[Corpora-List] formulaic sequences

[Chris Butler]

Dear Joanna,

I don't know the source of the suggestion, but I don't think you should
assume that a sequence which would be treated as formulaic without a
hesitation in the middle of it is necessarily non-formulaic because of the
hesitation. A lot, of course, depends on how you define formulaic sequences.
You might be interested in the following references which contain material
on pausing in relation to formulaic strings:

Erman, B. (forthcoming) Pauses as evidence of cognitive effort in
prefabricated and non-prefabricated structures. International Journal of
Corpus Linguistics.

Raupach, M. (1984) Formulae in second language speech production. In H. W.
Dechert, D. Möhle and M. Raupach (eds.) Second Language Production.
Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 114-137.

Wray, A. (2004) 'Here's one I prepared earlier': formulaic language learning
on television. In N. Schmitt (ed.) Formulaic Sequences: Acquisition,
Processing and Use. (Language Learning and Language Teaching 9). Amsterdam
and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 249-268.


Best wishes,

Chris Butler
Honorary Professor, Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Wales
Swansea, UK

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joanna Jendryczka" <joanna.jendryczka at gmail.com>
To: <CORPORA at UIB.NO>
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 8:15 PM
Subject: [Corpora-List] formulaic sequences


> *** Apologies for multiple postings! ***
>
> Dear list members,
>
> As a part of my M.A. thesis, I am investigating multi-word units
> (otherways called recurrent sequences, word bundles, etc.) in non-native
> English speech.
>
> I remember having read somewhere that if such a string of words contains
> repeats (of the same words) and/or hesitation (like erm, mm, uhu) within
> it, it cannot be treated as a formula, for the very inclusion of
> repetition or hesitation proves the sequence was not processed as a
> whole but rather as a set of words.
>
> Unfortunately, I do not remember from which scolar the idea comes and I
> need it for justification of my very study.
>
> I'll appreciate any hints or direct reference to the source.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Joanna Jendryczka
> ------------------
> ------------------
> M.A. English Linguistics student
> A.Mickiewicz University Poznan, Poland
>