A Corpus-based Comparative Study On Degree Adverbs In Business News Of Beijing Review And Harvard Business Review

This study,based on two self-built corpora Beijing Review Corpus(BJRC)and Harvard Business Review Corpus(HBRC),researches the frequencies,colligations and collocations of degree adverbs used in business news from Beijing Review and Harvard Business Review,intending to find the similarities and differences in the features of degree adverbs used in the two corpora,and to explain the possible reasons of the differences.The major findings are:As for frequencies:(1)The degree adverbs used in Beijing Review are fewer than those used in Harvard Business Review;(2)In the two corpora,the frequencies of degree adverbs are:amplifiers and downtoners are almost equal,but are much more than approximators;(3)In all of the three classes,only a few frequently used degree adverbs are used in BJRC which are similar to those in HBRC,while other degree adverbs are underused or over used in BJRC.As for colligations:in the three classes of degree adverbs,there is no significant difference in the features of colligation between the two corpora.As for collocations:in the three classes of degree adverbs,the collocations of degree adverbs in HBRC are more various than those in BJRC.The collocations of degree adverbs in BJRC are more simpler and fixed than those in HBRC.The possible reasons for the differences are:Beijing Review and Harvard Business Review have different value on journalism;cultural transfer.These research results are probably helpful for English learners in their writing and translating of English business news.What’s more,it can shed light on the further study of degree adverbs and business news.