VOCABULARY INCREASE AND COLLOCATION LEARNING

217 Pages·2015·1.52 MB·English

VOCABULARY INCREASE AND COLLOCATION LEARNING:
ACORPUS-BASED CROSS-SECTIONALSTUDYOF CHINESE
EFLLEARNERS
HAIYAN MEN
AThesis Submitted to Birmingham City University
in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
March 2015
The Faculty ofArts, Design and Media
Acknowledgements
I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all those who have directed me into the field of
Englishlinguistics andprovided me withsomuch guidance andencouragement throughout the period
ofmydoctoralstudy.
Firstandforemost,mydeepestgratitudegoestomysupervisor,ProfessorRichardIngham,whose
rigorous academic training, thought-provoking guidance, and invaluable spur in various viewpoints
havealwaysbeentreasuresformeinthewritingprocessandbeyond.Iwouldalsoliketothankhimfor
his endless patience in revisingthe draft chapters, and myconference abstracts. Apart frombeing my
supervisor, he is also a wonderful mentor. I have also benefited much from him for his humour and
uniquewaysofthinking.Thankstohisvaluableinstructionandwarmsupport,Iamabletopursuethis
doctoralstudyandaccomplishitintime.
Iamverymuchindebtedtotwoothersupervisors,Dr.UrsulaLutzkyandProf.AntoinetteRenouf,
fortheirvaluablecommentsandassistance,andfortheirconscientiousproofreadingofthedrafts.
IamparticularlygratefultoProf.YangHuizhongfornotonlyhislivelyandstimulatinginstruction
throughoutmyMAstudy,butalsoforhiscontinuousmonitoringandconstantcriticalcommentsonmy
doctoral thesis. I also owe my debt to him for his constant care of both my academic study and life
overseas.
At an institutional level my thanks are due to Shanghai Sanda University for providing financial
supportforthisdoctoralstudy,andforprovidingfundsformetoattendconferencesofthisfield.
Finally,mygratitudeisreservedformyparentsandfriends.Specialthanksaregiventomyfiancé
andnowhusband,Mr.WangShuaiforhisunselfishhelpandunfailingsupport.
Thoughimmensehelphasbeenreceivedfromthosewhosecontributionshavebeenacknowledged
above,ItakesoleresponsibilityforanyerrorsandfailingsIhavenotbeenabletocorrect.
I
Abstract
Collocation learning has long been recognised as aproblematicdomainforeven high-level learners
and acknowledged to lag far behind acquisition of other SLA aspects. This thesis explores the role of
vocabulary growth in the learning of L2 collocations. It addresses the relationship between vocabulary
increase and L2 collocation learning, aiming to identify whether increasing lexemes in a syn(onym)set
(Fellbaum,1998)isthemainfactorresponsible.Acorpus-basedcross-sectionalstudywasundertakenon
Chinese EFL learners’writtenproductionof threetypes of collocations: verb+ nouncollocations (the
main research target), adjective + noun and noun + noun collocations. Lexical verbs in verb + noun
collocations were classified into synsets and analyses were performed on collocations within these
synsets.
ItfindsalaginL2learners’verb+nouncollocationalknowledgewith risingproficiency.Thislag
in collocational knowledge was found to be associated with an increase in lexical verbs learnt at higher
levels. Collocationerrorswereseldommadewheretherewasnoincreaseinverbsynsets.However,for
synsets in which there was a verb increase, collocation errors involving new verbs were significantly
morelikelythanerrorswitholdverbs.Theoccurrenceofcollocationerrorsbecameincreasinglylimitedto
synsetswithaverbincreaseaslearnersproceededtomoreadvancedlevels.Analternativeexplanationwas
attempted to see if newly acquired nouns were also a factor responsible for the collocation lag. Results
showed that in the majority of new nouns produced by higher levels of learners, collocations were
target-like,andthepercentagesofnewnounsinerroneousverb+nouncollocationsremainedconstantat
bothhigherlevels.
Incontrast,itfindsanimprovementinL2learners’knowledgeofadjective+nounandnoun+noun
collocations. The thesis attempted to account for such differing performance from the perspective of
vocabulary growth within synsets. The decreasing synonym density of verbs, adjectives and nouns may
account for the relatively poorer performance on verb + noun collocations, and better performance on
adjective + noun and noun + noun collocations. These findings are discussed with a view to a clearer
understandingoftheprocessofsecondlanguagecollocationlearning,andtopedagogicalimplications.
