Applying corpus pattern analysis to learner corpora: investigating the pedagogical potential of the pattern dictionary of English verbs

[摘要] This thesis contributes to research in learner corpora by offering a novel approach to their analysis. Specifically, it uses the concepts in the Pattern Dictionary of English Verbs (PDEV), that is, corpus pattern analysis (CPA), to describe selected learner corpora. The thesis analyses and compares the use of 16 verbs in two sections of the International Corpus of Learner English (ICLE; ICLE-Swedish and ICLE-Chinese) and in the native-speaker Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (LOCNESS) using the descriptions of those verbs presented in PDEV. The thesis demonstrates that the concepts in PDEV can be used successfully to describe the association between the patterns and meanings of verbs in both learner and native-speaker corpora to a degree that is not possible with other models. It argues that teachers can use PDEV to identify divergent patterns of verbs produced by their learners, and thus employ it as a tool for raising learners’ awareness, in the classroom, of conventional and divergent verb patterns. In addition, verb patterns that are under- or over-represented in the learner corpora when compared with the native-speaker corpus are identified and reasons for these phenomena are offered. Overall, the thesis concludes that the approach to verb patterning articulated in corpus pattern analysis is of value to teachers and learners because of the detailed attention it pays to meaning, but that some adjustments to PDEV will need to be made for it to be maximally useful to learners.

[发布机构] University:University of Birmingham;Department:School of English, Drama and American & Canadian Studies, Department of English Language and Linguistics

[关键词] P Language and Literature;P Philology. Linguistics