Phraseological Patterns Research Articles

A Corpus Analysis of Non-Contiguous Phraseological Patterns in the Discussion Section of Microeconomics Research Articles

A Corpus Analysis of Non-Contiguous Phraseological Patterns in the Discussion Section of Microeconomics Research Articles

Répétition, analogie et variation lexicale comme sources des binômes phraséologiques en anglais

This corpus linguistics study analyses a subset of phraseological binomials in English made up parasynonyms to reveal their origins, structures, meanings and axiological values. Based on a journalistic corpus, the study targets combinations presenting phonetic, semantic and phonetic-cum-semantic repetition phenomena falling within the [Aing and Bing] pattern, such as naming and shaming, booing and jeering or moaning and groaning. Two hypotheses are put forward: on the one hand, that this phraseological pattern has a negative axiological value which is the result of the link between form and sense, and, on the other hand, that certain binomials established by usage give rise to the creation of new combinations by analogy with lexical variants, which accounts for the productivity of this pattern. The use of three corpora of different dates and volumes allows us to corroborate these two hypotheses and to show their vitality and frequency of use in journalistic discourse.

Applied corpus linguistics and legal interpretation: A rapidly developing field of interdisciplinary scholarship

This article offers an overview of developments in a newly emerging interdisciplinary research field: legal corpus linguistics. The field brings together corpus research and legal theory by applying corpus-analytic techniques and linguistic concepts to facilitate the interpretation of legal texts. Despite the field's short history, it has already contributed important new insights into the meaning of statutory texts and parts of the U.S. Constitution, insights that may have significant practical implications for the American legal system. Our article provides an overview of relevant developments in legal corpus linguistics, from early success stories to recent and ongoing collaborative work between corpus linguists and legal scholars. It aims to highlight the benefits and illustrate the potential of this type of interdisciplinary work by summarizing three recent case studies, each of which deals with an important topic in American constitutional law. The case studies focus in turn on the following parts of the U.S. Constitution: (1) Article III and the meaning of “cases,” (2) the Appointments Provision in Article II, Section 2 and the meaning of “such inferior officers,” and (3) the Impeachment Provision in Article II, Section 4 and the meaning of “misdemeanors.” All three case studies use corpus analysis to explore phraseological patterns in large collections of Founding Era texts to provide insights into the meanings of the selected words and phrases in context during the time the Constitution was drafted and ratified. The article discusses the practical relevance of results from these case studies and potential implications of this and related work in legal corpus linguistics for contemporary and future litigation.

Fluidic motion patterns in English and Modern Greek

Abstract This paper investigates conceptual and phraseological patterns from a cross-linguistic perspective. The focus of attention is on the fluidic motion uses of the highly polysemous verbs run and τρέχω ‘run’ in English and Modern Greek respectively. They are manner of motion verbs denoting the typically human, fast movement on ground and they are frequently cited in the literature on motion event encoding; yet, their extended use to denote motion of liquids is mentioned only in passing. The study thus provides a comprehensive description of that part of the semantic network of the two verbs that relates to fluidic motion (literally and figuratively). The contrastive approach taken combines cognitive semantics (Frame Semantics, Conceptual Metaphor and Metonymy Theory) with a phraseological view of language. Convergences and divergences are identified at a conceptual and phraseological level through a twofold corpus-based study involving comparable monolingual analysis and parallel corpus investigation.

Beyond words in evaluation: Formulaic language in critical reviews of research articles across disciplines

Formulaic language, characterized by phraseological patterns such as lexical bundles, has been observed to significantly influence the discourse of speakers and writers. These patterns tend to differ across genres and disciplines. However, the examination of formulaic language in evaluative genres, particularly across different disciplines, has been relatively limited. This study aims to explore the use of formulaic language in review feedback on manuscripts submitted by Iranian junior researchers to international journals across three disciplines. Using a discourse analytical approach, the study analyzes the frequency, structure, and function of the most prevalent four-word lexical bundles in 120 authentic peer reviews (recommending either major or minor revisions) in applied linguistics (AL), engineering, and business (40 from each discipline). The study explores how reviewers employ formulas to convey their comments to writers. The results reveal disciplinary differences in the usage, structure, and function of lexical bundles among reviewers. However, commonalities exist due to the inherent conventions of the evaluative genre. These disciplinary tendencies are also reflected in the organization of reviewers' reports and their commenting styles. The study contributes to enhancing the understanding of evaluative practices within specific disciplines by offering valuable insights into the phraseological patterns used in peer reviews and highlighting the discipline-specific formulaic expressions employed by reviewers to provide constructive feedback to authors.

