A Contrastive Study of Semantic Prosody Based on Sentiment Analysis: The Case of Adverbs of Completeness in English and Chinese

Abstract

Traditional studies of semantic prosody, often relying on manual observation of limited concordance lines, face constraints such as small scale, susceptibility to subjective judgment, and difficulties in capturing emotional nuances in broader contexts. This study introduces sentiment analysis to conduct a contrastive investigation of semantic prosody in English and Chinese, with a focus on adverbs expressing completeness. The findings reveal that the specific context or "span" of text significantly influences the observed polarity strength of semantic prosody. Sentiment analysis incorporating contextual and syntactic factors yields more precise and nuanced results. Differences in semantic prosody between translational equivalents in the two languages reflect disparities in lexicalization patterns: English employs a wider range of adverbs to convey subtle emotional distinctions, while Chinese relies on more generalized terms with broader semantic ranges and an overall positive tendency. This research demonstrates the potential of computational methods in semantic prosody and contrastive linguistics, offering an efficient and scalable approach to data-driven analysis.