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Article published In:
International Journal of Learner Corpus Research
Vol. 4:1 (2018) ► pp.54–81

Shell noun use in English argumentative essays by native speakers of Japanese, Turkish, and English

Frequency and rate of noun-pattern attraction

| Bluegrass Community and Technical College
| University of Cincinnati

Shell noun (SN) use in learner writing has been studied in terms of SN choices and SN pattern choices, but less so in terms of SN-pattern co-selection (i.e. which patterns are used with which SNs). This study examined English SN choices and their preferred lexicogrammatical patterns in argumentative essays by speakers of Turkish and Japanese in order to find SN-pattern attraction in learner writing, compared to SN use in writing of native English speakers. Results indicate that learners understand SN functions, given pattern frequencies comparable to those of native speakers. However, there were differences among groups in which SNs were most strongly attracted to or repelled by the SN patterns. This prompted a qualitative investigation. Findings of non-native SN use are discussed with respect to word-sense categories and clause marking. Suggestions are made for further research.

Keywords: shell noun phrases, EFL writing, native-speaker writing, lexical patterns, collostruction
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Background
    • 1.2Theoretical considerations
    • 1.3Shell noun use in EFL writing
    • 1.4The present study
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Data sources
    • 2.2Procedure
    • 2.3Data analysis scheme
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Comparison of pattern frequencies (RQ1)
    • 3.2Noun-pattern attraction (RQ 2)
      • 3.2.1[Det-N]
      • 3.2.2[N-of-X]
      • 3.2.3[N-that-X]
      • 3.2.4[N-to-X]
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1SN patterns and association strength
    • 4.2Collostructions
    • 4.3Future directions
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 31 May 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijlcr.16014.sch
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