General question about learning word usage and resolving synonyms

[rmpalpha]

Now that I've been studying Chinese for a while, I often come across new words that seem to mean something similar to a word that I already know (近义词). What is the best way to learn (a) the context needed to use a specific word; (b) the subtler differences in meaning between synonyms; and/or (c ) how to use a given word in a sentence?

For instance (and I have an ever-growing list of these questions!):

等、等待、等候

问、询问

也许、可能

了解、理解

缺乏、缺少

差别、区别、差异

其他、别（的）、另外

Do I just have to ask a Chinese native speaker, or is there a more systematic way to learn the three items above for each set of synonymic words?

[chaiknees]

• Use a Chinese-Chinese dictionary, i.e. a dictionary which explains a word in Chinese. For example nciku has this function (just click on "Contemporary Standard Chinese Dictionary")
  
• Find example sentences, e.g. on nciku, jukuu or iciba
  
• Most textbooks at intermediate level and higher focus on differentiating near-synonyms in the grammar section, only for words which appear in a certain lesson, though
  
• Generally expose yourself to the language as much as you can (listening, reading)
  

[daofeishi]

What is the best way to learn (a) the context needed to use a specific word; (b) the subtler differences in meaning between synonyms; and/or (c ) how to use a given word in a sentence?

Exposure. Lots of it. Read books, articles, magazines, essays, poems and what have you written by and for native speakers. Listen to audio books, newscasts and stories. Watch movies, TV series and plays. Then do it some more.

Asking native speakers and consulting dictionaries can only get you so far. No one and no dictionary will be able to tell you about all the intricate nuances of most words. I don't think anything beyond massive exposure can help you with that.

[li3wei1]

There are a number of books dedicated to this. I have Grace Zhang's Using Chinese Synonyms (Cambridge U Press), and BLCUP's 1700 对近义词语用法对比. Search booksellers websites for 近义词.

[roddy]

Exposure and books, and maybe a native speaker who's read those books. Random people you happen to know might be fine for an 'is this ok' questions, but if you ask for the reasons why you're likely to hear some improvised guessing.

[WestTexas]

A lot of the differences are either (1) register, ie, one is formal, one is formal or informal, one is spoken, one is colloquial, etc or (2) collocation. When I get confused about this, I use a Chinese-Chinese dictionary and then, if still confused, I read lots of example sentences for both words.

[renzhe]

Exposure is crucial, but it works much better if you know what you're looking for. So I agree with the Chinese-Chinese dictionary recommendation. Look it up, then go for lots of exposure.

[Olle Linge]

Exposure is crucial, but it works much better if you know what you're looking for. So I agree with the Chinese-Chinese dictionary recommendation. Look it up, then go for lots of exposure.

I think this is crucial. Just exposure without knowing anything about the difference between the words won't be very efficient, you might need a long, long time to figure out the difference between certain words this way. If you have a vague notion, though, either gleaned from a dictionary or a native speaker who has considered the question carefully, it's much easier. This way, next time you stumble upon the word, you have a concept you can reinforce or reshape slightly based on the sentence. Your understanding grows for each exposure. If you have no concept of the difference, it might take you a long time just to form an hypothesis (which might be entirely wrong).

I agree with previous posters in general though. I spend lots of time looking through corpora for example sentences and collocations. This is not "fun", but it's more efficient if you're after a specific set of near-synonyms. Still, having an hypothesis before you dive in makes it much, much easier. Another thing that's good to know is that sometimes there are lots of exceptions or it might not be a question of right and wrong, but rather of distribution. Therefore, don't abandon a promising hypothesis because of one single example, the hypothesis might still be 95% true, which is probably good enough.

Here's another book explaining near-synonyms. It might be hard to get (I haven't tried again since I bought it many years ago, so I don't know, really): Chinese Synonyms Usage Dictionary (my recommendation of the book). This book is seriously awesome, partly because the English in it is actually very good, but mostly because of the humorous and witty examples sentences that really stick in your mind. Here's an example for 逼／逼迫／強迫／強制, which is of course preceded by an explanation and a discussion, but this is the final example::

A desperate economic situation might 逼 force members of a cult to give up a strange religious tradition of swallowing ten dollar bills. But the tradition would be jeopardised still further if such outside influence 逼迫 compelled the cult's members to reconsider the rationality of the practice. On the other hand, a miserly dad might 強迫 force his kids to leave the cult against their will, or governmental pressure might be used to 強制 oppressively compel members to discontinue practising their religion.

[OneEye]

I also highly recommend Teng Shou-hsin's Chinese Synonyms Usage Dictionary, and use it myself. Be aware, however, that there are (supposedly) a lot of errors in it. I have a friend who is going through the book with a fine-toothed comb, marking the errors to give to Professor Teng for correction in a future edition. And there are a fair number of marks in the book. I still recommend it highly, but if anything seems off to you, ask a native speaker for help. Preferably a translator if you know one, as I find they tend to be able to explain these kinds of things more clearly.