Languages, 37, pp 132-139.
[9]	Ootsuka (1990) On Chinese-Japanese Homographs. Collection of Studies in foreign language education, 12, 327-337.
[10]	Institute of Linguistics CASS (2005) The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary 5^th ed., Beijing: The Commercial Press.
[11]	Kindaichi, Ikeda (1988) Gakken Japanese Dictionary, 2^nd ed, Tokyo: Gakken.
[12]	Lv Sh. X. (1980) Modern Chinese 800 Words, Beijing: The Commercial Press.
[13]	Beijing Center for Japanese Studies (2003) Chinese-Japanese Parallel Corpus, Beijing: Beijing Center for Japanese Studies. (Fruition of the Project: The Development and Application of Chinese-Japanese Parallel Corpus, No. 99BYY007).
[14]	Shi J. J, Qiao Y. (2016) Measuring the Semantic Distance of Chinese-Japanese Homographs: Approached from the F-measure Constructed on the Basis of Translation Ratio. Journal of PLA University of Foreign Languages, 39, pp 76-84+160.

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Shi Jianjun. (2019). Calculating the Distance Between Near-Synonyms Across Languages: A Case Study on Chinese and Japanese. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 7(2), 85-92. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.15

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Shi Jianjun. Calculating the Distance Between Near-Synonyms Across Languages: A Case Study on Chinese and Japanese. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2019, 7(2), 85-92. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.15

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AMA Style

Shi Jianjun. Calculating the Distance Between Near-Synonyms Across Languages: A Case Study on Chinese and Japanese. Int J Lang Linguist. 2019;7(2):85-92. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.15

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@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.15,
  author = {Shi Jianjun},
  title = {Calculating the Distance Between Near-Synonyms Across Languages: A Case Study on Chinese and Japanese},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {7},
  number = {2},
  pages = {85-92},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.15},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.15},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20190702.15},
  abstract = {The study of differences between near-synonyms across languages has always been a hot area of research in foreign language teaching and cross-language comparison. A linguistic phenomenon received special attention, Chinese-Japanese homographs often confuse learners since they have same forms yet differ slightly in terms of their meanings and usages. Traditional studies were unfolded mainly in two aspects: case studies on homograph discrimination and division of homographs according to meaning & usage distance. Researches concerning the latter aspect tend to distinguish near-synonyms between languages by means of a three-way classification, i.e. synonyms, heteronyms, and near-synonyms. However, this classification is far from satisfactory in that they cannot measure “near-synonymy” in an accurate and gradable manner since the term “near-synonymy” per se is too broad a term to define. This paper proposes a statistical method for calculating near-synonyms across languages by means of parallel corpus, where translation ratio, F-measure and inter-translation ratio are taken into account as parameters. By means of the F-value, this highly productive method is not only applicable in classifying synonyms, heteronyms, and near-synonyms between Chinese and Japanese, but also allows measuring the meanings & usage distance between cross-linguistic near-synonyms. To prove the effectiveness of this method, around 1900 pairs of Chinese and Japanese near-synonyms are compared and has gained good effects.},
 year = {2019}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Calculating the Distance Between Near-Synonyms Across Languages: A Case Study on Chinese and Japanese
AU  - Shi Jianjun
Y1  - 2019/05/15
PY  - 2019
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.15
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.15
T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP  - 85
EP  - 92
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0221
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.15
AB  - The study of differences between near-synonyms across languages has always been a hot area of research in foreign language teaching and cross-language comparison. A linguistic phenomenon received special attention, Chinese-Japanese homographs often confuse learners since they have same forms yet differ slightly in terms of their meanings and usages. Traditional studies were unfolded mainly in two aspects: case studies on homograph discrimination and division of homographs according to meaning & usage distance. Researches concerning the latter aspect tend to distinguish near-synonyms between languages by means of a three-way classification, i.e. synonyms, heteronyms, and near-synonyms. However, this classification is far from satisfactory in that they cannot measure “near-synonymy” in an accurate and gradable manner since the term “near-synonymy” per se is too broad a term to define. This paper proposes a statistical method for calculating near-synonyms across languages by means of parallel corpus, where translation ratio, F-measure and inter-translation ratio are taken into account as parameters. By means of the F-value, this highly productive method is not only applicable in classifying synonyms, heteronyms, and near-synonyms between Chinese and Japanese, but also allows measuring the meanings & usage distance between cross-linguistic near-synonyms. To prove the effectiveness of this method, around 1900 pairs of Chinese and Japanese near-synonyms are compared and has gained good effects.
VL  - 7
IS  - 2
ER  -