Phraseological patterns in a civic orientation textbook for immigrants to Sweden: How heterogeneous readers and a largely non-monolithic country are constructed

Aiming to critically review texts that construct knowledge about social categories, this study analyses a textbook used in Sweden to introduce new immigrants to Swedish society. It is investigated, through the pronoun you, how the target reader and, through the noun Sweden and the adjective Swedish, how Sweden and what is Swedish are discursively constructed. These three word forms occur most frequently in their respective word classes in the textbook. The recurrent phraseological patterns that they are involved in form the starting-point for an analysis of their discourse functions. A critical perspective is adopted, by asking to what extent the textbook presents a uniform and essentialist picture of the newcomer and of Sweden. The findings show that the textbook exhibits a reader-oriented style through excessive you uses. The image of the newcomer is marked by heterogeneity: the reader is offered a variety of hypothetical identities through frequently used if-you-conditionals. By demonstrating relevance and linking information and advice directly to the reader, the you patterns realise a strategy of inclusion. However, the reader group is also presented as internally similar, in being seen as less knowledgeable and in need of the writer’s guidance. The writer and reader are not presented as sharing understandings and goals, hence distance is created rather than proximity. The construction of Sweden links mostly to meanings of the nation that involve institutions, while meanings to do with culture and traditions are rare and hedged. Attempts are made to avoid ethnification of Swedish people, even if some majority views and practices are still presented. Strategies of inclusion and non-ethnification have led to favouring expressions like [people] in Sweden and disfavouring words like Swede(s) and immigrant(s). It is through in Sweden-statements that readers are covertly told what they need to do to fit in with majority views.

A corpus-based comparison study of first-person pronoun we in English-language abstracts

This paper offers a corpus-based study of how the first-person plural pronoun we is used in English-language RA abstracts published in Chinese-language journals in comparison to corresponding RA abstracts published in English-language journals in the fields of Finance and Accounting. Using a range of corpus-based methods of investigation, this study finds that abstracts written by the two groups of writers display characteristic differences in the usage of this first-person pronoun, such as its phraseological patterns. In general, the study demonstrates that the uses of we in RA abstracts written by Chinese Finance and Accounting academic writers diverge in a substantial number of important ways from those written by their international peers. The study also discusses some reasons for such differences. This paper identifies a number of points of difference that could be devoted to the teaching of RA abstract writing skills in English for Academic Purposes course.

Management of therapist directiveness in integrative psychotherapy: A corpus-assisted discourse study

Healthcare practitioners often face the dilemma of whether to provide advice during medical consultations due to concerns around affecting patients’ autonomy in decision making. Healthcare practitioners’ directiveness in patient–practitioner interactions may influence the success of medical consultations. Research has revealed that healthcare practitioners employ various communicative strategies and linguistic patterns to manage directiveness in medical consultations, such as the notions of likelihood and uncertainty, use of information, and politeness. Nonetheless, few scholars have examined how psychotherapists manage directiveness in counseling or psychotherapy sessions. Directives are inevitable speech acts in counseling or psychotherapy. Therapists may encounter challenges when producing directives, such as preventing clients from seeking their own solutions or clients becoming excessively dependent on therapists’ suggestions. Drawing upon the systems of mood and modality in systemic functional linguistics, this article employs a corpus-assisted approach to investigate therapists’ directives in terms of phraseological patterns, use of modality, and corresponding interpersonal meanings. Results reveal that therapists tend to manage directiveness by forming indicative directives and using low-value modulation modality. This article is the first corpus-assisted study to contribute to an understanding of therapist directiveness in psychotherapy from a lexico-grammatical perspective.

