López Couso, María JoséPettersson-Traba, Daniela2021-04-262023-03-242021http://hdl.handle.net/10347/26054This dissertation examines the distributional patterns of the five adjectival near-synonyms fragrant, perfumed, scented, sweet-scented, and sweet-smelling, which designate the concept PLEASANT SMELLING in American English by paying special attention to their diachronic development, as represented in the Corpus of Historical American English (1810-2009). The distribution of the selected adjectives is analyzed across a wide range of semantic, morphosyntactic, and stylistic contexts which function as a proxy for semantic similarity. Three separate analyses are conducted, focusing on different aspects of the semantic structure of the near-synonyms. Results indicate that the set is undergoing processes of convergence and substitution, possibly as a result of extralinguistic factors. Therefore, the analyses shed light on the diachronic development of lexical near-synonyms, a dimension that has up to now been relatively disregarded in the specialized literature.engAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacionalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Near-synonymyHistorical linguisticsSemantic changeDistributional corpus-based approachCollocationPleasant smellingAmerican EnglishMaterias::Investigación::57 Lingüística::5705 Lingüística sincrónica::570508 SemánticaMaterias::Investigación::57 Lingüística::5702 Lingüística diacrónica::570201 Lingüística históricadoctoral thesisopen access