A Corpus-based Research On Gender-related Differences Among English Majors In The Use Of Intensifiers

Intensifiers,with high frequency in spoken production,refer to degree adverbs used to intensify adjectives,adverbs,verbs or sentences(Bolinger,1972),including amplifiers and downtoners.According to Lakoff(1975),the use of English intensifiers is related to gender,which is also an important factor in second language acquisition.Based on the corpus analysis of SECCL,this thesis attempts to investigate the gender difference in the use of intensifiers by English majors in spoken production.The focus of this research is to investigate the use frequency,semantic prosody,and reasons for intensifier acquisition by male and female English learners through applying both quantitative and qualitative methods.AntConc and Collocator are used to search for the frequency and semantic prosody across the two corpora MSC and FSC.A case study of using intensifiers by 8 English majors is discussed based on the questionnaire and interview.Understandings about gender difference in the use of intensifiers come from overall frequency analysis of intensifiers,semantic prosody of high frequency intensifiers,and a case study of using intensifiers.The analysis indicates that:(1)The general frequency of intensifiers indicates that there is high consistency in the use of amplifiers between males and females.Males use more downtoners significantly than females;(2)Specifically,among the 20 selected intensifiers,males and females show significant differences in the use of fully,really,almost and rather.Males frequently use fully,almost and rather,while females frequently use really;(3)Analysis of the semantic prosody of very,so,really,too indicates that there is a significant difference in the use of semantic prosody of so and really,and very and too don't show significant difference in the semantic prosody;(4)The case study shows that language transfer,speech act and learning strategy may lead to the differences in the use of intensifiers.This research is conductive to evaluating the effect of gender in learning English intensifiers and exploring the strategies in second language teaching.