1 And yeah, it was really good! Positive stance in native and learner speech Sylive De Cock Centre for English Corpus Linguistics Université catholique

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And yeah, it was really And yeah, it was really good!good! Positive stance in Positive stance in

native and learner speechnative and learner speech

Sylive De CockSylive De Cock

Centre for English Corpus LinguisticsCentre for English Corpus Linguistics

Université catholique de LouvainUniversité catholique de Louvain

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IntroductionIntroduction

Attitudinal stance Attitudinal stance (Biber et al. 1999, Conrad and Biber (Biber et al. 1999, Conrad and Biber 2000)2000)

conveys speakers’ personal attitudes or feelingsconveys speakers’ personal attitudes or feelings e.g. likes and dislikes, evaluations of events and personal e.g. likes and dislikes, evaluations of events and personal

experiencesexperiences LINDSEI and LOCNEC particularly good to study this LINDSEI and LOCNEC particularly good to study this

sort of phenomenon (informal interviews, topics) – see sort of phenomenon (informal interviews, topics) – see De Cock 2007 (LIKE, LOVE, ENJOY)De Cock 2007 (LIKE, LOVE, ENJOY)

Work in progressWork in progress Focus on Focus on

positive attitudinal stancepositive attitudinal stance adjectivesadjectives

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Data and methodData and method

LOCNEC and LINDSEI_FrenchLOCNEC and LINDSEI_French Starting point: word lists (WordSmith Starting point: word lists (WordSmith

Tools) – Compare list Tools) – Compare list Selection of the adjectives Selection of the adjectives

Biber et al. (1999)’s semantic group of Biber et al. (1999)’s semantic group of descriptors (vs classifiers) descriptors (vs classifiers) evaluative/emotive subcategory (i.e. denoting evaluative/emotive subcategory (i.e. denoting judgement, affect, emphasis: judgement, affect, emphasis: bad, beautiful, bad, beautiful, good, great, lovely, nicegood, great, lovely, nice, etc.) , etc.)

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Focus on Focus on Positive evaluative adjectivesPositive evaluative adjectives Prototypical (Prototypical (goodgood; ; bigbig?)?) Frequent in LOCNEC and/or LINDSEI_FRFrequent in LOCNEC and/or LINDSEI_FR

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Positive evaluative adjectivesPositive evaluative adjectives LOCNECLOCNEC

goodgood (345) (345) nicenice (191) (191) interesting (61)interesting (61) greatgreat (54) (54) betterbetter (47) (47) beautiful (44)beautiful (44) pretty (41)pretty (41) brilliantbrilliant (38) (38) amazingamazing (36) (36) impressiveimpressive ( 31) ( 31) lovelylovely (19) (19) important (14)important (14) wonderfulwonderful (14) (14)

LINDSEILINDSEI goodgood (110) (110) beautiful beautiful (103)(103) interesting (92)interesting (92) nicenice (79) (79) greatgreat (62) (62) betterbetter (37) (37) important (25)important (25) wonderfulwonderful (25) (25) pretty (23)pretty (23) lovelylovely (18) (18) impressiveimpressive (17) (17) amazingamazing (13) (13) incredibleincredible (13) (13)

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Focus on Focus on Positive evaluative adjectivesPositive evaluative adjectives Prototypical (Prototypical (goodgood; ; bigbig?)?) Frequent in LOCNEC and/or LINDSEI_FRFrequent in LOCNEC and/or LINDSEI_FR ‘‘General’ General’ positivepositive evaluative adjectives evaluative adjectives

((good/pleasant/enjoyablegood/pleasant/enjoyable)) Picture story effect (Picture story effect (beautiful, prettybeautiful, pretty) ) Disambiguation (adverbs, nouns, etc.)Disambiguation (adverbs, nouns, etc.)

