Sharedmulti-wordunits

Learners’useofword-likeunitsdisplayssimilarpatternsofoveruseamongthe

fivemothertonguebackgrounds:For exampleisoverusedbythefivelearnerpop-ulationsunderinvestigation(cf.Figure3)andfor instanceismassivelyoverused

byalllearnerpopulations,withtheexceptionofGermanlearners(cf.Figure4).⁵

Figure 3. Numberofoccurrencesofforexampleper100,000words

Figure 4. Numberofoccurrencesofforinstanceper100,000words

5. Siepmann(2005)foundthatboth‘for example’ and‘for instance’wereslightlylessfrequent

inhisnon-nativecorpusofGermanstudentessaysthantheywereinhisnativecorpus.This

differenceinresultsismostprobablyduetoadifferenceintexttypeastheauthorcomparesEFL

studentwritingtoprofessionalwriting.

110 MagaliPaquot

Unlikeinnativewriting,thetwoconjunctsarerepeatedlyfoundattheendof

asentenceinlearnerwriting:

 (8) I find the pronunciation of English much more difficult than the pronunciation of Italian, for instance.(ICLE-POLISH)

 (9) Furthermore the psyche surpassed the nature of cosmic allegorism, which involved the representation of thunderstorm as a performance of the god Zeus for example.(ICLE-DUTCH)

Thenon-nativewriters’tendencytooverusethefixedformulaefor exampleand

for instance isclearlyinlinewithGranger’s(1998:156)conclusionthat“learners’

repertoiresforintroducingargumentsandpointsofviewareveryrestrictedand

theytherefore‘clingon’tocertainfixedphrasesandexpressionswhichtheyfeel

confidentinusing.”

Itismostprobablethatlearnersclingontotheseword-likeunitsfortwomain

reasons.First,eachfirstlanguagehasadirectequivalenttofor example,i.e.par exemple inFrench,por ejemplo inSpanish,bijvoorbeeld inDutch,zum Beispiel inGermanandna przyktadinPolish,whichprovidesaclearanchorinlearn-ers’minds.Second,word-likeunitsaretypicallyemphasisedininstructionand

teachingmaterials.Grammarsandwritingtextbooksoftenonlyprovidelistsof

adverbialconnectorsinsectionsondiscursivefunctions(e.g.Oshima&Hogue

2006:291–299).Similarly,instructionismostlikelyresponsibleforthemassive

overuseoffor instanceinEFLstudents.For exampleandfor instanceareoften

taughtastwosynonymsandasaresult,learnersusetheminterchangeably.Learn-erspresumablywritefor instanceinsteadoffor examplewhentheyhavealready

usedfor exampleintheiressayandwanttochangeforthesakeofvariety.How-ever,itwasshowninSection3thatfor instanceismuchlessfrequentthanfor exampleinL1academicwriting.

Anotherexplanationforthegeneraloveruseoffor exampleandfor instance

mayalsobethattheseword-likeunitsarerepeatedlyusedwhentheyareunneces-sary,redundantorevenwhenotherrhetoricalfunctionsshouldbemadeexplicit.

Sentence10isanexampleofredundantexemplification:

(10) The mob for instance is a very good example. (ICLE-SPANISH)

Themirrorimageofthistendencyistheunderuseofthelesssalientmulti-word

units,i.e.productiveframeswiththenounexampleandtheverbto be,ofwhich

learnersappeartobeunaware.Thisunderuseisalsomostprobablyreinforcedby

teachingasteachingmaterialsrarelyputemphasisontheseunmarkedmulti-word

units(cf.Laws1999:48–49).Itisthereforenotsurprisingthattheyareunderused

byalmostalllearnerpopulations.TheDutchlearnersaretheonlyoneswhodo

notunderusetheseframes.Thismaybeduetoadifferenceinproficiencylevelas

theDutchsub-corpusseemstoincludealargerproportionofhighlyratedessays

thanotherICLEsub-corpora⁶Anotherpossibleexplanationmaybeintermsof

L1-relatedeffects.InacomparablecorpusofDutchformalwriting,productive

frameswiththeverbzijnwerefoundtobequitefrequent:

(11) Een goed voorbeeld is het akkoord dat eurocommissaris Bolkestein met de VS sloot over de verstrekking van passagiersgegevens van vluchten naar Amerika.

  [A good example is the agreement that the Euro-commissioner Bolkestein reached with the US on passenger data disclosure on flights to America.]

(12) Een bekend voorbeeld is Linux, het alternatief voor het bestruringssysteem van Microsoft.

  [A well-known example is Linux, the alternative to Microsoft operating sys-tem.]

Finally,learnersturnouttounderusetheverbexemplify.Asfortheverbillustrate,

theyunderuseitonlyinthepassivebutoveruseactivestructureswithahuman

subject(13)–(14)andthephraseTo illustrate this, …usedatthebeginningofa

sentence(15)–(16):

(13) I would like to illustrate that by means of some examples which, as you will see, are very diverse.(ICLE-DUTCH)

(14) What I wanted to illustrate is that an obviously simple and clear solution turns out to be not the best one at a closer look – at least for one part of the people.

(ICLE-GERMAN)

(15) To illustrate the truth of this, one has only to mention people’s disappoint-ment when realizing how little value has the time spent at university.(ICLE-SPANISH)

(16) To illustrate this, we can mention the notion of culture and language in the north of Belgium.(ICLE-FRENCH)

6. Anumberoftextswrittenbylearnersfromthe11mothertonguebackgroundsfoundin

thefirsteditionofInternational Corpus of Learner Englishhaverecentlybeenratedexternally

byaprofessionalESOLrateraccordingtothedescriptorsforwritingfoundintheCommon

EuropeanFrameworkofReferenceforLanguages.Resultsshowthatlearneressaysratefrom

B2toC2andthattheproportionofB2,C1andC2textsdiffersbetweenthe11mothertongue

backgrounds(cf.Thewissenetal.2006).

