scholarly journals Applying corpus linguistics methodology to psycholinguistics research

2010 ◽  
Vol 26 (spe) ◽  
pp. 545-569
Author(s):  
Luciane Corrêa Ferreira
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
American Students ◽  
Brazilian Students

This study concerns the use of corpus linguistics methodology in psycholinguistics research. Ten linguistic metaphors were selected from English and American newspapers. After that, we identified the underlying conceptual metaphor based on the conceptual metaphor inventory by Lakoff and Johnson (1980, 1999). We seek to investigate what sort of knowledge EFL-learners use when trying to understand a linguistic metaphor. We examined how EFL-learners comprehend linguistic metaphors, firstly without using the context and then using the context. The sample comprised 221 Brazilian students and 16 American students at UCSC. We have also carried out an empirical research using WebCorp.

Recent developments in corpus linguistics and corpus-based research / Department of Linguistics and Modern Language Studies at the Hong Kong Institute of Education

2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 156-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qin Xie
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Specific Research ◽  
Modern Language ◽  
Language Studies ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Geographical Locations

Corpus linguistics has transformed the landscape of empirical research on languages in recent decades. The proliferation of corpus technology has enabled researchers worldwide to conduct research in their own geographical locations with few hindrances. It has become increasingly commonplace for researchers to compile their own corpora for specific research questions or to conduct research on the basis of corpora constructed by other researchers. Moreover, corpus linguistics has become accessible to language teachers, providing ideas, instructions and new opportunities to apply corpus techniques, corpus-based materials and activities in their classrooms (e.g., Bennett 2010; Reppen 2010; Scheffler 2011).

scholarly journals Exploring Metadiscourse Use in Thesis Abstracts: A Cross-Cultural Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ardi Nugroho
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Writing Studies ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
American Students ◽  
Integral Role ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

<p>The use of metadiscourse in academic writing has become a topic of interest in recent years. It can be defined as the words and phrases that writers use in their writing to express their ideas and thoughts to make it easier for readers to process the information presented. It is especially crucial in academic writing since writers are expected to present their arguments in an appropriate and acceptable manner. It has also been said that culture plays a role influencing how arguments and ideas are expressed, especially in academic writing. Although metadiscourse plays an integral role in academic writing, studies have shown how EFL learners often make mistakes in employing this linguistic device. From this, the writer would like to explore the metadiscourse produced by Indonesian EFL learners and compare it with how native speakers of English employ metadiscourse in their writing. In other words, this study is basically an attempt to find out whether the metadiscourse produced by the two groups with different cultural backgrounds are different or similar. The source of data for the current study is the metadiscourse markers from the thesis abstracts of students of the English Language and Culture Department at Bunda Mulia University and American students from a university in the U.S. In order to analyze the metadiscourse markers found in the thesis abstracts of the Indonesian and American students, the writer will make use of the AntConc software version 3.5.6 by Anthony (2018). The result of the study reveals that there are some differences and similarities in the way both group of students employed these markers.<strong></strong></p><strong>Keywords: </strong>metadiscourse, thesis abstracts, Indonesian and American students

scholarly journals Implicit cognitive meanings of the spatial prepositions in, on, and at in English

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 70-83
Author(s):  
Chunying Wang
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
Intimate Relationship ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Cognitive Perspective ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Spatial Prepositions ◽  
Temporal Concepts ◽  
Efl Students

Learning English prepositions is deemed as a difficult task for EFL learners (Cheng, 2006) because some English prepositions have many similar but slightly different meanings (Boers & Demecheleer, 1998; Radden, 1985). EFL leaners face difficulty in using English prepositions because they may only learn the linguistic forms but not the conceptual meanings embedded in prepositions. The purpose of this research is to investigate English spatial prepositions in, on, and at from a cognitive perspective, e.g. the theory of conceptual metaphor (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) and cognitive grammar (Langacker, 2008). The investigation of the present study was mainly done with document analysis (Bowen, 2009; O’Leary, 2014). After reviewing many primary and previous studies (Dikken, 1995; Freeborn, 1987; Lindstromberg, 1996, 2010; Nishimura, 2005; Radden, 1985), the findings show that English prepositions in, on, and at have not only their prototypical meanings but also implicit meanings, which may be extended by metaphors. It is also found that there is an intimate relationship between the spatial and temporal meanings of prepositions. Besides, the prototypical meanings of in, on, and at can be the foundation to learn other spatial or temporal concepts. Therefore, it is suggested that understanding metaphors and the implicit meanings embedded in prepositions can help EFL students’ learning of English language.

Appraisal Resources in Chinese College Students' English Argumentative Writing

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 1002
Author(s):  
Yilong Yang
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Argumentative Writing ◽  
Appraisal System ◽  
Subjective Logic ◽  
Chinese College Students ◽  
American Students ◽  
New Development ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
Teaching Of Writing

Appraisal system is the new development of Halliday's interpersonal function, which is a very important parameter in argumentative writing since its purpose is to influence and convince readers. Directed by appraisal system, with UAM corpus tool for annotation and statistics, this paper carried out a comparative empirical research in interpersonal meaning on Chinese and American students' 64 English argumentative essays. The study found that the overall use of appraisal resources in Chinese English majors' essays fell far behind American college students, with the only exception of affect resources. In the attitude subsystem, it shows that Chinese college students have a poor vocabulary, colloquial expressions, subjective logic and other problems; in the engagement, students from the two countries have an abundant use, which may be relevant to argumentative writing itself; although graduation resources are the nucleus of appraisal system, they are least used by the two group of students, probably caused by the reason that graduation meaning are often covert in the text. The study contributes to revealing a comprehensive difference of appraisal resources between Chinese and American college students' argumentative writing, and the teaching of writing in such genre will also be benefited.

