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Article In: Australian Review of Applied Linguistics: Online-First Articles

Function word frames in English argumentative writing by Thai students

 | Universiti Malaya
ORCiD logo with link | Universiti Malaya
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Abstract
Lexical bundles and lexical phrases (p-frames) are multi-word sequences that have been widely researched. However, function word frames (FWFs) — p-frames with fixed function words and variable content words — remain underexplored in argumentative writing. Thai students struggle with function words because their first language (L1) lacks grammatical equivalents for these frames. Based on Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar function word list, the p-frame classification by Gray, B., & Biber, D. (2013). Lexical frames in academic prose and conversation. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 18(1), 109–136. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, the discourse function taxonomy by Hyland, K. (2008). Academic clusters: Text patterning in published and postgraduate writing. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 18(1), 41–62. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, and the semantic taxonomy used by Biber, D. (2006). University language: A corpus-based study of spoken and written registers. John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, the analysis showed that L1 English speakers (L1 group) use 88 FWF types (59 unique) and Thai students (L2 group) use 82 (53 unique), with 29 common to both. Thai students commonly used the * in the (which is an indication of a directive style), and L1 group preferred I * that it (which is a personal statement). Both groups primarily used research-oriented FWFs, with Thai students favouring text-oriented types and L1 group preferring participant-oriented and multifunctional ones. Both groups frequently used nouns in FWFs, especially abstract/process ones; L1 group also preferred quantity nouns. L1 group employed verbs more, especially mental and relational ones; Thai students used more mixed-category constructions, especially intra-noun and noun-adjective. Conversely, Thai students favoured activity verbs for experiential expression. Adjectives and adverbs are limited. The resulting issues (e.g., word-class confusion) appear in the fillers — noun-adjective or noun-verb combinations. Overall, variations in FWF discourse functions and filler semantics reveal distinct functional constraints and developmental semantic gaps in Thai learners’ phraseological competence compared to L1 group.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
  • 3.Methods
    • 3.1Data
    • 3.2Identifying and exploring FWFs
    • 3.3Analysing FWF discourse functions
    • 3.4Analysing FWF filler semantics
    • 3.5Coding reliability and consistency
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1FWFs: Thai students vs. L1 English speakers
      • 4.1.1FWF frequency distribution
      • 4.1.2Top 20 FWFs
      • 4.1.3Shared FWFs
      • 4.1.4Distinct FWF
    • 4.2FWF discourse functions
      • 4.2.1Research-oriented
      • 4.2.2Text-oriented
      • 4.2.3Participant-oriented
      • 4.2.4Multifunctionality
    • 4.3FWF filler semantics
      • 4.3.1Semantic categories for nouns
      • 4.3.2Semantic categories for verbs
      • 4.3.3Semantic categories for adjectives
      • 4.3.4Semantic and functional categories for adverbs and adverbials
      • 4.3.5Multifunctional categories
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Declaration of contributions from Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process
  • References
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