A Corpus-Based Comparative Study Of Semantic Prosody Of Adjective Amplifiers Used By Chinese Learners Of English

The study of semantic prosody, the product of the development of corpus linguistics in recent years, has been a hot topic and a fresh aspect of studying lexical behavior. It is widespread in linguistic communication and plays a significant role in communication. Grasping the knowledge of semantic prosody is crucial for language learning.This thesis is intended to explore the use of adjective amplifiers in terms of semantic prosody in Chinese English learners? compositions. Based on the corpora, the semantic prosody of twenty-four selected adjective amplifiers by Chinese English learners are examined through comparison of the data from the Chinese Learner English Corpus(CLEC), the Louvain corpus of Native English Essays(LOCNESS) and the British National Corpus(BNC). With the help of Ant Conc3.4.3w and SPSS 16.0, this study makes statistical analysis on a large number of typical collocations in the context and reveals the prevalent features of semantic prosodies of adjective amplifiers used in Chinese English learners? compositions and the reasons are discussed afterwards.The results indicate that there are similarities and differences between adjective amplifiers used by native speakers and Chinese learners in terms of semantic prosody. Most adjective amplifiers used by Chinese learners exhibit similar semantic prosody compared with those of native speakers. However, the semantic prosodic features of some amplifiers are not consistent with those of native speakers, like absolutely, totally and terribly used by Chinese learners may exhibit unusual semantic prosody which ruins the semantic harmony and makes the English quite unnatural and less idiomatic.Based on the findings, enlightenments are provided for English learning and teaching, dictionary compiling as well as translation practice. Especially, the knowledge of semantic prosody should be transferred to English foreign learners to arouse their awareness of it during their learning, and further improve their English proficiency.