基于COCA语料库的动词“Demonstrate”的扩展意义单位研究

A Corpus-Based Study on the Extended Unit of Meaning of the Verb “Demonstrate” in COCA

摘要: 词汇习得研究是语料库语言学界的研究热点，作为语料库驱动的短语研究的重要描述机制，扩展意义单位模型为研究词汇的整体性意义提供了新的研究视角。本研究利用美国当代英语语料库(COCA)，以动词“demonstrate”为节点词，探讨了该词的扩展意义单位，即该动词的搭配、类联接特点、搭配词的语义倾向，以及整个复合词项的语义韵信息。研究发现，动词“demonstrate”常出现在学术文章中，常与带有“研究”词义的词汇搭配，多用于书面语。同时，该词能够与名词、形容词、副词和介词等词性进行不同的类联接，从而构成丰富多样的句法结构。此外，该词与形容词、副词和介词搭配时，分别体现积极、中性和消极的语义倾向，整个复合词项分别呈现出褒义、中立和贬义的语义韵。通过研究词汇的扩展意义单位，二语学习者可以发现整个扩展意义单位所传达的态度意义，从而提高自身的语言表达能力。

Abstract: The study of vocabulary acquisition has become a hot topic in the corpus linguistics community. As an important descriptive mechanism for corpus-driven phrase research, the extended unit of meaning model provides a new research perspective on the holistic meaning of vocabulary. This study utilizes the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) to investigate the extended unit of meaning of the verb “demonstrate”. This includes its collocation, colligation, semantic preference and semantic prosody. The results of the study indicate that the verb “demonstrate” frequently appears in academic articles, often collocates with words carrying the meaning of research, and is predominantly used in written language. Furthermore, this verb is able to form various syntactic structures through different collocations with nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions. Additionally, when collocating with adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions, the verb exhibits positive, neutral, and negative semantic preferences, respectively, resulting in a positive, neutral, and negative semantic prosody. By studying the expanded semantic units of vocabulary, second language learners can uncover the attitudinal meanings conveyed by the extended unit of meaning, thereby enhancing their own language expression abilities.