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The topic-dependent negative prototypical collocates under topic international can be generalized as (i) unpleasant emotion, thought and other mental states (e.g., maoduen ‘paradox’), (ii) termination of events (e.g., ezhi ‘stop’), (iii) warfare (e.g., lenzhan ‘cold war’ and jiangju
‘deadlock’), and (iv) change of state (e.g., zhuanbian ‘change’) (see Table 23). These semantic features may account for the elicitation of the negative SP tendency.
Table 23
Top 10 negative prototypical collocates under topic international Semantic features Prototypical collocates
Topic International ✕ negative SP Unpleasant emotion,
thought and other mental states
矛盾maoduen ‘paradox’
Termination of events 終結 zhongjie ‘terminate’, 遏止 ezhi ‘stop‘, 落幕 luomu ‘ending’
Warfare 冷戰 lenzhan ‘cold war’, 僵局 jiangju ‘deadlock’, 敵對 didui
‘hostility’, 派系 paixi ‘faction’
Change of state 轉變 zhuanbian ‘change’, 削減 xiaojian ‘reduce’
4.4 Internal Summary
Throughout the entire corpus, the SP distribution of the concordance lines for each node was summarized in Table 24. The node word chansheng has a primary negative SP with a secondary
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Table 24
Semantic prosody profile of the three node words
Node word Positive % Neutral % Negative % Semantic prosody
chansheng 29.1 10.6 60.3 Negative
niangcheng 22.1 3.4 74.5 Negative
cucheng 74.2 5.8 19.9 Positive
The topic-dependent SP distribution of the concordance lines of the three node words was summarized in Table 25. In the diagram, “positive” indicates a positive SP, and “negative” refers to a negative SP. A red label with an upward-pointing arrow indicates the SP distribution has a residual value greater than 1.96 in a topic; conversely, a green label with a down-facing arrow indicates the SP distribution has a residual value lower than -1.96 in a topic. Two important patterns should be noted. First, a consistent increment of the proportion of the negative SP was observed under topic international. Secondly, the arousal of positive SP of chansheng and niangcheng was discovered under topic sports.
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Comprehensive view of SP tendencies across topics
Society Politics Enter. Inter. Sports Finance Lifestyle
產生
In terms of the semantic features of the prototypical collocates (“prototypical features”
for convenience) of a node word under topics that intensify the positive/negative SP tendency of that node word, some phenomena were detected. The common positive prototypical features for chansheng were (i) acts and behavior and (ii) abstract concept; for niangcheng was desirable description. On the other hand, the common negative ones for chansheng were (i) unpleasant emotion, thought and other mental states, (ii) acts and behavior, and (iii) health issues; for niangcheng was destructive/harmful events, accidents and disaster.
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The current study has shown that (1) chansheng has a primary negative SP and a secondary positive SP, (2) niangcheng a strong negative SP, and (3) cucheng a strong positive SP in the ADN corpus. In parallel to Xiao and McEnery (2006), the last two node words echo the findings in their study; nonetheless, chansheng contradicts to their finding where the node word was found to have a mixed SP (31% negative and 24 % positive). A possible reason for the surge of negative SP is the influence of negative disposition under news genre. In journalism, it is argued that “the more negative the event in its consequences, the more probable that it will become a news item” (Cohen & Young, 1981, p. 56). Thus, the negative SP tendency of chansheng, which has a mixed SP in domain-general texts (hereafter ‘general’), may be amplified under the ADN corpus. Compatible to the SP trend of news, niangcheng, which has a negative SP in general, continues to show a strong negative SP. On the other hand, despite exposing to the overall sentimental orientation of news genre, cucheng nonetheless carries a strong positive SP. Its strong positive SP in general may entail its insensitivity to the topical influence of the news genre.
