Contrasting English-Spanish interpersonal discourse phrases: A corpus study
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JoAnne Neff
Abstract
This chapter presents the results of a contrastive study of interactional phrases (discourse strategies intended to actively engage the reader in the argumentation process) as used by novice and expert writers of argumentative texts of both English and Spanish. The novice writer texts, those produced by Spanish EFL and American university writers, were compared to expert Anglo writers’ texts, opinion editorial articles. The Spanish editorials were used to trace the transfer of interactional patterns in the Spanish EFL texts. The phrases searched for in the various corpora consisted of the following types of interpersonal expressions: certainty markers, attitudinal markers and those constructions which are used for the presentation of evaluations in argumentation (adverbial phrases, such as clearly, certainly, etc.; it + adjective phrases: it is possible,un/likely + that/to; it is necessary, clear, certain, obvious, true, etc., + to/that; and, the transfer of the se passive impersonal construction from Spanish to the EFL texts). The results show that the interactional phrases used by Spanish EFL students in comparison with those used by the other three groups are influenced by incomplete mastery of the modal system, choice of adjectival lexical phrases and transfer of the reflexive passive impersonal construction from Spanish.
Abstract
This chapter presents the results of a contrastive study of interactional phrases (discourse strategies intended to actively engage the reader in the argumentation process) as used by novice and expert writers of argumentative texts of both English and Spanish. The novice writer texts, those produced by Spanish EFL and American university writers, were compared to expert Anglo writers’ texts, opinion editorial articles. The Spanish editorials were used to trace the transfer of interactional patterns in the Spanish EFL texts. The phrases searched for in the various corpora consisted of the following types of interpersonal expressions: certainty markers, attitudinal markers and those constructions which are used for the presentation of evaluations in argumentation (adverbial phrases, such as clearly, certainly, etc.; it + adjective phrases: it is possible,un/likely + that/to; it is necessary, clear, certain, obvious, true, etc., + to/that; and, the transfer of the se passive impersonal construction from Spanish to the EFL texts). The results show that the interactional phrases used by Spanish EFL students in comparison with those used by the other three groups are influenced by incomplete mastery of the modal system, choice of adjectival lexical phrases and transfer of the reflexive passive impersonal construction from Spanish.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xi
- Phraseology: The periphery and the heart of language 1
- Introduction 15
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Section I. Extracting and describing phraseological units
- Phraseology and language pedagogy: Semantic preference associated with English verbs in the British National Corpus 21
- Essential collocations for learners of English: The role of collocational direction and weight 43
- Phraseology effects as a trigger for errors in L2 English: The case of more advanced learners 67
- Contrasting English-Spanish interpersonal discourse phrases: A corpus study 85
- Exemplification in learner writing: A cross-linguistic perspective 101
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Section II. Learning phraseological units
- Why can't you just leave it alone? Deviations from memorized language as a gauge of nativelike competence 123
- Phraseology and English for academic purposes: Challenges and opportunities 149
- Multiword expressions and the digital turn 163
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Section III. Recording and exploiting phraseological units
- Phraseology in learners' dictionaries: What, where and how? 185
- Compilation, formalisation and presentation of bilingual phraseology: Problems and possible solutions 203
- The phraseological patterns of high-frequency verbs in advanced English for general purposes: A corpus-driven approach to EFL textbook analysis 223
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Section IV. Concluding remarks
- Phraseology in language learning and teaching: Where to from here? 247
- Author index 253
- Subject index 257
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xi
- Phraseology: The periphery and the heart of language 1
- Introduction 15
-
Section I. Extracting and describing phraseological units
- Phraseology and language pedagogy: Semantic preference associated with English verbs in the British National Corpus 21
- Essential collocations for learners of English: The role of collocational direction and weight 43
- Phraseology effects as a trigger for errors in L2 English: The case of more advanced learners 67
- Contrasting English-Spanish interpersonal discourse phrases: A corpus study 85
- Exemplification in learner writing: A cross-linguistic perspective 101
-
Section II. Learning phraseological units
- Why can't you just leave it alone? Deviations from memorized language as a gauge of nativelike competence 123
- Phraseology and English for academic purposes: Challenges and opportunities 149
- Multiword expressions and the digital turn 163
-
Section III. Recording and exploiting phraseological units
- Phraseology in learners' dictionaries: What, where and how? 185
- Compilation, formalisation and presentation of bilingual phraseology: Problems and possible solutions 203
- The phraseological patterns of high-frequency verbs in advanced English for general purposes: A corpus-driven approach to EFL textbook analysis 223
-
Section IV. Concluding remarks
- Phraseology in language learning and teaching: Where to from here? 247
- Author index 253
- Subject index 257
