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摘 要：This paper studies the semantic prosody of LEAD to to examine the features of the semantic coloring in scientific texts. Drawing on data from the subcorpus on the BNC web， this paper finds LEAD to has changed its prosody， and its collocates are typically germane to quality， quantity. These findings have particular implications for teachers and language users.
關键词：semantic prosody; corpus-based approach; British National Corpus
1. Background
The introduction of ‘semantic prosody’ makes it easier for the study of synonyms， of which the term semantic prosody is defined by Louw （1993） as the meaning of typical collocates rubbed off onto certain node. There are many scholars deal with this topic with the help of corpus， of which the most significant is Stubbs’s （1995） research of CAUSE which finds the term has a strongly negative prosody. However， Hunston （2007） notes that CAUSE does not imply anything undesirable when it is used in scientific texts. Inspired by the different observations for the semantic coloring of CAUSE， this paper attempts to illustrate the semantic elements of the synonym of CAUSE， i.e.， LEAD to， aiming to investigate the semantic features of the phrase and the characteristics of semantic prosody.
Based on the study of CAUSE， many researchers conducted research on the semantic features of its synonyms， the phrase LEAD to in particular. To illustrate， Pan （2012） compared CAUSE and LEAD to drawing on the British National Corpus （BNC） and observed the negative prosody for the latter term. However， Han （2015） reported that LEAD to had a neutral prosody because it often co-occurred with neutral semantic collocates （e.g.， conclusion）; in Xiao & McEnery’s （2006） study， the frequent collocates were activity， courses， so they concluded that LEAD to had a neutral prosody.
These studies reveal that the semantic prosody of LEAD to changes based on different dataset. Whilst the data used in the studies are almost general. Similar to the studies of CAUSE， the current paper conducts an analysis of the semantic prosody of LEAD to in scientific texts to probe more deeply into the features of the phrase.
2. Methods
The corpus used in this paper was a subcorpus within the BNC， containing about 15 million words of scientific texts. The analysis was based on the top 30 content collocates within a span of 4 Left to 4 Right. At least 20 randomly selected instances were examined for the target collocates. 3. Results and discussion
The following table shows the coloring distribution of the collocates based on the analysis of concordance lines.
The table shows the three groups are similar to each other， for which each group accounts for about 30%. In detail， when LEAD to is used in scientific texts， it can be associated with positive collocates （e.g.， improvements）， and negative terms （e.g.， further， inevitably）， for which further has an undesirable prosody because it often co-occurs with unfavorable terms， e.g.， marital rift; inevitably also often co-occurs with unpleasant words （e.g.， tensions）. The node also co-occurs with neutral terms （e.g.， formation）. So， in this case， LEAD to has no particular semantic prosody.
Compared with previous studies that LEAD to has a neutral/positive prosody as discussed in section two， the semantic prosody of the node has changed without particular coloring in the scientific texts. Furthermore， LEAD to in the corpus often associates with words which relate to quality， quantity， e.g.， the number of better-paid jobs， company profits.
4. Conclusions
This paper studies LEAD to to examine whether the semantic prosody of this term shows differently in scientific texts. By analyzing the concordance lines in the subcorpus， this paper finds that LEAD to presents a different prosody compared with previous studies， which indicates semantic prosody of certain lexical item is not consistent but changes in various domains. The finding suggests that both teachers and language users should think about the different semantic prosodies of LEAD to in different situations.
References
Hunston， S. （2007）. Semantic prosody revisited. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics. 12（2）， 249–268.
Louw， B. （1993）. Irony in the text or insincerity in the writer？ The diagnostic potential of semantic prosodies. Text and Technology： In Honour of John Sinclair， ed. by Mona Baker， Gill Francis， and Elena Tognini-Bonelli. Amsterdam： John Benjamins.
Stubbs， M. （1995）. Collocations and semantic profiles： On the cause of the trouble with quantitative methods. Function of Language. 2（1），1–33.
Xiao， R.， & McEnery， A. （2006）. Collocation， semantic prosody， and near synonymy： A crosslinguistic perspective. Applied Linguistics. 27（1）： 103-129.
參考文献：
[1]韩存新， （2015）.《英汉语义韵探索：理论， 方法与实践》. 厦门：厦门大学出版社.
