Particle Placement in English L1 and L2 Academic Writing
A Triangulated Learner-corpus and Experimental Study of Weight Effects
This study seeks to contribute to a better understanding of how syntactic variation is affected by probabilistic factors in English as a foreign language (EFL, L2), exemplified by the effect of weight on the syntactic variation with English transitive verb-particle constructions and transitive verb-prepositional phrase (PP) constructions. Read More
This study seeks to contribute to a better understanding of how syntactic variation is affected by probabilistic factors in English as a foreign language (EFL, L2), exemplified by the effect of weight on the syntactic variation with English transitive verb-particle constructions (e.g. look up, sort out) and transitive verb-prepositional phrase (PP) constructions (e.g. take into account, bear in mind). With these constructions, the particle/PP may occur either adjacent to the verb or separated from the verb by a direct object noun phrase (DO NP). Being highly influenced by the weight of the DO NP in native (L1) English, little is known about the factors, including syntactic weight, that govern this variation in L2 English. Against the background of possible native-language transfer, this study examines whether advanced L1-German EFL learners are sensitive to the probabilistic effect of weight on syntactic choices with verb-particle/PP constructions and whether there are differences when compared to English native speakers. Triangulating comparative corpus data and experimental data, i.e. elicited production and elicited assessment, the study provides converging evidence from language production and intuition that the learners have acquired a near-native awareness of weight effects in verb-particle/PP constructions, with differences indicating a tendency to more conservative choices.
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- Publisher
- Presses universitaires de Louvain
- Author
- Alexandra Kinne,
- Series edited by
- Liesbeth Degand, Gaëtanelle Gilquin,
- Collection
- Corpora and Language in Use | n° 9
- ISSN
- 20346417
- Language
- English
- BISAC Subject Heading
- LAN009060 LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Syntax > LAN005010 LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Writing / Academic & Scholarly
- BIC subject category (UK)
- ESF ELT: English for academic purposes
- Onix Audience Codes
- 06 Professional and scholarly
- CLIL (Version 2013-2019)
- 3147 Linguistique, Sciences du langage
- Title First Published
- 18 September 2020
- Subject Scheme Identifier Code
- : anglais
: Langues, liguistique et littératures
Livre broché
- Publication Date
- 01 March 2011
- ISBN-13
- 978-2-87455-173-4
- Extent
- Main content page count : 512
- Code
- 978-2-87455-173-4
- Dimensions
- 17 x 24 x 2.7 cm
- Weight
- 856 grams
- List Price
- 84.00 €
- ONIX XML
- Version 2.1, Version 3
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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