English Binomials Research Articles

Chinese EFL learners' processing of English binomials: the role of interlexical and intralexical factors.

Binomials have been relatively understudied compared to other types of multiword expressions (MWEs) in second language research, such as collocations and idioms. This study investigated English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' processing of English binomials and how it is influenced by interlexical factors (L1-L2 congruency and L1-lexicalization) and intralexical factors (word and binomial frequency, binomial reversibility, and binomial predictability). Forty Chinese EFL learners participated in a phrase acceptability judgment task of 64 target binomials (16 congruent L1-lexicalized, 16 congruent L1-nonlexicalized, and 32 incongruent) and 64 non-binomial controls. Results revealed that learners experienced difficulty judging the formulaicity of binomials. They processed binomial stimuli significantly faster than non-binomial baselines, demonstrating a binomial phrase effect. They also processed L1-L2 congruent items faster and more accurately than incongruent items, showing a robust congruency effect. The congruent items which are lexicalized in the L1 showed further processing advantage than the non-lexicalized items, indicating a graded congruency effect. Moreover, binomial reversibility and binomial predictability (measured with cloze probability) also showed significant effects. These findings highlight the need to distinguish and investigate different types of congruency, explore appropriate measures for MWE predictability, and to examine binomials focusing on their unique features.

Cross-Language Influences in the Processing of Multiword Expressions: From a First Language to Second and Back.

The present study investigated cross-language influences in the processing of binomial expressions (knife and fork), from a first language (L1) to a second language (L2) and from L2 to L1. Two groups of unbalanced bilinguals (Chinese/L1-English/L2 and English/L1-Chinese/L2) and a control group of English monolinguals performed a visual lexical decision task that incorporated unmasked priming. To assess cross-language influences, we used three types of expressions: congruent binomials (English binomials that have translation equivalents in Chinese), English-only binomials, and Chinese-only binomials translated into English. Lexical decision latencies to the last word (fork) in a binomial (knife and fork) were compared with response latencies to the same word in a matched control phrase (spoon and fork). We found that (1) Chinese-English bilinguals showed a significant priming effect for congruent binomials but no facilitation for English-only binomials, (2) English–Chinese bilinguals showed a trend toward priming for congruent binomials, which did not reach statistical significance, and no priming for English-only binomials, (3) English monolinguals showed comparable priming for congruent and English-only binomials. With respect to the Chinese-only binomials, none of the three participant groups showed priming for translated Chinese-only binomials over controls. These findings suggest that L1 influences the processing of L2 binomials, and that there may be some cross-linguistic influence in the opposite direction, i.e., from L2 to L1, although to a lesser extent.

SEMANTIC AND COMMUNICATIVE-PRAGMATIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH BINOMIALS (BASED ON THE MATERIAL OF LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC STYLES)

The article deals with specific paired phrases - English binomials and binary terminological combinations, their semantic and communicative-pragmatic features. Binomials are stable pairs of words that function as a single lexical unit, the meaning of which is not the sum of the values of its components. Conventionally, binomials are divided into groups based on the structure, compatibility, and semantic characteristics. Particular attention is drawn to the semantic classification, which considers these unique language formations in terms of the diversity of their meanings and imagery.Reference has been made to the reasons for the need to study the concept of binomial, its semantic and communicative-pragmatic features are outlined. Among them it is necessary to distinguish those that contain only one primary meaning, which follows from the full composition in the specified context, and there are also inversions, the meaning of which is quite difficult to find because of their ambiguity. According to lexical and grammatical features of the constituent parts binomials are divided into single-class and multi-class. Single-class binomials include nouns, adjectives, verbs, pronouns, numerals, conjunctions, and prepositions that form word combinations. Multi-class binomials consist of words related to different parts of speech and are combined by a conjunction that indicates two similar or opposite signs, objects, phenomena or actions. The article reveals the communicative and pragmatic features of English binomials in the literary style on the example of English literary works and binary terminological phrases in the scientific style, on the example of medical terminology, as one of the largest terminological systems. The research of 85 English binomials in the literary style and 100 binary terminological phrases in the scientific style made it possible to determine their semantic and communicative-pragmatic features.

Exploring Thai EFL Students’ Knowledge of English Binomials

One sub-type of collocations which is under-researched is binomials. The purposes of this study were to investigate Thai EFL students' knowledge of English binomials, determine the syntactic structure of the internal elements of binomials reported as most or least known by them, and test if the students' knowledge of binomials was significantly different when taking account of their years of study. The sample was 130 first - sixth year students enrolled in four different faculties at a university in northeastern Thailand, and classified as intermediate EFL learners for the purpose of this study through the online Oxford Placement Test. An acceptability judgment test of English binomials was used to collect the data. The results revealed that, on the whole, the participants had a low level of knowledge of English binomials; there was no significant difference in their knowledge regarding the syntactic structure of binomials (Noun+Noun and Verb+Verb); and the participants were not significantly different in their knowledge in terms of their years of study. The results pertaining to the participants’ low level of knowledge of binomials were discussed in relation to lack of exposure to English and effective pedagogy of English idioms.

Representation and processing of multi-word expressions in the brain

Language comprehension is sensitive to the predictability of the upcoming information. Prediction allows for smooth, expedient and successful communication. While general discourse-based constraints have been investigated in detail, more specific phrase-level prediction has received little attention. We address this gap by exploring the ERPs elicited during the comprehension of English binomials – familiar and predictable multi-word expressions. In Experiment 1a, participants read binomial expressions (knife and fork), infrequent strongly associated phrases (spoon and fork), and semantic violations (theme and fork). In Experiment 1b, participants read the same stimuli without “and”. Experiment 1a revealed that binomials elicited larger P300s and smaller N400s compared to the other conditions, reflecting the activation of a ‘template’ that matches the upcoming information (P300) and pointing to easier semantic integration (N400). In contrast, no differences were observed between binomials and associates in Experiment 1b. We conclude that distinct mechanisms underlie the processing of predicable and novel sequences.

BINOMIAL FORMATION IN BADINI KURDISH WITH REFERNCE TO ENGLISH: A CONTRASTIVE STUDY

The phraseological phenomenon of binomial pairing is a research topic that has captured the attention of many linguists. Recent research on binomials (e.g. Benor & Levy, 2006) convincingly argues that studies on binomial pairing can generally be divided into two main types: studies on binomial order and studies on binomial formation. To the best of our knowledge, the latter type of studies dealing with binomial pairing in Badini Kurdish does not exist. Therefore, the present research is a pioneering attempt to fill in this research gap because it addresses the issue of binomial formation in Badini Kurdish binomials. It aims at achieving a detailed description of binomial formation and also at comparing and contrasting this topic in both Kurdish and English binomials. To fulfill these aims, the current study analyses a large number of Badini Kurdish binomials (302 pairs). The findings indicate that binomial formation in Badini Kurdish is a systematic process which is not very different from binomial formation in other languages as it shares the basic regulations required for forming a binomial, viz.: having two words which must be syntactically symmetrical and mostly connected by some sort of a lexical link. Although these regulations are very similar among both Badini Kurdish and English binomials, certain minor differences are also pointed out. Therefore, the study concludes by listing these similarities and differences in the binomial formation between Badini Kurdish and English binomials.

HEAVEN AND EARTH, GOOD AND BAD, ANSWERED AND SAID: A SURVEY OF ENGLISH BINOMIALS AND MULTINOMIALS (PART II)

Binomials in general and English binomials in particular are a frequent, complex and important linguistic as well as stylistic phenomenon.1 Compared to other linguistic phenomena, however, they are a relatively under-researched field. Therefore our aim is to provide a concise survey of English binomials, sketching their structure, function, history and the current state of scholarship, and pointing out possibilities for further research.2 The first part of this article was published in the previous issue of the journal. In Part II we move on to the etymological (9.) and the semantic structure of English binomials (10.). Very broadly speaking, we thus move from aspects that concern mainly the surface to features that lie a little deeper down. The etymological structure has to do with the use and distribution of native words and of loan-words; the semantic structure comprises synonyms, antonyms, and complementary pairs, as well as factual, stylistic, and cultural binomials. We also deal briefly with the semantic features of multinomials (11.), with the relation of translated binomials to their (especially Latin or French) source (12.), with differences between authors and texts (13.), with the sequence of elements and the factors that influence the sequence (14.), and with the question how far binomials are formulaic and how far they are flexible and can be coined on the spur of the moment (15.). A brief conclusion (16.) and references complete the article.