The SP tendency of the mixed-SP node word, chansheng, varies to a great degree across different topics; conversely, the SP tendencies of the strong-SP node words, niangcheng and cucheng, are relatively stable despite exposing to diverse topic types. As presented in the
individual result section of each node word, the Cramer’s V value informs that only the strength of the association between TOPIC and SEMANTIC PROSODY is moderately strong for chansheng, but weak for the other two node words. Thus, we suggest that a mixed-SP node word in general is susceptible to the topic change in a way that it serves as a vehicle to resonate the overall sentiment and content nature of a given topic. On the other hand, a strong-SP node word in
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general is rather insensitive to the topic change and has a more monotonous SP usage. Since only the mixed-SP node word is found to be influenced by topic, the moderate hypothesis is
confirmed in our study. The weak influence of topic on the strong-SP node words rejects the strong hypothesis. Lastly, the null hypothesis of no correlation existing between topic and the SPs of any node words is not supported by the evidence of topic-dependent SP of chansheng.
Along with the well-validated notion of register prosody by O'Halloran (2007), we further propose the idea of topic prosody—context-dependent SP operates at the level of topic.
Based on the findings in the present study, the phenomenon of a topic-dependent SP is confined to chansheng, the mixed-SP node word. We might also argue that topic has higher probability in selecting the SP phenomenon of mixed-SP node words more often than strong-SP node words.
In semantic network analysis, topic-dependent prototypical features generalized from prototypical collocates of the three target node words may contribute to the increase of
positive/negative SP tendency for these node words. To find out how the prototypical features are connected to the main themes of the news article under a given topic, we decided to utilize the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) algorithm (Blei, Ng, & Jordan, 2003) to explore the typical semantic content/matter of the news coverage under each topic. LDA is an effective data-mining technique which offers analysts a quick look of the thematic distribution across documents under a collection of texts. Moreover, LDA has been employed for tasks such as topic discovery in scientific papers (Griffiths & Steyvers, 2004) and recommendation for data annotation (Krestel, Fankhauser, & Nejdl, 2009). We applied LDA to the six topics where the SP of one of the node words is intensified significantly. We selected an arbitrary number and classified the news collection of each topic into ten themes. The naming for each theme, along with topic 15 relevant
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finance, lifestyle) are shown from Appendix C to Appendix H.
Listed below are themes generalized by LDA within the aforementioned topics; these themes contain the news subject matter that journalists typically report about. Among them, we provide a few concordances demonstrating how the prototypical semantic features of a node word relate to the content of news articles.
5.1 Topics Triggering Positive SP
Under topic entertainment, it is observed that the positive tendency of chansheng rises. The typical ten themes are jingpin ‘boutique’, biaoyan ‘performance’, falujiufen ‘lawsuit’, baoyang
‘health maintenance’, shenghuoyule ‘life entertainment’, yiliao ‘medical care’, ganqingbagua
‘gossiping’, yingshi ‘television’, jiating ‘family’, and dianying ‘movie’ (see Appendix D).
Examples expressing positive evaluation for the topic are provided in (7).
(7)
a. 踢踏舞 等 新 元素 ， 和 兒童劇 產生 了 全新 的 「 化學變化 」 。
dietawu deng xin yuansu, he ertongju chansheng le quanxin de
「 huaxuebianhua 」.
tap-dance so-on new element, CONJ children’s drama cause PFV brand-new GEN「 chemical-change 」
‘New elements such as tap dance and children's drama have created a new
"chemical change."’
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touguo erbei huohua mei yiceng de nianqing danbai, youxiao daji suizhe nianling zengchang chansheng de jingtai wen, rang songchi buzai,
through two-time activation each layer GEN young protein, effective strike with age grow cause GEN static wrinkle, let looseness no-more,
‘Through doubling young protein that activates each layer, it effectively combats the static lines that grow with age, stopping the looseness.’
c. 綺麗 風光 收錄 於 衣裙 之間 ， 並 融入 60 年代 未來 風格 輪廓 ， 產生 出
一 種 明快 俐落 的 度假 意象 。
qili fengguang shoulu wu yiqun zhijian, bing rongru 60 niandai weilai fengge lunkuo, chansheng chu yi zhong mingkuai lila de dujia yixiang.
beautiful scenery record in dress within, and blend 60 period future style outline, create out one CLF bright clear-cut GEN vacation image.
‘The beautiful scenery is included in the dress and blended into the futuristic outline of the 1960s, creating a bright and clear-cut holiday image.’
