Amplifier-Collocations-in-the-British-National-Cor

467TESOLQUARTERLYVol.37,No.3,Autumn2003AmplierCollocationsintheBritishNationalCorpus:ImplicationsforEnglishLanguageTeachingGRAEMEKENNEDYVictoriaUniversityofWellingtonWellington,NewZealandThisstudyexamineshowadverbsofdegreetendtocollocatewithparticularwordsinthe100-million-wordBritishNationalCorpusandconsiderssomepossibleimplicationsforEnglishlanguageteaching.Themutualinformationmeasureisusedtoshowthestrengthofthebondbetween24selectedamplierssuchasextremelyorgreatlyandotherwords(typicallyadjectivesorparticiplessuchasrareorappreciated,whichresultincollocationssuchasextremelyrareorgreatlyappreciated).Eachamplierisshowntocollocatemoststronglywithparticularwordshavingparticulargrammaticalandsemanticcharacteristics.Researchincognitivesciencehasshowntheextenttowhichwordsandcollocationsbecomeestablishedasunitsoflearningdependingonthefrequencywithwhichtheyareexperienced.Inthelightofthecorpus-basedevidenceonthenatureofcollocationspresentedinthisstudy,theteachingofcollocationsmightbeexpectedtohaveamoreexplicitandprominentplaceinthelanguageteachingcurriculum.Inclass,teacherscandrawattentiontocollocationsnotonlythroughdirectteachingbutalsobymaximizingopportunitiestoacquirethemthroughanemphasisonautonomousimplicitlearningactivitiessuchasreading.Formanyyearsacentralconcernforlanguageteachinghasbeenhowtospecifywhatpeoplelearnwhentheylearnalanguage.Themajorunitsoflanguagelearninghaveoftenbeenassumedtobesimilartothetraditionallevelsandunitsoflanguagedescription,namely,thesounds,words,andrulesofgrammaranddiscourse.Butsincethe1930s,asuccessionofleadingguresintheprofessionhaveurgedEnglishlanguageteacherstorecognisethatparticularwordstendtooccurinthecompanyofotherwordsandthatuentuseofalanguagedependsonlearningtousethesewordgroups.Thewordidiomhaslongbeenfamiliartolanguageteachersasoneofanumberoftermsforthisphenomenon,butPalmer(1933),arguablythemostinuentialEnglishlanguageDEMO468TESOLQUARTERLYteachingspecialistofthe20thcentury,adoptedthetermcollocationforrecurringgroupsofwords.Hedenedacollocationas“asuccessionoftwoormorewordsthatmustbelearnedasanintegralwholeandnotpiecedtogetherfromitscomponentparts”(p.i)(e.g.,onthewhole).Palmerwentsofarastosuggestthatevena“selectionofcommoncollocations...exceedsbyfarthepopularestimateofthenumberofsinglewordscontainedinaneverydayvocabulary”(p.13).Thepossibil-itythattherearemanymorecollocationstolearnthantherearewordsinalanguageperhapshelpsexplainwhylearningalanguageusuallytakessolongincomparisonwithothercomplexlearningtasks.Palmer’s(1933)pioneeringworkoncollocationsinEnglishlanguageteachingwasparalleledindifferentbranchesofthelanguagesciences.Amonganumberofscholarswhotookaccountofthephenomenonofcollocation,Firth(1957)emphasizedtheimportanceofbothlinguisticandsituationalcontextforthedescriptionoflanguagesinhismaxim,“Youshallknowawordbythecompanyitkeeps”(p.195);Peters(1977,1983)focusedonthelearningofgroupsofwordsastheunitsofrstandsecondlanguageacquisition;Hakuta(1974)andWong-Fillmore(1976)exploredthelearningofroutinizedorformulaicspeechbyL2learners;Nattinger(1980)appliedtheconceptofformulaicspeechtothedevelopmentofcurriculaforlanguagelearners;andinoneofthemostwidelycitedarticlesofthepasttwodecadesinappliedlinguistics,PawleyandSyder(1983)proposedacollocationalmodelinvolvinglexicalizedclausestoaccountforspokenlanguageuency.Corpus-basedevidencewasusedbySinclair(1991)tosupportwhathecalledtheidiomprincipleinlanguagelearninganduse(characterizedbytheuseofroutinizedcombinationsofwordsinspeechandwriting),andtohighlighttheneglectofcollocationsinthetheoryandpracticeofEnglishlanguageteaching.Hesuggestedthatwhereassomelinguisticprocesses(e.g.,subordination)mightappropriatelybeclassedasgram-matical(open-choice)phenomena,otheritemsorprocesses(e.g.,phrasalverbsoradjectivemodication)mightappropriatelybeconsid-eredaslexical.Suchlexicalizationhasoccurred,forexample,withverymuchinthankyouverymuch;itisuncommontondthankyoumuchinEnglishspeechorwriting.Untilrelativelyrecently,thetruecomplexityofcollocationswaslargelyhidden,andL2professionalshadnowayofunderstandingtheirnatureandtheextentoftheiruse.Overthepastdecadeorso,however,revolutionarydevelopmentsinthenewtechnologyofcomputercorpuslinguistics,andtheavailabilityofhugecollectionsoftextinelectronicformfromspokenandwrittensources(andofEnglishinparticular),hasmadepossiblenewinsightsintohowwordsaredistributedinalanguage.IncreasinglysophisticatedsoftwarefortheanalysisofcorporahasallowedresearcherstoexploremoredeeplythenatureofcollocationsDEMOAMPLIFIERCOLLOCATIONSINTHEBNC469and,indoingso,toreconceptualizethenatureofvocabulary,challengesyntax-basedapproachestolanguagedescriptionandpedagogy,andthrowlightonthenatureoflanguagelearning.Thepurposeofthisarticleistoexploreaspectsofhowonegroupofdegreeadverbs—ampliers—formcollocationswithotherwordsintheBritishNationalCorpus(BNC),oneofthelargestandmostrepresenta-tivecorporaofasinglevarietyofEnglishcurrentlyavailable.Moregenerally,theanalysisaimstoillustratethewaycorpus-baseddescriptionscanbeusedtoincreasetheunderstandingofhowE