[Corpora-List] FSs

[Dr Hatch]

Dear John Mckenny

I'm afraid I didn't get time to take part in your "estimate(s) of
prefabrication" exercise. Though I did show the text to my trainee teachers.
I shall forward their comments in due course.

I am, however, very interested in FSs. In fact I'm currently writing on such
matters.

For now I do have some queries for you and CORPORA at HD.UIB.NO 'community'.

First, I'm unsure how to reference your (Mckenny's) remarks on line within a
publication.

Secondly, can you post the full ref. re Wray, 2002:9. [If it is a paper, I'd
be grateful for a copy.]

Thirdly, does anyone out there know of a similar online 'community'
addressing cultural linguistics and/or discourse analysis?


I currently need only access to corpora plus a simple search engine, for
looking for FSs, in fact I ­ and my teachers/students ­have been finding
them in the 'authentic' classroom texts we use for advanced English
teaching. A recent news text, of around 300 words, yilded well over a dozen
FSs. 

For ELT purposes the interesting angle seems to be the semantic opacity of
such phrases - as in phrasal verbs - which obviously stems from their
prefabrication.

One of the earliest publications I know of that addressed this issue is:

Pawley, A & Syder, FH, 1983 "Two puzzles for linguistic theory: nativelike
selection and nativelike fluency", in Richards, JC & Schmidt, RW, Language
and Communication, CUP.

To me, Pawley & Syder failed to adequately address the problems caused for
grammar teaching in TESL/TEFL, by the phenomenon. But then ...

I do congratulate the subscibers to CORPORA at HD.UIB.NO on their sense of
community, and though I understand very little of what is posted, it remains
intriguing.

Cheers

David Hatch

Apologies if this was posted twice

DJH