linking adverbials in english

190 Pages·2014·3.74 MB·English

LINKING ADVERBIALS IN ENGLISH

by

Yin Zihan

A thesis
submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington
in fulfilment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in Applied Linguistics

Victoria University of Wellington

2014
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ABSTRACT

Linking adverbials play an important role in textual cohesion. Applied linguistic studies (e.g.
Altenberg & Tapper, 1998; Bolton, Nelson, & Hung, 2002; Chen, 2006) have shown that
second language learners have difficulty in using linking adverbials appropriately. Biber,
Johansson, Leech, Conrad, and Finegan (1999) is to date the only corpus-based reference
grammar book which covers all three aspects of usage patterns of linking adverbials, i.e.,
form, meaning and position. But as the book provides a very comprehensive grammar, there
is not room for a detailed account of all three aspects of usage patterns of a small grammar
category such as linking adverbials. Also, the previous literature does not agree upon the
terms used to refer to linking adverbials and the linguistic elements referred to by linking
adverbials and other related terms.
This two-stage study examined research questions of what linking adverbials are and how
they are used in different registers using both a qualitative and quantitative approach. In
Stage I, a random sample of 67 texts of a total of over 100,000 words from the Wellington
Corpora of Written and Spoken New Zealand English (WWC and WSC) were manually
analysed, which provided coverage of the target five registers of written academic prose,
academic lectures, conversation, written news and broadcast news. In Stage II, the most
frequent linking adverbials identified in written registers in Stage I were automatically
searched in larger corpora, i.e., the whole WWC, BNC and COCA. The intonation unit was
adopted as the analysis unit for spoken data and sound files were needed in deciding
intonation units. Thus, automatic search for patterns in spoken data was not viable in Stage II.
This study suggests a new definition of linking adverbials and explains the difference
between linking adverbials and conjunctions. This study then provides a detailed account of
usage patterns of not only the form, meaning and position of linking adverbials but also
patterns of types of each form, meaning and position in five registers. Such usage patterns
are compared and explained among different written and spoken registers and in different
social settings. It is worth noting that a register-specific meaning categorization system and a
semantic-pragmatic continuum are suggested in this study. The aforementioned findings
contribute to theories of the nature of linking adverbials, and have implications for second
language learning and teaching in EAP and ESP contexts and future corpus-based
pedagogical grammar studies.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deep gratitude to:
My current supervisors, Dr Elaine Vine and Dr Jean Parkinson, and my previous
supervisor, Professor Paul Nation, for their constant encouragement, care and support,
and supervision of the research;
Dr Meredith Marra for her guidance into this concise linguistic writing style during
my M.A. study;
Dr Stuart Webb for his valuable time for coffee breaks when procrastinating.

I would like to thank New Zealand, this piece of peaceful land, for giving me a very
enjoyable, pure experience of the nature. I will cherish my memories of this romantic,
touching, remote island country.

Finally, I would like to thank my family for their love and moral support.

I authorise Victoria University of Wellington to lend this thesis to other institutions or
individuals for the purpose of scholarly research.