II
Abbreviations
Corpora:
BNC BritishNationalCorpus
CLEC ChineseLearnerEnglishCorpus
ICLE InternationalCorpusofLearnerEnglish
Dictionaries:
Bilingualdictionaries:
NCCED NewCenturyChinese-EnglishDictionary
OALECD Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary (7th
Edition)
Englishdictionaries:
BBI The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English: Your Guide to
CollocationsandGrammar(3rdEdition)
EVCA EnglishVerbClassesandAlternations
OCDSE Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Students of English (2nd
Edition)
ODSA OxfordDictionaryofSynonymsandAntonyms
COBUILD CollinsCOBUILDEnglishDictionary(2ndEdition)
Chinesedictionaries:
CCD ContemporaryChineseDictionary(5thEdition)
Otherabbreviations:
AN adjective+noun
DeLexVN delexicalverb+noun
EFL Englishasaforeignlanguage
ELT Englishlanguageteaching
ESL Englishasasecondlanguage
FL foreignlanguage
FLT foreignlanguageteaching
L1 firstlanguage/mothertongue
L2 secondlanguage/foreign/targetlanguage
LexVN lexicalverb+noun
NN noun+noun
NNSs non-nativespeakers
NSs nativespeakers
POS PartofSpeech
SL secondlanguage
SLA secondlanguageacquisition
VN verb+noun
III
Contents
ListofTables....................................................................................................................................VIII
ListofFigures......................................................................................................................................X
Chapter1:Introduction.........................................................................................................................1
1.0Generalbackground................................................................................................................1
1.1Aimsofthethesis....................................................................................................................3
1.2Theshapeofthethesis............................................................................................................7
Chapter2:Literaturereview(1):Thenotionofcollocation.................................................................9
2.0Introduction.............................................................................................................................9
2.1Theimportanceofcollocation.................................................................................................9
2.1.1Thepervasivenessofphraseologicaltendency.............................................................9
2.1.2TheimportanceofcollocationforL2learners...........................................................12
2.1.3Summary....................................................................................................................13
2.2Thenotionofcollocation.......................................................................................................14
2.2.1Collocationpreviouslyapproached............................................................................14
2.2.1.1Thepsychologicalapproach............................................................................15
2.2.1.2TheFirthianapproach......................................................................................17
2.2.1.3Thephraseologicalapproach...........................................................................21
2.2.2Collocationdefinedinthisstudy................................................................................27
2.2.3Collocationsclassifiedinthisstudy...........................................................................30
2.2.4Summary....................................................................................................................33
Chapter3:Literaturereview(2):CollocationstudiesinsecondlanguagelearnerEnglish................34
3.0Introduction...........................................................................................................................34
3.1MethodologiesadoptedinL2collocationstudies.................................................................34
3.1.1Elicitationdata-basedcollocationstudies..................................................................35
3.1.2Spontaneousdata-basedcollocationstudies...............................................................39
3.2PreviousfindingsfromL2collocationresearch....................................................................42
3.2.1Formsofcollocationdeficiency:overuse,underuseandmisuse...............................43
3.2.1.1Overuseandunderuse......................................................................................43
3.2.1.2Collocationmisuse..........................................................................................45
3.2.2Theroleoflearners’L1..............................................................................................47
3.2.2.1L1influenceintermsofL1-inducedinappropriatecollocationuses..............47
3.2.2.2TheroleofL1intermsofL1andL2collocation(non)congruence...............48
3.2.3Collocationlag...........................................................................................................53
3.3Summary...............................................................................................................................56
Chapter4:Researchdesign.................................................................................................................57
4.0Introduction...........................................................................................................................57
4.1Researchpurposeandquestions............................................................................................57
4.2Theselectionofverb+noun,adjective+nounandnoun+nouncollocations....................59
4.3Thelearnercorpus–CLEC...................................................................................................60
IV
4.4Collocationdictionariesforreference...................................................................................63
4.5Thereferencecorpus–BNC.................................................................................................64
4.6Softwareforretrievalandanalysis........................................................................................65
4.7Procedure...............................................................................................................................66
4.7.1Taggingandreliabilitycheck.....................................................................................66
4.7.1.1POSTagging....................................................................................................66
4.7.1.2Reliabilitycheck..............................................................................................67
4.7.2Investigationofverb+nouncollocations..................................................................68
4.7.3Investigationofadjective+nounandnoun+nouncollocations...............................73
4.8Summary...............................................................................................................................74