Productive Knowledge of English Binomials by Japanese Learners of English

本研究では，日本人英語学習者の持つ二項表現の生産的知識を調査することで，(1) どの二項表現について生産的知識を持っているのか，(2) 二項表現がわからない場合に，どのような方略で二項表現を生み出すのか，という二点を明らかにした。103名の中級レベルの日本人英語学習者を対象に，44の二項表現の最初の1語を与え，and の次に来る語を答えさせる課題を与えた結果，75％以上の正答率を得た二項表現が19あり，日本人英語学習者でも特定の二項表現については生産的知識を持っていることが分かった。また，誤答を分析した結果，意味を中心とした方略を用いている事が多く，二項表現として期待される意味関係が分かっていない場合や，意味関係が正しくても，期待される語を答えられない場合があることが分かった。これらの結果を踏まえ，英語学習者により多くのインプットを与えることで，二項表現に触れる機会を増やすとともに，“Me first” principle (Cooper & Ross, 1975) を明示的に教えることで，馴染みのない二項表現に対するより効果的な方略を育てることが提案された。

The Acquisition of Binomials by Kuwaiti EFL Learners

The acquisition of lexical collocations, in general, has been regarded as a stumbling block for EFL learners; it is one of the most difficult areas as it is often perceived as being arbitrary. This study tests whether fifty Kuwait EFL learners are aware of one type of lexical collocations, namely, binomials (e.g., up and down, salt and pepper, men and women). Specifically, it investigates whether the participants’ English proficiency level and the syntactic category of the internal components of binomials play a role in their acquisition. For this purpose, the researchers used an acceptability judgment task to check the participants’ awareness of binomials in English. The results revealed that the participants’ English proficiency level affected their answers on the test. In particular, the advanced learners performed better than the intermediate learners. However, the difference between the two groups was not enough to differ statistically. Additionally, the statistical analysis shows that the syntactic category of the components of binomials i.e., N+N and V+V had no influence on the participants’ answers. The researchers concluded that Kuwaiti EFL learners have little awareness of English binomials. Their lack of awareness was attributed to several reasons, such as L1 negative transfer, the existence of culture-specific items and lack of exposure to certain items. The study recommended that further research is required in this area.

Revisiting binomial order in English: ordering constraints and reversibility

The factors governing word order in binomials, i.e. coordinated word pairs of the same word class, have been the subject of discussion for a long time in linguistics. For example, why do we saylaw and orderbut notorder and law? The article tests seventeen different potential ordering constraints that have previously been suggested, from the areas of semantics, phonology and word frequency, by checking over 500 high-frequency binomials extracted from the BNC against them. A clear hierarchy of constraints is suggested following the analysis of their success in predicting binomial order. In addition, however, attention is drawn to the reversibility status of binomials. The vast majority of English binomials is reversible to a smaller or larger degree. Reversibility scores were computed for all binomials in the sample so that the relationship between reversibility on the one hand and the adherence to the ordering constraints on the other could be analysed, finding that a number of semantic and metrical ordering constraints indeed increase their predictive success towards the frozen end of the reversibility cline. Complying with these constraints, then, increases the likelihood of a binomial to be less reversible. Claims for the influence of certain factors on the freezing process are thus substantiated for the first time.

Strategies used in translating English binomials into Arabic

The present study investigates Jordanian students’ ability to translate English binomials into Arabic and explores the strategies used when translating them into Arabic. It also investigates the usefulness of English–Arabic dictionaries. For this purpose, a 25-item translation test was developed and distributed to two groups; an advanced group including 30 MA students, and an intermediate group comprising 50 undergraduate students studying English at Jordanian universities. The study revealed that the subjects’ general performance on the translation test was unsatisfactory. The percentage of correct answers on all items for all subjects was approximately 44%. This means that more than half of the test items in the translation test were erroneously rendered. The subjects used different strategies to translate English binomials into Arabic. The most frequently used strategy was contextualized guessing, followed by avoidance, literal translation, incomplete translation and least used, semantic approximation. Finally, with regard to the incorporation of English binomials along with their equivalents in Arabic in the English Arabic dictionaries, it was found that they were the highest in Al-Mawrid Dictionary 72%, followed by Atlas Dictionary 60%, and finally Oxford Wordpower 52%. Some binomials were included in one dictionary, others were included in only two dictionaries. Five binominals, or 20% of binomials under investigation, namely for and against, ifs and buts, heart and hand, here and now and nuts and bolts were missing in all of the dictionaries. This indicates the need to compile specialized English–Arabic dictionaries to address multi-word units such as collocations, idioms, and binomials, or at least to upgrade or enrich the currently used ones.