[2]潘璠， （2012）. 《基于语料库的语言研究与教学应用》. 北京：中国社会科学出版社.
關键词：semantic prosody; corpus-based approach; British National Corpus
1. Background
The introduction of ‘semantic prosody’ makes it easier for the study of synonyms， of which the term semantic prosody is defined by Louw （1993） as the meaning of typical collocates rubbed off onto certain node. There are many scholars deal with this topic with the help of corpus， of which the most significant is Stubbs’s （1995） research of CAUSE which finds the term has a strongly negative prosody. However， Hunston （2007） notes that CAUSE does not imply anything undesirable when it is used in scientific texts. Inspired by the different observations for the semantic coloring of CAUSE， this paper attempts to illustrate the semantic elements of the synonym of CAUSE， i.e.， LEAD to， aiming to investigate the semantic features of the phrase and the characteristics of semantic prosody.
Based on the study of CAUSE， many researchers conducted research on the semantic features of its synonyms， the phrase LEAD to in particular. To illustrate， Pan （2012） compared CAUSE and LEAD to drawing on the British National Corpus （BNC） and observed the negative prosody for the latter term. However， Han （2015） reported that LEAD to had a neutral prosody because it often co-occurred with neutral semantic collocates （e.g.， conclusion）; in Xiao & McEnery’s （2006） study， the frequent collocates were activity， courses， so they concluded that LEAD to had a neutral prosody.
These studies reveal that the semantic prosody of LEAD to changes based on different dataset. Whilst the data used in the studies are almost general. Similar to the studies of CAUSE， the current paper conducts an analysis of the semantic prosody of LEAD to in scientific texts to probe more deeply into the features of the phrase.
2. Methods
The corpus used in this paper was a subcorpus within the BNC， containing about 15 million words of scientific texts. The analysis was based on the top 30 content collocates within a span of 4 Left to 4 Right. At least 20 randomly selected instances were examined for the target collocates. 3. Results and discussion
The following table shows the coloring distribution of the collocates based on the analysis of concordance lines.
The table shows the three groups are similar to each other， for which each group accounts for about 30%. In detail， when LEAD to is used in scientific texts， it can be associated with positive collocates （e.g.， improvements）， and negative terms （e.g.， further， inevitably）， for which further has an undesirable prosody because it often co-occurs with unfavorable terms， e.g.， marital rift; inevitably also often co-occurs with unpleasant words （e.g.， tensions）. The node also co-occurs with neutral terms （e.g.， formation）. So， in this case， LEAD to has no particular semantic prosody.
Compared with previous studies that LEAD to has a neutral/positive prosody as discussed in section two， the semantic prosody of the node has changed without particular coloring in the scientific texts. Furthermore， LEAD to in the corpus often associates with words which relate to quality， quantity， e.g.， the number of better-paid jobs， company profits.
4. Conclusions
This paper studies LEAD to to examine whether the semantic prosody of this term shows differently in scientific texts. By analyzing the concordance lines in the subcorpus， this paper finds that LEAD to presents a different prosody compared with previous studies， which indicates semantic prosody of certain lexical item is not consistent but changes in various domains. The finding suggests that both teachers and language users should think about the different semantic prosodies of LEAD to in different situations.
References
Hunston， S. （2007）. Semantic prosody revisited. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics. 12（2）， 249–268.
Louw， B. （1993）. Irony in the text or insincerity in the writer？ The diagnostic potential of semantic prosodies. Text and Technology： In Honour of John Sinclair， ed. by Mona Baker， Gill Francis， and Elena Tognini-Bonelli. Amsterdam： John Benjamins.
Stubbs， M. （1995）. Collocations and semantic profiles： On the cause of the trouble with quantitative methods. Function of Language. 2（1），1–33.
Xiao， R.， & McEnery， A. （2006）. Collocation， semantic prosody， and near synonymy： A crosslinguistic perspective. Applied Linguistics. 27（1）： 103-129.
參考文献：
[1]韩存新， （2015）.《英汉语义韵探索：理论， 方法与实践》. 厦门：厦门大学出版社.
[2]潘璠， （2012）. 《基于语料库的语言研究与教学应用》. 北京：中国社会科学出版社.