Semantic Prosody: The Phenomenon of "Prosody" in Lexical Patterning

Abstract

The study of semantic prosody is new to the corpus linguistic field. It has become apparent through the current research that semantic prosody be integrated into English as a foreign language (EFL) and English as a second language (ESL) vocabulary learning, reading, writing and teaching. Semantic prosody, when taught explicitly, is valuable to the EFL/ESL teaching field to develop communicative competence among non-native English speakers (NNES). The different positive and negative connotations of specific words and their impact on NNES bilingual dictionaries are examined along with its effects on NNES written works. These findings give new insights into the teaching of semantic prosody. The results of the study suggest that if explicit instruction of semantic prosodic words and phrases in EFL/ESL vocabulary classes do not occur, then the results are a misuse of semantic prosodic words and phrases by NNES. Practical suggestions for EFL/ESL teaching of semantic prosody are provided.