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It-clefts in English L1 and L2 academic writing

The case of Norwegian learners

Abstract

This paper examines it-clefts in five corpora representing Norwegian learners of English, novice L1 writers of English and specialist L1 academic writing. The comparison also concerns general argumentative writing vs. discipline-specific writing. The frequency of it-clefts varies across the corpora. The learners underuse clefts, but the results of the register comparison are inconclusive. The types of clefted constituent and the choice of subordinator in the cleft clause vary more in L1 than in L2 writing. There are also differences as to the syntactic environments of clefts and their discourse functions. For example, the learners overuse clefts in interrogatives in argumentative writing. In discipline-specific writing, the learners underuse clefts in that-clauses, particularly with the function of reporting previous research.

Abstract

This paper examines it-clefts in five corpora representing Norwegian learners of English, novice L1 writers of English and specialist L1 academic writing. The comparison also concerns general argumentative writing vs. discipline-specific writing. The frequency of it-clefts varies across the corpora. The learners underuse clefts, but the results of the register comparison are inconclusive. The types of clefted constituent and the choice of subordinator in the cleft clause vary more in L1 than in L2 writing. There are also differences as to the syntactic environments of clefts and their discourse functions. For example, the learners overuse clefts in interrogatives in argumentative writing. In discipline-specific writing, the learners underuse clefts in that-clauses, particularly with the function of reporting previous research.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements vii
  4. List of contributors ix
  5. Interrogating corpora to describe grammatical patterns 1
  6. Part 1. Patterns in the verb phrase
  7. Light verb constructions in the history of English 15
  8. What happened to the English prefix, and could it stage a comeback? 35
  9. The pattern to be a-hunting from Middle to Late Modern English 57
  10. The present perfect and the preterite in Late Modern and Contemporary English 81
  11. can and be able to in nineteenth-century Irish English 105
  12. Part 2. Patterns in the noun phrase
  13. Syntactic constraints on the use of dual form intensifiers in Modern English 131
  14. Ma daddy wis dead chuffed 151
  15. The case of focus 173
  16. Part 3. Patterns in complementation structures
  17. Null objects and sentential complements, with evidence from the Corpus of Historical American English 209
  18. A new angle on infinitival and of - ing complements of afraid , with evidence from the TIME Corpus 223
  19. Active and passive infinitive, ambiguity and non-canonical subject with ready 239
  20. Part 4. Patterns of clause combining
  21. The diffusion of English absolutes 265
  22. It-clefts in English L1 and L2 academic writing 295
  23. The speech functions of tag questions and their properties. A comparison of their distribution in COLT and LLC 321
  24. Author index 351
  25. Subject index 355
Corpus Interrogation and Grammatical Patterns
This chapter is in the book Corpus Interrogation and Grammatical Patterns
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.63.20has

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements vii
  4. List of contributors ix
  5. Interrogating corpora to describe grammatical patterns 1
  6. Part 1. Patterns in the verb phrase
  7. Light verb constructions in the history of English 15
  8. What happened to the English prefix, and could it stage a comeback? 35
  9. The pattern to be a-hunting from Middle to Late Modern English 57
  10. The present perfect and the preterite in Late Modern and Contemporary English 81
  11. can and be able to in nineteenth-century Irish English 105
  12. Part 2. Patterns in the noun phrase
  13. Syntactic constraints on the use of dual form intensifiers in Modern English 131
  14. Ma daddy wis dead chuffed 151
  15. The case of focus 173
  16. Part 3. Patterns in complementation structures
  17. Null objects and sentential complements, with evidence from the Corpus of Historical American English 209
  18. A new angle on infinitival and of - ing complements of afraid , with evidence from the TIME Corpus 223
  19. Active and passive infinitive, ambiguity and non-canonical subject with ready 239
  20. Part 4. Patterns of clause combining
  21. The diffusion of English absolutes 265
  22. It-clefts in English L1 and L2 academic writing 295
  23. The speech functions of tag questions and their properties. A comparison of their distribution in COLT and LLC 321
  24. Author index 351
  25. Subject index 355
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