scholarly journals Erasmus-Erfahrungsberichte. Eine textlinguistische Analyse mit didaktischen Anmerkungen für den DaF-Unterricht

2018 ◽  
Vol 91 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Bies

In this article exchange student testimonials (Erasmus Programme) are examined as text types. In this context function, structure, topics and selected linguistic features of the texts are focused. Analysis shows that the majority of the examined exchange student testimonials demonstrate many common features with advice giving texts. Regarding content, culture comparing topics are found as characteristic elements, and on the linguistic level, a frequent occurrence of elements of conceptual orality. These texts can therefore become relevant authentic teaching materials, as they are able to enhance knowledge of everyday language use and intercultural skills. Thus, the article concludes with didactic notes.

1996 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Biber

The present paper argues that analyses of language use provide an important complementary perspective to traditional linguistic descriptions, and that empirical approaches are required for such investigations. Corpus-based techniques are particularly well suited to these research purposes, enabling investigation of research questions that were previously disregarded. Specifically, the paper discusses the use of corpus-based techniques to identify and analyze complex "association patterns": the systematic ways in which linguistic features are used in association with other linguistic and non-linguistic features. Several illustrative analyses are discussed, investigating the use of lexical features, grammatical features, and the overall patterns of variability among texts and registers.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 9-28
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Gajak-Toczek

The language as home — on the functional teaching of Polish in textbooks for teachers by Tadeusz Czapczyński The aim of this article is to discuss Tadeusz Czapczyński’s textbooks for teachers: Exercises in Speaking 1922 and Methodology of Stylistic Exercises in Primary and Secondary School. The Manual for Taught 1929. It grew out of the reform tendencies specific to the education in Galicia and the Kingdom of Poland and correlated with the innovative findings of the pedagogical and psychological sciences and the disciplines of motherhood. In an innovative way Czapczyński prevented nineteenth-century verbalism, placing the student in a new role: researcher and explorer. This Polish teacher was advocating for the training of correct and proficient skills in speech and writing, and thus subjected practical purposes to classroom activities. In place of memorizing the norms and rules he introduced exercises in everyday language use.


Author(s):  
Lita Lundquist

The work reported here explores a cognitive-communicative hypothesis of text ty-pology that text types defined on external communicative criteria also exhibit typical constellations of linguistic features text-internally. Inspired by Tversky's (1981) math-ematical "contrast model of similarities", a French contract, a law and a judgment were analyzed using the computer program 'Cohérelle' into sets of syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and textlinguistic features. Subsequent computations showed that reliable similarities (in the linguistic expression of cognitive content) and differences (in the use of communicative grounding expressions) could in fact be distinguished among the linguistic features of the three text exemplars, thus permitting the postulation of dif-ferent types on text-internal linguistic grounds.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-118
Author(s):  
Tünde Nagy

Abstract Using the right collocations in a foreign language is often a challenge for language learners who may not be familiar with their use and characteristics. After presenting the types of collocations and the importance they have in the acquisition of a foreign language, the paper draws attention to the necessity of raising students’ awareness of collocations, and at the same time it reflects on possible ways of teaching them. Focusing especially on verb-noun collocations, the paper examines the learning materials used in the EFL classes at Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Miercurea Ciuc, with special regard to the exercises on these constructions. In line with construction grammar theories (Goldberg 1995, 1997, 2006), it is assumed that collocations are to be treated as constructions, pairings of form and meaning, including patterns with different degrees of predictability. Collocations, consisting of both predictable (e. g. read a book, blue sky) and non-predictable forms (e. g. run a program, safe and sound) can be more easily remembered if regarded as constructions where all the constituent elements contribute to the meaning of the construction as a whole (but whose meaning is more than the sum of the constituent elements). In order to gain a better understanding of collocations, the use of electronic corpora and electronic databases as well as additional materials on collocations that would complement the language materials used in class is highly encouraged. By making use of these resources, students can see examples of everyday language use and become more aware of the use of collocations as well as the similarities and differences between them in different languages.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 583-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Skalicky

Abstract Satire is a type of discourse commonly employed to mock or criticize a satirical target, typically resulting in humor. Current understandings of satire place strong emphasis on the role that background and pragmatic knowledge play during satire recognition. However, there may also be specific linguistic cues that signal a satirical intent. Researchers using corpus linguistic methods, specifically Lexical Priming, have demonstrated that other types of creative language use, such as irony, puns, and verbal jokes, purposefully deviate from expected language patterns (e.g. collocations). The purpose of this study is to investigate whether humorous satirical headlines also subvert typical linguistic patterns using the theory of Lexical Priming. In order to do so, a corpus of newspaper headlines taken from the satirical American newspaper The Onion are analyzed and compared to a generalized corpus of American English. Results of this analysis suggest satirical headlines exploit linguistic expectations through the use of low-frequency collocations and semantic preferences, but also contain higher discourse and genre level deviations that cannot be captured in the surface level linguistic features of the headlines.