112 MagaliPaquot

4.2 Multi-wordunitsspecifictoFrenchlearnerwriting

Frenchlearnersrepeatedlyusethesequencelet us/let’s take the exampleof, aframe

thatisnotincorrectbutcertainlyveryinfrequentinnativeacademicwriting.The

sequencedoesnotappearinLOCNESSandoccursonceinaslightlydifferent

formintheacademicsubpartoftheBNC-Baby:⁷

(17) Let us take as an example an infinitely long, infinitely thin distribution of charges as shown in Fig. 2.8. (BNC-Baby–academic)

Academicwritingisagenrecharacterizedbyhighdegreesofformalityandde- tachmentandthespeech-likenatureofthissequenceleadstoanoverallimpres-sionofstylisticinappropriateness:

(18) One form of this is nationalism. To show what I mean, let’s take the example of an Englishman in Belgium. (ICLE-FRENCH)

(19) One of them is the loss of contacts in families. (..) Let us take an example:

many people eat while watching TV. I personally think that this is a pity. (ICLE-FRENCH)

Whereastheconjunctfor exampleissignificantlyoverusedinmostICLEsubcor-pora,theframelet’s take the example ofisquiterareinotherinterlanguagesand

seemstobespecifictoFrenchlearners.Thisover-representationismostprobably

anL1-relatedeffectasthesequencehasacongruentcounterpartinFrench,i.e.

Prenons l’exemple de…,whichiscommonlyfoundinstudentandprofessional

formalwriting.ThefollowingsentencescomefromtheCorpus de Dissertations Françaises(CODIF),a200,000-wordcorpusofessayswrittenbyFrench-speaking

studentscollectedattheUniversityofLouvain:

(20) Prenons l’exemple des sorciers ou des magiciens au Moyen Age.

(21) Prenons l’exemple d’un individu qui postule pour un emploi.

(22) Prenons l’exemple du port du voile qui a créé une polémique il y a tout juste 10 mois.

Theoveruseoflet’s take the example ofispartofamoregeneralisedandmas-siveoveruseoflet us / let’sinICLE-FRENCH.Figure5showsthatalthoughlet us(orlet’s)isgenerallymorefrequentinlearnerwritingthaninLOCNESS,the

sequenceismassivelyoverusedonlyintheFrenchlearnercorpus.

7. Thesequencelet’s take the exampleofdoesnotappearintheBritishAcademicWritten

EnglishcorpusdescribedinNesietal.(2004).

Afewexamplesofsentencesintroducedwithlet usorlet’sinICLE-FRENCH

are:

(23) Let’s consider the situation in Belgium.

(24) Let’s first have a look at what is Europe actually.

(25) Now let’s move on to our third category of criminals.

(26) Let’s try to find the most important principles which are urging people to react as they do.

(27) So let us analyse the potential assets of this country…

(28) Let us comment on the second statement: … (29) Let us now examine the second solution.

(30) Let us explain these two points.

Thisoverusecanbecomparedtotheveryfrequentuseofthefirstpersonplural

imperativetoorganisediscourseinFrenchformalwriting:

(31) Citons comme exemple le jugement difficile des autorités françaises sur les activités du régime de Vichy dans le cadre du procès de Touvier.(CODIF) (32) Envisageons tout d’abord la question économique.(CODIF)

(33) Examinons quelques exemples pour tenter d’y voir plus clair.(CODIF) (34)  Et notons que ces réalisations nous inspirent des rêves insoupçonnés jusque

là,(CODIF)

(35) Considérons un instant le cinéma actuel.(CODIF)

(36) Pensons, par exemple, à l’Espagne, qui, pendant quatre à huit siècles, a appris à côtoyer les peuples arabes.(CODIF)

Figure 5. Numberofoccurrencesofletusandlet’sper100,000words

114 MagaliPaquot

Table3showsthatfrequenciesoffirstpersonpluralimperativeformsinICLE- FRENCHandCODIFarequitesimilarandsuggeststhatfrequencyinthelearn-ers’L1maybereflectedintheirinterlanguage.

Thishypothesisisfurthersupportedbythesimilarityinfrequencyoffirst

personpluralimperativeformsinICLE-Spanishandinthewrittenpartofthe

Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual(CREA).⁸Thetwosequenceslet’sandlet usappearintheSpanishlearnercorpusthoughnotasfrequentlyasinFrench

learnerwriting.Similarly,Spanishfirstpersonpluralimperativeformsarequite

frequentinformalwritingthoughlessfrequentthantheirFrenchequivalents.

ThefollowingsentencesareexamplesofSpanishfirstpersonpluralimperative

formsusedasmetadiscoursemarkers:

(37) Consideremos ahora la distribución de la producción mundial de energía y de las emisiones de CO2 … (CREA)

(38) Pero veamos lo que se nos dice. (CREA)

(39) Como ilustración, tomemos el caso de las alas de los pájaros. (CREA)

Finally,theinfrequentuseoflaten weinDutchformalwriting(1.4occurrence

per100,000wordsinthewrittenpartofthePAROLEcorpus⁹)isalsoreflectedin

DutchlearnerwritingasICLE-DUTCHistheonlylearnercorpusinwhichthe

overuseoflet usisnotstatisticallysignificant.

In document [Fanny Meunier, Sylviane Granger] Phraseology in org (Page 122-127)