以“工资”、“工资”、“工资”为例的商务英语词汇组合研究

【摘要】以语料库为工具从语言学的角度出发区分近义词“Pay”,“Wage”,“Salary”在类联接、搭配词和语义韵等方面的异同点。研究显示：“pay”有六种类联接，“wage”和“salary”有八种；它们均包含“Adj+N”,“N+N1”,“N2+N”,“Art+N”,“V+N”,和“Prep+N”,最高频和次高频类联接分别是“Adj+N”和“N+N1”；不同的是，只有“wage”和“salary”具有“Perspron+N”和“Conj+N”这两类类联接，而“pay”没有。当“pay”，“wage”和“salary”与动词搭配时，它们都和“include”搭配，“pay”和“salary”的动词搭配词大多有利于雇员，但是“wage”和“salary”的搭配词中也存在不利于雇员的词。与形容词搭配时，它们都和“higher”搭配，“pay”的形容词搭配词含有利于雇员和时间的语义。“Wage”的搭配词和时间、法律相关并且有些不利于雇员的词。“Salary”的搭配词多与时间相关。它们与名词搭配时没有共同的搭配词，仅有一个词既和“wage”又和“salary”搭配。“Pay”多与商业与职业的名词搭配,“wage”与商业，法律和收入水平的词搭配，“salary”与时间，职业和收入水平的词搭配。当“pay”，“wage”和“salary”与形容词和动词搭配时,他们都具备中性语义韵并有积极语义韵的倾向，当他们和名词搭配时“pay”和“wage”具备中性语义韵并有消极语义韵的倾向，而“salary”仅有中性语义韵。【关键词】类联接；搭配；语义韵；语料库；近义词Abstract:Thecorpusisusedhereasatooltostudyagroupofsynonyms,namely,“pay”,“wage”and“salary”fromalinguisticperspective,analyzingtheirdifferencesandsimilaritiesinthefollowingfouraspects——collocation,colligationandsemanticprosody.Accordingtothecorpusdata,itcanbefoundthatasfor“pay”,therearesixtypesofcolligations,andeighttypesfor“wage”and“salary”.Somesimilaritiesanddifferencesaredetected.Thesimilarityisthatallofthemhave“Adj+N”,“N+N1”,“N2+N”,“Art+N”,“V+N”,and“Prep+N”,andthemostandthesecondmostfrequentlyusedcolligationsare“Adj+N”and“N+N1”.Thedifferenceisthat“wage”and“salary”have“Personpronoun+N”and“Conj+N”,but“pay”doesn’thave.When“pay”,“wage”and“salary”collocatewithverbs,allofthemcollocatewith“include”.Collocationsof“pay”and“salary”areprimarilybeneficialtoemployees.However,thereexistscollocationsof“wage”and“salary”thatwoulddisappointemployees.Whentheycollocatewithadjectives,allof“pay”,“wage”and“salary”collocatewith“higher”.“Pay”collocateswithadjectivesthatarebeneficialtoemployeesandrelevanttoworkefficiency.“Wage”collocateswithwordsthatarerelevanttotimeandlawsanditalsocollocateswithwordsthatarenotgoodforemployees.“Salary”collocateswithwordsthatarerelevanttotime.Whentheycollocatewithnouns,thesethreewordsdon’tcollocatewiththesameword.Onlyonewordcollocateswithboth“wage”and“salary”.“Pay”collocateswithnounsaboutbusinessandoccupations.“Wage”collocateswithnounsaboutbusiness,lawsandincomelevel.“Salary”collocateswithnounsabouttime,occupationsandincomelevel.When“pay”,“wage”and“salary”collocatewithadjectivesandverbs,allofthemhaveneutralsemanticprosodyandhaveatendencyofpositivesemanticprosody.Whencollocatingwithnouns,“pay”and“wage”haveneutralsemanticprosodyandhaveatendencyofnegativesemanticprosody,while“salary”onlyhasneutralsemanticprosody.KeyWords:colligation;collocation;semanticprosody;corpus;synonyms1.Introduction1.1TheBackgroundandSignificanceofThisTopicWiththeinteractionamongcountriesaroundtheworldbecomingpyramidallymorefrequent,businessEnglishhasbeenplayingasignificantroleintheinternationalactivities,sohavingagoodcommandofBusinessEnglishissupposedtobeamustforpeopleinvolved.However,alargemajorityofsynonymsposeastumblingobstacleforthemduringtheprocessofinteraction.SynonymsthatrefertowordshavingsimilarorthesamemeaningstakealargeaccountofEnglish,whichformacomplexsystembythesamemeaningofthewordormorphology.Therefore,learningandteachingsynonymsdomattertoEnglishvocabularylearning.LiYuanfanpublishedapaperentitledAnalysisofEnglishSynonymsBasedonCorpusTakingCoventionandTraditionasExample.InthispapershepointedoutthatteachersalwaysdistinguishedEnglishsynonymsbydistinguishingtheirdifferenceinChinesemeaningsduringthetraditionalEnglishlearningprocess.Butthiswayofteachingisoutofcontextanditiseasytomakestudentsmixtheusageofsynonyms(LiYuanfan,2016:192-193).Firthproposedafamousillustrationaboutcollocationthatitisfromaaccompaniedwordtoknowthisword,soEnglishlearnerscanmemorizethemasanentiretybyconnectingtheircolligationsandlexicalchunks(Firth,J.R,1957:12).NowadayswiththedevelopmentofInternetandcorpustechnology,whichisbeingwidelyappliedtodoresearchesbylinguistics,becomesausefultooltolearnanddistinguishsynonyms.Thus,bymakingtheutmostofthetechnologyandconveniences,thestudyiscarriedouttoexplorethesimilaritiesanddifferencesamong“pay”,“wage”and“salary”frominterconnectedaspects,namelythecolligation,thecollocationandthesemanticprosody.1.2StructureBelowarethearrangementsofthispaper.Thefirstchapteristheintroductionofthebackgroundandsignificanceofthetopic.Thesecondchapteristheliteraturereview,includingtheconceptsofcolligation,collocation,semanticprosodyandthepreviousresearchesontheissue.Thethirdchapterisdesignofthestudy,comprisingthesubjectsoftheresearch,mainquestions,researchmethodsandtheintroductionofthecorpus.Thefourthchapterareresultsandanalysisandthefifthchapteristheconclusion.2.LiteratureReview2.1TheConceptofColligationAccordingtoFirth,colligationistherelationshipofthewordsbetweengrammaticalcategoriesinsyntacticstructure.Thatistosaythatcolligationisthegrammaticalstructureandframeworkinwhichwordcollocationoccurred.Acolligationstandsforakindofcollocation(FirthJ.R,1957:12.).WhileMitchellregardscolligationastheabstractdescriptionthatisaboutthecategoryofwordscombination.Inasimpleword,colligationisthegrammaticalstructureandframeworkinwhichwordsarecollocatedanditreferstothecombinationrelationbetweengrammaticalcategoriesfromtheperspectiveofgrammar(Mitchell,1975:443).Intermsoftheconceptofcolligation,domesticscholars,likePuJiangzhonghashisownviews,hedefinescolligationasagrammaticalcategoryorformofagrammaticalwordsespeciallytheprepositionthatisdirectlyrelatedtoitsusage(PuJiangzhong,2003:438-445).AnotherdomesticscholarXuJiajinpointsoutthatthestudyofcolligationcanexplaintherelationshipbetweenlexicalitemstructuresfromamoreabstractgrammaticallevel,whichgoesbeyondthescopeofgenerallexicalcollocation(XuJiajinandXiongWenxin,2009:18-23).Inthispaper,Firth’sopiniononcolligationistaken.2.2TheConceptofCollocationCollocationwasfirstproposedbyFirth(Firth,J.R,1957:12).Heheldtheideathatcollocationwasasyntagmaticrelation,whichwasarelationshipofcompany.Inotherwords,onewordcanbeunderstoodfromitscollocationofaword.Halliday(Halliday,1976:75)illustratedwordscollocationistherelationshipofcombinationbetweenlexicalitems.Inaddition,therearesomedifferentdefinitionsandopinionsoncollocationbydomesticscholars.IntheopinionofWeiNaixing,collocationreferstotherealizationofacertainspecialidiommeaninginthetextandtheuseofawordsequenceinacertaingrammaticalform,andthewordsthatmakeupthesequenceanticipateeachotherandco-occurwithgreatchancethanco-occurringbychance(WeiNaixing,2002(2):101-114).AnotherscholarPuJiangzhongdefinescollocationastherepeatedco-occurenceoftwoormorewordsespeciallythenoun,theverb,theadjectiveandtheadverbinacertaingrammaticalform(PuJiangzhong,2003:438-445).Similarly,intermsoftheclassificationofcollocations,opinionsvaryfromonescholartoanother.HuangXinrudividescollocationintofourtypes:syntacticcollocation,registercollocation,textualcollocationanddeviationalcollocation(HuangXinru,2007:46-50).Accordingtotheflexibilityofcollocation,ZhuYongshengsortscollocationintothreetypes:setcollocation,conventionalcollocationandcreativecollocation(ZhuYongsheng,1996:14-18).LiMingthinksthecollocationofEnglishisnotonlyinthecombinationofwords,itisalsoinphoneticmodels,sohecategorizescollocationintoseventypes:syntacticalcollocation,lexicalcollocation,textualcollocation,deviationalcollocation,provisionalcollocation,obsoletecollocationandphonologicalcollocation(LiMing,1999:17-20).JensBahnsclassifiedcollocationintogrammaticalcollocationandlexicalcollocation,theformerconsistingofanoun,anadjective,oraverb,andadverbs,whilethelatterbeingmadeupofvariouscombinationsofnouns,adjectives,verbsandadverbs.(JensBahns,1993:56-63)Inthispaper,JensBahns’classificationisemployed.2.3TheConceptofSemanticProsodyThephenomenonofsemanticprosodywasfirstpresentedandusedbySinclairin1991(Sinclair,1991:100-104).Inhispaperheconcludedthediffernencesbetweenthecollocationofphase“setin”and“breakout”,hefoundbothof“setin”and“breakout”oftencollocatewithnegativecollocations.Sinclairalsopointedoutthatsemanticprosodyisclosertothepragmaticsideofthesemanticpragmaticcontinuum,whichrevealstheessentialcharacteristicsoftherelationshipbetweensemanticprosodyandattitudemeaningandcommunicativeintention(Sinclair,1996:87).Duringtheseovertwentyyears,theeducationalcirclepaysmoreandmoreattentioninsemanticprosodyandsemanticprosodybecomesanimportantsubjectofstudyincontemporarycorpuslinguistics.AnotherscholarLouwpointedoutthatsemanticprosodyisakindofmeaning,whichismainlyusedtoexpresstheattitudeofspeakerorwriter(Louw,2000:58).Stubbledividedsemanticprosodyintothreetypes:activesemanticprosody,negativesemanticprosodyandneutralsemanticprosody(Stubbs,1996:76).DomesticscholarWeiNaixingcallsneutralsemanticprosodymixedsemanticprosody(WeiNaixing,2002:300-307).Inaddition,WeiNaixingpointsthatduringthestudyofcorpuslinguistics,thedefinitionandinterpretationofsemanticprosodyisdifferentfromtheconceptsofpositiveandnegativewordsdescribedintraditionallexicology.Inalexicologicalsystemofdescription,awordhasaclearlypositiveornegativemeaning,buttheircollocationsmaynotallarepositiveornagativewords.However,intermsofsemanticprosody,itisdifficultytosayhowmanyobviouspositiveornegativemeaningsofthenodewordshaving,buttheirtypicalcollocationshavesomemeaningcharacteristics.WeiNaixing,2002:165-175).Inthispaper,Sinclair’sopiniononsemanticprosodyisused.2.4ResearchatHomeandAbroadThereare15relativeresultswhenusing“ACorpusBasedResearchonCollocationofEnglishSynonyms”asthethemetosearchtheCNKI.ThefirstrelativepaperwaswrittenbyWangChunyan(WangChunyan,2009:27-31).Shedistinguished“true”and“real”fromaspectsofsyntactic,semanticprosodyandtheusageofnon-lexicographicaletc.todiscussthemethodsofteaching.Thelatestone,ComparativeStudyandTeachingontheFeatureofEnglishSynonymofVerbsBasedonCorpuswasreleasedbyLiYaoandLiaoShunlin,whocomparedandanalysedsimilaritisanddifferencesofcollocationfeaturesandsemanticprosodyoftwogroupsofverbsynonyms“achieve”and“gain”,“arise”and“emerge”,inChinesestudents’writtenEnglishcorpusandEnglishnationalcorpus(LiYao,LiaoShunlin,2019:125-130).Afteranalysis,itisfoundthatthemajorityofthestudiesfocusonthefollowingtopics.Oneistodiscusssynonyms’collocationpatterns,differencesinsemanticprosodybyusingthecorpus.ForExample,thepaperAComparativeStudyontheCollocationofIntellectualandIntelligentandtheSemanticProsodyBasedonCorpusdiscussesdifferencesoncollocationandsemanticprosodyofintellectualandintelligent(ShenShudan,2020:195-198).Theotheroneiscenteredonthereasonsofmisusingordifficultiesonsynonymsduringtheprocessofstudyhasbeenrepeatedlyexplored.Forinstance,inthearticle,AStudyonLearners’EnglishSynonymsMatchingBehaviorandSemanticProsodyinCorpus,LuJuntookEnglishnativelanguageasareferencetodisscussChineselearners’characteristicsofdevelopmentpatternsandfactorsoflearningEnglishsynonyms(LuJun,2010:276-284).HecametoaconclusionthattherearetwotendenciesofEnglishlearners:thetendencyofsynonymssubstitutionandthetendencyoftranslatingliterallyaccordingtotheChinesemeaning.Thesetwotendenciescausedifferentlevelsofsemanticconflict.Andhepointedoutthenecessityofteachingstudentstolearntousecorpusevidencetodistinguishthedifferenceofsynonymsincollocationbehaviorsandsemanticprosodycharacteristics3.DesignoftheStudy3.1TheSubjectsofResearchThesubjectsareagroupofsynonyms:“pay”,“wage”and“salary”whentheyareusedasanoun.Becauseduringtheprocessoflearning,manylearnersjustknowordistinguishthembytheirmeaningapproximatelybuttheydon’tknowthedeepmeaningandarenotabletousethemcorrectly.Therefore,effortsaremadetocomparethemfromtheangleofcolligation,collocationandsemanticprosody.3.2TheMainResearchQuestions(1)Whatarethecolligationsof“pay”,“wage”and“salary”inBEICcorpus?Andwhataresimilaritiesanddifferencesamongthem?(2)Whatarethecollocationsof“pay”,“wage”and“salary”?Andwhataresimilaritiesanddifferencesamongthem?(3)Whatarethesemanticprosodiesof“pay”,“wage”and“salary”?Andwhataresimilaritiesanddifferencesamongthem?3.3ResearchMethodByusingBEICcorpus,searchsentencesincluding“pay”,“wage”and“salary”andthenchoose100resultsatrandomtoanalyzetheircolligation,collocationandsemanticprosody.3.4TheIntroductionofCorpusBusinessEnglishIVCorpus(BEIC)aimsatguidingstudentsbyusingcorpustosearch,observe,experience,analyseandconcludeallkindsofthebusinessEnglishusagephenomenonbyself.TheoriginalcorpusmainlychoosethepracticalandauthoritativeEnglish.English-Chinesebusinessmaterialsmainlyincludesdomesticandforeignbusinesscorrespondence,mails,foreignbusiness,andInternetmaterialsandsoon.Thereisabout2millionwordsofBEIC.4.ResultsandAnalysis4.1Colligationof“Pay”,“Wage”and“Salary”Inordertofindthecolligationsof“pay”,“wage”and“salary”,BEICcorpusisadoptedheretosearchforrelevantexamplesentencesand100resultsarerandomlyselectedtoanalyze.Table1:TheColligationof“Pay”inBEICCorpusColligationFrequencyWordsAdj+N41take-home,gross,expatriate,variable,net,intrusive,hardship,international,annual,additional,extra,increasee,danger,basic,typicalN+N131level,policy,freeze,cut,rate,data,practice,Period,structure,bonus,scale,incentive,discrepencyN2+N17separation,hardship,severance,overtime,baseV+N15equal,provide,receive,obtain,raiseincrease,get,compute,include,sharePrep+N11on,in,of,aboutArt+N3a,theFromthetableabove,itcanbefoundthattherearesixkindsofcolligationsof“pay”andthemostfrequentlyusedcolligationis“Adj+N”withahighfrequencyof42times.Thesecondfrequentlyusedcolligationis“N+N1”,withafrequencyof31times.Thethirdfrequentlyusedcolligationis“N2+N”,with16times.Thefourthoneis“V+N”,with15times.Thefifthone“Prep+N”,with11times.Thesixthoneis“Art+N”,with3times.Tosumup,therearesixtypesofcolligationsof“pay”,andthe“Adj+N”,“N+N1”,“N2+N”,“V+N”and“Prep+N”occurover10times.Itshowsthatinthecolligationof“pay”,these5colligationsareoftenused.Table2:TheColligationof“Wage”inBEICCorpusColligationFrequencyWordsAdj+N30bad,after-tax,before-tax,net,hourly,federal,limit,meagre,average,national,minimum,intenal,high,take-home,low,differentN+N123rate,level,reduction,growth,data,income,information,structure,V+N14lower,increase,earn,raise,isreduce,exceed,minimum,pay,adjustArt+N14a,thePrep+N8for,of,at,on,inPerspron+N6her,his,theirN2+N5government,factory,industryConj+N2thatThefindingsareseenfromtheabovetablethatthereareeighttypesofcolligationsof“wage”.Thehighestfrequencybelongsto“Adj+N”with30times;thesecondhighestoneis“N+N1”thatoccurs23times.Thethirdare“V+N”and“Art+N”,bothofwhichoccur14times.Thefourthis“Prep+N”,whichoccurs8times.Thefifthis“Perspron+N”,whichoccurs6times.Thesixthis“N2+N”,whichoccurs5times.Theseventhis“Conj+N”,whichoccurs2times.Tosumup,thereareeightkindsofcolligationof“wage”;fourkindsoccurover10times,whichare“Adj+N”,“N+N1”,“V+N”and“Art+N”.Itshowsthatinthecolligationof“wage”thesefourcolligationsareusedoften.Table3:TheColligationof“Salary”inBEICCorpusColligationFrequecyWordsAdj+N33recent,annual,gross,monthly,resonable,samewell-deserved,current,large,appropraite,attractive,specific,local,low,basic,generous,expatriate,high,domestic,average,N+N117data,expense,information,comparison,requirement,discussion,decisions,level,income,negotiationV+N14pay,raise,increase,cutdetermine,draw,hold,reviewN2+N12base,starting,meritPrep+N11of,with,in,Art+N10a,thePerspron+N9your,my,his,our,herConj+N2thatFromthetable3,itcanbediscoveredthatthemostfrequentlyusedcolligationis“Adj+N”thatoccurs33times.Thesecondis“N+N1”thatoccurs17times.Thethirdis“V+N”thatoccurs14times.Thefourthis“N2+N”thatoccurs12times.Thefifthis“Prep+N”thatoccurs11times.Thesixthis“Art+N”thatoccurs10times.Theseventhis“Perspron+N”thatoccurs9times.Theeighthis“Conj+N”thatoccurs2times.Tosumup,thereareeightkindscolligationsof“salary”,andthe“Adj+N”,“N+N1”,“V+N”,“N2+N”,“Prep+N”,“Art+N”occur10timesormore.Itindicatesthatinthecolligationof“salary”thesesixcolligationsareusedoften.Theabovediscussionleadstotheconclusionthattherearesixtypescolligationsof“pay”,eighttypesof“wage”and“salary”withsomesimilaritiesanddifferences.Thesimilarityisthatallofthemcancolligatewiththeadjective,thenoun,thearticle,theverbandthepreposition,andthemostandsecondfrequentlyusedcolligationare“Adj+N”and“N+N1”.Thedifferenceisthatonly“wage”and“salary”colligatewiththeperspronandconjunction,but“pay”doesn’t.4.2Collocationof“Pay”,“Wage”and“Salary”Inordertoknowthetypicalcollocationsof“pay”,“wage”and“salary”,BEICcorpusisadoptedtofindtheircollocationswithhighfrequency.Lexicalcollocationsareexclusivelyexaminedhere.Table4:VerbsCollocatingwith“Pay”,“Wage”and“Salary”inBEICCorpuspaywagesalaryNOwordfreqwordfreqwordfreq1include11.11%have18.42%pay13.24%2receive11.11%increase13.16%increase10.29%3equal5.56%pay10.53%bring8.82%4equalize5.56%raise7.89%include8.82%5raise5.56%include5.26%review5.88%6sacrifice5.56%measure5.26%base4.41%7adjust2.78%cause2.63%draw4.41%8agree2.78%compare2.63%adjust2.94%9award2.78%depress2.63%boost2.94%10demand2.78%earn2.63%cut2.94%Basedonthistableabove,itcanbegraspedclearlythatallof“pay”,“wage”and“salary”collocatewith“include”.“Pay”and“wage”collocatewith“raise”,but“salary”doesn’t.“Pay”and“salary”collocatewith“adjust”,but“wage”doesn’t.