Crayton Walker English for Specific Purposes ( ESP )

1. “How a corpus-based study of the factors which influence collocation can help in the teaching of business English” Crayton Walker English for Specific Purposes (ESP)

2. Use of corpora in ESP • using one or more corpora to examine lexis associated with different domains (e.g. economics, engineering, banking, etc.) • comparing corpora of native speakers vs corpora of non-native speakers L1 often influences L2 production 3 corpus-based approach to verify the authenticity of the language used in ESP and EAP coursebooks, often showing unnatural sounding expressions (type of metaphors such as “organic” metaphors, eg growing business)

3. Aims of research • Two corpora are used to to examine the collocational behaviour of semantically-related verbs (head, run, manage) and nouns (system, process, procedure) from the domain of business English • The corpora are: The Bank of English (450 m. words) www.titania.bham.ac.uk The British National Commercial Corpus www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk (commercial and financial files from the BNC)

4. Collocation and semantic prosody • collocation is a syntagmatic relationship between words collocation [] a combination of words in a language, that happens very often and more frequently than would happen by chance (heavy rain, to take an exam, naked eye, true feelings, friendly fire) • the lexical approach (Cowie) • the statistical approach (Sinclair)

5. The lexical approach (Cowie) • A collocation exhibits a degree of fixedness and/or lack of transparency in meaning (to run the show) • categories: unrestricted, semi-restricted, familiar, restricted collocation – based on the criterion of commutability (a door ajar) • criterion of commutability (extremely happy, very happy, *highly happy, *greatly happy)

6. Frequency approach (Sinclair) • the strength of a particular collocation is assessed on the basis of how frequent it appears in a large representative sample of discourse (a corpus) • there are no impossible collocations – some collocations are much more likely to occur than others

7. span ,node and collocate • node (node word)= an item whose collocations we are studying • span= the lexical items on each side of a node (context horizon) • collocates= items on the environment set by the span [a concordance string, a concordance on-screen display]

8. -4 -3 -2 -1 node +1+2+3+4 • the distance between the node and the collocates is greater in the case of verb/noun collocation • the distance between adjective/noun and noun/noun collocations is smaller • software programmes (concordancing packages) can extract the most frequent or the most statistically significant collocates for a particular node (Word Sketch in the Sketchengine)

9. t-score • a statistical value which assigns a level of significance to each collocate • any collocate with a t-score of 2.00 or above can be regarded as significant • any collocate with a t-score below 2.00 may simply be the result of chance • normally “raw data” and t-scores are considered for the analysis of collocations

10. semantic prosody • Definition by Louw: “A consistent aura of meaning with which a form is imbued by its collocates” • set in (unpleasant states of affairs); naked eye (difficulty); true feelings (reluctance) (Sinclair) • According to Louw semantic prosody is the result of a dichronic process whereby meaning has been transferred from one word or words to another • cause (Stubbs) may have negative prosody especially when it is associated with a human agent • It is important not to over-generalize about semantic prosody especially in the case of polysemic words (high frequency items)

11. Is semantic prosody… • determined by the collocational environment or • a reflection of connotative meaning? • this question remains unsolved but there is a great debate over this issue in linguistics

12. Step1: establishing a collocational profile • identify the most frequent collocates of a node in a corpus of general English (BNC, COCA) • some programmes automatically give you the most frequent collocates (Word Sketch)

13. Step 2: establishing a collocational profile • identify the most frequent collocates for each of the selected items using a corpus of business English • compare the two profiles and establish whether there are any significant differences between general English and the business domain

14. Case study one • Doctor T is a senior manager working in a large manufacturing company with its head office in Germany. He is 47, German and responsible for Human Resources and Training throughout the company. The German company has recently acquired a British auto-parts manufacturer and Dr T has been asked to visit the newly acquired subsidiary to meet the management and address the workforce. • He wants to prepare a presentation about the structure of the German parent company, its Human Resources policies and ethos, and its management style. The German company prides itself on having a very ‘flat’ structure and an inclusive decision-making style.

15. Doctor T has a very high standard of English but is very concerned about getting the right tone in his presentation. • “should I say I run, manage or head the Human Resource Division or should I use a phrase like I am responsible for, or in charge of instead?” • Is it true that expressions like run or in charge of are more frequently associated with a top-down management style while responsible for or manage are associate with a more collaborative style?

16. run most frequent nominal collocates (+2) risk business country company show campaign club government place school

17. run • is frequently associated with power • expressions of power are avoided when they relate to people • run is more frequently used with nouns with reference to non-human entities rather than to people • run a business, run a workshop

18. manage business economy money affairs club investment portfolio company team finances

19. head team government investigation inquiry Department group committee CIA commission company

20. responsible for deaths actions death shareholders loss attack policy development murder safety

21. results • on the basis of corpus evidence Doctor T should avoid the word run and in charge of because they are associated with power (top-down management style) • run often occurs with non-human entities, therefore it would convey a feeling of master/servant relationship to native speakers • manage and responsible for are more frequently associated with people, although manage may be related to financial items

22. If you wish to convey a flat and inclusive management style… …use utterances such as I am responsible for Human Resouces I manage the Human Resources Division Avoid utterances such as: I am in charge of Human Resources I run the Human Resource Division

23. Case study 2: system, process, procedure • A young German purchasing manager working for a large German car manufacturerwants the members of his team to discuss a new plan for handling invoicesand actively participate in its implementation. • He wants to convey an inclusive style of management. • He feels that procedure may convey a prescriptive tone (something already definite and decided) • He does not want to be seen as the German manager imposing a German way of doing things on the UK team. • Invoice=a document giving details of goods and services that someone has bought and must pay for

24. system • social system (reform, restructure) • technical system (install, assemble) • social system (36% of the sample) • technical system (17%) • political system (14%) • system= cf. Macmillan Dictionary (a set of, a method of)

25. process • legal, political (peace), production (manufacturing), cognitive (learning), business (decision-making), natural (ageing) • negative semantic prosody (long, lengthy, complex, difficult, painful, etc.) but also positive (simple, easy) • adj+adj pattern: long and difficult process, difficult and risky process • process=a series of things/actions

26. procedure • verb collocates: undergo, perform (medical), follow, change, explain • adjective collocates: normal, standard, correct • procedure=a way of doing something especially the correct or usual way • procedure is used in a more prescriptive way than system and process

27. conclusion • avoid the word procedurebecause the word is far too prescriptive • avoid the word process because it gives the impression of something which is long, complex and slow • use system because it is neither prescriptive nor negative, therefore the best candidate of the three

28. A corpus-based study of collocational behaviour… • … can identify the different meanings and uses of a word • … can show negative prosody or connotational associations • … can be invaluable linguistic information for the lexicographer, materials writer, classroom teacher, language learner