Yin Zihan

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... v
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................ xi
LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... xv
Chapter 1 Introduction...................................................................................................... 1
Chapter 2 Literature review .............................................................................................. 5
2.1 Why is the study of linking adverbials important?................................................................ 5
2.1.1 Cohesion and Coherence ...................................................................................................................... 5
2.1.2 Second language learners’ difficulty in using linking adverbials ........................................................... 6
2.2 What is a linking adverbial? .............................................................................................. 10
2.2.1 Terms for linking adverbials ............................................................................................................... 10
2.2.2 Definition of linking adverbials ........................................................................................................... 12
2.3 Usage patterns of linking adverbials .................................................................................. 14
2.3.1 Reference grammar books on linking adverbials ................................................................................ 14
2.3.2 Register-specific account of linking adverbials ................................................................................... 23
Chapter 3 Methodology .................................................................................................. 27
3.1 Research design ................................................................................................................ 27
3.2 Data sources in this study ................................................................................................. 28
3.2.1 Wellington Corpora of New Zealand Spoken and Written English (WWC & WSC) ............................. 28
3.2.2 British National Corpus and Corpus of Contemporary American English ........................................... 32
3.3 Data analysis in this study ................................................................................................. 32
3.3.1 Manual analysis of WWC and WSC samples ....................................................................................... 32
3.3.2 Automatic software and web-based corpora search .......................................................................... 36
3.3.3 Log-likelihood statistics ....................................................................................................................... 39
Chapter 4 What is a linking adverbial? .......................................................................... 41
4.1 Definition of linking adverbials .......................................................................................... 41
4.1.1 Definition ............................................................................................................................................ 41
4.1.2 Key components of the definition of linking adverbials ..................................................................... 41
4.2 Difference between linking adverbials and conjunctions .................................................... 48
4.2.1 Understanding the difference between linking adverbials and conjunctions .................................... 48
4.2.2 And -- linking adverbial or coordinator ............................................................................................... 51
4.3 Differences from other adverbial categories ...................................................................... 62
4.3.1 Difference between linking adverbials and circumstance adverbials ................................................. 62
4.3.2 Difference between linking adverbials and stance adverbials ............................................................ 63
4.4 Frequency of linking adverbials in the five registers ........................................................... 64
4.4.1 Overview of frequency of linking adverbials in the WWC & WSC samples ........................................ 64
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Chapter 5 Form of linking adverbials ............................................................................... 69
5.1 Syntactic forms of linking adverbials ................................................................................. 69
5.2 Frequency of form of linking adverbials in different registers ............................................. 70
5.2.1 Overview of form of linking adverbials in WWC and WSC samples .................................................... 70
5.2.2 Form of linking adverbials in WWC samples ....................................................................................... 73
5.2.3 Form of linking adverbials in WSC samples ........................................................................................ 74
5.2.4 Form of linking adverbials in academic settings ................................................................................. 75
5.2.5 Form of linking adverbials in news settings ........................................................................................ 76
5.3 Types of form of linking adverbials in different registers .................................................... 76
5.3.1 Types of each form in WWC and WSC samples .................................................................................. 77
5.3.2 Types of each form in WWC samples ................................................................................................. 80
5.2.3 Types of each form in WSC samples ................................................................................................... 83
5.3.4 Types of each form in academic settings ............................................................................................ 84
5.3.5 Types of each form in news settings ................................................................................................... 86
Chapter 6 Meaning of linking adverbials ......................................................................... 89
6.1 Meaning categorizations of linking adverbials ................................................................... 89
6.1.1 Overview of meaning categories in WWC and WSC samples ............................................................. 89
6.1.2 Features of register-specific meaning categorization system............................................................. 91
6.1.3 Register-specific meaning categorization system ............................................................................... 98
6.2 Semantic-pragmatic continuum ...................................................................................... 103
6.3 Meanings of so ............................................................................................................... 107
6.3.1 Overview of frequency of linking adverbial so in different registers ................................................ 108
6.3.2 Overview of meanings of so in the five registers .............................................................................. 110
6.3.3 Meanings of so in spoken registers ................................................................................................... 112
6.3.4 Meanings of so in written registers .................................................................................................. 112
6.3.5 Meanings of so in academic settings ................................................................................................ 113
6.3.6 Meanings of so in news settings ....................................................................................................... 114
6.3.7 Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 114
6.4 Frequency of the meanings of linking adverbials ..................................................... 115
6.4.1 Frequency of meanings of linking adverbials in five registers .......................................................... 115
6.4.2 Frequency patterns of the meanings of linking adverbials in written registers ............................... 119
6.4.3 Frequency patterns of the meanings of linking adverbials in spoken registers ................................ 121
6.4.4 Frequency patterns of the meanings of linking adverbials in academic settings ............................. 125
6.4.5 Frequency patterns of the meanings of linking adverbials in news settings .................................... 126
Chapter 7 Position of linking adverbials ........................................................................ 129
7.1 Where do linking adverbials occur? ................................................................................. 129
7.2 Register-specific frequency of the position of linking adverbials ....................................... 131
7.2.1 Frequency patterns of positions in five registers .............................................................................. 131
7.2.2 Positions of linking adverbials in WWC samples ............................................................................... 132
7.2.3 Positions of linking adverbials in WSC samples ................................................................................ 136
7.2.4 Positions of linking adverbials in academic settings ......................................................................... 144
7.2.5 Positions of linking adverbials in news settings ................................................................................ 147
7.3 Do certain linking adverbials occur only in a certain position? .......................................... 149
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Chapter 8 Summary and Implications ............................................................................ 155
8.1 Summary of findings ....................................................................................................... 155
8.1.1 Summary of findings for research question 1 ................................................................................... 155
8.1.2 Summary of findings for research question 2 ................................................................................... 156
8.2 Implications .................................................................................................................... 164
8.2.1 Contribution to our understanding of English grammar ................................................................... 164
8.2.2 Guidelines for future ESP and EAP teaching ..................................................................................... 164
8.2.3 Limitations of this study .................................................................................................................... 167
8.2.4 Future research directions ................................................................................................................ 168
References.................................................................................................................... 171

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