[Corpora-List] Corpora Digest, Vol 30, Issue 1

[Gill Philip]

Dear Simon,
What you say is true to an extent, but some phrases - notably idioms -
function as long words, which means that they collocate and contextualise as
multi-word cores, not as a 1-word core + collocates (the phrase) which is
simply fitted into text slot-and-filler style.
This is why I think DDL would be a valid approach for teaching some types of
phrases (though not all).
Learners seem to avoid using phrases in preference of compositional
sequences, and one reason for this is that they don't ever learn how they
are used in text (they are typically taught as de-contextualised forms in
terrible made-up examples). The consequence of this is that they never
really 'get' the full meaning of a phrase, and this insecurity stops them
from producing them in speech/writing. Well, that's one theory anyway.
Food for thought?

best,
Gill

2009/12/1 simon smith <smithsgj at nccu.edu.tw>

> 2009/12/1 simon smith <smithsgj at gmail.com>
>
>>  Dear all,
>>> last week I asked the list to pool their knowledge about research carried
>>> out on DDL with phrases rather than single words. I didn't expect to find
>>> much, having already trawled through the literature, but the picture is
>>> pretty bleak. To put it bluntly, with very few exceptions, DDL has not
>>> been
>>> used to teach phrases.
>>>
>>
>> I was thinking about Alex Boulton's work when I read this yesterday, but
>> he (or someone else) pipped me at the post.
>>
>> A lot of Michael Barlow's work is on MWUs, so take a look at his site.
>>
>> In a way, though, your question puzzles me. Surely almost all of what we
>> do in corpus studies is about which words go with which? Learning about
>> collocations and context is the whole point, and this applies as much to DDL
>> as to any other application of corpus linguistics.
>>
>
>
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-- 
*********************************
Dr. Gill Philip
CILTA
Università degli Studi di Bologna
Piazza San Giovanni in Monte, 4
40124 Bologna
Italy
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