The integration of frequency dimensions and lexicalization preferences in foreign language learning
(2023) NVT-net, Taal, communicatie en cognitie: van onderzoek naar onderwijs — Location: Université de Liège (31.March.2023)
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- Learners of foreign languages (L2) tend to compare foreign structures with the ones in their mother tongue (L1). Comparing languages means focusing on similarities and differences between the structures in L1 and L2 (König & Gast 2012). Similarity between language pairs presupposes that equivalent structures exist between the languages under study. But what does equivalence mean? Several studies have dealt with different types of equivalence, among others semantic or pragmatic equivalence (James 1983; Olesky 1983 & 1986), contextual equivalence (Halliday, McIntosh & Strevens 1964) or sentential equivalence (Krzeszowski 1990). However, with particular attention to usage and authentic discourse, equivalence should also be defined in statistical terms (Krzeszowski 1981), i.e. by focusing on the frequency of similar structures in the language pairs. My talk aims at revisiting the notion of similarity or equivalence by proposing to integrate the frequency dimension in foreign language learning (FLL). It will show that frequency differences in the use of similar structures in language pairs are dependent on the lexicalization preferences in these languages. With two case studies for the language pair German vs. French, the presentation will illustrate that the lexicalization preferences depend, on the one hand, on the classification of both languages either as satellite-framed (= German) or as verb-framed (= French) languages (Slobin 1996 & 2017; Talmy 2000), and on the difference between synthetic (= German) vs. analytic (= French) languages (Schlücker 2012; Siemund 2004), on the other hand. The first case study deals with causal constructions with (color) adjectives (De Knop 2015), e.g. Sie ist rot vor Wut (lit. ‘She is red with anger’). Equivalent syntactic structures with a similar semantics exist in both French and German. The second study deals with so-called “verbless directives” (Jacobs 2008; De Knop & Mollica 2018), e.g. Ab ins Bett (lit. ‘Off to bed’) which are used in both languages. However, both studies show that even if similar structures exist in German and French, they are not used with the same frequency; sometimes alternative lexicalization patterns are preferred as more authentic ways of expression. The two studies provide evidence for the necessity to integrate frequency dimensions and favorite lexicalization patterns in a usage-based teaching methodology. References De Knop, Sabine (2015). Causal constructions with an adjective in German and French: typological and pedagogical considerations. Special issue of Journal of Social Sciences on Phraseodidactics and Construction Grammar(s), ed. by Maria Isabel Gonzalez Rey, 11(3): 289-303. De Knop, Sabine & Fabio Mollica (2018). Verblose Direktiva als Konstruktionen: ein kontrastiver Vergleich zwischen Deutsch, Französisch und Italienisch. In Jürgen Erfurt & Sabine De Knop (eds.), Konstruktionsgrammatik und Mehrsprachigkeit, 127–148. Universität Duisburg-Essen: Universitätsverlag Rhein-Ruhr OHG. Gast, Volker (2012). Contrastive Linguistics: Theories and Methods. In Kortmann, Bernd & Johannes Kabatek (eds.), Dictionaries of Linguistics and Communication Science: Linguistic theory and methodology. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Halliday, M.A.K., Angus McIntosh & Peter Strevens (1964). The Linguistic Sciences and Language Teaching. London: Longman. Jacobs, Joachim (2008). Wozu Konstruktionen? Linguistische Berichte 213: 3-44. James, Carl (1983). Contrastive Analysis. London: Longman. König, Ekkehard & Volker Gast (2012). Understanding English-German Constrasts. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag. Krzeszowski, Tomasz P. (1981). Quantitative contrastive equivalence. Studia Linguistica 35(1-2): 102-113. Krzeszowski, Tomasz P. (1990). Contrasting Languages. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Oleksy, Wiesaw (1983). Pragmatic equivalence in contrastive studies: requests in Polish and English. In K. Sajavaara (ed.), Cross-language Analysis and Second Language Acquisition, 70-93. Jyvaaskyla: University Publishers. Oleksy, Wieslaw (1986). Some recent approaches to equivalence in contrastive studies. In Kastovsky, Dieter & Aleksander Szwedek (eds.), Linguistics across historical and geographical boundaries. In honour of Jacek Fisiak on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday. Vol. 2: Descriptive, contrastive and applied linguistics, 1405-1420. Berlin: de Gruyter. Schlücker, Barbara (2012). Die deutsche Kompositionsfreudigkeit. Übersicht und Einführung. In Gaeta, Livio & Barbara Schlücker (eds.), Das Deutsche als kompositionsfreudige Sprache. Strukturelle Eigenschaften und systembezogene Aspekte, 1-25. Berlin: De Gruyter. Siemund, Peter (2004). Analytische und Synthetische Tendenzen in der Entwicklung des Englischen. In Hinrichs, Uwe & Uwe Büttner (eds.), Die europäischen Sprachen auf dem Wege zum analytischen Sprachtyp, 169-196. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. Slobin, Dan I. (1996). Two ways to travel: Verbs of motion in English and Spanish. In Shibatani, Masayoshi & Sandra Thompson (eds.), Grammatical Constructions, 195-219. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Slobin, Dan I. (2017). Typologies and language use. In Ibarretxe-Antuñano, Iraide (ed.), Motion and Space across Languages, 419-445. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Talmy, Leonard (2000). Toward a Cognitive Semantics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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De Knop, S. (2023). The integration of frequency dimensions and lexicalization preferences in foreign language learning. NVT-net, Taal, communicatie en cognitie: van onderzoek naar onderwijs, Université de Liège. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/164108