Formulaic Language in Academic Study

1. Formulaic Language in Academic Study Norbert Schmitt

2. Single Words vs. Multi-word Units • Most discussion of vocabulary (including academic vocabulary) has been conceptualized in terms of single words or word families

3. How Much Vocabulary is Needed in English? Nation (CMLR, 2006) 6,000 - 7,000 word families for spoken discourse 8,000 - 9,000 word families for written discourse

4. Frequency and Coverage Levels Approximate Approximate written spoken coverage (%) coverage (%) 1st 1,000 78–81 81–84 2nd 1,000 8–9 5–6 3rd 1,000 3–5 2–3 4th–5th 1,000 3 1.5–3 6th–9th 1,000 2 0.75–1 10th–14th 1,000 <1 0.5 Proper nouns 2–4 1–1.5 Not in the lists 1–3 1 Nation (2006)

5. capacity diverse evidence item assistance cooperate maintain purchase abstract funding invoke revise brief enormous integrity spherical focus investigation reverse successive hierarchy circumstance manual release hypothesis offset sum incentive rational scope minimum publication entity AWL (Coxhead, TQ 2000)

6. capacity diverse evidence item assistance cooperate maintain purchase abstract funding invoke revise brief enormous integrity spherical focus investigation reverse successive hierarchy circumstance manual release hypothesis offset sum incentive rational scope minimum publication entity AWL (Coxhead, TQ 2000)

7. Academic Vocabulary Successivecomes with its own typical phraseology What words collocate with successive?

8. COCA Results each successive successive generations successive governments successive administrations successive waves successive layers successive stages

9. Typical Collocations Each successive president chose entanglements and evasion over transparency, legality, and independence. Turning schools around could help save successive generations of kids who quit and often end up jobless.

10. Phraseology in Language There is a great deal of recurrent phraseology in language (including academic language) This ‘formulaic language’ is crucial for accurate, appropriate, and fluent language use

11. What is Formulaic Language? Recurrent multi-word lexical items that have a single meaning or function (Schmitt, 2010) It is a umbrella cover term for a number of formulaic categories Idioms Collocations Phrasal verbs Lexical bundles Lexical phrases Phrasal expressions etc

12. What is Formulaic Language? multi-word units, multiword chunks, fixed expressions, frozen phrases, phrasal vocabulary, routine formulas, chunks, prefabricated routines … Individual phrasal items will be referred to as a formulaic sequences

13. Why is Formulaic Language Important? • Formulaic language is one of the most important components of language overall • The reasons for this are numerous:

14. Why is Formulaic Language Important? • Formulaic language is ubiquitous in language use

15. Why is Formulaic Language Important? • Formulaic language is ubiquitous in language use • Meanings and functions are often realized by formulaic language

16. Why is Formulaic Language Important? • Formulaic language is ubiquitous in language use • Meanings and functions are often realized by formulaic language • Formulaic language is necessary for appropriate functional language use

17. Why is Formulaic Language Important? • Formulaic language is ubiquitous in language use • Meanings and functions are often realized by formulaic language • Formulaic language is necessary for appropriate functional language use • Formulaic language has processing advantages

18. Why is Formulaic Language Important? • Formulaic language is an important component of language acquisition

19. Why is Formulaic Language Important? • Formulaic language is an important component of language acquisition • Formulaic language is a feature of many languages

20. Why is Formulaic Language Important? • Formulaic language is an important component of language acquisition • Formulaic language is a feature of many languages • The use of formulaic language helps speakers be fluent

21. Why is Formulaic Language Important? • Formulaic language is an important component of language acquisition • Formulaic language is a feature of many languages • The use of formulaic language helps speakers be fluent • Phraseology is a main feature that distinguishes different synonyms

22. Ubiquitous in Language Use • 52-58% Erman and Warren (2000) • 32% Foster (2001) • 48-80% (M=66%) Oppenheim (2000) • once every five words Sorhus (1977) • 21% 30% Biber, et al. (1999) • 31% - 40% Howarth (1998) • 15% Rayson (2008)

23. Ubiquitous in Language Use • 52-58% Erman and Warren (2000): • 32% Foster (2001) • 48-80% (M=66%) Oppenheim (2000) • once every five words Sorhus (1977) • 21% 30% Biber, et al. (1999) • 31% - 40% Howarth (1998) • 15% Rayson (2008) • Figures depend on the method of measurement, and whether spoken vs. written discourse

24. Meanings and Functions • The more recurrent a language need is (e.g. need to apologize, make a request, explain a particular idea), the more likely there will be a conventionalized expression (i.e. formulaic language) to express it

25. Meanings and Functions • Expressing a concept: (get out of Dodge [City] = get out of town quickly, usually in uncomfortable circumstances) • Stating a commonly believed truth or advice: (Too many cooks spoil the soup = it is difficult to get a number of people to work well together) • Providing phatic expressions which facilitate social interaction: (Nice weather today is a non-intrusive way to open a conversation) • Signposting discourse organization: (on the other hand signals an alternative viewpoint)

26. Meanings and Functions • Providing technical phraseology which can transact information in a precise and efficient manner: (2-mile final is a specific location in an aircraft landing pattern) • Maintaining conversations: (How are you?, See you later) • Realizing the topics necessary in daily conversations: (When is X? (time), How far is X? (location)) • Expressing functions: I'm (very) sorry to hear about ___ to express sympathy

