Beyond patterns: what is often said in English

Susan Hunston, University of Birmingham

What I want to show…

• There are sequences of meaning that can be shown to occur often in a corpus

• These sequences represent ‘what is often said’

• A corpus investigation that identifies ‘what is often said’ is useful

• Among other things, it is useful to learners

Pattern grammar: the grammar of words 1

• V n as n– The president is likely to appoint a woman as

secretary of the navy.– I consider him as a friend.– He has described reports of deaths…as

speculation.– The whole story shows him up as a near-

criminal.

Pattern grammar: the grammar of words 2

• the N be to-inf– The aim is to encourage…– The idea was to make…– The answer is to keep…– The trick is to plan ahead– The plan was to fly…– The challenge is to harness…– The effect was to concentrate…

What matters about patterns 1: frequency

• Patterns occur frequently with the node words. – We discovered that everything had been carried

off or destroyed.

• …though patterns have a habit of extending themselves.– …we have obtained that the biexciton binding

energy is negative… [Thanks, David Oakey!]

What matters about patterns 2: dependency

• Compare:– We have failed to agree on anything that is

important. [V on n]– We agreed on Tuesday that this was important.

[V that]

• Or:– …promoted him to captain [V n to n]– …promoted loyalty to the king [V n; N to n]

What matters about patterns 3: meaning classification

• Compare:– He mistook a neighbour for his wife.

• (exchange, substitute, swap, trade)

– He mistook a neighbour as his wife.• (appoint, categorise, consider, describe, represent)

• Compare:– We obtained a negative reading.

• (get, have, own)

– We obtained that x is negative…• (find, discover, ascertain)

What matters about patterns 4: accuracy and fluency

• ‘Errors’ or ‘creativity’?– She suggested me to write a book.– They highlight that the results are tentative.– He emphasised on the need for secrecy.

• Pattern flow - linearity– It’s difficult to know what the evidence is for

his claim that.... [it v-link ADJ to-inf; V wh; N for n; N that]

Beyond pattern

• V wh– Co-occurrence of the pattern with ‘modally

things’

• N that– Use of the pattern with ‘status’ nouns– Co-occurrence of the pattern with causation and

evaluation

V wh

• These verbs are to do with:– Asking and telling: advise, ask, declare,

explain, hypothesise, mention, reveal, suggest– Thinking: consider, decide, guess, know,

reflect, remember, wonder– Finding out and becoming aware: deduce,

discover, recognise, think, verify

Example: FIND out + who/how/whether

• Wordform frequencies:– Find out 3209 85%– Finds out 89 2%– Finding out 263 7%– Found out 221 6%– TOTAL 3782 100%

For comparison

• Base form– find out 67% ; find out wh 85%

• -s form– finds out 3%; finds out wh 2%

• -ing form– finding out 7%; finding out wh 7%

• -ed form– found out 23%; found out wh 6%

Find out + who|how|whether 1

• What comes before:– To 2114

– And 192

– Will/ll 105

– Can 100

– You 49

– Could 33

– Total pronouns 138

– Total modals 291

Find out + who|how|whether 2

• Less frequent:– They find out who is priority and who is not.

• More frequent:– The only way they can find out how the law is

being broken is to…

• But what about:– To 2114

To find out who/how/whether 1

• Volition: goal– Other studies are now trying to find out

whether… (also try, tried)– ‘cos he wanted to find out how to cook

chestnuts… (also want) – The objective is to find out whether this is a

serious problem (also job, aim, thing, idea)– …in order to find out how…

To find out who/how/whether 2

• Obligation and necessity– We have to find out who’s in charge. (also need)

• Ability– We weren’t even able to find out how our dollar was

doing…

– The only way to find out whether he is or not is…

• Futurity– We’re about to find out how good he is.

– I’m going to find out who did it…

The lemma again

• Wordform frequencies:– Find out 3209 85%– Finds out 89 2%– Finding out 263 7%– Found out 221 6%– TOTAL 3782 100%

Finding out who/how/whether

• What comes before:– Prepositions (of, in, to, about, by): 119– Forms of BE: 15

• Less common:– He is finding out how difficult it is to find…

• More common:– One way of finding out how superconductivity works…– I’m interested in finding out how the owners…– I get down to finding out how television works…

Modal-like expressions

• Obligation:– have to, need to, is to, be asked to, be up to

someone to, force someone to, be vital to

• Difficulty:– has yet to, try to, take [time] to, be difficult to

• Ability/right/willingness:– have the chance to, have the right to, be able to,

agree to

What is often said 1

• ‘expression of obligation, intention, ability etc’

• PLUS

• ‘verb indicating discovery or directed mental process’

• PLUS

• ‘object of enquiry or thought’

Examples

• I don't want to | speculate | where precisely it was (volition)

• annoying remarks which make you | wonder about | your own judgement (causation)

