Introduction
English is general considered to be the global language, a lingua franca, in terms of the population and wide-spread of its users. According to The World Factbook (2009), researched by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of USA, English is accepted as the official language in approximately 60 countries and regions. With the wide range of use in the world and its long history, English borrowed certain amount of vocabulary from other languages. As a result, an extremely common language feature can be detected in the large amount of English words which is synonyms. Synonyms are pairs of words sharing similar meaning or semantic features (Jackson & Amvela, 2007). Nevertheless, as recognized by many linguists, the meaning of synonyms differs for their connotations, dialects, collocations and syntactic features. In this research essay, a corpus-based study on the similarities and differences of synonyms will be conducted by examining claim and state. The essay will be divided into three parts, which are Literature Review, Methodology and Findings and Results. After that, a conclusion will be drawn as the summary and revision.

Literature Review
Synonym is considered to be an important part of the semantic study which focuses on the relational meanings of lexis. It is generally agreed that the meanings of words are closely related to the collocations and contexts in the sentences. Also, as mentioned in the introduction, synonyms are referring to the words which “have same meaning in some or all contexts” (Fromkin, Rodman & Hyams, 2011). This is according with the definition of synonyms made by Jackson and Amvela (2007). They believe that synonyms can be classified into strict and loose synonyms basing on the character of interchangeable use of vocabulary. To be clearer, strict synonyms are the words can be replaced by each other with no change in all contexts such as meanings, collocations, connotations and grammatical patterns. With this principle, Harley (2006) thinks, strict synonyms are extremely rare while the other type of synonyms is more common. Loose synonyms are the words which have similar meaning in certain context; however, with the differences of combinations and contexts, they may have very disparate connotations (Jackson & Amvela, 2007). These theories of relational meanings of words are applied and applied by many scholars such as Phoocharoensil (2010) who researched on English synonyms ask, beg, plead, request and appeal. He examined these five words, which has highly similar meaning of trying to acquire things from others, are of great variation in dialects, connotation and syntactic usage. Meanwhile, the study of Liu (n. d.) on verbs of doubt also found same result in 猜 and 怀疑. Therefore, it is more than reasonable to conclude that synonyms used in very different part of sentences can result in certain differences of connotations.

Methodology
As mentioned in the Introduction, this research essay examines synonyms to identify the similarity and differences in them. To conduct the research systematically, the three steps of corpus-based research suggested by Dalbera (n.d.; Kawaguchi et al, 2007) are adopted, which are: 1. Understanding the background and knowledge of research objects 2. Using suitable tool to collect reliable data 3. Discussing the findings and acknowledge possible flaws in the analysis
At the first stage of research, certain numbers of readings are done to create a clear understanding of the definition and past study of synonyms. At the same time, with the reference of Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 3rd Edition (2008), claim and state are chosen as the study objects. In the verb form, they are a pair of synonyms frequently used to describe the motion of expressing opinions (CALD, 2008). Then, to systematically examine the data of this pair of words, an online corpus, British National Corpus (BNC), is employed. It is used to collect the data of the concordance, formality of context and collocation of these two words. As can be found in the data, claim and state can be used in multiple parts of speech, that is----they can be both noun and verb, according to the context. Moreover, the verb form of claim has two complete irrelevant meanings which are to say something and to demand something through court or other legal measures. Therefore, to assure the accuracy of the research, only verb form of claim and state ([claim].[v*], [state].[v*]) is searched through the corpora; and, the results of searching claim are manually examined to remove the ones with irrelevant meaning to state. After that, the data retrieved from BNC are quantified into tables in order to demonstrate the differences of claim and state. In the third step as well as the next section of this essay, the comparisons between the two words will be made mainly according to their formality of contexts, connotation and collocation detected by BNC.

Findings and Discussions
In this part, the findings will be introduced by comparing the data collected from BNC. The statistics will be demonstrated in tables of which the screen shots are attached to this essay in the appendix. * Style and Formality of contexts:
Listed in the Table 1 are the concordance frequencies and rates of claim and state in different contexts. As can be seen in the table, claim has greater amount of use comparing to state. The applications of claim and state are of various distributions. Claim is used most frequently in Non-academic texts and Newspapers while state is applied rapidly in Academic articles, Non-academic texts and miscellaneous genres. In the spoken, fiction and magazines sections, neither of these two words is commonly used.

