A Corpus-Based Study of Semantic Prosody and Semantic Preference of “Seem”

Weiqian Liu

doi:10.4236/jss.2020.85020

Abstract

This paper is a corpus-based analysis of the semantic prosody and preference of “seem” to get a more fine-grained picture of the functions expressed by the marker. The multifunctionality of “seem” (appearance verb, evidential marker, hedging probability, indicating hearsay, etc.) has received a great deal of attention (Aijmer, 2009, Usonien? & Jolanta, 2013, Langacker, 2017, Marin, 2017, etc.) whilst few studies (if only) have looked on the issue of its profiled meaning thus this empirical research aims to explore the semantic prosody and preference of “seem” as an indicator to determine its primary function. The focus is on examining the semantic prosody, semantic preference and colligations of “seem” which help determines its predominant se-mantic function. In addition, how different meanings of “seem” interact with its various syntactic patterns and colligations is also investigated. It is argued that there is a close link between certain colligation and the preferred meaning it relates to.

Highlights

Semantic prosody as one of the most important concepts arisen out of corpus linguistics has been explored extensively both in monolingual and cross-linguistic contexts (Naixing Wei & Xiaohong Li, 2014)
This section examines in detail the colligation, semantic preference and semantic prosody of the node word for characterizing the primary function and patterning feature of “seem”
It would seem that Muslims would have to admit 8) has done so, and does not seem to have suffered the divisive, destruction 9) want convenience, but they do seem to lose some of their taste 10) to a cold shower was soon to seem the height of luxury; an 11) The redesign may seem simple, almost conservative, ... 12) our shortcomings? We still seem to hold this curious image of 13) the population our water supplies seem back to normal: the panic is 14) never changes’; it would seem that, at last, we have an 15) historians, perhaps not surprisingly, seem uncomfortable with any ... 16) are quite clear

Summary

Introduction

Semantic prosody as one of the most important concepts arisen out of corpus linguistics has been explored extensively both in monolingual and cross-linguistic contexts (Naixing Wei & Xiaohong Li, 2014). Previous studies have used both semantic prosody and preference as an indicator of the equivalence and translatability between synonyms or translation correspondences. Naixing Wei & Xiaohong Li (2014), for instance, examines the semantic preference and prosody across English and Chinese for their roles in “achieving equivalence between corresponding lexical items of the two languages”. It is plausible to use semantic prosody and preference as evidence indicating the primary function of certain polyfunctional markers such as “seem”, “appear”, etc. The multifunctionality makes it a quite challenging task to precisely characterize the primary function expressed by “seem”. Given such gap, this corpus-based study will address the following issues: 1) Exploring the semantic prosody and preference of “seem” as an indicator of its primary function.

Analytical Concepts

Research Methodology

Results and Discussion

Colligation of “Seem”

Semantic Prosody and Preference of “Seem”

Conclusion