The misuse of synonymous verbs by the Kurdish learners of English language : a case of six verbs

Abstract EN

In this research, semantics as well as functional differences are apt to occur when using a group of verbs.

The synonym verbs at the level of semantics belong to primary and secondary verbs associated with different semantic roles.

Students use the verbs speak/talk, tell/say and start/begin often face confusion and misuse these pairs of verbs in varied contexts.

Therefore, we conducted a test for 30 junior and 30 senior classes at the English department, college of languages to find out the type and rate of their misuse.

The results of the analysis showed that often the semantic similarity is one of the motivating factors for confusion and misuse.

However, the data analysis also showed that the highest percentage misuse of both senior and junior students is due to lack of pragmatic knowledge to decide when the two verbs are interchangeable and when they are different.