Table 1: Contexts of using [claim].[v*] and [state].[v*]
It is widely recognized that the language used in spoken, fictional and entertaining contexts tend to be involved production, while academic and newspaper are more likely to select vocabularies with informational and persuasive features (Hewings, 2005). Meanwhile, academic articles are generally written in non-narrative and explicit style; while, newspapers are composed in relatively more narrative and situation-based style. With the consideration of concordance percentages of claim and state in different styles of contexts, it is highly possible that the pair of synonyms is commonly used to convince the reader by explaining incidents and concepts. However, the distinction of these two words can also be detected. Comparing to state, claim is more frequently used based on the situation to describe things in certain perspective which serves the speakers. To conclude, although claim and state have similar function of expressing ideas in the informational and persuasive contexts, claim is more likely to contribute to the perspective of speakers, while state is explicit and more factual. This preliminary finding will be further discussed and proved in the sector of connotations and collocations.

* Connotations:
Although the pair of synonyms, that is----claim and state, share very similar meanings saying something, they differs from each other in the aspect of connotations. Many examples are found in the concordance of these two words through BNC (attached as Appendix 2).
Figure 1Figure 1: Examples of connotation of claim
Figure 1Figure 1: Examples of connotation of claim
Claim
As shown in the data, claim indicates the unreliable and uncertainty of the speech. To be more specific, claim is usually adopted when the speeches of the speakers are untrue or of certain doubts. For instance, in the example 1 and 2 listed above, the contents said by the speakers are later proved to be false information or problematic argument. It is obvious that adversatives are used in the next sentences to deny the idea expressed formerly. This combination of word is very common in using claims. There is another context in which claim are used frequently, that is----untested theories and opinions. As can be easily seen in the example 4 and 5, claim is adopted by exclusive groups in this case are the users of Ecstasy and women who drink moderately. The contents of their claim cannot be proved by people who do not belong to their groups.

State
During the research on the concordance of state, it is proved that despite the fact that claim and state are a pair of synonyms, their connotation are extremely different. State is normally used with the connotation of speaking or announcing to certain number of people. There are three examples displayed below to explain the definition. The objects of these instances are people who might be interested in education law, the public who might know speaker’s father and all the fans of a celebrity. And the messages conveyed are all factual things, which are the content of law, the cause of death and banned behavior determined by the celebrity.

Figure 2: Examples of connotation of state
Figure 2: Examples of connotation of state
In conclusion, in the aspect of connotation, the findings are corresponding with the results of discussion in Formality of contexts that claim is more claim is generally considered to be saying things that support the stances of speakers while state is related to the deliver factual information to groups of people. In next section, the differences between claim and state will be researched through collocations of these words.

* Collocations
The pair of synonyms chosen in this research is in verb form; therefore, the collocated words are mostly nouns and adverbs. However, with same part of speech, the vocabularies used in the collocation of claim and state are very different. Generally, the nouns employed in sentence of claim are of negative meaning, while the combinations appeared with state are far more neutral.
Claim
Nouns: environmentalists, conservatives, activists, historians, loyalists, victim, victims, victory, damages, hurricane, products, sun, expenses, deal, alcohol, drugs, suicide, injury, injuries, Asylum, windows, IBM, extra, Milburn, privilege, expertise, fighters, incident, innocence, rival, wickets, hit, rebels, thousands, Durham, graphics, gun, princess, wood, smith, killing
Adverbs: successfully, justifiably, regularly
Others: killed, caused, dismissed, decent, told, suffered, handling, beaten, tried, denied, threatened, shot, promised, aware, invented, save, represent, exempt, Polisario, speak
Highlighted in red are 21 words with negative meanings which take approximately 31% of total words collocated with claim and among them 17 words are related to at least physical injuries.

State
Nouns: enterprises, facts, developments, nation, conditionals, consideration, creation, schedule, theorem, aim, equation, certificate, ages, bureaucracies, Jenna, member, governors, signatory, opinion, paragraph, regulation, brochure, commissioner, commitment, hypothesis, provisions, monopolies, Diplock, parliaments, summary, preference, preferences, assumptions, expenditure, resolution, objectives, guidelines, proposition, appeals, deficit, duties, grammar, label, lifespan, occupier, participation, thermodynamics, nationals, assemblies, dictionary, elites, pylori, Denning
Adverbs: expressly, clearly, categorically, bluntly, firmly, flatly, emphatically, explicitly, nowhere, plainly, unequivocally, physically, frankly, succinctly, unambiguously, correctly, briefly, openly, definitely
Others: obvious, Baltic, assumed, urban, circular, asked, raising, charged, lease, requires
There are three types of nouns marked in blue, green and orange. The vocabularies in blue color are the ones with nominalizations. The green words are the professional lexis normally used in occupational articles. The orange ones are the ones have connection with government organizations. 51% of the nouns are marked in different colors and these vocabularies occupy almost 32% of total 82 words.

