7EN009 words, meaning and

linguistic creativity

WEEK 4
SEMANTIC PREFERENCE AND SEMANTIC
PROSODY
Task 1

a) What is irony?

b) Read the passage on your handout from

David Lodges (1984) novel Small World and
discuss what hints there are in the passage
that let us know that Lodge is being ironic?
David Lodge (1984) Small World

"The modern conference resembles the pilgrimage of medieval

Christendom in that it allows the participants to indulge
themselves in all the pleasures and diversions of travel while
appearing to be austerely bent on self-improvement. To be sure,
there are certain penitential exercises to be performed - the
presentation of a paper, perhaps, and certainly listening to the
papers of others. But with this excuse you journey to new and
interesting places, meet new and interesting people and form
new and interesting relationships with them; exchange gossip
and confidences (for your well-worn stories are fresh to them,
and vice versa); eat, drink and make merry in their company
every evening; and yet, at the end of it all, return home with an
enhanced reputation for seriousness of mind."
Task 1 continued

In Internet Explorer, go to http://

www.skylight-to-english.co.uk/skylight , log on and select the
British National Corpus (BNC). If you have forgotten how to do
it, follow the instructions for Task 1 on your handout.
Ask for 50 lines of bent on. Sort the lines to the right and make
a note of the most frequently occurring collocates. What do
they have in common?
Then sort to the left and note the most frequent collocates.
What can you say about them?
What can you say about the meaning of bent on?
What does this tell us about how Lodge has created a sense of
irony?
What have we learned so far?

1. The slot-and-filler principle cannot alone account for the

ways in which language is organised. The idiom principle is
necessary to account for the syntactic restrictions on word
choice.
2. Dictionaries have long recognised the role of collocation in
sense disambiguation, but corpus analysis reveals more
complex patterning: recurrent patterns in language use
across extended units of meaning.
3. Dictionaries and language-teaching textbooks tend to
regard idioms as peripheral to language teaching, whereas
recurrent phraseological patterns are a core feature of
language in use.
 According to Sinclair (2004)
Linguistic theory has been
biased in favour of analysis of chil crie
the paradigmatic axis, not the
syntagmatic axis (Sinclair,
d d
2004: 140).
For a fuller description of
meaning in texts, we need a A man laughed
model of analysis which
reconciles the paradigmatic
and syntagmatic dimensions
of choice (Sinclair, 2004:141)
Sinclair, J.M. (2004) Trust the
The woman died
Text: language, corpus and
discourse London: Routledge.
Todays work

We are going to look in greater depth at John

Sinclairs (2004) account of the process by which we
co-select items when we use language.
We are going to examine his five categories of co-
selection and we will focus in particular on the
phenomena of semantic preference and semantic
prosody.
Sinclair, J.M.S. (2004) Trust the Text: language, corpus and
discourse London: Routledge.
Corpus evidence for the node word budge
Dictionary definitions of budge
Collins COBUILD English Dictionary
entry for budge

1. If someone will not budge on a matter, or if nothing

budges them, they refuse to change their mind or to
compromise.
Both sides say they will not budge The Americans are adamant
they will not budge on this point No amount of prodding with
budge him.
2. If someone or something will not budge, they will
not move. If you cannot budge them, you cannot make
them move.
Her mother refused to budge from London The window refused
to budge I got a grip on the boat and pulled but I couldnt budge
it.
The lexico-grammatical environment of budge

English does not talk much about budging at all, but

about not budging the quantity of movement is
irrelevant (Sinclair, 2004: 142-143).
Budge is an ergative verb (i.e. the person or thing that is
to be moved can be the subject or the object of budge)
Main collocations: refuse(s/d) to; wouldnt; didnt;
couldnt; etc.
Colligation, i.e. the grammatical environment, is with
verbs, in particular modal verbs, e.g. would, could, etc.
Sinclair, J.M. (2004) Trust the Text: language, corpus and
discourse London: Routledge, pages 142-144)
The meanings of budge

The refusal of someone or something to move (refused to

budge/wont budge, etc.); The inability on the part of someone
to get someone or something to move (cant/couldnt budge
it/them, etc.).
Why use budge and not move?
Something does not budge when it does not move despite
repeated attempts to move it. From the perspective of the person
who wants something moved, this is frustrating and irritating,
and these emotions may find expression, because this is the
semantic prosody of the use of budge. (Sinclair, 2004:144).
Sinclair, J.M. (2004) Trust the Text: language, corpus and discourse
London: Routledge, pages 142-144)
 Five categories of co-selection