“Wage”and“salary”collocatewith“pay”and“increase”but“pay”doesn’t.Andamongtheverbscollocatingwith“pay”,mostofthemarebeneficialtoemployeeslike“raise”,“equal”,“award”andsoon.Thesameas“pay”,mostcollocationsof“salary”aregoodforemployeeslike“pay”,“increase”,“boost”andsoon.“Wage”and“salary”collocatewithwordsthatmakeemployeesfeeldisappointedlike“depress”and“cut”,but“pay”doesn’t.Tosumup,allof“pay”,“wage”and“salary”collocatewith“include”.“pay”and“wage”collocatewith“raise”.“Pay”and“salary”collocatewith“adjust”.“Wage”and“salary”collocatewith“pay”and“increase”.Collocationsof“pay”and“salary”aremainlybeneficialtoemployees.However,collocationsof“wage”and“salary”woulddisappointemployees.Table5:AdjectivesCollocatewith“Pay”,“Wage”and“Salary”inBEICCorpuspaywagesalaryNowordfreqwordfreqwordfreq1variable9.57%after-tax13.87%annual16.55%2gross8.51%higher12.41%base13.67%3higher6.38%net9.49%monthly5.76%4low5.32%average8.76%starting5.04%5net4.26%hourly4.38%higher4.32%6extra3.19%lower4.38%reasonable4.32%7performance-related3.19%low3.65%high3.60%8additional2.23%decent2.92%current2.88%9centralized2.23%base2.19%basic2.16%10equal2.23%due2.19%executive2.16%Fromtable6,itcanbefoundthatallof“pay”,“wage”and“salary”collocatewith“higher”.“Pay”and“wage”collocatewith“low”and“net”,but“salary”doesn’t.“Wage”and“salary”collocatewith“base”andbothof“wage”and“salary”collocatewithwordsabouttimelike“hourly”,“annual”andmonthly”,but“pay”doesn’t.Amongthreewords,only“wage”collocateswithawordaboutlawsthatis“after-tax”,“pay”and“salary”doesn’t.“Pay”collocateswithadjectivesbeneficialtoemployeesingeneralexcept“low”andthereexistscollocationsthatarerelevanttoworkefficiencylike“extra”and“performance-related”.“Wage”collocateswithwordsthatarenotgoodforemployeeslike“lower”,“low”.Tosumup,allof“pay”,“wage”and“salary”collocatewith“higher”.“Pay”and“wage”collocatewith“low”and“net”.“Wage”and“salary”collocatewiththesameword“base”.“Pay”collocateswithadjectivesthatarebeneficialtoemployeesandrelevanttoworkefficiency.“Wage”collocateswithwordsthatarerelevanttotimeandlawsanditalsocollocateswithwordsthatarenotgoodforemployees.“Salary”collocateswithwordsthatarerelevanttotime.Table6:NounsCollocatewith“Pay”,“Wage”and“Salary”inBEICCorpuspaywagesalaryNowordfreqwordfreqwordfreq1consumer11.54%before-tax20.00%employee15.38%2incentive11.54%subsistence20.00home-country15.38%3separation11.54%employee6.67%year15.38%4overtime7.69%factory6.67%above-market7.69%5company3.85%goods6.67%first-year7.69%6corporation3.85%industry6.67%half-month7.69%7danger3.85%lifetime6.67%management7.69%8driver3.85%middle-class6.67%products-sales7.69%9duty3.85%pay6.67%supervisor7.69%10employer3.85%poverty6.67%teacher7.69%Fromtableabove,itcanbefoundthat“wage”and“salary”collocatewith“employee”,but“pay”doesn’t.“Pay”and“wage”oftencollocatewithwordsaboutbusinesslike“company”,“corporation”,“factory”,“industry”andsoon.However,“salary”oftencollocateswithwordsabouttimelike“year”,“first-year”and“half-month”.“Pay”and“salary”collocatewithnounsaboutoccupationslike“driver”and“teacher”,but“wage”doesn’t.“Wage”collocateswithwordsaboutlawslike“before-tax”,but“pay”and“salary”don’t.“Wage”and“salary”collocateswithnounsthatreflectincomelevellike“poverty”and“above-market”,but“pay”doesn’t.Tosumup,thesethreewordsdon’tcollocatewiththesamewordandthereisonlyonesamewordcollocatewith“wage”and“salary”thatis“employee”.“Pay”collocateswithnounsaboutbusinessandoccupations.