Marked themes in advanced learner English
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Sylvi Rørvik
Abstract
This chapter investigates the use of marked themes in argumentative texts written by advanced Norwegian learners of English. The learner texts, taken from the Norwegian component of the International Corpus of Learner English, are compared with expert and novice L1 material in English and Norwegian, following the procedure of the Integrated Contrastive Model (Granger 1996). The results show that Norwegian learners underuse marked themes as compared to expert native speakers of English. Further, the learners overuse adverbials as marked themes, and underuse complements. This is partly the result of an underuse of quoted speech in thematic position. The Norwegian learners thus have not mastered the discourse conventions of English when it comes to the use of marked themes, but this is not due to transfer from Norwegian. Developmental factors are shown to be a more important factor influencing the learners.
Abstract
This chapter investigates the use of marked themes in argumentative texts written by advanced Norwegian learners of English. The learner texts, taken from the Norwegian component of the International Corpus of Learner English, are compared with expert and novice L1 material in English and Norwegian, following the procedure of the Integrated Contrastive Model (Granger 1996). The results show that Norwegian learners underuse marked themes as compared to expert native speakers of English. Further, the learners overuse adverbials as marked themes, and underuse complements. This is partly the result of an underuse of quoted speech in thematic position. The Norwegian learners thus have not mastered the discourse conventions of English when it comes to the use of marked themes, but this is not due to transfer from Norwegian. Developmental factors are shown to be a more important factor influencing the learners.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
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Part I: Discourse contexts and cultures
- Patterns of discursive urban place-making in Brooklyn, New York 13
- The English of current Caribbean newspapers 43
- Corporate identity and its variation over time 75
- Applying Geographical Information Systems to researching historical corpora 109
- Corpus linguistics: Widening the remit 137
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Part II: Contexts of lexis and grammar
- Family collocation 165
- Factors influencing the translation of -ing participial free adjuncts 197
- The diachronic productivity of native combining forms in American English 223
- Advise against -ing: An emerging class of exceptions to Bach’s Generalization 253
- Subjective progressives in the history of American English 275
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Part III: Learner contexts
- A syntactic analysis of the introductory it pattern in non-native-speaker and nativespeaker student writing 307
- Phraseological teddy bears 339
- “Dear Man men and women madam, dear xxx sir” 363
- Marked themes in advanced learner English 387
- Phrasal verbs in the spoken and written modes of Norwegian L2 learner English 409
- Conversational gesture corpus analysis 437
- Corpus research for SLA 467
- List of contributors 483
- Index 487
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: Discourse contexts and cultures
- Patterns of discursive urban place-making in Brooklyn, New York 13
- The English of current Caribbean newspapers 43
- Corporate identity and its variation over time 75
- Applying Geographical Information Systems to researching historical corpora 109
- Corpus linguistics: Widening the remit 137
-
Part II: Contexts of lexis and grammar
- Family collocation 165
- Factors influencing the translation of -ing participial free adjuncts 197
- The diachronic productivity of native combining forms in American English 223
- Advise against -ing: An emerging class of exceptions to Bach’s Generalization 253
- Subjective progressives in the history of American English 275
-
Part III: Learner contexts
- A syntactic analysis of the introductory it pattern in non-native-speaker and nativespeaker student writing 307
- Phraseological teddy bears 339
- “Dear Man men and women madam, dear xxx sir” 363
- Marked themes in advanced learner English 387
- Phrasal verbs in the spoken and written modes of Norwegian L2 learner English 409
- Conversational gesture corpus analysis 437
- Corpus research for SLA 467
- List of contributors 483
- Index 487
