Corpus analysis and phraseology

Transfer of multi-word units

Authors

  • Juan Pedro Rica Peromingo Universidad Complutense de Madrid

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/lhs.v6i1-3.321

Keywords:

discourse analysis, linguistics, lexical bundles, multi-word unites

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the production of multi-word units present in English argumentative texts written by non-native speakers of the language. The aim of this study is to examine the potential influence of the mother tongue on learners’ production of both correct and incorrect multi-word units that are typically used in English for creating textual cohesion: lexical bundles, in particular, linking adverbials. Several corpora will be used: non-native students from the ICLE Corpus, and the CEUNF, an original corpus of Spanish non-native students of English who study English as a subject outside their curriculum. These will be contrasted with two native corpora: the American university students corpus (LOCNESS) and the corpus of the professional editorialists writing in English (SPE). The taxonomy used has been taken from Biber (2004), Biber, Conrad and Cortes (2004) and Biber et al. (1999) for the linking lexical bundles. Results suggest that transfer of L1 multi-word units occurs very often in the learners’ production and that it plays an important role for both correct and incorrect textual cohesion. Teaching effect will also be considered as an important factor correlating with transfer.

Author Biography

  • Juan Pedro Rica Peromingo, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

    Dr. Juan Pedro Rica is an English teacher in the English Studies department and the Translation and Interpreting department at the Complutense University. His main research areas are corpus linguistics, phraseology and audiovisual translation English-Spanish. He holds a degree in English Studies by the UCM and a PhD in English Linguistics. He also holds a Master's degree on Teaching English as a Foreign Language by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA) and a Master's degree on Audiovisual Translation by the Autonoma University (UAB) in Barcelona (Spain). He is currently teaching in the English and Translation and Interpreting departments at the UCM and in the Master's degree on English Linguistics (UCM) and Audiovisual Translation (UAB).

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Published

2012-12-13

Issue

Section

Phraseology

How to Cite

Rica Peromingo, J. P. (2012). Corpus analysis and phraseology: Transfer of multi-word units. Linguistics and the Human Sciences, 6(1-3), 321-343. https://doi.org/10.1558/lhs.v6i1-3.321

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