Particle Placement in English L1 and L2 Academic Writing

Contents

Table of Contents
Acknowledgements 11
List of Abbreviations 13
List of Tables 15
List of Figures 17
CHAPTER 1
Introduction 21
CHAPTER 2
Word order variation and word order principles 25
2.1 Word order variation in English as an L1 25
2.2 Word order principles in English as an L1 27
2.2.1 Syntactic weight and the end-weight principle 27
2.2.2 Information status and the information principle 32
2.2.3 Interaction of weight and information status 34
2.3 Word order variation in English as an L2 35
2.4 Interim summary 40
CHAPTER 3
Word order variation and verb-particle/PP constructions 41
3.1 Verb-particle/PP constructions 41
3.2 Word order variation with verb-particle/PP constructions
in English as an L1 42
3.2.1 Verb-particle/PP constructions and weight 43
3.2.2 Word order variation with verb-particle/PP constructions
across registers 47
3.3 Verb-particle/PP constructions in English as an L2 49
3.4 Verb-particle/PP constructions in German 56
3.5 Interim summary 59
CHAPTER 4
Research design 61
4.1 Research questions and hypotheses 61
4.2 Methodology and research instruments 63
4.2.1 Corpus study 64
4.2.1.1 Corpora 64
4.2.1.2 Data selection 65
4.2.1.3 Operationalisation of factors 66
4.2.1.4 Data analysis 68
4.2.2 Experimental study 72
4.2.2.1 Participants 72
4.2.2.2 Experimental design 73
4.2.2.3 Operationalisation of factors 76
4.2.2.4 Data analysis 80
4.2.3 Comparing corpus and experimental data 84
CHAPTER 5
Corpus study: results 87
5.1 Verb-particle constructions 92
5.1.1 Length 92
5.1.2 Complexity 96
5.1.3 Interaction of length and complexity 98
5.1.4 Information status 99
5.2 Verb-PP constructions 100
5.2.1 Length 100
5.2.2 Complexity 104
5.2.3 Interaction of length and complexity 106
5.2.4 Information status 107
5.3 Qualitative analysis: interesting syntactic choices
in the learner data 108
5.4 Summary and discussion 111
5.5 Interim conclusion 113
CHAPTER 6
Experimental study: results 115
6.1 Sentence rating 116
6.1.1 Verb-particle constructions 116
6.1.2 Verb-PP constructions 122
6.1.3 Comparison: verb-particle construction – verb-PP construction 127
6.1.4 Individual differences 128
6.1.4.1 Verb-particle constructions 129
6.1.4.2 Verb-PP constructions 135
6.2 Sentence completion task 139
6.2.1 Verb-particle constructions 139
6.2.2 Verb-PP construction 141
6.2.3 Comparison: verb-particle construction – verb-PP construction 143
6.2.4 Individual differences 145
6.2.4.1 Verb-particle constructions 145
6.2.4.2 Verb-PP construction 149
6.3 Comparison: sentence rating – sentence completion 154
6.3.1 Verb-particle constructions 154
6.3.2 Verb-PP construction 156
6.4 Summary and discussion 158
6.5 Interim conclusion 165
CHAPTER 7
Conclusion and outlook 167
7.1 Interpretation of findings 167
7.2 Bringing together corpus and experimental data 168
7.3 Benefits of the triangulated, mixed-methods design 173
7.4 Suggestions for further research 174
References 175
Appendices 187
Appendix 1. Corpus study 187
1.1 Learner metadata 187
Appendix 2. Experimental study 203
2.1 Participants' metadata 203
2.2 Questionnaire 209
2.2.1 Test items used in the sentence rating task 209
2.2.2 Test items used in the sentence completion task 215
2.2.3 Instructions 218
Subject Index 221
Author Index 227