The Effect of Types of Dictionary Presentation on the Retention of Metaphorical Collocations: Involvement Load Hypothesis vs. Cognitive Load Theory

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-431
Author(s):  
Yuanjun Dai ◽  
Zhiwei Wu ◽  
Hai Xu
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Cognitive Load Theory ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Research Results ◽  
Load Theory ◽  
Involvement Load ◽  
Involvement Load Hypothesis

Abstract Although conceptual metaphor boxes were introduced in Macmillan English Dictionary over a decade ago, the effect of this innovative presentation on the retention of metaphorical collocations remains unclear. To fill this gap, this paper reports on a study involving 70 Chinese EFL learners, who were randomly assigned into three groups. They were exposed to three types of collocation presentation, varying in terms of availability and salience of conceptual metaphor information. The results show that the learners who were exposed to the accessible and salient presentation of metaphor information had the best retention of metaphorical collocations and the shortest lookup time. Two competing theoretical accounts, Involvement Load Hypothesis (ILH) and Cognitive Load Theory (CLT), were compared. It was found that CLT had greater explanatory power in predicting the research results, accounting for why conceptually grouping collocations facilitated the retention of metaphorical collocations.

scholarly journals Concordancing in writing pedagogy and CAF measures of writing

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Negin Samoudi ◽  
Sima Modirkhamene
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Writing Pedagogy ◽  
First Century ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Pedagogical Application

AbstractSince the early twenty-first century, data-driven learning (DDL) approach that is a pedagogical application of corpus linguistics in classroom, has introduced a paradigm shift in EFL instruction. Research output, however, concerning this inductive, discovery-oriented learning is equivocal. This study, thus, explored the application of both native-speaker and local learner corpora, attesting the effect of direct vs. indirect DDL activities on 39 EFL learners’ development in CAF measures of writing. To this end, two experimental groups were taught through corpus consultation, but the control group received the conventional method of using a textbook, teacher explanations, and classroom exercises. Results obtained from three (two experimental and one control) groups of participants’ writing performances pre and post to seven sessions of paragraph writing confirmed the significant role of indirect DDL in writing more accurate and fluent paragraphs; however, no statistical evidence was found as regards syntactic complexity. Moreover, no significant effect of the direct DDL method in improving learners’ writing was observed, which is, thus, interpreted as suggestive that applying indirect DDL could be more effective than the direct DDL approach. It is concluded that classroom-based computers are not necessarily essential tools to implement the DDL pedagogy.

scholarly journals ENGLISH ARTICLE CHOICES BY VIETNAMESE EFL LEARNERS

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Thi Quyen
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Target Article ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Article System ◽  
L1 And L2

This paper investigates the choice of articles by L1 (frst language) Vietnamese learners of L2 (second language) English under the framework proposed by Ionin, Ko and Wexler (2004). According to their Fluctuation Hypothesis and Article Choice Parameter, L2 learners of English whose L1 does not have articles have direct, universal grammar-mediated access to universal semantic features of the article system, i.e. defniteness and specifcity. The dual article system of English encodes defniteness, which leads L2 learners whose L1 lacks a proper article system to fluctuate between the two values of the Article Choice Parameter, that is, defniteness and specifcity. Although empirical research has been done to examine the acquisition of article system by both L1 and L2 learners as well as to validate the hypothesis, the results obtained from the research appear to be inconclusive, laying a fruitful area for further investigation. The current research was carried out with the aim to enrich L2 data with respect to the article acquisition domain and, more importantly, to examine Ionin et al.’s (2004) conclusions regarding the effect of specifcity on the choice of article. The study was also motivated by the scarcity of research looking at how Vietnamese learners of L2 English acquire the target article system.

scholarly journals A Corpus-Based Comparative Study of Chinese EFL Learners’ Use of Temporal Metaphor in English

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Yi Guo
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
English Major ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

This paper adopted a corpus-based approach to compare the uses of the conceptual metaphor &ldquo;TIME IS MONEY&rdquo; between Chinese non-English major college students and native speakers of English. The results revealed no direct correspondence between frequency of metaphorical use and proficiency level of English. While EFL learners differed with native speakers in terms of the diversity of metaphorical uses, the patterns of high-frequency uses were similar between the two groups. Chinese EFL learners were prone to produce unidiomatic metaphorical expressions that literally make sense. These expressions could be the mixed results of negative L1 transfer and insufficient L2 proficiency, especially the lack of adequate semantic knowledge in English. To language learners, conceptual metaphor in L2 cannot be randomly created, but has to be acquired with the help of the cultural knowledge embedded in the metaphorical expressions.

scholarly journals Conflicting Tendencies in the Development of Scientific and Technical Language Varieties: Metaphorization vs. Standardization

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-111
Author(s):  
Larisa Iļjinska ◽  
Tatjana Smirnova
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Interactive Process ◽  
Technical Language ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Technical Vocabulary ◽  
Contemporary Development ◽  
Pragmatic Aspects

The present paper discusses relations between meaning and context as an interactive process that promotes cognition and communication, both intralingual and interlingual. The article also studies two evident conflicting tendencies in the development of technical language: metaphorization and standardization. Metaphorical meaning extension is characteristic of technical vocabulary in all discourse domains. At the same time, contemporary development of corpus linguistics facilitates standardization of terms. Taking into account pragmatic aspects of the text environment, i.e. referential, situational, cultural and social contexts, language users can interpret the meaning of new terms, establish relations and interconnections between terms and concepts within a text, domain and entire scientific and technical discourse. In the present article, observations on the nature and application of contemporary technical terminology are made on the basis of extensive empirical research.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document