[...] we search for context which can be filled in with either morpheme, yielding pairs of utterances which differ from each other only in that one contains ‘big’ where the other contains ‘large’. If we can find such a ‘minimal pair’ for ‘big’ and ‘large’ in which the total meanings of the utterances are different, then we shall be forced to conclude that the two morphemes are not, after all, completely synonymous.
- Hockett (1958), a pag.130