Evaluative Phrase-Frames and Patterns in Doctoral Thesis Conclusions

The language of evaluation can be identified not only in individual lexis but also in extended lexical-grammatical units such as phrase-frames. This study aims to explore evaluative phrase-frames and phraseological patterns in a corpus of conclusion chapters of doctoral theses. Through a corpus-driven analysis, a list of highly frequent phrase-frames were extracted and further refined to 21 evaluative phraseologies which contain an adjective in the variable position and are followed by a complement structure (e.g., it is * that). The identified phrase-frames were mapped onto different grammar patterns (Francis et al., 1998) and were analysed by Appraisal types (Martin & White, 2005) and evaluated entities (Thetela, 1997). The findings indicated that different phrase-frames and patterns showed clear preferences for particular Appraisal functions and evaluation types. This study suggests that there are interconnections among evaluative phrase-frames, their discourse functions, and different types of evaluation in academic discourse.

ADJECTIVES IN THE EXPRESSION OF EPISTEMIC MODALITY IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS RESEARCH ARTICLES

Research in academic writing has shown that writers have a strong tendency to communicate their ideas interactively with readers. This study examines how professional writers use adjectives as part of interactional metadiscourse when writing research articles. A total of 255 research articles published in distinguished journals in the field of applied linguistics between 2015 and 2020 were systematically compiled and quantitatively and qualitatively analysed. The extent to which epistemic adjectives and typical phraseological patterns are used in research articles was investigated with the help of corpus linguistics methods, as was their epistemic strength indicated by writers. The interpersonal model of metadiscourse was used as the theoretical framework for the study. The findings suggest that the academic writing corpus, in essence, is interactionally oriented, while the use of adjectives as an epistemic modality reflects a methodical approach by article writers when presenting propositions and discussing their knowledge claims. This study provides a deeper understanding of these linguistic features to impact the reader. Pedagogically, the study can be useful for teaching academic writing to postgraduate students and help them and novice writers develop writing competency through epistemic devices, especially in research articles intended for publication.

Functional Patterns of Lexical Bundles and Limitations in Academic Writing by Thai L2 English Learners

<p><em>Lexical bundles, which serve as markers of fluent and appropriate language use, are referred to as "building blocks of discourse" because they occur frequently in written texts and help readers and writers process information more quickly. They also provide important linguistic functions. However, lexical bundles can vary across genres, domains and even sections of the same work, which can be challenging for novice and non-native writers. The purposes of this study are to explore how Thai L2 undergraduate students use lexical bundles in their academic papers written in English and to compare the use of lexical bundles with that in two written corpora: the British Academic Written English (BAWE) and Cambridge Academic English (CAE). A total of 53 research reports, or approximately 615,750 words, from Thai L2 students of English language studies and applied linguistics were systematically compiled and analysed. The most frequent four-word n-grams in the corpora were then identified and their types and functions categorised. Keyword analysis was used to compare the key n-grams identified in each academic corpus. The results show that native and non-native writers use lexical bundles in rather different ways. Some patterns that did not occur in the reference corpus were overused by Thai L2 English students. The data suggest that the inclusion of phraseology in L2 writing instruction has pedagogical implications. This study can be of great pedagogical value, especially for EAP instructors, as it reveals frequent patterns in the form of a pedagogically useful list of word combinations. By extension, the data presented can be used by non-native writers or academics, especially novice Thai writers, to improve their use of phraseological patterns in writing academic research reports or writing for publication.</em></p>

Lexical Verbs in Verb-Noun Collocations: Empirical Evidence from a Malay ESL Learner Corpus

Previous studies have shown that verbs are indeed one of the essential lexical items that seem to dominate a text. At tertiary levels, learners are often presented with a list of verbs that are essential for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses such as academic writing. However, it is believed that the learning and teaching of these verbs goes far beyond the lists of EAP verbs. This is because knowledge of lexical verbs entails not only the knowledge of grammatical structures, but also the knowledge of semantic and syntactic structures. Therefore, this study aims to investigate how commonly used lexical verbs are used in learner writing in the perspectives of grammatical, semantic and syntactic features of verb-noun collocations. To achieve this, a corpus-based study using WordSmith Tools was employed on a learner corpus of Malay ESL learners to identify most-commonly used lexical verbs. These verbs were further given a linguistic analysis using a phraseological-based approach. The findings revealed that the use of transitive verbs led to several occurrences of verb-noun collocations and that the phraseological patterns of these verbs are bound by both lexical and grammatical patterns. This leads to the conclusion that the teaching of lexical verbs, specifically Verb-Noun collocations in academic writing should not only include the semantic elements, but also the syntactical elements of the verbs. It is then recommended that a lesson on lexical verbs should incorporate the teaching and learning of both lexis and grammar. Keywords: English for Academic Purpose; lexical verbs; phraseological-based approach; verb-noun collocations; learner corpus research