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(General) (General) PositivePositive evaluative evaluative adjectivesadjectives

LOCNECLOCNEC goodgood nicenice great great better better brilliantbrilliant amazing amazing impressive impressive lovely lovely wonderful wonderful fantasticfantastic incredibleincredible

LINDSEI_FRLINDSEI_FR goodgood nicenice greatgreat betterbetter wonderfulwonderful lovelylovely impressiveimpressive amazingamazing incredibleincredible

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Positive evaluative adjectivesPositive evaluative adjectives

Selected findingsSelected findings syntactic patternssyntactic patterns collocationscollocations idiosyncratic usesidiosyncratic uses

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Frequency and rangeFrequency and range

Frequency counts: overall lower in NNS Frequency counts: overall lower in NNS goodgood (NS: (NS: 293293; NNS: 118); NNS: 118) nicenice (NS: (NS: 172172; NNS: 93); NNS: 93) amazingamazing (NS: (NS: 3030; NNS: 14); NNS: 14) BUT BUT wonderfulwonderful (NS: 12; NNS: (NS: 12; NNS: 2727))

Range: overall more limited stock of recurrent Range: overall more limited stock of recurrent positive evaluative adjectives in LINDSEI_FR positive evaluative adjectives in LINDSEI_FR (e.g. (e.g. brilliantbrilliant, , attractiveattractive, , enjoyableenjoyable) )

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Syntactic patternsSyntactic patterns

Attributive and Attributive and predicative usepredicative use = = nicenice (NS: 27% and (NS: 27% and 73%73%; NNS: 25% and ; NNS: 25% and 75%75%)) ≠ ≠ goodgood (NS: 42% and (NS: 42% and 58%58%; NNS: 52% and ; NNS: 52% and

48%48%)) Recurrent sequences: NS onlyRecurrent sequences: NS only

it’s good, it was good, (and / yeah) it was really goodit’s good, it was good, (and / yeah) it was really good it was quite good, that was good, it’s really goodit was quite good, that was good, it’s really good

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 it was a very good experienceit was a very good experience for me . yes for me . yes because they . made a lot of critics (NNS) because they . made a lot of critics (NNS)

it was just it was just reallyreally good good I really liked it (NS) I really liked it (NS) .. wrote a script for a play at college . and I got to .. wrote a script for a play at college . and I got to

see that acted out see that acted out and it was and it was reallyreally good good (NS) (NS) is it a part two course or <\B> is it a part two course or <\B>

<A> erm I think so but I’m not sure I think I think <A> erm I think so but I’m not sure I think I think it is <\A>it is <\A> oh right er .. I might have to look oh right er .. I might have to look into into that that that sounds that sounds reallyreally good good <\B> (NS) <\B> (NS)

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Adjective complementationAdjective complementation BE nice toBE nice to + inf. … + inf. … NS: 21 (16% of predicative uses); NNS: 3 NS: 21 (16% of predicative uses); NNS: 3

(4% of predicative uses)(4% of predicative uses) it’d be nice to go somewhere differentit’d be nice to go somewhere different (NS) (NS) but erm . yeah but erm . yeah it’s nice to see herit’s nice to see her when I when I

do see her (NS)do see her (NS)

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Evaluative adjectives in evaluative relative Evaluative adjectives in evaluative relative clauses (clauses (whichwhich = a collocate + recurrent = a collocate + recurrent sequences: sequences: which is good, which was, which is which is good, which was, which is quite, which is a bit, which is veryquite, which is a bit, which is very))

NS > NNSNS > NNS I’ve got other people to hitch with I’ve got other people to hitch with which is goodwhich is good

(NS) (NS) but the next year we went I took some books but the next year we went I took some books

and I was giving them to people and I was giving them to people which waswhich was really really nicenice (NS) (NS)

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 they all come and visit me cos they think it’s they all come and visit me cos they think it’s great having a student life so close to <X> so a great having a student life so close to <X> so a lot of them travel up at weekends and that lot of them travel up at weekends and that [ [ which is quitewhich is quite nice nice (NS) (NS)

