Distinguishing the English verb synonyms improve and enhance: a corpus base study

This research was conducted to investigate two English synonymous verbs, improve and enhance, with the purpose of exploring the similarities and differences in terms of the senses of meaning, collocations, and degrees of formality. The data were obtained from two sources, which were the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Online and Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). The results indicated that the two synonymous verbs shared some core meanings and can be used interchangeably in particular contexts. However, more differences were found in the collocations of improve and enhance when they were categorized into wider ranges of themes. This implies that improve and enhance cannot be substituted interchangeably in every context. Since the two synonyms differ in terms of formality of context and collocations, it is of vital importance that learners of English as a foreign language take this variation with regard to the authentic usage of these synonyms into account.

本研究针对improve与enhance这两个英语同义动词展开，旨在探究二者在语义内涵、搭配规则与正式程度维度上的异同。本研究的数据来源于朗文当代英语在线词典与当代美国英语语料库（COCA）两个渠道。研究结果显示，这两个同义动词共享部分核心语义，且在特定语境下可互换使用。然而，当按更宽泛的主题范畴对二者的搭配进行归类时，二者的差异更为显著。这表明二者并非在所有语境下均可互换使用。鉴于这两个同义词在语境正式程度与搭配规则上存在差异，英语外语学习者需将这类与同义词真实使用相关的差异纳入考量，这一点至关重要。