It is possible that (7a) belongs to the theme of biaoyan ‘performance’. The idea of introducing new elements into a performance brings out chemical change in the context shadows the prototypical features of abstract concept (e.g., huaxuebianhua ‘chemical change’) and
description about physical entity or abstract concept (e.g., quanxin ‘brand new’), as shown in Table 13. (7b) relates to the theme of baoyang ‘health maintenance’ and delineates the optimal
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acts and behavior (e.g., huohua ‘activate’) and optimal change (e.g., songchi buzai ‘no more looseness’ ) (cf. Table 13). (7c) is likely to come from the theme of dianying ‘movie’. Its content associates with filming techniques and projected effect, and thus reflects the prototypical feature of abstract concept (e.g., yixiang ‘image’). What we mean by “reflect” here is the indication that a prototypical feature is observable in a given context.
Under topic sports, the positive SP of both chansheng and niangcheng is enhanced. The typical ten themes are lanqiu ‘basketball’, titanjinkuang ‘sports news updates’, qiandu
‘gambling’, taiwanzhibang ‘Taiwanese baseball league’, bangqiu ‘baseball’, jingsai
‘competition’, saishi ‘games’, jianshen ‘workout’, wangqiu ‘tennis’, and shangyezanzhu
‘business partnership’ (see Appendix F). Examples for each node word are provided in (8).
(8)
a. 但 搭配 滑球 與 時速 100 公里 出頭 的 慢速 曲球 ， 產生 不錯 速差 。
dan dapei guqiu yu shisu 100 gongli chutou de mansu quqiu, chansheng bucu sucha.
but match-with slide-ball and speed-per-hour NUM kilometer a-little-more GEN slow curve-ball, cause good-speed-difference.
‘but, with a slide ball and a curved ball that is 100 kilometers per hour, it produces a good speed difference.’
b. 莫瑞絲摩 打法 明顯 進步 ， 產生 個人 特色 ， 她 常 適當 上網 ，
moruisima dafa mengxian jinbu, chansheng geren tese, chi chang didang shangwang,
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PN play obvious improve, cause personal characteristic, 3SG.F often appropriate approach-net,
‘Morrismo has made obvious improvement in her playing and had personal characteristics. She often approaches net appropriately.’
c. 威廉絲 姊妹 在 廣告 中 打 的 並不是 網球 而是 桌球 ， 兩人 產生 不少 特殊
的 笑果 。
weiliansi zimei zai guanggao zhong da de bingbushi wangqiu ershi zhuoqiu, liangren chansheng bushao teshu de xiaoguo.
PN sisters at advertisement among play AUX not tennis but table-tennis, two-people produce many special GEN funny-effect.
‘The Williams sisters played table tennis in the advertisements instead of tennis.
The two produced a lot of special funny effect.’
d. 人 每天 平均 會 產生 1 ~ 10 萬個 腫瘤 細胞 ， 正常 情況 下 免疫系統 會 自
動 判斷 細胞 ，
ren meitian pingjun hui chansheng 1 ~ 10 wan ge zhongliu xibao, zhengchang qingkuang xia mianyijitong hui zidong panduan xibao,
people every-day average will produce 1~10 10-thousand CLF tumor cells, normal condition under immune-system will automatic judge cells
‘On average, people will produce 1 to 100,000 tumor cells per day. Under normal circumstances, the immune system will automatically judge cells.’
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多 的 意外 。
jiezhe yu qiumi baofa chongtu, zuihou bei anquan renyuan husong dao zhuaibo shi cai mei niangcheng gengduo de yiwai.
then with ball-fans burst conflict, eventually PASS secure personnel escort to broadcast room only not cause more GEN accidents.
‘Then there was a conflict with the fans, and s/he was finally escorted by the security personnel to the broadcast room before it caused more accidents.’
f. 隆利 、 布雷克 再 接力 安打 釀成 大局 。
longli, buleike zai chali anda niangcheng daju.
PN, PN again relay hit cause big-game.
‘Longli and Blake also hit, leading to a big baseball game.’
