A corpus-based study of semantic prosody in <i>ràng</i> and <i>shǐ</i> constructions

Abstract This study investigates the semantic nuances of the Mandarin causative constructions ràng and shǐ , focusing on their distinct semantic preferences and variations in semantic prosody. Analysis of 1,000 instances of each construction from the Corpus of Contemporary Taiwanese Mandarin (COCT) Written Corpus 2020 reveals that ràng frequently co-occurs with verbs and terms related to intelligence and cognition, while shǐ is more often found with terms and verbs associated with psychological states. This suggests that ràng constructions are often linked to cognitive processes, while shǐ constructions tend to evoke emotional or psychological responses. Although both constructions show an affinity for verbs describing change of state, psychological states, and motion, shǐ exhibits greater versatility, appearing with a broader range of verb classes. Examination of semantic prosody, utilizing Stubbs’ (1995) classification (positive, negative, neutral), shows that ràng constructions exhibit greater variation in their connotational coloring compared to shǐ constructions. Notably, both constructions tend to shift towards negative semantic prosody within the “changed” causative events, as shown in Table 6, with ràng demonstrating a stronger tendency to negative semantic prosody in comparison with shǐ ( ràng : 47.7 % vs. shǐ : 38.9 %). These findings highlight the subtle ways in which ràng and shǐ constructions convey different shades of meaning. The study contributes valuable insights into the linguistic expression, deepening our understanding of causative constructions in Mandarin.