EARNINGS

a) Keyness

The lemma ‘earnings’ was the one hundred and thirteenth most significant key word in the BEC Corpus.

N	Word	bec freq.	bec.lst %	bnc freq.	bnc.lst %	Keyness	P
113	EARNINGS	199	0.02	55	-	206.8	0.000000

b) Semantic Prosody

Left: One small group identified.

semantic prosody	frequency/ 199 & %	example
time	16 - 8.04%	annual earnings first-quarter earnings weekly earnings

Right: Two groups identified.

semantic prosody	frequency/ 199 & %	example
increase	22- 11.05%	earnings growth earnings sprint ahead
company yield	48 - 24.12%	earnings per share earnings of $1.72 a share

Of these, 23 come from annual reports: 57.5% of the examples found in the sample.

c) Three-word clusters

N	cluster	Freq.
1	earnings per share	40
2	diluted earnings per	9
3	fully diluted earnings	9
4	earnings in the	4
5	earnings of #	4
6	in the event	4
7	per share before	4
8	the event of	4

d) Macro-generic distribution

e) Colligation

Only 1 sense given in COBUILD (money earned - income)

100% of sample

Patterns: Plural noun

first quarter earnings

i) Commonly used in the noun phrase earnings per share found in Annual Reports

ii) earnings + of:

5 instances - 2.52% of sample

first quarter earnings of 58 cents a share

estimated 1998 earnings of $8.25

f) Associates

N	WORD	NO. OF FILES	AS %
1	EARNINGS	13	100.00
2	COMPANY	8	61.54
3	MARKET	7	53.85
4	SHARE	7	53.85
5	BUSINESS	7	53.85
6	YEAR	6	46.15
7	BILLION	6	46.15
8	PERCENT	5	38.46
9	PROFIT	5	38.46
10	SHARES	5	38.46
11	CORPORATE	5	38.46
12	FINANCIAL	5	38.46
13	PER	5	38.46