For chansheng, (8a) relates to either theme of taiwanzhibang ‘Taiwanese baseball league’
or bangqiu ‘baseball’. (8b) is likely to come from the theme of wangqiu ‘tennis’. The two instances share the idea of making an optimal change in plays leading to a good consequence or characteristic, and the idea incorporates the prototypical features of acts and behavior (e.g., dapei
‘match with), abstract concept (e.g., tese ‘characteristics’), and optimal change (e.g., jinbu
‘improve’), as shown in Table 15. (8c) is likely to come from the theme of shangyezanzhu
‘business partnership’. Its content is basically describing the humor in an advertisement, which creates a special funny effect to the audiences. The prototypical feature of attributes of physical entity/abstract concept (e.g., teshu ‘special’) is therefore reflected (cf. Table 15). Lastly, (8d)
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associates with the theme of jianshen ‘workout’. It contains the idea of immune systems preventing infections, which reflects the prototypical feature of prevention (e.g., mianyijitong
‘immune system’) (cf. Table 15).
In terms of niangcheng, (8e) may belong to the theme of saishi ‘games’. The idea of official security guards escorting game players to avoid conflict in the text suggests the prototypical feature of settling issues (e.g., husong ‘escort’), as provided in Table 20. (8f)
associates with either the theme of bangqiu ‘baseball’ or jingsai ‘competition’. Here, consecutive hits in an inning leads to positive results, which matches the prototypical feature of desirable description (e.g., daju ‘big game’).
Under topic lifestyle, the positive SP tendency of niangcheng is prompted. The typical ten themes are shying ‘photography’, yiliaozhaohu ‘medical care’, fuzhuang ‘cloths’, xiuxian
‘recreation’, luyou ‘travel’, shicai ‘ingredients’, zhanbo ‘diviation’, qiche ‘car’, shangpintehui
‘discount products’, meishi ‘food’. Examples expressing favorable meaning are provided in (9).
(9)
a. 工作 要 把 話 說 清楚 ， 才 不會 釀成 遺憾 。
gongzuo yao ba hua shuo qingchu, cai buhui niangcheng suida.
work must hold words speak clear, so will-not cause regret
‘making a clear statement must be done at work, so it will not cause regret.’
b. 應去 看 醫生 治療 ， 以免 拖到 最後 釀成 大病 。
yingqu kan yisheng zhiliao, yimian tuodao zuihou niangcheng dabing.
should see doctor treatment, so-as-not-to dragged-to last cause serious-illness.
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the end.’
c. 葡萄 釀成 紅酒 後 ， 紅酒 多酚 也 有 抗氧化 功效 ，
beitao niangcheng gongjiu hou, gongjiu duofen yeyou kangyanghua gongxiao, grape brew wine after, wine polyphenols also have antioxidant effects,
‘After the grapes are made into red wine, the red wine polyphenols also have antioxidant effects.’
d. 或 以 陳年 糙米 醋 、 薰衣草 冰糖 釀成 舒爽 的 「 天 醋 香草 飲品 」 ， 以
及 用 牛蒡 和 地瓜 絲炸過，
huo yi chennian caomi cu, xunyicao bingtang niangcheng shushuang de 「 tian cu xiangcao yinpin 」, yiji yong niubang he degua sizhaguo,
or with aged brown-rice vinegar, lavender crystal-sugar brewed refreshing GEN
“sky vinegar vanilla beverage,” and use burdock and sweet potato,
‘Or use the aged brown rice vinegar and lavender crystal sugar to make a refreshing "sky vinegar vanilla drink" and fried with burdock and sweet potato,’
The content of (9a) is about skill at work, which presumably leads to a desirable outcome. The most possible theme for (9a) is shangpintehui ‘discount products’, since it is intuitively compatible to a work-related context. Moreover, the prototypical feature of desirable description (e.g., shuo qingchu ‘speak clearly’) illustrated in Table 21 is reflected here. (9b) might come from the theme of yiliaozhaohu ‘medical care’. Its content suggests seeking for
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medical care due to discomfort, involving the prototypical feature of medical manner (e.g., zhiliao ‘treatment’) (cf. Table 21).
