Abstract This paper studies the implicit structures and the diffusion modes of semantic prosody on the dependency networks of some English words such as cause and their Chinese equivalents. It is found that the structure of semantic prosody is a bi-stratified network consisting of a few large clusters gathering in the center with most nodes of low dependency capability scattered around. With regard to the diffusion modes, results show that: (i) within one shortest path length, the core words directly attract the nodes with the same or similar semantic characteristics and exclude those with conflicting ones, creating the clearest and the most intense semantic diffusion; (ii) over one shortest path length, semantic diffusion is achieved through content words or function words, and the semantic diffusion modes created with function words as bridges are relatively vaguer and more complicated ones. This conclusion also results in the semantic prosodies of other English words and their Chinese equivalent words, revealing, to some extent, a common cognitive approach to understanding the internal structure and the diffusion modes of semantic prosody.

中文翻译：

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基于依赖网络的语义韵律隐式结构和语义扩散模式方法

摘要 本文研究了语义韵律在诸如cause等英语单词及其汉语对等词的依存网络中的隐含结构和扩散模式。研究发现，语义韵律的结构是一个双层网络，由几个大簇集中在中心，大多数低依赖能力的节点分散在周围。在扩散方式上，结果表明：（i）在一个最短路径长度内，核心词直接吸引语义特征相同或相似的节点，排除有冲突的节点，形成最清晰、最强烈的语义扩散; (ii) 在一个最短路径长度上，语义扩散是通过实词或虚词实现的，而以虚词为桥梁的语义扩散方式则较为模糊和复杂。这一结论也导致了其他英语单词及其汉语对等词的语义韵律，在一定程度上揭示了理解语义韵律内部结构和扩散方式的共同认知途径。