| This study,based on the definition of quality partition in A comprehensive grammar of the English language and the definition and classification of semantic prosody,investigates the semantic prosody of quality-partitive synonyms.With the integration of quantitative and qualitative analysis,the research,with BNC corpus as a collection of raw materials,aims to investigate the distributions,diachronic developments and particular semantic prosodies of quality-partitive synonyms.The major findings are concluded as:1.From the synchronic perspective,quality-partitive synonyms distribute variously in different registers(Fiction,Magazine,Newspaper and Misc),especially in Fiction Register.For instance,the phrase a type of occurs least frequently and the other two phrases occur most frequently.2.From the diachronic perspective,quality-partitive synonyms have great changes in different periods.The phrase a type of shows a rising trend on the whole.The phrase a kind of continues to rise since 1920s while a sort of falls sharply since 1890s.3.When it comes to the formality of semantic prosody,quality-partitive synonyms occur unevenly in Academic,Non-academic and Spoken Register.And quality-partitive synonyms show disparate formal and informal semantic prosodic features.4.Last and the greatest of all,there is a significant difference in semantic prosody of quality-partitive synonyms.To be specific,the phrase a type of shows positive semantic prosodic feature while the other two phrases show negative semantic prosodic feature in different contexts.In the end,this paper,based on the research findings,gives some corresponding pedagogical suggestions for the purpose of helping English learners to have a better understanding of the semantic prosody of quality-partitive synonyms and providing a reference and inspiration for the future studies in this field. |
PDF Full Text Request