Chapter5:Verbincreaseandtheproductionofverb+nouncollocations(1)....................................75
5.0Introduction...........................................................................................................................75
5.1Overallanalyses(1):generalpatternsofVNcollocationsproduced byL2learners............75
5.1.1Overalltokensofcollocations....................................................................................75
5.1.2Overalltypesofcollocationsandcollocationfrequencydistribution........................77
5.1.3Collocationmisuses....................................................................................................82
5.1.4SynopsisofOverallanalyses(1)................................................................................85
5.2Overallanalyses(2):between-groupcomparisonsofdelexicalandlexicalVNcollocations86
5.2.1Between-groupcomparisonsofwell-formedDeLexVNandLexVNcollocations....88
5.2.2Between-groupcomparisonsoferroneousDeLexVNandLexVNcollocations........90
5.2.3SynopsisofOverallanalyses(2)................................................................................92
5.3Overallanalyses(3):verbgrowthandcollocationerrors......................................................93
5.4Synopsisoftheoverallanalysesofverb+nouncollocations...............................................95
Chapter6:Verbincreaseandtheproductionofverb+nouncollocations(2)....................................98
6.0Introduction...........................................................................................................................98
6.1Detailedanalyses–verbincreaseandcollocationuses........................................................98
6.1.1AnalysisofVNcollocationswithinsynsetsidentifiedattheST2andST6levels...101
6.1.2 Analysis of VN collocations within synsets identified at the ST2, ST5 and ST6 levels
...........................................................................................................................................106
6.2Synopsisofdetailedanalysesofverbincreaseandcollocationuses...................................111
6.3Analternativeexplanation:newnounsandcollocationuses..............................................113
Chapter7:L2learners’performanceonadjective+nounandnoun+nouncollocations................122
7.0Introduction.........................................................................................................................122
7.1Analysesofadjective+nouncollocations..........................................................................122
7.2Analysesofnoun+nouncollocations.................................................................................124
7.3Synopsisoftheanalysesofadjective+nounandnoun+nouncollocations......................128
Chapter 8: Comparison and interpretation of learners’performance on the three types of collocations
...........................................................................................................................................................129
8.0Introduction.........................................................................................................................129
8.1Collocationerrorsinthethreetypesofcollocations...........................................................129
8.2Vocabularygrowthandcollocationerrors...........................................................................131
V
8.3Synsetsandcollocationproduction.....................................................................................133
8.4Synopsisofthefindingsinthischapter...............................................................................138
Chapter9:TheroleofL1incollocationlearning.............................................................................139
9.0Introduction.........................................................................................................................139
9.1Thenotionofcongruence....................................................................................................140
9.2 Within-group comparison of well-formed and erroneous congruent and non-congruent VN
collocations................................................................................................................................143
9.3 Between-group comparison of the well-formed and erroneous congruent and non-congruent
VNcollocations.........................................................................................................................148
9.4Within-groupcomparisonofpositiveandnegativeL1influencewithVNandANcollocations
...................................................................................................................................................153
9.5Synopsisoffindingsinthischapter.....................................................................................156
Chapter10:Summaryandconclusions.............................................................................................158
10.1Summary...........................................................................................................................158
10.2Implications.......................................................................................................................163
10.2.1Theoreticalimplications.........................................................................................163
10.2.1.1ImplicationsforlexicalorganisationintheL2mentallexicon...................163
10.2.1.2Implicationsforcross-linguisticinfluenceinL2collocationlearning........165
10.2.2Pedagogicalimplications........................................................................................169
10.2.2.1Acquisitionofverbsemantics.....................................................................169
10.2.2.2Consciousness-raising.................................................................................172
10.3Limitationsandwaysforward...........................................................................................174
References.........................................................................................................................................177
Appendices
AppendixIErroneousVNcollocationsproducedbythethreelevelsoflearners(types).........190
AppendixIIWell-formedanderroneousVNcollocationsinthe16synsets(ST2)..................191
AppendixIIIWell-formedanderroneousVNcollocationsinthe16synsets(ST6).................193
Appendix IV Frequencies of well-formed and erroneous VN collocation types in the 16 synsets
(ST2andST6)...................................................................................................................197
AppendixVWell-formedanderroneousVNcollocationsinthe16synsets(ST5)..................198
Appendix VI Frequencies of well-formed and erroneous VN collocation types in the 16 synsets
(ST2,ST5andST6)...........................................................................................................200
