Diachronic learner corpus research: Examining learner language through the lens of time
(2019) International Computer Archive of Modern and Medieval English Conference (ICAME 40) — Location: Université de Neuchâtel (1.June.2019)
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- While learner language change has been examined in pseudo-longitudinal and longitudinal studies, through the analysis of developmental patterns, the possibility for learner language to display diachronic evolution has hardly been considered in learner corpus research. As pointed out by Laitinen (2016: 176), “research on learner English has focused on interlanguage phenomena and proficiency in acquisition and not on time and diachronic processes”. Yet, since language has been shown to evolve through time (see, e.g., Kytö 2011), including short periods of time (cf. Leech et al. 2009), it seems worthwhile to investigate the potential impact of time on learner language. In this presentation, use will be made of a new resource, namely ICLE-FR+25, which has been specifically designed to allow for the diachronic analysis of learner English. Built on the model of ICLE-FR, the French component of the International Corpus of Learner English (Granger et al. 2009), ICLE-FR+25 includes data produced by learners with a profile very similar to that of the learners who contributed to ICLE-FR, but collected some 25 years after ICLE-FR. The comparison of ICLE-FR and ICLE-FR+25 thus makes it possible to carry out a (short-term) diachronic learner corpus analysis, and find out whether learner language can be said to be affected by changes characterizing the evolution of native English. Preliminary results suggest that the phenomenon of Americanization, for example, which results in a growing influence of American English on British English (Leech et al. 2009: 252ff.), might also lead to a stronger presence of American words in more recent learner English (the word movie, for instance, is the preferred option in ICLE-FR+25, whereas in ICLE-FR the word film is predominant). Adopting both a corpus-based approach (taking some of the findings from Leech et al. 2009 as a starting point) and a corpus-driven approach (relying on automatic methods of comparison), the present study will seek to bring to light some of the differences between ICLE-FR and ICLE-FR+25, and see how these could result from diachronic evolution. As such, this study will represent a first step towards showing the relevance of the temporal dimension for learner language, and thus establishing the field of ‘diachronic learner corpus research’.
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Gilquin, G. (2019). Diachronic learner corpus research: Examining learner language through the lens of time. International Computer Archive of Modern and Medieval English Conference (ICAME 40), Université de Neuchâtel. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/220257