Deriving Conceptual Structures from Sense: A Study of Near Synonymous Sensation Verbs

In Mandarin Chinese, lexical semantic relation of near synonyms is a widespread phenomenon, and is of great interest to many linguists. Most works deal with lexical semantic relation between lexical entries. This paper investigates the differences between Chinese near synonymous sensation verbs based on the data from “Academia Sinica Balanced Corpus of Modern Mandarin Chinese” (Sinica Corpus) and the sense distinction of Chinese WordNet. As observed, the differences are shown by analyzing the lexical concept and word formation collocation. Similarly, the core sense of a lexical entry also determines the lexical dissimilarities so as to find out the usage, contrast and distribution pattern of near synonyms. Keyword: near synonyms, sensation verb, production, perception