28.884, Diss: The Introductory It Pattern in Academic Writing by Non-native-speaker Students, Native-speaker Students and Published Writers: A Corpus-based Study

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-28-884. Wed Feb 15 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.884, Diss: The Introductory It Pattern in Academic Writing by Non-native-speaker Students, Native-speaker Students and Published Writers: A Corpus-based Study

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Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2017 15:15:50
From: Tove Larsson [tove.larsson1 at gmail.com]
Subject: The Introductory It Pattern in Academic Writing by Non-native-speaker Students, Native-speaker Students and Published Writers: A Corpus-based Study

 
Institution: Uppsala University 
Program: English linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2016 

Author: Tove Larsson

Dissertation Title: The Introductory It Pattern in Academic Writing by
Non-native-speaker Students, Native-speaker Students and
Published Writers: A Corpus-based Study 

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics
                     Text/Corpus Linguistics


Dissertation Director(s):
Erik Smitterberg
Merja Kytö

Dissertation Abstract:

The present compilation thesis investigates the use of a pattern that is
commonly found in academic writing, namely the introductory it pattern (e.g.
it is interesting to note the difference). The main aim is to shed further
light on the formal and func-tional characteristics of the pattern in academic
writing. When relevant, the thesis also investigates functionally related
constructions. The focus is on learner use, but reference corpora of published
writing and non-native-speaker student writing have also been utilized for
comparison. The thesis encompasses an introductory survey (a “kappa”) and four
articles.

The material comes from six different corpora: ALEC, BATMAT, BAWE, LOCRA,
MICUSP and VESPA. Factors such as native-speaker status, discipline, level of
achievement (lower-graded vs. higher-graded texts) and level of expertise in
academic writing are investigated in the articles. In more detail, Articles 1
and 2 examine the formal (syntactic) characteristics of the introductory it
pattern. The pattern is studied using modified versions of two previous
syntactic classifications. Articles 3 and 4 investigate the functional
characteristics of the pattern. In Article 3, a functional classification is
developed and used to categorize the instances. Article 4 examines the
stance-marking function of the pattern in relation to functionally related
constructions (e.g. stance adverbs such as possibly and stance noun +
prepo-sitional phrase combinations like the possibility of). 

The introductory it pattern was found to be relatively invariable in the sense
that a small set of formal and functional realizations made up the bulk of the
tokens. The learners, especially those whose texts received a lower grade,
made particularly frequent use of high-frequency realizations of the pattern.
The thesis highlights the importance of not limiting investigations of this
kind to comparisons across native-speaker status, as this is only one of the
several factors that can influence the distri-bution. By exploring the
potential importance of many different factors from both a formal and a
functional perspective, the thesis paints a more complete picture of the
introductory it pattern in academic writing, of use in, for instance,
second-language instruction.




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