“Wage”collocateswithnounsaboutbusiness,lawsandincomelevel.“Salary”collocateswithnounsabouttime,occupationsandincomelevel.Inconclusion,whenitcomestoverbcollocates,allof“pay”,“wage”and“salary”collocatewith“include”.“Pay”and“wage”collocatewith“raise”.“Pay”and“salary”collocatewith“adjust”.“Wage”and“salary”collocatewith“pay”and“increase”.Collocationsof“pay”and“salary”aremainlybeneficialtoemployees.However,thereexistscollocationsof“wage”and“salary”thatwoulddisappointemployees.Whentheycollocatewithadjectives,allof“pay”,“wage”and“salary”collocatewith“higher”.“Pay”and“wage”collocatewith“low”and“net”.“Wage”and“salary”collocatewiththesameword“base”.“Pay”collocateswithadjectivesthatarebeneficialtoemployeesandrelevanttoworkefficiency.“Wage”collocateswithwordsthatarerelevanttotimeandlawsanditalsocollocateswithwordsthatarenotgoodforemployees.“Salary”collocateswithwordsthatarerelevanttotime.Whentheycollocatewithnouns,thesethreewordsdon’tcollocatewiththesamewordandthereisonlyonesamewordcollocatewith“wage”and“salary”thatis“employee”.“Pay”collocateswithnounsaboutbusinessandoccupations.“Wage”collocateswithnounsaboutbusiness,lawsandincomelevel.“Salary”collocateswithnounsabouttime,occupationsandincomelevel.4.3SemanticProsodyof“Pay”,“Wage”and“Salary”Inthissection,thesemanticprosodyofthegroupofsynonymsisexploredbyexaminingtheircollocateswithhighfrequency,threecategories—adjectives,verbsandnounsincluded.Table7:SemanticProsodyof“Pay”,“Wage”and“Salary”CollocatingwithVerbsinBEICCorpuspayfreqwagefreqsalaryfreqpositivereceiveraiseaward30increaseraiseearn30increasebringboost30negativesacrifice10depress10cut10neutralincludeequalequalizeadjustagreedemand60havepayincludemeasurecausecompare60includereviewbasedrawpayadjust60Fromthistable,itcanbefoundthat“pay”collocateswithpositiveverbsof30percent,negativeverbsof10percentandneutralverbsof60percent.Soitcanbesaidthat“pay”hasneutralsemanticprosodyandithasatendencyofpositivesemanticprosodywhencollocatingwithverbs.“Wage”collocateswithpositiveverbsof30percent,negativeverbsof10percentandneutralverbsof60percent.Soitcanbesaidthat“wage”hasneutralsemanticprosodyandithasatendencyofpositivesemanticprosodywhencollocatingwithvebs.“Salary”collocateswithpositiveverbsof30percent,negativeverbsof10percentandneutralverbsof60percent.Soitcanbesaidthat“salary”hasneutralsemanticprosodyandithasatendencyofpositivesemanticprosodywhencollocatingwithverbs.Tosumup,when“pay”,“wage”and“salary”collocatewithverbsallofthemhaveneutralsemanticprosodyandhaveatendencyofpositivesemanticprosodyTable8:SemanticProsodyof“Pay”,“Wage”and“Salary”CollocatingwithAdjectiveinBEICCorpuspayfreqwagefreqsalaryfreqpositivehigherextraadditional30higherdecent20higherhighreasonable30negativelow10lowerlow20neutralvariablegrossnetequalperformence-relatedcentralized60after-taxnetaveragehourlybasedue60annualbasemonthlystartingbasiccurrentexecutive70Fromthetableabove,itcanbefoundthat“pay”collocateswithpositiveadjectivesof30percent,negativeadjectivesof10percentandneutraladjectivesof60percent.Sowecansay“pay”hasneutralsemanticprosodyandhasatendencyofpositivesemanticprosodywhencollocateswithadjectives.“Wage”collocateswithpositiveadjectivesof20percent,negativeadjectivesof20percentandneutraladjectivesof60.Sowecansay“wage”hasneutralsemanticprosodyandhasatendencyofpositivesemanticprosodywhencollocateswithadjectives.“Salary