Look at the text about Monique Witteman and her cat Barend below.
| Monique Witteman uit Utrecht houdt van katten. Ze heeft een bijzondere hobby: zij schrijft poes Barend in voor elke poezententoonstelling in haar stad. Dit jaar is het de vierde keer dat ze haar kat showt. Barends bazin is niet de enige die hem geweldig vindt: de jury heeft de langharige Angorakat al drie keer laten winnen. Zowel eigenaresse als kater lijken het deelnemen leuk te vinden, want (...) |
| Monique Witteman from Utrecht loves cats. She has a special hobby: she enters her feline 'Barend' for every cat show in her town. This year is the fourth time that she is showing her tom. Barend's mistress isn't the only one who thinks he's wonderful: the jury has awarded the longhaired Angora cat the fist price three times now. Both the owner and tom cat appear to enjoy participating, because (...) |
To make the text more lively the writer has used pronouns. For more inofrmation about the use of pronouns, see >>Referring Expressions. The author has also varied words that occur frequently in the text. Rather than using the word kat or 'Monique Witteman' over and over again, different words have been used to describe the same person or animal. For Monique Witteman the words bazin and eigenaresse have been used; for the cat Barend the words poes, kat, langharige Angorakat and kater occur.
There are three main techniques writers can employ to vary the lexicon in their text: using synonyms, using parataxis and using words from different grammatical classes.
Use of synonyms
A widely used technique for varying lexicon is to use other words that mean the same (cf. the text about Monique Witteman). You can use a dictionay or thesaurus to help you find alternatives for frequent words. Be careful that you choose an alternative that is suitable for the context you intend. One way you can check this, is by looking up your 'find' in a monolingual Dutch dictionary. You can also check whether you have chosen an adequate alternative by entering the word (group) in an internet search: this will give you an idea whether it can be used in the context you require.
Below you find two examples of the use of synonyms (the phrases in bold type are synonymous) :
| In Nationaal Park De Weerribben bij Giethoorn zijn zeven otters uitgezet. Daarmee is de otter terug in Nederland, nadat het dier in 1988 was uitgestorven door watervervuiling. |
| In National park De Weerribben near Giethoorn, seven otters have been released. With that the otter is back in the Netherlands, after the animal had become extinct in 1988 due to water pollution. |
| In het onderzoek zijn 144 steden over de hele wereld met elkaar vergeleken. Opvallend is dat buiten de deur eten in Amsterdam relatief goedkoop is. Zo is een diner in Parijs gemiddeld 10 procent duurder dan in Amsterdam. |
| In the survey 144 cities worldwide have been compared. It is remarkable that eating out is relatively cheap in Amsterdam. A dinner in Paris, for instance, costs an average of 10% more than in Amsterdam. |
Another possibility is to look for the opposite of a term you use more than once and then to negate that opposite. In the example below the writer writes about afvalwater (waste water). After the first mention of that term s/he has used a synonym for it: dat vieze water (that dirty water). Finally s/he has found an opposite for vies (schoon) and then negated it: water dat niet schoon is.
Een bijzonder probleem betreft het water. Door het grote aantal toeristen in Spanje wordt er veel afvalwater geproduceerd. Dat vieze water wordt vaak geloosd in de Middellandse Zee. Water dat niet schoon is , wordt minder snel afgevoerd, (...)
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| A special problem concerns the water. Because of the growing number of tourists in Spain a large quantity of waste water is produced. That dirty water is often dumped in the Mediterranean. Water which is not clean takes longer to be be carried off, (..) |
Use of parataxis
Parataxis is the use of a collective word for something. Look at the following example, where moeder, zusjes, nichten, tantes en oma's is later paraphrased as vrouwelijke familieleden:
| Van deelnemers aan het onderzoek wordt verwacht dat zij gezondheidsgegegevens van hun moeder, zusjes, nichten, tantes en oma's doorgeven. Het is dus belangrijk dat u bekend bent met de ziektegeschiedenis van uw vrouwelijke familieleden. |
| It is expected of the participants in the survey that they pass on medical details of their mother, sisters, nieces, aunts and grandmothers. It is therefore important that you are familiar with the medical history of your female relatives. |
Changing grammatical class
A writer can also change the grammatical class of a frequently occurring word or word group. It is possible, for instance, to opt for a >>noun to break with the use of a >>verb. Look at the example below where the use of the verb stijgen (is gestegen) has been varied by the use of the noun toename and the noun phrase stijgende lijn.
Het energiegebruik is in 2002 met 2% gestegen ten opzichte van het jaar ervoor. Dit blijkt uit voorlopige cijfers van het CBS (Centraal Bureau voor Statistiek). Deze toename ligt boven de gemiddelde jaarlijkse toename van 1,2% in 1996-2000. (...) Ook het verbruik van aardgas vertoont een stijgende lijn . (...)
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| The use of energy has risen by 2% in 2002 as compared to the previous year. This has become apparent from preliminary figures published by the (Dutch) Central Bureau for Statistics. This increase is higher than the average annual increase of 1.2% in 1996-2000. (...) The use of gas also represents a rise. |
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