To sum up, based on data of the collocations, claim is proven to convey negative meanings, such as untrustworthy, unprovable and inaccurate, although itself only represent for the action of saying. For state, it is clear that the word is rapidly used in professional circumstances, for example, physical research, mathematics study and government officials.

* Discussion of findings:
In the section of demonstrating findings, three perspectives of corpus study, formality of contexts, connotations and collocations, are applied on the synonyms of claim and state. In the research on formality of contexts, it is detected that claim tend to be used most in non-academic and newspaper, which requires narrative and persuasive styles, resulting in the strong stances indicated by the selection of words. While, state is generally applied in academic, non-academic and other genres which demand explicit and factual writing style. Then, in the connotation part, it is proved that the ideas expressed by speakers, who are described as “claiming” something, are normally the ones that would be attacked in later texts or cannot be justified. In the last part of findings, the collocations of claim and state are studied and the patterns in using these two words are discussed. To explain this result more, the collocations of claim are, of great percentage, negative terms such as physical damages and illegal actions; whereas, state is usually applied with professional lexis involving government, academic studies and nominalizations. Therefore, it can be summarized that although sharing very similar meanings, claim and state are, to great extent, different in lights of their patterns in usage.

The research is conducted on the basis of objective attitude and data retrieved from an online corpus. However, there are several possible weaknesses in this research. First of all, the data employed in this essay are all retrieved from a British online corpus built between 1980s and 1993. This can result in huge limitations of research objectives in terms of geographic range and neglect on certain materials. Also, the usages of the research objects might have changed in the two decades. Then, because the data of claim are filtrated manually, there can be considerable mistakes during the process. At the same time, the research aspects of this essay only covers three areas, there can be many other factors which are not taken into consideration.

Conclusion
In this research essay, a pair of synonyms, claim and state, has been studied according to the data collected from British National Corpus. This research is about identifying the similarities and differences of these synonyms and their distinctions are especially focused on. It is demonstrated in the essay that in spite of sharing similar meanings, synonyms can have very distinct features in formality of contexts, connotations and collocations. This research is only a preliminary study on one pair of English synonyms, which has certain limitations and possible mistakes during the process. Nevertheless, as a corpus-based research on English synonyms, there are many areas that can be explored through this measure. The study on synonyms is one of the researches which can contribute to the understanding of language patterns. Also, this study can help to reduce the redundancy of language by eliminating strict synonyms, the words can completely interchange with each other.

Word count: 2328

Appendix 1: Formality of contexts of [claim].[v*] and [state].[v*]

Appendix 2: Connotations of claim

Appendix 3: Connotations of state

Appendix 4: Collocations of claim and state

Reference
Cambridge advanced learner’s dictionary 3rd Edition. (2008). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dalbera, J.P. (n.d.). Linguistic Atlases – Objectives, Methods, Results, Prospects--. In Kawaguchi, Y., Takagaki, T., Tomimori, N., & Tsuruga, Y. (Ed.), Corpus-based Perspectives in Linguistics (pp. 39-54). Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Fromkin, V., Rodman, R. & Hyams, N. (2011). An Introduction to Language (Ninth Edition). Boston: Wadsworth

Harley, H. (2006). English words: A linguistic introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

Hewings, A., & Hewings, M. (2005). Grammar and Context: An Advanced Resource Book. NYC: Routledge.

Jackson, H. & Amvela, E. (2007). Words, meaning, and vocabulary. London: Continuum.

Liu, M. C. (n.d.). Corpus-based Lexical Semantic Study of Verbs of Doubt. Retrieved November 3, 2014 from: http://www.docin.com/p-700196295.html

Phoocharoensil, S. (2010). A Corpus-Based Study of English Synonyms. International Journal of Arts and Sciences, 3(10): 227-245. Retrieved November 3, 2014 from: http://www.openaccesslibrary.org/images/BGS109_Supakorn_Phoocharoensil.pdf

The World Factbook (2009). Retrieved November 3, 2014 from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2098.html