An exploration of the structural and colligational characteristics of lexical bundles in L1–L2 corpora for English language teaching

Multi-word expressions are formulaic language universals with arbitrary and idiosyncratic collocations. Their usage and mastery are required of learners of a second language in achieving naturalness. However, despite the importance of multi-word expressions to mastering a second language, their syntactic architecture and colligational possibilities have received little attention in English language teaching (ELT). This study examined lexical bundles, a type of multi-word expressions, to understand their structure and co-occurrence possibilities with other syntactic elements. It was aided by an automated frequency-driven approach using two corpora, the British component of the British National Corpus – a first language (L1) corpus – and a purpose-built Nigerian Media Discourse corpus – a second language (L2) corpus. Two items of lexical analysis software were used to extract three-word lexical bundles with a minimum of 50 frequencies per corpus. The syntactic structures of the identified lexical bundles were determined, and their in-corpus usages were analysed for their colligational characteristics. Results showed that both corpora had instances of general and genre-specific lexical bundles (LBs) with varying frequencies. Five categories of lexical bundles with different structural patterns and peculiar colligational characteristics were identified in the study. Since lexical bundles are more frequently found in both L1–L2 texts, mastering how they are used will further enhance the teaching of English as a second language. The teaching of lexical bundles as a multi-word expression is therefore recommended in ELT as a way of enhancing learners’ proficiency and naturalness in English.

“Few people can have seen it” – an investigation into an allegedly non-normative construction with can and the perfect infinitive form

This article discusses an investigation into the English modal predicate with can and the perfect infinitive form of the main verb. The study uses language samples excerpted from The Corpus of Contemporary American English, as well as selected data from The Corpus of Historical American English and The British National Corpus. English grammars tend not to discuss can with the perfect infinitive form, which can give an impression that it does not exist. Nevertheless, the reported study confirms that can with the perfect infinitive form is present in both American and British Englishes, mainly in formal, written communication. In the US, it was used already at the beginning of the 19th century. Furthermore, can with the perfect infinitive form expresses either the speaker’s reasoning about a hypothetical past situation or speaker’s certainty that a situation did not take place in the past. Thus, can interacts with the perfect and yields epistemic readings. Additionally, subject negation extends its scope over the proposition. The propositional negation interacts with can, thus producing the meaning of speaker’s certainty. Finally, the findings of the study are used to determine the norms which may underlie the modal predicate with can and the perfect infinitive form. “Few people can have seen it” – badanie rzekomo nienormatywnej konstrukcji z czasownikiem can i formą bezokolicznika perfect Streszczenie: Artykuł omawia badanie angielskiego orzeczenia modalnego z czasownikiem can i formą bezokolicznika perfect czasownika głównego. W badaniu wykorzystano próbki języka z korpusu The Corpus of Contemporary American English oraz wybrane dane z korpusów: The Corpus of Historical American English i The British National Corpus. Gramatyki języka angielskiego zwykle nie omawiają can z perfectem, co może sprawiać wrażenie, że ta konstrukcja nie istnieje. Niemniej, opisane badanie potwierdziło obecność can z perfectem w angielszczyźnie zarówno amerykańskiej jak i brytyjskiej, zwłaszcza w oficjalnej komunikacji pisanej. Użycie tej konstrukcji w Stanach Zjednoczonych zarejestrowano już na początku XIX w. Can z perfectem wyraża wnioskowanie mówiącego odnośnie hipotetycznej sytuacji z przeszłości lub pewność nadawcy, że sytuacja nie wystąpiła w przeszłości. Zatem can wchodzi w interakcję z perfectem i w efekcie wyraża znaczenia epistemiczne. Nadto, negacja podmiotu obejmuje swym zasięgiem cały sąd logiczny i wchodzi w interakcję z can, w wyniku czego powstaje znaczenie pewności mówiącego. Na koniec określono normy, które mogły były przyczynić się do powstania orzeczenia modalnego z can i perfectem.

Transitivity of Try and V Construction in British and American English

Try and V construction is prevalent in British and American English. This construction is found in both spoken and written English, although with different frequencies. The verb in this construction only appears in in the base form. The lack of research on this verb formation leaves many aspects unexplored, one of which is the transitivity of the verb. Therefore, this study is intended to find out the number of arguments informed by this construction by matching the number of arguments to the verb try and the verb following it after the conjunction and. Two verbs were used to test this match, i.e., give and bring, which are three-place predicate verbs, and other two two-place predicate verbs, i.e., see and answer, were used to validate the finding. British National Corpus (BNC) and Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) were used to collect the data. The findings show that the number of arguments matched the verb following the conjunction and. Therefore, it can be concluded the number of arguments in try and V construction is not unique to this construction, but it is similar to the try to V, where V is the non-finite verb which selects the number of arguments. This result suggests that try and V construction needs to be included in English grammar textbooks in order that non-native speakers can use and understand this rare grammatical rule in appropriate contexts.

