Development of a Neurology Word List: A Corpus-based Study
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Authors:
Mingxian Li² Yujun Lee¹ and Dilin Liu³ / Language and Cognitive Science / 2021,6(1): 44−59 / 2022-04-21
- Keywords: academic English; English for specific purposes; subdiscipline word list; vocabulary learning
- Abstract: The research finding that vocabulary use is often discipline-bound (Hyland and Tse 2007) has demonstrated the need for discipline-specific word lists. Driven by this need, this study aims to explore the viability and validity of developing a subdiscipline word list – a vocabulary list in neurology, a subdiscipline of medicine. A neurology corpus (NeuroC) of 6,180,718 words was compiled drawing from 970 neurological research articles systematically chosen from 10 journals. Using AntConc and AntWordProfiler as corpus tools and applying rigorous frequency and range criteria, the study selects a total of 717 words as our Neurology Word List (NeuroWL). To test the validity of the NeuroWL, the coverages of the NeuroC by the NeuroWL and by Coxhead’s AWL are calculated and compared. The results reveal that the coverage by the NeuroWL (12.99%) almost doubles that by Coxhead’s Academic Word List (AWL) (6.06%). Additional analyses indicate that the NeuroWL shows an overlap of only 32.4% with the AWL, 53.6% with Wang et al.’s (2008) Medical Academic Word List (MAWL), and 43.9% with Yang’s (2015) Nursing Academic Word List (NAWL). These findings testify to the validity of the NeuroWL and its pedagogical significance to ESP/EFL teachers/learners in neurology and the need for developing subdiscipline word lists.
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How Chinese Learners Acquire Motion Expressions in English
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- Keywords: language-specific influence; manner verb; motion event expression; path particle; second language acquisition
- Abstract: This study examines how Chinese adult learners of English acquire characteristic motion event expressions in English with an aim of determining which force mainly drives the rate and the progress of second language acquisition. 36 Chinese learners of English, as compared to a group of English monolingual speakers, were requested to describe voluntary motion events showing varied types of manner and path information (e.g. The man jumped across the tracks). Their utterances were analyzed at two levels: a) verb type (manner verb, path verb, general verb) at the lexical level and b) verb-supporting elements (particles, prepositional phrase, zero) at the grammatical level. The results of statistical analyses such as chi-square and one-way ANOVA reveal that although, in general, Chinese learners of English can acquire the typical patterns of motion expression in English, those of intermediate and low proficiencies use specific manner verbs and path particles at a significantly low frequency as compared to English monolinguals. These results show that second language learners have not fully dispensed with the constraints of their native language, suggesting, in general, that languagespecific factors play an important role in second language acquisition.
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Motion Events in English Novels: Evidence for a Satellite-framed Language
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- Keywords: language typology; manner verbs; motion event; path of motion; The Call of the Wild
- Abstract: This paper discusses language typological characteristics and motion events. As Talmy proposed, languages can be divided into two types: satelliteframed languages and verb-framed languages. The construction of satelliteframed languages is [Motion + Manner + Path + Ground]. In satellite-framed languages, the motion information is conveyed by the main verbs ([Motion + Manner]), and the path of motion is expressed by a subordinate element ([Path]). The subordinate element is called a satellite, which is similar to the particles in English. The construction of verb-framed languages is [Motion + Path + Ground + Manner]. In verb-framed languages, the main verbs ([Motion + Path]) convey the core information of the path of movement, and the manner of motion is described in a subordinate place ([Manner]). The present study focuses on the typological characteristics and lexicalization patterns in English by analyzing the expression of motion events in literary works. This paper chooses an English novel written by Jack London, The Call of the Wild, which has fruitful descriptions of motion events, to analyze the habitual language pattern of English native writers. The results show that English writers tend to use the language pattern of satellite-framed language, which provides evidence to testify and strengthen the fact that English is a typical satellite-framed language.
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The linguistic Effects of Motion Event Typology
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- Keywords: L2 acquisition of caused motion expressions; linguistic relativity; motion event typology; similarity judgment task
- Abstract: This study tests the hypothesis of linguistic relativity along two lines of research: a) how L2 learners of Chinese and English, respectively, syntactically package semantic components for caused motion (cause, manner, path) in an experimental situation in which they are asked to describe video clips showing caused motion events to an imagery addressee, and b) how monolingual native speakers of Chinese and English judge the similarity between caused motion scenes while viewing them. Our results regarding a) show that Chinese learners of English acclimate to the target pattern of organizing particularly dense caused motion information very rapidly, and English learners of Chinese also arrived at an inter–language showing considerable resemblance to the target system rather than traces of the L1 influence. Our findings regarding b) reveal that despite striking differences between Chinese and English in L1 motion descriptions, native speakers show an identical tendency to prefer the path–match alternate over the manner–match alternate. Overall, these observations suggest that language–specific constraints can be largely shaken off when encoding caused motion in a non–native language, and linguistic and non-linguistic representations of caused motion may be dissociable from each other.
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