MANUSYA ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Amara Prasithrathsint

Hedging means mitigating words so as to lessen the impact of an utterance. It may cause uncertainty in language but is regarded as an important feature in English academic writing. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the style of academic writing in English with particular reference to the significant role of hedging and the linguistic features that mark it. The data was taken from academic articles in the humanities written by native speakers of English, Filipino speakers of English, and Thai speakers of English. It is hypothesized that speakers of English as a foreign language use fewer and different hedging devices than native speakers of English. The result of the analysis shows that the prominent linguistic markers of hedging are the auxiliaries may, might, could, the verbs suggest, appear, seem, and the adverbs perhaps and often. They are divided into three groups according to their stylistic attributes of hedging; namely, probability, indetermination, and approximation. The use of hedging found in the data confirms what Hyman (1994) says; i.e., that hedging allows writers to express their uncertainty about the truth of their statements. It is also found that English native speakers use hedges most frequently. The Filipino speakers of English are the second, and the Thai speakers of English use hedges the least frequency. This implies that hedging is likely to be related to the level of competence in English including knowledge of stylistic variation, and that it needs to be formally taught to those who speak English as a second or foreign language.


Der Islam ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 524-548
Author(s):  
Christian Mauder

Abstract In 1772, the Moravian Protestant Georg Pilder (1716‒1793) finished his work on an Arabic-German-Italian dictionary with the title Arabisches Lexicon. This dictionary, which has so far escaped scholarly attention and survives in a single manuscript copy, represents the earliest comprehensive Arabic-German lexicographic work known to scholarship. Based primarily on Pilder’s experiences as a missionary in Cairo, it includes valuable material on diglossia and everyday language use in 18th-century Cairo. The article discusses Pilder’s biography against the background of Moravian activities in the Middle East, sheds light on when, why and based on which materials he composed his dictionary and studies how Pilder’s authorial intentions are reflected in the work’s content and structure. It moreover addresses the question of the dictionary’s relevancy in the contexts of missionary history, the history of Arabic Studies and contemporary linguistic research.


2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svenja Adolphs ◽  
Dawn Knight ◽  
Ronald Carter

Heterogeneous corpora are emergent multi-modal datasets which comprise a variety of different records of everyday communication, from SMS/MMS messages to interactions in virtual environments, and from GPS data to phone and video calls. By tracking a person’s specific (inter)actions over time and place, the analysis of such “ubiquitous” corpora enables more detailed investigations of the interface between different communicative modes. This paper outlines some of the ways in which multi-modal, heterogeneous corpora can be utilised in corpus-based analyses of language-in-use and how we can construct richer descriptions of language use in relation to context. The paper further illustrates how the compilation of such corpora may enable us to extrapolate further information about communication across different speakers, media and environments, helping to generate useful insights into the extent to which everyday language and communicative choices are determined by different spatial, temporal and social contexts.


Target ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabelle Delaere ◽  
Gert De Sutter ◽  
Koen Plevoets

With this article, we seek to support the law of growing standardization by showing that texts translated into Belgian Dutch make more use of standard language than non-translated Belgian Dutch texts. Additionally, we want to examine whether the use of standard vs. non-standard language can be attributed to the variables text type and source language. In order to achieve that goal, we gathered a diverse set of linguistic variables and used a 10-million-word corpus that is parallel, comparable and bidirectional (the Dutch Parallel Corpus; Macken et al. 2011). The frequency counts for each of the variables are used to determine the differences in standard language use by means of profile-based correspondence analysis (Plevoets 2008). The results of our analysis show that (i) in general, there is indeed a standardizing trend among translations and (ii) text types with a lot of editorial control (fiction, non-fiction and journalistic texts) contain more standard language than the less edited text types (administrative texts and external communication) which adds support for the idea that the differences between translated and non-translated texts are text type dependent.


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