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Author Information

Shi Jianjun

Institute of Linguistics, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China

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Shi Jianjun. (2019). Calculating the Distance Between Near-Synonyms Across Languages: A Case Study on Chinese and Japanese. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 7(2), 85-92. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.15

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ACS Style

Shi Jianjun. Calculating the Distance Between Near-Synonyms Across Languages: A Case Study on Chinese and Japanese. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2019, 7(2), 85-92. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.15

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AMA Style

Shi Jianjun. Calculating the Distance Between Near-Synonyms Across Languages: A Case Study on Chinese and Japanese. Int J Lang Linguist. 2019;7(2):85-92. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.15

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.15,
  author = {Shi Jianjun},
  title = {Calculating the Distance Between Near-Synonyms Across Languages: A Case Study on Chinese and Japanese},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {7},
  number = {2},
  pages = {85-92},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.15},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.15},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20190702.15},
  abstract = {The study of differences between near-synonyms across languages has always been a hot area of research in foreign language teaching and cross-language comparison. A linguistic phenomenon received special attention, Chinese-Japanese homographs often confuse learners since they have same forms yet differ slightly in terms of their meanings and usages. Traditional studies were unfolded mainly in two aspects: case studies on homograph discrimination and division of homographs according to meaning & usage distance. Researches concerning the latter aspect tend to distinguish near-synonyms between languages by means of a three-way classification, i.e. synonyms, heteronyms, and near-synonyms. However, this classification is far from satisfactory in that they cannot measure “near-synonymy” in an accurate and gradable manner since the term “near-synonymy” per se is too broad a term to define. This paper proposes a statistical method for calculating near-synonyms across languages by means of parallel corpus, where translation ratio, F-measure and inter-translation ratio are taken into account as parameters. By means of the F-value, this highly productive method is not only applicable in classifying synonyms, heteronyms, and near-synonyms between Chinese and Japanese, but also allows measuring the meanings & usage distance between cross-linguistic near-synonyms. To prove the effectiveness of this method, around 1900 pairs of Chinese and Japanese near-synonyms are compared and has gained good effects.},
 year = {2019}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Calculating the Distance Between Near-Synonyms Across Languages: A Case Study on Chinese and Japanese
AU  - Shi Jianjun
Y1  - 2019/05/15
PY  - 2019
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.15
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.15
T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP  - 85
EP  - 92
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0221
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.15
AB  - The study of differences between near-synonyms across languages has always been a hot area of research in foreign language teaching and cross-language comparison. A linguistic phenomenon received special attention, Chinese-Japanese homographs often confuse learners since they have same forms yet differ slightly in terms of their meanings and usages. Traditional studies were unfolded mainly in two aspects: case studies on homograph discrimination and division of homographs according to meaning & usage distance. Researches concerning the latter aspect tend to distinguish near-synonyms between languages by means of a three-way classification, i.e. synonyms, heteronyms, and near-synonyms. However, this classification is far from satisfactory in that they cannot measure “near-synonymy” in an accurate and gradable manner since the term “near-synonymy” per se is too broad a term to define. This paper proposes a statistical method for calculating near-synonyms across languages by means of parallel corpus, where translation ratio, F-measure and inter-translation ratio are taken into account as parameters. By means of the F-value, this highly productive method is not only applicable in classifying synonyms, heteronyms, and near-synonyms between Chinese and Japanese, but also allows measuring the meanings & usage distance between cross-linguistic near-synonyms. To prove the effectiveness of this method, around 1900 pairs of Chinese and Japanese near-synonyms are compared and has gained good effects.
VL  - 7
IS  - 2
ER  -

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