小さな vs 小さい/大きな vs 大きい


Is there any difference in meaning between 小さな and 小さい / 大きな and 大きい? I know
that they have different syntactical rules, but semantically is there any
difference? I was once told that 大きな was more appropriate for non-physical
things, e.g. 大きな声.




Shogakukan's _Ruigo Reikai Thesaurus Dictionary_ has this to say about
differences in meaning and usage:

> 「大きい」は、「夢が大きい」「大きく夢みる」のように述語として、また
> 連用修飾語としても使うが、「大きな」は「大きな…(名詞)」という言い方でしか使わない。  
>  _Ōkii_ is used as both predicate and as a continuative modifier as in _yume
> ga ōkii_ , _ōkiku yume miru_ , but _ōkina_ is only used in the format of
> _ōkina_...(noun).
>
> 物事の程度や、関わる範囲などが大であるという意で名詞を修飾する場合、その名詞が「問題」「影響」など抽象名詞のときは、「大きな」を用いることが多い。  
>  When modifying a noun to mean that a thing's degree or relevant scope is
> large, _ōkina_ is used more often when the noun is abstract, such as a
> "problem" or "effect".

There's also a table indicating different valid and invalid constructions,
which I've clumsily recreated below. The - indicates an invalid use, while the
△ indicates an acceptable but less-common use.

>             ～声 | 声が～ | ～問題に発展する | ～影響がある | ～拍手で迎えられる  
>  大きい     〇 |    〇     |               △            |           △         |
> 〇  
>  大きな     〇 |    －     |               〇           |           〇         |
> 〇

As shown above, both 大きい声 and 大きな声 would be equally valid. The person who told
you that 大きな should be used more for non-physical things might have used the
wrong word; given the description above, the distinction appears to be
_abstract_ vs. _concrete_ , rather than _physical_ vs. _non-physical_.

Grammatically, 小さい and 小さな have the same usage constraints as 大きい and 大きな. The
thesaurus does not, however, mention any differences in _abstract_ vs.
_concrete_ between 小さい and 小さな.




Shogakukan's _Ruigo Reikai Thesaurus Dictionary_ has this to say about
differences in meaning and usage:

> 「大きい」は、「夢が大きい」「大きく夢みる」のように述語として、また
> 連用修飾語としても使うが、「大きな」は「大きな…(名詞)」という言い方でしか使わない。  
>  _Ōkii_ is used as both predicate and as a continuative modifier as in _yume
> ga ōkii_ , _ōkiku yume miru_ , but _ōkina_ is only used in the format of
> _ōkina_...(noun).
>
> 物事の程度や、関わる範囲などが大であるという意で名詞を修飾する場合、その名詞が「問題」「影響」など抽象名詞のときは、「大きな」を用いることが多い。  
>  When modifying a noun to mean that a thing's degree or relevant scope is
> large, _ōkina_ is used more often when the noun is abstract, such as a
> "problem" or "effect".

There's also a table indicating different valid and invalid constructions,
which I've clumsily recreated below. The - indicates an invalid use, while the
△ indicates an acceptable but less-common use.

>             ～声 | 声が～ | ～問題に発展する | ～影響がある | ～拍手で迎えられる  
>  大きい     〇 |    〇     |               △            |           △         |
> 〇  
>  大きな     〇 |    －     |               〇           |           〇         |
> 〇

As shown above, both 大きい声 and 大きな声 would be equally valid. The person who told
you that 大きな should be used more for non-physical things might have used the
wrong word; given the description above, the distinction appears to be
_abstract_ vs. _concrete_ , rather than _physical_ vs. _non-physical_.

Grammatically, 小さい and 小さな have the same usage constraints as 大きい and 大きな. The
thesaurus does not, however, mention any differences in _abstract_ vs.
_concrete_ between 小さい and 小さな.

