| List of Figures | 第1页 |
| List of Tables | 第10-12页 |
| Chapter One: Introduction | 第12-17页 |
| ·Operational Definitions of Some Key Terms | 第12-13页 |
| ·Research Questions | 第13页 |
| ·Background for the Study | 第13-14页 |
| ·Lexical Study of Business English before the Advent of Corpora | 第13页 |
| ·Lexical Study in Business English after the Advent of Corpora | 第13-14页 |
| ·Significance of the Present Study | 第14-15页 |
| ·Business English Teaching or Learning | 第14-15页 |
| ·Theoretical Understanding | 第15页 |
| ·Business English Dictionary Compilation | 第15页 |
| ·Outline of the thesis | 第15-17页 |
| Chapter Two: Literature Review | 第17-41页 |
| ·Definitions of Semantic Prosody | 第17-19页 |
| ·Semantic Prosody as "Aura" and "Colouring" | 第17-18页 |
| ·Semantic Prosody as Pragmatic Use | 第18页 |
| ·Semantic Prosody as a Particular Set of Meaning | 第18-19页 |
| ·Summary for the Definition | 第19页 |
| ·The Concept of Semantic prosody | 第19-24页 |
| ·Controversy on the Concept of Semantic Prosody | 第19-21页 |
| ·Semantic Prosody and Connoation | 第21-23页 |
| ·Semantic Prosody and Semantic Preference | 第23-24页 |
| ·Categories of Semantic Prosody | 第24-25页 |
| ·Positive, Neutral, Negative and Mixed Semantic Prosody | 第24页 |
| ·Categorized by Semantic Set | 第24-25页 |
| ·Summary | 第25页 |
| ·Function of Semantic Prosody | 第25-26页 |
| ·Semantic Prosody Conveys Attitude | 第25-26页 |
| ·Realization of its Function | 第26页 |
| ·Empirical Studies of Semantic Prosody | 第26-35页 |
| ·Semantic Prosody in English | 第30-32页 |
| ·Semantic Prosody across Different Languages | 第32-34页 |
| ·Semantic Prosody and Dictionary Compilation | 第34-35页 |
| ·Review on the theoretical research | 第35-41页 |
| ·Sinclair's Idiom Principle | 第36-37页 |
| ·Louw's Contextual Prosodic Theory (CPT) | 第37页 |
| ·Hoey's Lexical Priming | 第37-39页 |
| ·Sinclair's Lexical Model | 第39-41页 |
| Chapter Three: Theoretical Framework | 第41-45页 |
| ·Buildup of the Tentative Theoretical Framework | 第41-42页 |
| ·A Tentative Theoretical Framework | 第42-44页 |
| ·Explanation of the Theoretical Framework | 第44-45页 |
| Chapter Four: Methodology | 第45-51页 |
| ·Corpus-driven Approach | 第45-47页 |
| ·Distinction between Corpus-driven and Corpus-based Approach | 第46-47页 |
| ·The Corpus used in this study: PolyU Business English Corpus | 第47-48页 |
| ·Makeup of the PolyU Business English Corpus | 第47页 |
| ·The size of the PolyU Business English Corpus | 第47-48页 |
| ·Analytic Procedure | 第48-51页 |
| Chapter Five: Analysis of Semantic Prosody | 第51-88页 |
| ·Analysis of "recover" | 第51-55页 |
| ·"recover" (transitive verb) | 第52-53页 |
| ·“recover” (intransitive verb) | 第53-55页 |
| ·Summary for "recover" | 第55页 |
| ·Analysis of "decrease" | 第55-58页 |
| ·Analysis of "expand" | 第58-62页 |
| ·Analysis of "decline" | 第62-66页 |
| ·Analysis of "improve" | 第66-69页 |
| ·Analysis of "fall" | 第69-75页 |
| ·Analysis of "fall" (noun) | 第70-74页 |
| ·Analysis of "fall" (verb) | 第74-75页 |
| ·Summary for Analyses of "fall" | 第75页 |
| ·Analysis of "rise" | 第75-81页 |
| ·Analysis of "rise" (noun) | 第76-79页 |
| ·Analysis of "rise" (verb) | 第79-81页 |
| ·Summary for analyses of "rise " | 第81页 |
| ·Analysis of "increase" | 第81-88页 |
| ·Analysis of "increase " (noun) | 第81-85页 |
| ·Analysis of 'increase" (verb) | 第85-88页 |
| Chapter Six: Conclusion and Implication | 第88-97页 |
| ·Summary of the Findings and the Results | 第88-91页 |
| ·Features that Helps Evaluate Semantic Prosody | 第88-90页 |
| ·Findings of Semantic Prosody | 第90-91页 |
| ·Theoretical Implications | 第91-92页 |
| ·Implications of Business English Teaching and Learning | 第92-93页 |
| ·Teaching on Semantic Prosody | 第92页 |
| ·Now to Learn Semantic Prosody | 第92-93页 |
| ·Business English Dictionary compilation | 第93-94页 |
| ·Limitations | 第94-95页 |
| ·Suggestions for the Future Research | 第95-97页 |
| References . | 第97-100页 |
