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Do synonyms exist?

Inside Language | Streams, brooks, creeks, rivulets – they’re not quite the same thing, are they?

Kate Burridge & Peter Clarke 12 October 2016 47 words

They might have started off meaning the same things, but words acquire all kinds of baggage along the way – which means that mutts, hounds, curs and canine quadrupeds aren’t interchangeable, despite what the thesaurus might imply.

Duration: 13 mins 11 secs

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Kate Burridge is professor of linguistics at Monash University. Peter Clarke is a Melbourne-based broadcaster, writer and educator who pioneered national talkback on Australian radio as the inaugural presenter of Offspring (now Life Matters) on ABC Radio National.

Topics: Inside Language | language | linguistics

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