In terms (9c) and (9d), we find that the other meaning of the node word—brew—is present. (9c) seems to come from the theme of meishi ‘food’, and expresses the idea of the benefit of wine polyphenols; (9d) likely comes from the theme of shicai ‘ingredients’ and describes how ingredients are used to make a beverage. Also, the two instances all reflect the prototypical feature of desirable description (e.g., kangyanghua ‘antioxidant’ and shushuang
‘refreshing’) shown in Table 21. It is possible that the interference from the polysemic nature of the node word might account for the phenomenon that niangcheng appears frequently in positive contexts.
5.2 Topics Triggering Negative SP
Under topic society, we find that the negative SP tendency of chansheng is boosted. The typical ten themes within the topic are jiaotongshijian ‘traffic events’, dupinfanzui ‘drug crime’, xingshi
‘crime’, xiaoyuan ‘school’, zhapian ‘fraud’, baolishijian ‘violent events’, xiaofang
‘firefighting’, falujiufen ‘lawsuit’, qingseshijian ‘sexual harassment’, and jiatingjiufen ‘family problem’ (see Appendix C). We provide four instances of chansheng in (10).
(10)
a. 沒想到 對方 母親 返家 後 ， 雙方 產生 誤解 。
meixiangdao duifang muqin fangu hou, shuangfang chansheng wujie.
Unexpectedly other-side mother return-home after, both-sides cause misunderstanding.
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misunderstanding.’
b. 影響 智力 ， 甚至 以後 會 產生 經常 流眼淚 、 抽筋 的 後遺症 ，
yingxiang zhili, shendie sihou hui chansheng jingchang liuwenlei, choujin de housuizheng
influence intelligence, even afterward will cause often tearing, cramp GEN sequelae,
‘Affecting intelligence, and even it will cause the sequelae of frequent tears and cramps in the future,’
c. 兩 瓶 已 乾燥 成 顆粒狀 的 化學藥品 ，倒進 水溝 時 ，引起 化學變化 而 產
生 氣爆 ，將 他 炸傷 。
liang ping yi ganzao cheng kelizhuang de huaxueyaopin, daojin shuigou shi, yinqi huaxuebianhua er chansheng qibao, jiang ta zhashang.
two bottles already dry become granular GEN chemical, pour-into ditch when, cause chemical-change and cause gas-explosion, let 3SG.M injury.
‘When two bottles of chemicals, which have been dried into pills, was poured into the ditch, it caused chemical changes with a gas explosion which injured him.’
d. 身心創傷 遠比 異性 間 的 侵害 更大 ， 甚至 在 青春期 時 易 產生 對 性別 混
淆 ， 建議 家長 隨時 注意 小孩 言行舉止,
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shenxinchuangshang yuanbi yixing jian de qinhai gengda, shenzhi zai qingchunji shi yi chansheng dui xingbie hunxiao, jianyi jiachang suishi zhuyi xiaohai
yanhangjuzhi,
physical-and-mental-trauma far-more heterosexual within GEN invasion bigger, even in adolescence when easy cause toward gender confusion, suggest parents anytime watch children words-and-deeds,
‘Physical and mental trauma is far more intense than the invasion among heterosexual people. Even in adolescence, it is easy to cause gender confusion.
Parents are advised to pay attention to children’s words and deeds at any time.’
The four instances unambiguously express an unfavorable evaluative meaning. (10a) is likely to come from the theme of jiatingjiufen ‘family problem’, and relates to the negative thought toward others, reflecting the prototypical features of unpleasant emotion, thought and mental state (e.g., wujie ‘misunderstanding’) (see Table 12). (10b) relates to the theme of
dupinfanzui ‘drug crime’ and is about the consequence of taking drugs. The content involves the prototypical features of acts and behavior (e.g., liuwenlei ‘tearing’), and health issues (e.g., housuizheng ‘sequelae’) (cf. Table 12). (10c) is connected to the theme of xiaofang ‘firefighting’, which is often associated with its harmful events in real life. This may be closely connected to
dupinfanzui ‘drug crime’ and is about the consequence of taking drugs. The content involves the prototypical features of acts and behavior (e.g., liuwenlei ‘tearing’), and health issues (e.g., housuizheng ‘sequelae’) (cf. Table 12). (10c) is connected to the theme of xiaofang ‘firefighting’, which is often associated with its harmful events in real life. This may be closely connected to