Interaktivnost britanskih univerzitetskih predavanja

Univerzitetska predavanja pripadaju kategoriji govornih akademskih žanrova i imaju veoma važnu ulogu u tercijalnom obrazovanju. Predstavljaju unaprijed pripremljene govore i služe studentima kao primarni izvor informacija i sticanja znanja tokom studija. Predavanja su u određenom stepenu i neformalna jer sadrže karakteristike svakodnevne komunikacije, tako da se svaki segment predavanja ne može unaprijed isplanirati. Uzimajući ovo u obzir, u radu se iznosi pretpostavka da predavanja odlikuje određeni stepen interaktivnosti i ispituje se kakav stepen preovladava u britanskim univerzitetskim predavanjima iz lingvistike. Za potrebe rada analizira se 12 univerzitetskih predavanja iz lingvistike na engleskom jeziku ili ukupno 94,242 riječi. Transkripti predavanja preuzeti su iz Korpusa britanskog govornog akademskog engleskog jezika (British Academic Spoken English (BASE))3, Britanskog nacionalnog korpusa (British National Corpus (BNC))4 i sa Univerziteta u Redingu (University of Reading). Analiza pokazuje da najveći broj predavanja odlikuje srednji i visoki stepen interaktivnosti. Iako su tri predavanja monološkog tipa, zaključuje se da interaktivnost postepeno postaje karakteristika britanskih univerzitetskih predavanja iz lingvistike. Dobijeni rezultati mogu poslužiti kao osnova za dalje ispitivanje kategorije interaktivnosti u korpusu predavanja iz drugih naučnih disciplina, kao i za kontrastivnu analizu ove kategorije u korpusima predavanja na drugim jezicima.

Exploring the complexity of 'can', 'could' and 'be able to' through corpus analysis and classroom- and coursebook-based investigation

<p>The purpose of this study is to investigate the central modal auxiliaries CAN and COULD, and the quasi-modal BE ABLE TO, together with their negative forms, and from this investigation, make a contribution to English language learning pedagogy. This study uses analysis of the spoken and written components of the British National Corpus (≈ 100 million words) to gain a better understanding how these modal auxiliaries are used by native and native-like speakers of English. It also draws on a classroom data set (68,265 words), containing a spoken and written component, to investigate how they are being used by students and an instructor. Furthermore, these modal auxiliaries are examined in an English language learner coursebook, New Headway series (441,760 words). This study uses both quantitative and qualitative methods for analysis. In the first phase of this investigation, previous literature along with an examination of each modal auxiliary form in a sample BNC data set were used iteratively to establish meaning categories for CAN, COULD and BE ABLE TO. In the second phase, overall frequencies were obtained from each data source. And finally, based on the categories of meanings found, in the third phase, meaning frequencies for all three data sources were determined. Taking these overall frequencies and meaning frequencies into consideration, comparisons were made between the classroom and the BNC, and New Headway and the BNC. As a result of the investigations above, this study found ‘possibility’ to be the predominant meaning for CAN, COULD and BE ABLE TO with a subset of meaning categories. The subset of categories identified is larger than previously identified in literature. Context played a central role in interpreting these meanings of modal auxiliaries and this study suggests that it would be beneficial for anyone writing about modal auxiliaries to fully account for context when modal meanings are being examined, especially in pedagogical materials. As a result, included in this study are instances with expanded criteria. Focusing on the classroom, this study shows not all meaning categories are present in the classroom data set and also suggests that students may benefit from explicit instruction around the role and communicative effects of these modal auxiliaries in various social contexts. Moving to the New Headway series, this study demonstrates that the meaning frequencies for some categories (e.g. ability) were higher in frequency than the British National Corpus due to the inclusion of contrived example conversations. Taking these and other findings in the study into consideration, this thesis raises awareness of the complexities of understanding and conveying these modal auxiliaries and concludes with recommendations for instructors in English language classrooms.</p>

Exploring the complexity of 'can', 'could' and 'be able to' through corpus analysis and classroom- and coursebook-based investigation

<p>The purpose of this study is to investigate the central modal auxiliaries CAN and COULD, and the quasi-modal BE ABLE TO, together with their negative forms, and from this investigation, make a contribution to English language learning pedagogy. This study uses analysis of the spoken and written components of the British National Corpus (≈ 100 million words) to gain a better understanding how these modal auxiliaries are used by native and native-like speakers of English. It also draws on a classroom data set (68,265 words), containing a spoken and written component, to investigate how they are being used by students and an instructor. Furthermore, these modal auxiliaries are examined in an English language learner coursebook, New Headway series (441,760 words). This study uses both quantitative and qualitative methods for analysis. In the first phase of this investigation, previous literature along with an examination of each modal auxiliary form in a sample BNC data set were used iteratively to establish meaning categories for CAN, COULD and BE ABLE TO. In the second phase, overall frequencies were obtained from each data source. And finally, based on the categories of meanings found, in the third phase, meaning frequencies for all three data sources were determined. Taking these overall frequencies and meaning frequencies into consideration, comparisons were made between the classroom and the BNC, and New Headway and the BNC. As a result of the investigations above, this study found ‘possibility’ to be the predominant meaning for CAN, COULD and BE ABLE TO with a subset of meaning categories. The subset of categories identified is larger than previously identified in literature. Context played a central role in interpreting these meanings of modal auxiliaries and this study suggests that it would be beneficial for anyone writing about modal auxiliaries to fully account for context when modal meanings are being examined, especially in pedagogical materials. As a result, included in this study are instances with expanded criteria. Focusing on the classroom, this study shows not all meaning categories are present in the classroom data set and also suggests that students may benefit from explicit instruction around the role and communicative effects of these modal auxiliaries in various social contexts. Moving to the New Headway series, this study demonstrates that the meaning frequencies for some categories (e.g. ability) were higher in frequency than the British National Corpus due to the inclusion of contrived example conversations. Taking these and other findings in the study into consideration, this thesis raises awareness of the complexities of understanding and conveying these modal auxiliaries and concludes with recommendations for instructors in English language classrooms.</p>

A Corpus-based Study of the Use of Pause Fillers Among British English Speakers

Many people use pause fillers such as um, erm, and er in order to signal to the other person that they have not finished speaking yet. This paper aims to investigate pause fillers and their relationship with the two sociolinguistic variables of age and gender. The data-driven analysis is based on the British National Corpus (BNC). The results show that the sociolinguistic variables of age and gender influence the use of pause fillers among British English speakers, which is proposed to be linked to the advancement of age and an improved fluency among female speakers.