27. Appropriate Language Use • Formulaic language is expected by the speech community, and so word combinations which do not comply to the norm sound ‘unnatural’

28. Appropriate Language Use • gap Native speaker or learner? • Betty very skillfully stopped the gap of the mailbox so that birds could not get in. • … but to bridge the gap between existing …

29. Appropriate Language Use • Betty very skillfully stopped the gap of the mailbox so that birds could not get in. • Meaningful but awkward • … but to bridge the gap between existing • Appropriate word (collocation) choice

30. Appropriate Language Use • Schmitt (ELIA, 2005-2006) • Define border • How is it used?

31. Appropriate Language Use BNC frequency X + on Figurative sense border 8,011 89 (1%) borders 2,539 84 (3%) bordering 367 177 (48%) 71% bordered 356 99 (28%) 75%

32. Appropriate Language Use • His passion for self-improvement bordered on the pathological. • But his approach is unconscionable, bordering on criminal. • Some other words which occur to the right of bordered/ing on: a slump arrogance chaos a sulk austerity conspiracy alcoholic poisoning bad taste contempt antagonism blackmail cruelty apathy carelessness cynicism

33. Appropriate Language Use SOMETHING (is/are) bordered/bordering on SOMETHING UNPLEASANT

34. Processing Advantages Pawley and Syder (1983) • Formulaic sequences offer processing efficiency because single memorized units, even if made up of a sequence of words, are processed more quickly and easily than the same sequences of words which are generated creatively. • The mind uses an abundant resource (long term memory) to store a number of prefabricated chunks of language that can be used ‘ready made’ in language production. • This compensates for a limited resource (working memory), which can potentially be overloaded when generating language on-line from individual lexical items and syntactic/discourse rules.

35. Processing Advantages Figurative Personally, I think you can have the highest degree from the best university in the world, but at the end of the day it’s your contribution to the society that matters, and not the name of the university you went to at all. Literal However, I still had to carry most of my stuff in small boxes from my old room to the new one. I had to make at least 50 trips so at the end of the day I was absolutely exhausted. Novel I know that at the end of the war he went on to teach students at the Military Academy.

36. Processing Advantages Siyanova, Conklin, and Schmitt (SLR, 2011) First Pass Reading Time = 3 + 4 (early) Total Reading Time = 3 + 4 + 6 (late) Fixation Count = 3 + 4 + 6 (late)

37. Processing Advantages Siyanova, Conklin, and Schmitt Figurative Literal Novel First Pass Reading Time (ms) 447 454 497 Total Reading Time (ms) 514 507 628 Fixation Count 2.8 2.7 3.2

38. Processing Advantages Siyanova, Conklin, and Schmitt Figurative Literal Novel First Pass Reading Time (ms) 447 = 454 = 497 Total Reading Time (ms) 514 = 507 < 628 Fixation Count 2.8 = 2.7 < 3.2

39. Language Acquisition • Peters (1983) suggests that formulaic sequences may be decomposed and the individual components extracted through a process of segmentation, to give insights into vocabulary and grammar: An hour ago, a year ago, a month ago  A(n) _____ ago + hour, year, month

40. Occurs in a Range of Languages • Formulaic language has been found in a range of languages: English, Russian, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Swedish, Polish, Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, Greek, and Chinese • Is it a universal trait of all languages?

41. Helps Speakers be Fluent • The largest unit of novel discourse that native speakers are able to process is a single clause of 8-10 words • When speaking, proficient speakers will speed up and become fluent during these clauses • But they will then slow down or even pause at the end of these clauses • NS seldom pause in the middle of a clause, or at least not for long

42. Helps Speakers be Fluent • But proficient speakers can fluently say multi-clause utterances: - You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. • Kuiper (2004) shows that speakers who operate under severe time constraints (play-by-play sports announcers, auctioneers) use a great deal of formulaic language in their speech • So, formulaic language helps speakers be more fluent

43. Distinguishes Synonyms (Stubbs, 1994) How are the following (near) synonyms used? • WORK • JOB • CAREER • LABOR • EMPLOYMENT

44. Distinguishes Synonyms (Stubbs, 1994) WORK: workaholic, workforce, workload, workplace aid worker, factory worker, office worker, social worker

45. Distinguishes Synonyms (Stubbs, 1994) WORK: workaholic, workforce, workload, workplace aid worker, factory worker, office worker, social worker neutral? (frequent word = many contexts)

46. Distinguishes Synonyms (Stubbs, 1994) JOB: botched, crummy, bad, hatchet, menial

47. Distinguishes Synonyms (Stubbs, 1994) JOB: botched, crummy, bard, hatchet, menial negative?

48. Distinguishes Synonyms (Stubbs, 1994) CAREER: brilliant, distinguished, glittering, acting, director, film, international, literary

49. Distinguishes Synonyms (Stubbs, 1994) CAREER: brilliant, distinguished, glittering, acting, director, film, international, literary positive?

50. Distinguishes Synonyms (Stubbs, 1994) LABOR: casual, cheap, deskilling, manual, unproductive