Too close for comfort?: A corpus-based study of EFL academic prose

Vander Viana

Too close for comfort? A corpus-based study of EFL academic prose

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

Abstract / Description of output

This paper looks into the specificity of academic prose in an EFL setting. To this end, it analyzes two learner corpora (a linguistic corpus and a literary one) compiled from scientific articles in English written by Brazilian researchers and published in online journals and proceedings. The study takes into account the notions of formulaicity and novelty in language (cf. Sinclair 1991, Wray 2002) and adopts the lexical bundle (cf. Biber et al. 2004) as its unit of analysis. The computer program WordSmith Tools (Scott 1999) is used to list the most frequent lexical bundles in both research corpora, which are then classified in terms of structure and function. The results show that more innovation occurs in the literary corpus, and, consequently, fewer lexical bundles. The corpora also seem to be different once the nature of bundles is considered.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Acting and connecting
Subtitle of host publication	Cultural approaches to Language and Literature
Editors	Sonia Zyngier, Anna Chesnokova, Vander Viana
Place of Publication	Münster
Publisher	Lit Verlag
Chapter	IV.2
Pages	139-170
Number of pages	32
ISBN (Print)	9783825807504
Publication status	Published - 2007

Publication series

Name	Kommunikation und Kulturen/Cultures and Communication
Publisher	LIT Verlag

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

Corpus linguistics
Academic prose
Brazilian researchers
English as a foreign language
Lexical bundles

Cite this

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title = "Too close for comfort?: A corpus-based study of EFL academic prose",

abstract = "This paper looks into the specificity of academic prose in an EFL setting. To this end, it analyzes two learner corpora (a linguistic corpus and a literary one) compiled from scientific articles in English written by Brazilian researchers and published in online journals and proceedings. The study takes into account the notions of formulaicity and novelty in language (cf. Sinclair 1991, Wray 2002) and adopts the lexical bundle (cf. Biber et al. 2004) as its unit of analysis. The computer program WordSmith Tools (Scott 1999) is used to list the most frequent lexical bundles in both research corpora, which are then classified in terms of structure and function. The results show that more innovation occurs in the literary corpus, and, consequently, fewer lexical bundles. The corpora also seem to be different once the nature of bundles is considered.",

keywords = "Corpus linguistics, Academic prose, Brazilian researchers, English as a foreign language, Lexical bundles",

author = "Vander Viana",

year = "2007",

language = "English",

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series = "Kommunikation und Kulturen/Cultures and Communication",

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booktitle = "Acting and connecting",

}

Too close for comfort? A corpus-based study of EFL academic prose. / Viana, Vander.
Acting and connecting: Cultural approaches to Language and Literature. ed. / Sonia Zyngier; Anna Chesnokova; Vander Viana. Münster: Lit Verlag, 2007. p. 139-170 (Kommunikation und Kulturen/Cultures and Communication).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

TY - CHAP

T1 - Too close for comfort?

T2 - A corpus-based study of EFL academic prose

AU - Viana, Vander

PY - 2007

Y1 - 2007

N2 - This paper looks into the specificity of academic prose in an EFL setting. To this end, it analyzes two learner corpora (a linguistic corpus and a literary one) compiled from scientific articles in English written by Brazilian researchers and published in online journals and proceedings. The study takes into account the notions of formulaicity and novelty in language (cf. Sinclair 1991, Wray 2002) and adopts the lexical bundle (cf. Biber et al. 2004) as its unit of analysis. The computer program WordSmith Tools (Scott 1999) is used to list the most frequent lexical bundles in both research corpora, which are then classified in terms of structure and function. The results show that more innovation occurs in the literary corpus, and, consequently, fewer lexical bundles. The corpora also seem to be different once the nature of bundles is considered.

AB - This paper looks into the specificity of academic prose in an EFL setting. To this end, it analyzes two learner corpora (a linguistic corpus and a literary one) compiled from scientific articles in English written by Brazilian researchers and published in online journals and proceedings. The study takes into account the notions of formulaicity and novelty in language (cf. Sinclair 1991, Wray 2002) and adopts the lexical bundle (cf. Biber et al. 2004) as its unit of analysis. The computer program WordSmith Tools (Scott 1999) is used to list the most frequent lexical bundles in both research corpora, which are then classified in terms of structure and function. The results show that more innovation occurs in the literary corpus, and, consequently, fewer lexical bundles. The corpora also seem to be different once the nature of bundles is considered.

KW - Corpus linguistics

KW - Academic prose

KW - Brazilian researchers

KW - English as a foreign language

KW - Lexical bundles

UR - http://www.lit-verlag.de/isbn/3-8258-0750-4

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SN - 9783825807504

T3 - Kommunikation und Kulturen/Cultures and Communication

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EP - 170

BT - Acting and connecting

A2 - Zyngier, Sonia

A2 - Chesnokova, Anna

A2 - Viana, Vander

PB - Lit Verlag

CY - Münster

ER -

Too close for comfort? A corpus-based study of EFL academic prose

Abstract / Description of output

Publication series

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

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