This paper addresses effects of frequency types in language input on semantic prosody learning by Chinese Tertiary EFL learners, with a secondary consideration of the frequency effects on explicit and implicit learning. Sixty-nine university undergraduates in Beijing participated in the experiment aiming at comparing the learning of English semantic prosody when exposed to different input frequencies (high type frequency or high token frequency), with a phrase judgment test, a questionnaire and a stimulated recall as research instruments. The results demonstrate that high token frequency input is to some extent a stronger catalyst than high type frequency input to semantic prosody learning; the above mentioned frequency effects are significant in implicit learning. The findings are that a certain amount of token frequency underlies the productivity of type frequency.