ENG 626 CORPUS APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE STUDIES language teaching (1) Bambang Kaswanti Purwo

Hunston Ch. 5 application of corpora in language teaching ▪ production of dictionaries and grammars ▪ use of corpora in critical linguistics (the study of ideologies) ▪ in translation ▪ contribution of corpora to literary studies n stylistics ▪ use of corpora in forensic linguistics ▪ use of corpora in designing writer support packages dictionaries and grammars new emphases on ▪ frequency ▪ collocation and phraseology ▪ variation ▪ lexis in grammar ▪ authenticity

emphasis on frequency ▪ speaker intuition very little use ▪ important for dictionary users: which sense of a word to show first ▪ [corpus can show the diversity of use] – more detailed information about the words comparison of senses between ▪ Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 2 nd 1987 ▪ Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 3 rd 1995 ▪ Collins COBUILD English Dictionary 1995 » KNOW » MATTER » MAY » PLACE  dictionaries not divide info between senses in consistent ways

the increases number of senses – more info about the very frequent ones L 1987 matter ‘something wrong’ What’s the matter? L four more senses: asking about illness or state of being broken feelings statement there’s something that the matter with NEG statement there’s nothing the matter with L 1987 I know ‘uttered when someone gets a sudden idea’ What can we get her for her birthday? Oh I know, we’ll get her some flowers L two ‘given agreement’: I’m so worn out. Yeah, I know. ‘forestalling disagreement’ It sounds silly I know, but try it anyway. ‘prefacing a disagreement’ ‘showing sympathy n understanding’

frequency and grammar reference books Mindt (2000) four meanings of the present perfect (a) indefinite past (b) past continuing into present (c) recent past (d) a use indicating that an action is completed, though at an unspecified time (a) 80% of occurrence (b) second in rank (c) and (d) are rare in many course books: (b) and (c) prototypical

frequency can be linked to discourse ▪ the most frequent use of the in academic prose : at the beginning of complex noun phrases the disorientating effect of zero gravity ▪ the most frequent use of this and these in academic prose to refer back to ideas previously mentioned TELL and PROMISE most frequently used in: ▪ TELL “verb + indirect object + complement clause” You can’t tell her to get off. ▪ PROMISE “verb + complement clause” They promised to write. ▪ PROMISE frequent V intr. (I promise) ▪ TELL rarely (Time will tell)

▪ very infrequent uses can legitimately be ignored Mindt (2000) reports 98% of verbs in the past tense refer to past time hypothetical future very rare  Hypothetical meaning unimportant to teach? It is important for learners to learn to express the hypothetical in some context (e.g. what if ___) ▪ students learning the past tense can safely ignore hypothetical future ▪ students learning to express hypotheticality cannot ignore hypothetical future

corpora  a new description of language  the content of what the lang T is teaching is changing what is language like? words tend to occur in preferred sequences ▪ not randomly or ▪ in accordance with grammatical rules only » collocation utterly different, not: utterly similar utterly ridiculous, not: utterly sensible » phrases n variation ▪ open to considerable creativity and exploitation where there’s smoke there’s fire no smoke without fire sometimes there is smoke without fire [Hunston Ch. 6] language as phraseology

» tendency for certain verbs to occur ▪ in passive rather than in active Manchester is hemmed in by industrial areas cf. industrial areas hem Manchester in ▪ in the negative rather than in the positive It never entered my head to be sacred cf. it entered my head to be sacred » occurrence of complementation patterns suggestion that, decision as to whether, obligation to do three important consequences – challenge to current views about language ▪ no distinction between pattern and meaning ▪ language: two principles of organization ▫ idiom principle ▫ open-choice principle

▪ can phraseology indeed be taken to be the basis of what a learner needs to know? ▪ is phraseology simply an important adjunct to grammar? pattern and meaning ▪ a word [+ several senses], each sense diffrent set of patterns mobile [used of things] ‘can be moved’: mobile unit/library [used of people] ‘not prevented from moving by dis- ability or lack of resources’: I’m still very mobile MAINTAIN (verb) see Hunston p. 139 ▪ relation between meaning n pattern is not one-to-one ▫ not to treat MAINTAIN as a single word w/ three meanings (cf. traditional dictionaries) ▫ but to propose three phraseologies (each has its own meaning) ‘maintain something’ ‘maintain that something is true’ ‘maintain something at a level’

 phraseologies replace the word as the unit of vocabulary teaching L’s task more difficult: three instead of one lexical item to learn L’s task simplified: each lexical item + info about its use other aspect of pattern/meaning association words with the same pattern tend to share aspects of meaning