AppendixVIIAdjectivescategoriesintheST2andST6ANcollocationdatabases................201
Appendix VIII Well-formed and erroneous congruent and non-congruent collocations in the ST6
(types)................................................................................................................................202
Appendix IX Well-formed congruent and non-congruent VN collocations in the ST2 and ST6
(types)................................................................................................................................203
AppendixXErroneouscongruentandnon-congruentVNcollocationsintheST2andST6(types)
...........................................................................................................................................204
Appendix XI Positive and negative transfer between VN and AN collocations in the ST2 (types)
...........................................................................................................................................205
VI
AppendixXIIPositive andnegative transfer betweenVN andAN collocations in theST6(types)
...........................................................................................................................................206
VII
List of Tables
Table2-1ClassificationsofEnglishwordcombinations............................................................21
Table2-2Howarth’scategorisationofcollocationsintofivelevelsofrestrictedness.................25
Table2-3Previousdefinitionsofcollocationsandcriteriaadopted............................................28
Table2-4Aframeworkfordemarcatingcollocations.................................................................30
Table2-5ClassificationsoflexicalcollocationsbyBensonetal.(2010)...................................32
Table4-1Abriefsummaryofthedesignofthestudy.................................................................74
Table5-1VNcollocationsdividedintothreefrequencygroups.................................................78
Table5-2Well-formedanderroneousVNcollocationsinthethreelevelsoflearners(types)...83
Table5-3Well-formedanderroneousVNcollocationsinthethreelevelsoflearners(tokens).87
Table5-4Well-formedVNcollocationsproducedbythethreelevelsoflearners(tokens)........89
Table5-5Well-formedVNcollocationsproducedbythethreelevelsoflearners(types)..........90
Table5-6ErroneousVNcollocationsproducedbythethreelevelsoflearners(tokens)............91
Table5-7Growthratesoflemmatisedverbs,nounsandLexVNcollocations...........................94
Table6-1SynsetsoccurringbothinST2andST6VNcollocationdatabases..........................100
Table 6-2 Frequency of well-formed and erroneous VN collocations in the 16 verb synsets (ST2
andST6)............................................................................................................................102
Table6-3VNcollocationproductioninvolvingoldandnewverbsattheST6level................104
Table6-4CollocationusesinvolvingoldverbsandnewverbsattheST6level......................105
Table6-5VerbsynsetsclassifiedfromST2,ST5andST6VNcollocationdatabases..............107
Table6-6Well-formedanderroneousVNcollocationsinthe16verbsynsets(ST2,ST5andST6)
...........................................................................................................................................108
Table6-7ProportionsofVNcollocationerrorsassociatedwiththe12synsetswithaverbincrease
...........................................................................................................................................109
Table 6-8 New nouns and old nouns in ST6 VN collocations (new nouns as compared with ST2)
...........................................................................................................................................115
Table 6-9 18 new nouns in ST6 erroneous VN collocations and their verb collocates (new nouns
ascomparedwithST2)......................................................................................................116
Table6-10NewandoldnounsinST6VNcollocations(newnounsascomparedwithST5)..119
Table6-11NewandoldnounsinST5VNcollocations(newnounsascomparedwithST2)..119
Table6-12NewnounsinST6VNerroneouscollocations andtheirverbcollocates (new nounsas
comparedwithST5)..........................................................................................................120
Table6-13NewnounsinST5VNerroneouscollocations andtheirverbcollocates (new nounsas
comparedwithST2)..........................................................................................................120
Table7-1ANcollocationsproducedbyST2andST6learners(tokens)..................................123
Table7-2ANcollocationsproducedbyST2andST6learners(types)....................................123
Table7-3Noun+nouncolligationerrorsproducedbyST2andST6learners.........................125
Table7-4Colligationandnon-colligationNNerrorsintheST2andST6levels(tokens).......126
Table7-5Colligationandnon-colligationNNerrorsintheST2andST6levels(types).........126
VIII
Table7-6Noun+nouncollocationsintheST2andST6levels(tokens).................................127
Table7-7Noun+nouncollocationsintheST2andST6levels(types)...................................127
Table8-1ErrorratiosofVN,AN,andNNcollocationsproducedbyST2andST6learners...129
Table8-2Growthratesofadjectives,nounsandcollocationerrors..........................................131
Table8-3Numbersofwords,synsetsandsensesinWordNet..................................................134
Table8-4Selectedwordsinthelearnerdatabasesandthenumberofsynonyms.....................137
Table9-1Well-formedanderroneouscongruentandnon-congruentcollocationsintheST2(tokens)
...........................................................................................................................................144
Table9-2Well-formedanderroneouscongruentandnon-congruentcollocationsintheST2(types)
...........................................................................................................................................144
Table 9-3 Well-formed and erroneous congruent and non-congruent collocations in the ST6
(tokens)..............................................................................................................................145
Table9-4Erroneouscongruentcollocationsattributableto‘differentiation’............................147
Table9-5Erroneouscongruentcollocationsattributableto‘coalescing’.................................147
Table 9-6 Well-formed congruent and non-congruent VN collocations in ST2 and ST6 (tokens)
...........................................................................................................................................148
Table9-7Erroneouscongruentandnon-congruentVNcollocationsinST2andST6(tokens)149
Table9-8Transferandnon-transferVNcollocationerrorsproducedbyST2andST6learners154
Table9-9PositiveandnegativetransferinVNandANcollocationsintheST2(tokens)........155
Table9-10PositiveandnegativetransferinVNandANcollocationsintheST6(tokens)......155
IX