Obligatory categories Optional categories

Core (which is invariable and constitutes the

evidence of the item as a whole, e.g. budge)
Semantic prosody (the meaning as a whole,
Collocation (co-occurrence of words, e.g.
e.g. sense of frustration at the refusal of
s.o./s.th to move or inability to make it/them refuse, wouldnt, etc.)
move, negativity) Colligation (the grammatical
environment, e.g. budge often preceded
by modal verbs)
Semantic preference (restriction of
regular co-occurrence to items which
share a semantic feature, e.g. semantic
preference of budge for words denoting
refusal and inability).
In plain English

A speaker or writer knows what meaning they want to

express and therefore selects a semantic prosody (e.g.
frustration, inability, refusal)
The semantic prosody is realized a particular semantic
preference (e.g. words and grammatical structures denoting
refusal and/or inability)
The semantic preference controls the collocational and
colligational patterns (e.g. would not/could not/refused to,
etc.)
The final component of the lexical item is the invariable core.
(Adapted from Winnie Chengs, 2012, Exploring Corpus Linguistics:
Language in Action London: Routledge, page 114).
Semantic prosody

A subtle element of attitudinal, often pragmatic

meaning (Sinclair, 2004: 145).
Prosodies express a speakers or writers attitude
towards the person or thing they are talking about
(Stubbs, 1996; 2002; Partington, 2004).
According to Louw (1993) writers sometimes diverge
from the expected semantic prosodies in order to
create irony.
(for references, see final slide)
Examples of semantic preference and prosody

CAUSE collocates mainly with words with unpleasant

connotations: problem(s)l damage; death(s); disease;
concern; cancer; pain; trouble (Stubbs, 2002;47).
Stubbs, M. (2002) Words and Phrases: Corpus Studies of Lexical
Semantics Oxford: Blackwell.
The subjects of the phrasal verb SET in mainly refer
to unpleasant states of affairs: rot; decay; malaise;
despair; ill-will; decadence; infection; rigor mortis;
etc. (Sinclair, 1991: 75).
Sinclair, J.M. (1991) Corpus, Concordance, Collocation Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Task 2

Task 2 In the BNC on Skylight, ask for 50 lines for

the adjective impending. Sort it 1 position to the
right. List the position 1 right-hand collocates which
occur more than once. Now do a new query and ask
for 100 lines for impending. Again, sort the
concordance 1 to the right and list the position 1
right-hand collocates which occur more than once.
Write a short paragraph describing the semantic
preference and prosody of the word.
Task 3

What are the semantic preferences and

semantic prosodies of the intensifying
adverbs utterly and perfectly?
If you have time, look at the intensifying
adverbs absolutely, totally, completely,
entirely and thoroughly.
Task 4
Look at a concordance
for duplication from the
BNC and/or ukWaC.
Would you change either
of the definitions on the
left? If so, how?
Homework

1. Do any tasks you have not completed in class.

2. Choose one of the words you have examined and write a short
paragraph describing its meaning and uses and its semantic
preferences and semantic prosody.
3. Read the three articles on semantic prosody which have been
uploaded into the Articles folder under the main menu on the
7EN009 WOLF topic:
. Morley, J. and Partington, A. (2009) A few Frequently Asked Questions about semantic or evaluative prosody
International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 14 (2): 139158.
. Partington, A. (2004) Utterly content in each others company Semantic prosody and semantic preference
International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 9 (1): 131-156.
. Hunston, S. (2007) Semantic Prosody Revisited International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 12 (2): 249268.

3. Do further reading on the subject in books available in the

library.
References

Cheng, W. (2012) Exploring Corpus Linguistics: Language in Action London: Routledge.

Hunston, S. (2002) Corpora in Applied Linguistics Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hunston, S. (2007) Semantic Prosody Revisited International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 12 (2):
249268.
Louw, B. (1993) Irony in the text or insincerity in the writer? The diagnostic potential of semantic
prosodies. In M. Baker, G. Francis, & E. Tognini-Bonelli (Eds.), Text and Technology: In Honour of
John Sinclair (pp. 157176). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Morley, J. and Partington, A. (2009) A few Frequently Asked Questions about semantic or
evaluative prosody International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 14 (2): 139158.

Partington, A. (2004) Utterly content in each others company Semantic prosody and semantic
preference International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 9 (1): 131-156.
Sinclair, J.M. (1991) Corpus, Concordance, Collocation Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sinclair, J.M. (2004) Trust the Text: language, corpus and discourse London: Routledge.

Stubbs, M. (1996) Text and Corpus Analysis Oxford: Blackwell.

Stubbs, M. (2002) Words and Phrases: Corpus Studies in Lexical Semantics Oxford: Blackwell.