On the Problem of Lexicographical Representation of Productive Phraseological Patterns (As Shown by Modern Greek Constructional Phrasemes)

This paper discusses the problems of lexicographical representation of Modern Greek constructional phrasemes – productive phraseological patterns with one or more variable components (slots).
 The analysis of Modern Greek general and phraseological dictionaries has shown that, in Modern Greek lexicography, there is no unified approach towards the description of this type of phraseologisms. One of the significant problems associated with lexicographical treatment of Modern Greek constructional phrasemes is that some of them are registered in dictionaries as fully fixed expressions with their slot(s) filled with a specific lexeme or a specific proposition, without any indication that these expressions possess a variable component. Such lexicographical representation of productive phraseological patterns does not reflect the real linguistic usage and does not allow the reader of the dictionary to understand that the expressions described in the dictionary as fully fixed show considerable variation and possess one or two slots that can be filled with a wide range of words or word combinations.
 The corpus analysis of the constructional phraseme Ούτε να Ρ (literally, ‘neither if’), which is registered in Modern Greek dictionaries in five different, all fully lexically specified forms, has shown that the specific realizations of this productive phraseological pattern included in the dictionaries either have relatively low frequency of occurrence in the corpus, or are not encountered in the corpus at all. Other realizations of this phraseological pattern account for over 92 % of all the cases of its use in the corpus, but the common pattern behind them can hardly be identified with the help of the existing lexicographical descriptions, as it is registered in the dictionaries under the lemmas of five different lexemes that do not form part of its fixed component.
 Based on the findings of this study, the paper raises the issue of developing a new approach towards the description of productive phraseological patterns that currently pose a significant challenge for adequate lexicographical representation.

Citation Practices in Applied Linguistics Research Articles: A Comparison of International and Iranian Journals

In academic writing, citation employs different phraseological patterns to serve a number of significant functions. The purpose of this study was to examine the citation practices in Iranian and international applied linguistics journals to determine how differently or similarly the two groups of journals use the citation in their writings. The data consisted of a corpus of 120 articles published by Iranian and international applied linguistic journals. WordSmith Tools (Scott, 2009) computer software was used to extract the citation patterns in different sections of the articles. Then, employing Petric’s (2007) and Thompson and Trimble’s (2001) frameworks, the phraseological patterns and rhetorical functions of citation practices were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results showed that Iranian researchers, unlike international researchers, tended to use integral citations by emphasizing the writers rather than information; yet, international researchers preferred non-integral citations. The results also revealed that there is a relationship between articles sections and the type of citations applied. Moreover, the analysis of citations based on Petric's (2007) framework demonstrated that Iranian and international writers prefer using attribution function. In conclusion, the study argued that the phraseological patterns used to report these functions should receive more attention to avoid plagiarism.

Prepositional phraseological patterns in Czech and English

This pilot study aims to identify differences in native and non-native phraseologies, focussing on prepositional patterns. Previous research suggests L2 users’ limited phraseological choices may hinder the accuracy of their language production, and prepositions can pose a particular challenge to Czech learners of English, given the lack of correspondence between translation equivalents. Further, prepositional patterns contribute to text structuring, making them an important part of learners´ competence. Using representative corpora of English and Czech, 3- to 5-grams containing the equivalent preposition pair in/v are extracted. The identified patterns are classified by their semantics and textual functions. While in/v patterns mostly fulfil corresponding functions in the languages compared, the distribution of these functions differs. Specifically, some pattern types are only found in English, highlighting its analytic nature as opposed to inflectional Czech.

Let's say: Phraseological patterns of say in academic ELF communication

Formulaic sequences (e.g., on the other hand, for example, as can be seen) are prevalent in academic discourse. Apart from their various functions, research in the field has uncovered a range of contextual and individual factors associated with the use of formulaic sequences, including genre, discipline, and the user's L1 as well as expertise level. However, most previous studies focus on written discourse and employ a frequency-based approach (e.g., lexical bundles, n-grams). The inherent limitations of the approach are of particular relevance to ELF communication, which involves a high degree of flexibility adaptability. The present study aims to explore features of formulaicity in spoken ELF academic discourse. Through a close examination of the phraseological patterns of one verb say in a one-million-word corpus of spoken ELF communication in academic settings, the present study is able to overcome some of the limitations of the frequency approach, thereby shedding further light on formulaicity in language use characterising this particular community and its relationship with factors such as event type, discipline, and individual preference.

