[Corpora-List] Re: Phrasal verbs

[FIDELHOLTZ DOOCHIN JAMES LAWRENCE]

Brett,

Now, 2000 per M boils down to 1 per 500 words of text, which, since we are
talking about 2-word units is 2 per 500, or 1 per 250 words, that is, on
average one per page (OK, let's not exaggerate: one every other page).  I
don't know how much work you have done with frequency, but this seems to me
to be a very high frequency of occurrence, well worth stressing in an ESL
class.  By contrast, check how often in, say, a 10-page article you
encounter the passive.  Probably not more than 5 times, I would guess, that
is, more or less the same frequency, and I doubt you would question teaching
the passive.

Jim

Brett at staff.sakuragaoka.ac.jp escribió:

> In the Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (based on the BNC),
> the claim is made that "In fiction and conversation, phrasal verbs occur
> almost 2,000 times per million words" (p. 408). This seems lower than one
> would expect and would be evidence against the value of focusing on these
> in TESOL, something that I would say happens quite a lot.
>
> Does anybody have any data or reasons that would suggest more frequent use
> of phrasal verbs, especially in conversation?
>
> ------------------
> Brett Reynolds
> Sakuragaoka Girls' Jr. & Sr. High School
> brett at staff.sakuragaoka.ac.jp
> http://www.esl.sakuragaoka.ac.jp/teachers/br
>
>



James L. Fidelholtz
Posgrado en Ciencias del Lenguaje
Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla     MÉXICO