• parents need no longer | agonize over | every mistake (obligation)

• all you can do is to | persevere in | seeking appropriate… (possibility)

• he will feel free to | turn his attention to | other things (ability)

N that

• These nouns are to do with– Things that are written or spoken: admission,

excuse, information, message, prophecy, report, suggestion, threat, warning

– Things that are thought: assumption, belief, expectation, interpretation, knowledge, recognition, supposition, wish

Evaluating status

• The controversy over whether we are all descended from an African Eve – a hypothesis based on the genetic information… [DISPUTE]

• In 1832 a new anatomical institute…was set on fire after the discovery that its staff were treating corpses like garbage. [CAUSE]

• There is an alternative interpretation…the position and momentum of the electron are defined all along. [EXISTENCE]

Status nouns

• …are often preceded by this:– To test this hypothesis we need to observe…

• …are often followed by a that-clause:– This fits with the observation that wild bees will

probe the same flower…

• Evaluate the alignment between the proposition and the world.

What co-occurs with N that? 1

• The idea exists – There is a view that… come to the conclusion that… be

under the impression that…

• The idea is evaluated– We should resist the claim that… The discovery that…

has rekindled fears… The notion that…is incorrect.

• The idea is the cause– X is based on the idea that… X rests/is founded on the

notion that…

What co-occurs with N that? 2

• Something else causes the idea– give the impression that… led to the discovery

that… will prompt the suggestion that …

• The idea is confirmed / disconfirmed– The idea that…may explain why… is

inconsistent with the view that… developments have strengthened the claim that…

Are all status nouns the same?

• Confirm/disconfirm:– Idea, view, theory, claim

• Cause and effect:– Mainly cause: discovery– Mainly effect: impression, claim, conclusion, theory,

suggest– Both: idea, notion, assumption

• Evaluated:– Rarely: conclusion– Predominantly: notions– Often: impression, assumptions

Examples: discovery

• Asteroid hunting has been given new impetus with the discovery that there are far more asteroids close to the Earth...

• … was set on fire after the discovery that its staff were treating corpses like garbage.

• Britain may be forced to clean up pollution…following the discovery that contamination…is much worse…

Examples: conclusion

• He soon came to the conclusion that a bomb was possible.

• Suppose Tom had arrived at the conclusion that S is true.

• [The book] reaches the conclusion that we are meant to be here.

• Science creeps inexorably towards the conclusion that humans are nothing but matter…

Examples: notion

• The notion that advertising can play a role…is abhorrent to some.

• The notion that bacteria might in some way be more advanced than us seems absurd.

• There is nothing to support the notion that Heisenburg hindered the project…

• Their results contradict the notion that the death rate rises with age…

What we are doing…

• Starting with a pattern

• Looking beyond the pattern to see more regularities or phraseologies

• Phraseologies that are about meaning as well as form

• And finding ‘what is often said’

What we are not doing…

• Finding out what is right and what is wrong

• Describing (only) lexis

• Describing (only) grammar

• Describing (only) discourse

So is it useful?

• D. Willis 1990; 2003:– A pedagogic corpus consists of texts that the learner

will usefully work with and process for meaning.– The (most frequent) words in the pedagogic corpus will

form the basis of the learner’s syllabus.– The learner will be asked to explore the pedagogic

corpus to work out regularities in expression.

• Or, reinterpreted:– The learner will look in the pedagogic corpus to find

what is most often said, and how it is said.

I beg your pardon?

• Find or build a corpus consisting of texts that are useful to the learner

• Find a way to present the corpus to the learner so that words, phrases and their use are encountered gradually

• Devise teaching materials to enable the learner to gain mastery of those words, phrases and uses

Investigating a learner corpus(From Y. Kamakura)

• starting point: in• frequent phrase: in English• often: [language activity] in English

– E.g. study in English, read books in English, have a conversation in English

• often: [difficult/important] [language activity] in English– E.g. It is important for me to study in English; I find it

difficult to read books in English…

Investigating a learner corpus 2

• Starting with a very frequent word…

• …allows us to build up a phraseology…

• …that is not fixed…

• …and that expresses something the writers often write about…

• …and that therefore the next generation of learners will need to be able to express.

Investigating a specialised corpus

• Starting point: that

• Often: evidence that

• Often: [existence] evidence that– E.g. there is (no) evidence that; found evidence

that

• Often: [possess] [assessed] evidence that– E.g. we have strong/compelling evidence that

Investigating a specialised corpus 2

• Starting with a frequent word…

• …allows us to build up a set of frequent phraseologies…

• …that are not fixed…

• …but that express something that is important to the speciality concerned…

• …and that learners also will need to express

In short…

• There are sequences of meaning that can be shown to occur often in a corpus

• These sequences represent ‘what is often said’

• A corpus investigation that identifies ‘what is often said’ is useful

• Among other things, it is useful to learners

The End!