A Corpus-based Comparative Study Of Colligation And Semantic Prosody Of Maximizers

Vocabulary investigation has always been the focal point in language study. Thepresent comparative study examines eight maximizers (a kind of gradable adverb):absolutely, completely, extremely, fully, perfectly, thoroughly, totally and utterly,attempting to explore the features of the colligations and semantic prosody of them inboth a native corpus (BNC) and Chinese Learner English Corpus (CLEC) and thendiscover the reasons that caused the differences.The present study is data-based and the one that combines quantitative analysis withqualitative analysis. The details about the research procedure are shown below. Firstly, byusing My Finder and the automatic concordance device, the eight words are in turnsearched with the method of Key Words in Context (KWIC) in CLEC and in BNC.Secondly, the features of colligation of each word are identified in terms of theconcordance lines in the two corpora by hand. Thirdly, the features of semantic prosodywithin different colligations of each word are analyzed in CLEC and BNC. Lastly,through comparing, the differences of the features of colligation and semantic prosody ofmaximizes are revealed. Meanwhile, the possible reasons for the differences are analyzed.The results reflect that in terms of colligation and semantic prosody there are bothsimilarities and differences between Chinese learner English and native speakers’ English.In some cases, the colligations or semantic prosody of a maximizer is the same as thatused by native speakers. In some cases, Chinese learners overuse, underuse or evenmisuse the colligations or semantic prosody of a maximizer. For instance, Chineselearners almost overuse the colligation of ADV+V of each maximizer being concernedin the present study. In addition, there are such interlanguage collocations as completely+because of the exam/have reason to give in Chinese learner English, which might bemainly caused by negative transfer. Moreover, even if the semantic prosody of amaximizer in CLEC is the same as that in BNC, the words collocating with themaximizer are different from that in native speakers’ English. For example, the typicalpositive collocates of extremely in BNC are good, fine and well, while in CLEC they areimportant or significant. This reflects that learners are not quite familiar with the depth ofvocabulary knowledge of native language.Based on the findings, some implications for English teaching and learning arederived. In order to improve the ability of using maximizers, the knowledge ofcolligation and semantic prosody should be covered in the process of designing syllabusand teaching materials as well as compiling dictionaries. For instance, while compilingdictionaries, words bearing similar meanings cannot be simply regarded as synonyms.The grammatical patterns and the features of semantic prosody of these words ought tobe put into consideration. Moreover, if it is possible, teachers and students should usecorpora in English teaching and learning.