Construction Approach to Semantic Prosody of the Verb study: A Corpus-based Study
This study explores the semantic prosody of the English verb study by examining how recurring pairings of form and meaning within grammatical constructions influence evaluative meaning. Drawing on the theoretical foundation of Construction Grammar, it shows that the connotative behavior of verbs suc...
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| Published in: | Corpus pragmatics : international journal of corpus linguistics and pragmatics Vol. 10; no. 1 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer International Publishing
01.12.2026
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| ISSN: | 2509-9507, 2509-9515 |
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| Abstract | This study explores the semantic prosody of the English verb
study
by examining how recurring pairings of form and meaning within grammatical constructions influence evaluative meaning. Drawing on the theoretical foundation of Construction Grammar, it shows that the connotative behavior of verbs such as
study
is shaped by their dictionary meaning and the grammatical patterns and discourse roles in which they appear. While earlier research viewed semantic prosody mainly as a property of individual words, this study combines collocational analysis with grammatical patterning to reveal how meaning is constructed from repeated usage. Using a corpus-based methodology, supported by quantitative collocation metrics, qualitative concordance analysis, and inferential testing through the Chi-square procedure, the research identifies consistent variation in evaluative meaning across syntactic constructions and usage domains. The statistically significant relationship between construction types and prosodic values demonstrates that grammatical form is key in shaping attitudinal meaning. These results challenge the traditional view of prosody as a fixed lexical feature and instead highlight its context-sensitive and construction-driven nature. Drawing upon empirical data extracted from the Pakistani National Corpus of English (PNCE), this study provides insights into how
study
functions in Pakistani academic discourse. The verb
study
was selected as the focal item due to its exceptionally high frequency and functional centrality in academic discourse, as evidenced in the Pakistani National Corpus of English (PNCE). While a comparative analysis with semantically related verbs such as
analyze
or
examine
could provide additional contrastive insights, the current study deliberately restricts its scope to
study
to first establish a construction-based prosodic profile for this highly salient verb. It contributes to understanding how subtle distinctions among near-synonyms emerge through usage. It offers practical implications for corpus-informed discourse studies, lexicographic resources, and teaching English for academic purposes in non-native contexts. |
|---|---|
| AbstractList | This study explores the semantic prosody of the English verb
study
by examining how recurring pairings of form and meaning within grammatical constructions influence evaluative meaning. Drawing on the theoretical foundation of Construction Grammar, it shows that the connotative behavior of verbs such as
study
is shaped by their dictionary meaning and the grammatical patterns and discourse roles in which they appear. While earlier research viewed semantic prosody mainly as a property of individual words, this study combines collocational analysis with grammatical patterning to reveal how meaning is constructed from repeated usage. Using a corpus-based methodology, supported by quantitative collocation metrics, qualitative concordance analysis, and inferential testing through the Chi-square procedure, the research identifies consistent variation in evaluative meaning across syntactic constructions and usage domains. The statistically significant relationship between construction types and prosodic values demonstrates that grammatical form is key in shaping attitudinal meaning. These results challenge the traditional view of prosody as a fixed lexical feature and instead highlight its context-sensitive and construction-driven nature. Drawing upon empirical data extracted from the Pakistani National Corpus of English (PNCE), this study provides insights into how
study
functions in Pakistani academic discourse. The verb
study
was selected as the focal item due to its exceptionally high frequency and functional centrality in academic discourse, as evidenced in the Pakistani National Corpus of English (PNCE). While a comparative analysis with semantically related verbs such as
analyze
or
examine
could provide additional contrastive insights, the current study deliberately restricts its scope to
study
to first establish a construction-based prosodic profile for this highly salient verb. It contributes to understanding how subtle distinctions among near-synonyms emerge through usage. It offers practical implications for corpus-informed discourse studies, lexicographic resources, and teaching English for academic purposes in non-native contexts. |
| ArticleNumber | 5 |
| Author | Ahmad, Shumaila Saleem, Tahir |
| Author_xml | – sequence: 1 givenname: Shumaila surname: Ahmad fullname: Ahmad, Shumaila organization: Department of English, University of Central Punjab – sequence: 2 givenname: Tahir surname: Saleem fullname: Saleem, Tahir email: tahir.saleem@ucp.edu.pk organization: Department of English, University of Central Punjab |
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study
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| Title | Construction Approach to Semantic Prosody of the Verb study: A Corpus-based Study |
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