Tao and McCarthy (2001 – spoken NS English): Tao and McCarthy (2001 – spoken NS English): sentential relative clauses tend to have sentential relative clauses tend to have evaluative function displaying speakers’ affective evaluative function displaying speakers’ affective involvement with and attitudes to the events and involvement with and attitudes to the events and experiences they are relatingexperiences they are relating

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CollocationsCollocations

?????? good fungood fun Claire was Claire was good fungood fun; it was ; it was good fungood fun; it’s ; it’s good good

funfun (NS) (NS) NS 16 vs NNS 1NS 16 vs NNS 1 ( (!input from the interviewer!input from the interviewer) ) no .. it’s .. very pleaseful .. <XX> pleased to no .. it’s .. very pleaseful .. <XX> pleased to

<\B><\B><A> oh you mean you oh you mean you like it . <A> oh you mean you oh you mean you like it . you mean you mean good fungood fun <\A> <\A> yeah yeah good fungood fun yes really <\B> (NNS) yes really <\B> (NNS)

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CollocationsCollocations

Idiosyncratic usesIdiosyncratic uses we: we went .. er in a restaurant and er . we: we went .. er in a restaurant and er .

with the girl and then to the cinema and with the girl and then to the cinema and we had we had a great funa great fun and . and the next day and . and the next day (NNS) (NNS)

 yes but I think it’s yes but I think it’s a . very great joba . very great job you know <\B> (NNS)you know <\B> (NNS)

it was it was very greatvery great for them to live that way for them to live that way (NNS)(NNS)

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Rounding offRounding off

Work in progressWork in progress Positive and negative evaluative adjectivesPositive and negative evaluative adjectives General picture of attitudinal stanceGeneral picture of attitudinal stance Other subcorpora (L1-related or not)Other subcorpora (L1-related or not) Assess the ‘picture story effect’ + topic chosen?Assess the ‘picture story effect’ + topic chosen? Individual variationIndividual variation Other effects?: input from the interviewerOther effects?: input from the interviewer

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Rounding offRounding off

Implications for teaching Implications for teaching rangerange collocationscollocations typical syntactic patternstypical syntactic patterns more prominence given to the description and more prominence given to the description and

use of evaluative (sentential) relative clauses use of evaluative (sentential) relative clauses in informal speechin informal speech

Attitudinal stance in textbooks? Attitudinal stance in textbooks?

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Thank you for your attention!Thank you for your attention!

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ReferencesReferences Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S. and Finegan, E. Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S. and Finegan, E.

1999. 1999. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written EnglishLongman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. London: . London: Longman.Longman.

Conrad, S. and Biber, D. 2000. "Adverbial marking of stance in Conrad, S. and Biber, D. 2000. "Adverbial marking of stance in speech and writing." In speech and writing." In Evaluation in Text. Authorial Stance and the Evaluation in Text. Authorial Stance and the Construction of DiscourseConstruction of Discourse, S. Hunston and G. Thompson (eds). , S. Hunston and G. Thompson (eds). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 56-73.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 56-73.

De Cock, S. 2007. “Routinized building blocks in native speaker and De Cock, S. 2007. “Routinized building blocks in native speaker and learner speech: Clausal sequences in the spotlight”. In learner speech: Clausal sequences in the spotlight”. In Spoken Spoken Corpora in Applied Linguistics,Corpora in Applied Linguistics, M.C. Campoy and M.J. Luzón (eds). M.C. Campoy and M.J. Luzón (eds). Bern: Peter Lang, 217-233. Bern: Peter Lang, 217-233.

Tao, H. and McCarthy, M.J. 2001. Understanding non-restrictive Tao, H. and McCarthy, M.J. 2001. Understanding non-restrictive whichwhich-clauses in spoken English, which is not an easy thing. -clauses in spoken English, which is not an easy thing. Language sciencesLanguage sciences 23: 651-677. 23: 651-677.

Documents

1 And yeah, it was really good! Positive stance in native and learner speech Sylive De Cock Centre for English Corpus Linguistics Université catholique