A Corpus-based Study of Thai and English Quantity Word Equivalents: 'Lǎay', 'Several' and 'Many'

The present study investigates the Thai quantifier ‘lǎay’ (หลาย) and its two major English lexical equivalents: ‘several’ and ‘many’, using data from an English-Thai parallel corpus, the Thai and British National Corpora. An examination of the parallel corpus reveals that the quantifier ‘lǎay’ has a broad semantic property as it can express meanings related to small, medium and large quantities or just the plurality of entities. This provides support to an observation that the word can pose problems for Thai EFL learners, translators and interpreters when expressing the concept of ‘lǎay’ in English. Based on the parallel corpus, two English quantity words that denote different scales of quantity, ‘many’ and ‘several’, were found to be among the most common lexical equivalents of ‘lǎay’. Further comparative investigation was conducted on the Thai and British National Corpora. It is found that ‘lǎay’ and its two common equivalents have overlapping and different co-occurrence patterns, illustrating their lexical equivalent status and distinct usage profiles at the same time. Differences between the two English equivalents were then focused on so that empirical evidence of usage patterns of the two most common English lexical equivalents of ‘lǎay’ can be obtained. Findings from the study provide an insight into phraseological patterns and pragmatic-discourse functions associated with the English equivalents, which Thai speakers of English can make use of as a possible framework for their decision making when translating ‘lǎay’ into English.

Collocational Development during a Stay Abroad

The purpose of the current study was to explore if and how additional-language learners may show changes in phraseological patterns over the course of a stay in a target-language environment. In particular, we focused on noun+adjective combinations produced by a group of additional-language speakers of French at three points in time, spanning 21 months and including an academic year in France. We extracted each combination from a longitudinal corpus and determined frequency counts and two strength-of-association measures (Mutual information [MI] score and Log Dice) for each combination. Separate analyses were conducted for frequency and the strength-of-association measures, revealing that phraseological patterns are significantly predicted by adjective position in the case of all three measures, and that MI scores showed significant change over time. We interpret the results in light of past research that has reported contradictory findings concerning change in phraseological patterns following an immersion experience.

ТЕРМИН-КОНЦЕПТ «POWER» В ПУБЛИЧНЫХ ВЫСТУПЛЕНИЯХ АМЕРИКАНСКИХ ПРЕЗИДЕНТОВ: СЕМАНТИКА, СИНТАГМАТИКА, ПРАГМАТИКА

The idea of power is crucial in political communication in general, and in American political communication, in particular. The article presents the analysis of the «power» concept as the key concept embodied in political discourse. Public speeches of two American presidents - Barack Obama and Donald Trump - over the time period from 2004 to 2019 were chosen as the material for this study. The analysis of the speeches from the viewpoints of lexical-semantic variants of the word power, its typical colligational (morpho-syntactic) and collocational (lexico-phraseological) peculiarities against the background of communicative strategies and tactics employed enabled to identify and describe the characteristic patterns of verbalizing the «power» concept. As a result, it was discovered that Obama’s discourse was characterized by integrative, informational and agonal strategies while Trump employed agonal and integrative strategies in his speeches. In the three meanings of the lexeme - 'authority, possession of control', 'strength, force', 'country, influential people', - invariant and variable morphological, syntactic, lexical, phraseological patterns were found. Among the invariant patterns, there was the use of the vocabulary representing American values and a number of tropes.

FRAZEOLOŠKE JEDINICE IZ PERSPEKTIVE KONSTRUKCIONE GRAMATIKE

Phraseological units have so far been primarily analyzed from a lexical-semantic, cog- nitive-linguistic, ethnolinguistic and pragmatic point of view. Recently, they have also been studied from the perspective of Construction Grammar, which considers these units as (phra- seological) constructions. While phraseological research has indicated that phraseological units are ready-made word-groups with idiomatic meaning, the constructionist approach indicates the existence of phraseological patterns or schemes; they have a unitary meaning, at least one of their constituent element is lexically specified, they are more or less productive and they have a certain function in discourse. The results obtained from the perspective of Construction Grammar will have a special impact on the lexicographic processing of phrase- ological constructions and foreign language learning.