Cover not available
Part of
Corpora, Grammar and Discourse: In honour of Susan Hunston
Edited by Nicholas Groom, Maggie Charles and Suganthi John
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 73] 2015
► pp. 211–234

Chapter 9. General extenders in learner language

| University of Gothenburg
The aim of the paper is to study how general extenders are used by Swedish factors.learners of English in comparison with native speakers. The study is based on a corpus of Swedish learners’ spoken English compiled within the international LINDSEI project. The analysis is both quantitative and qualitative. It is shown that the Swedish learners do not use general extenders in the same way as native speakers; in particular, they ‘underuse’ and ‘overuse’ certain forms and use fewer variants. The qualitative analysis shows that the function of general extenders is also linked to aspects of speaking fluently. Comparisons are also made with the use of general extenders by French, Dutch and German learners on the basis of other spoken learner corpora. The analysis shows that learners’ use of general extenders is affected both by the resources available in the native language and by the social norms and values regarding how the extenders should be used.
Published online: 30 October 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.73.10aij
References (31)
References
Aarts, J. & Granger, S. 1998. Tag sequences in learner corpora: A key to interlanguage grammar and discourse. In Computer Learner Corpora, Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Teaching [Language Learning & Language Teaching 6] ,S. Granger, J. Hung & S. Petch-Tyson (eds), 132-141. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Aijmer, K. 2002. English Discourse Particles: Evidence from a Corpus [Studies in Corpus Linguistics 10]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2013. Understanding Pragmatic Markers: A Study in Variational Pragmatics. Edinburgh: EUP.Google Scholar
Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S. & Finegan, E. 1999. The Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Cheng, W. 2007. The use of vague language across spoken genres in an intercultural Hong Kong Corpus. In Vague Language Explored, J. Cutting (ed.), 161-181. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Cheshire, J. 2007. Discourse variation, grammaticalisation and stuff like that. Journal of Sociolinguistics 11(2): 155-193. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Cock, S. 2004. Preferred sequences of words in NS and NNS speech. Belgian Journal of English Language and Literatures (BELL), New Series 2: 225-246.Google Scholar
Dines, E.R. 1980. Variation in discourse—‘and stuff like that’. Language in Society 9: 13-33. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dubois, S. 1993. Extension particles, etc. Language Variation and Change 4: 179-203. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Evison, J., McCarthy, M. & O’Keeffe, A. 2007. ‘Looking out for love and all the rest of it’: Vague category markers as shared social space. In Vague Language Explored, J. Cutting (ed.), 138-157. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Gilquin, G. 2008. Hesitation markers among EFL learners: Pragmatic deficiency or difference? In Corpus and Pragmatics: A Mutualistic Entente, J. Romero-Trillo (ed.), 119-149. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Gilquin, G., De Cock, S. & Granger, S. (eds). 2010. The Louvain International Database of Spoken English Interlanguage: Handbook and CD-ROM. Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses Universitaires de Louvain.Google Scholar
Granger, S. 2002. A bird’s-eye view of learner corpus research. In Computer Learner Corpora, Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Teaching [Language Learning & Language Teaching 6], S. Granger, J. Hung & S. Petch-Tyson (eds), 3-33. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hasselgren, A. 2002. Sounds a bit foreign. In From the COLT’s mouth … and Others: Language Corpora Studies in Honour of Anna-Brita Stenström, L.E. Breivik & A. Hasselgren (eds), 103-123. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
Hunston, S. 2002. Corpora in Applied Linguistics. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jefferson, G. 1991. List-construction as a task and resource. In Interaction Competence, G. Psathas (ed.), 63-92. Lanham MD: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Mukherjee, J. 2009. The grammar of conversation in advanced spoken learner English: Learner corpus data and language-pedagogical implications. In Corpora and Language Teaching, K. Aijmer (ed.), 203-230. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
O’Keeffe, A. 2004. ‘Like the wise virgins and all that jazz’: Using a corpus to examine vague categorisation and shared knowledge. In Applied Corpus Linguistics: A Multidimensional Perspective, U. Connor & T. Upton (eds), 2-22. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
. 2006. Investigating Media Discourse. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Overstreet, M. 1999. Whales, Candlelight, and Stuff Like That. General extenders in English discourse. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
. 2011. Vagueness and hedging. In Pragmatics of Society, G. Andersen & K. Aijmer (eds), 293-317. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Overstreet, M. & Yule, G. 1999. Fostering L2 pragmatic awareness. Applied Language Learning 10:1-14.Google Scholar
Pichler, H. & Levey, S. 2011. In search of grammaticalization in synchronic dialect data: General extenders in north-east England. English Language and Linguistics 15(3): 441-471. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Renouf, A.J. & Sinclair, J.M. 1991. Collocational frameworks in English. In English Corpus Linguistics, K. Aijmer & B. Altenberg (eds), 128-143. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Schneider, K.P. & Barron, A. (eds). 2008. Variational Pragmatics: A Focus on Regional Varieties in Pluricentric Languages [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 178]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stenström, A.-B., Andersen, G. & Hasund, K. 2002. Trends in Teenage Talk: Corpus Compilation, Analysis and Findings [Studies in Corpus Linguistics 8]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tagliamonte, S. & Denis, D. 2010. The stuff of change: General extenders in Toronto, Canada. Journal of English Linguistics 38(4): 335-368. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Terraschke, A. 2007. Use of general extenders by German non-native speakers of English. IRAL 45: 141-160. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2010. Or so, oder so, and stuff like that —general extenders in New Zealand English, German and in learner language. Intercultural Pragmatics 7(3): 449-469. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Terraschke, A. & Holmes, J. 2007. ‘Und tralala’: Vagueness and general extenders in German and New Zealand English. In Vague Language Explored, J. Cutting (ed.), 198-218. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Ward, G. & Birner, B. 1993. The semantics and pragmatics of and everything . Journal of Pragmatics 19: 205-214. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (5)

Cited by five other publications

Fernández, Julieta
2022. Corpus linguistics in L2 pragmatics research. Applied Pragmatics 4:2 ► pp. 178 ff. DOI logo
McCarthy, Michael
2020. Vague language in business and academic contexts. Language Teaching 53:2 ► pp. 203 ff. DOI logo
Overstreet, Maryann
2020. The English general extender. English Today 36:4 ► pp. 47 ff. DOI logo
Groom, Nicholas
2019. Construction Grammar and the corpus-based analysis of discourses. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 24:3 ► pp. 291 ff. DOI logo
Werner, Valentin
2017. Adversative Pragmatic Markers in Learner Language: A Cross-Sectional Perspective. Corpus Pragmatics 1:2 ► pp. 135 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.