Diseño de la solución tecnológica

6.4.2.1 The node phrase a little

The phrasal intensifi er a little is the most frequently used downtoner in Chinese learner English. The phrasal downtoner a little is retrieved from CLEC and sixty-one occurrences are found. The adjectives modifi ed by a little are classifi ed into three groups according to their semantic meanings. They are adjectives carrying emotional attitudes: afraid (4), angry (2), frightened , hurt , lonely , sad , scared , unhappy (2) and upset (2); adjectives expressing unfavorable situations: danger-ous , diffi cult , dirty , hurt , ill , fat , hot , low , passive , outdated , dry , small , weak , older , late , bald , clumsy , different , disordered and hard ; adjectives taking the com-parative forms: bigger , cheaper , earlier , higher , older , quieter , etc. Among the sixty-one adjectives collocating with the downtoner a little , forty-nine (80%) express negative meaning, three (5%) have the positive meaning and nine (15%) have the neutral meaning. Table 6.45 shows the statistics in detail. It can be seen that the semantic prosody of a little is clearly a negative one.

Twenty concordances of a little in CLEC are randomly chosen and shown in Table 6.44 . They show that a little is a device used to modify adjectives of negative meaning, aiming to relieve the degree of the negative attitude expressed by the adjective collocates.

Table 6.43 Concordance lines for a little bit in NS corpora

1 aiting all along for you to do something a little bit crazy P18 211 like this.”

2 our A17 154 offense,” he said. “And it’s a little bit easier on A17 155 the offe 3 at Nottingham, “ Monica seems to be a little bit mixed up but we still expect 4 ach Sunday the congregation F25 113 grew a little bit larger. The atmosphere was 5 lthough he denies it, he used to be just a little bit jealous F21 18 of his form

Semantic preference and semantic prosody of intensifi ers 117

To sum up, Chinese learners of English use the phrasal intensifi ers a little in the same way as the native speakers, which is a phenomenon worth noting.

6.4.2.2 The node phrase a bit

The phrasal intensifi er a bit is the second most frequently used downtoner by the Chinese learners of English. In CLEC, thirty-three concordance lines for a bit are retrieved. Twenty concordance lines are randomly chosen and shown in Table 6.46 . The intensifi ed adjective collocates of a bit in CLEC display obvious similar semantic and pragmatic features to the native corpora FROWN and FLOB.

Semantically, the adjective collocates of a bit covers three main fi elds. They are emotive feelings: worried (3), sorry , impatient , frightened , discouraged , disap-pointed and afraid (2); adjectives expressing an unfavorable condition: older , slow , old-fashioned , noisy , too abstract , husky , hard , foolish , dirty , diffi cult (3), Table 6.44 Concordance lines for a little in CLEC

1 r Wu he was about fi fty years old. I was a little afraid of him. I hesitated for 2 r name here before you come in.” We went a little angry because he was so rude.

3 y two years old at that time. When I was a little bigger, father often worked i 4 feel my voice trembling. The girl seemed a little calm after a few seconds. Agai 5 n. Being a college student, I might seem a little childish to read it. Some of m 6 again and again. At the beginning I was a little clumsy. By and by I became ski 7 ountry. Of course, the situation here is a little different from yours. On one h 8 st known of her writtings . This book is a little diffi cult for me to read. Beca 9 front of the mirror. But I found it was a little dirty because it had been hung 10 resent human beings are born with, seems a little far-fetched for most women in 11 begun . At this time, I feel excited and a little frightened. Put the text books 12 you can get him for me?” She questioned, a little impatient with my soundless re 13 ost fall in love. I was very excited and a little nervous that night. I’d never 14 by those two fact. Perhaps this view is a little passive, but death is inevitab 15 ng her hands into her pockets. They look a little sad and very tired. May be The 16 and lifted up to share the view. She was a little scared by the assaulting sound 17 could make them cry. By the way, you are a little similar to them in this respec 18 about them, my speed of reading is still a little slow. I think later I should p 19 rything is as well as usuall . But I had a little unhappy today: On my way home, 20 y winter vacation. One day my Mum looked a little upset when she came back from

Table 6.45 Frequency and percentage of positive, negative and neutral adjective collocates of a little in CLEC

Collocates

of a little Positive Negative Neutral in all

CLEC 3 (5%) 49 (80%) 9 (15%) 61(100%)

118 Semantic preference and semantic prosody of intensifi ers

cruel ; and adjectives in the comparative form: older , younger , and better . Chinese learners use a bit properly in terms of the semantic preference in comparison with native speakers.

The semantic prosody of a bit in CLEC is also negative, similar to its use in the native corpus. Out of the thirty-three collocates of a bit , twenty-fi ve (76%) express negative meaning, fi ve (15%) have a positive meaning and three (9%) convey a neutral meaning. The statistics are shown in Table 6.47 .

6.4.2.3 The node phrase a little bit

The phrasal intensifi er a little bit appears eight times in the learner corpus; how-ever, it is still overused signifi cantly compared to that in the native corpora. The concordance lines for a little bit in the Chinese learners corpus are listed in Table 6.46 Concordance lines for a bit in CLEC

1 he mountain, I began felt very tried and a bit afraid. If we not careful we can 2 o my seat with my teachers jacket it was a bit big for me but I felt very warm i 3 om pain dying and do nothing to make him a bit comfortable is also inhuman in so 4 Carrying out Euthanasia may seems to be a bit cruel, but seeing a helpless pati 5 ior middle school, study English is felt a bit diffi cult, but I will keep on stu 6 an see many black powder on it. It looks a bit dirty. There is a rocking chain o 7 ing the best woman actor. But it made me a bit disapointed , for Leon Lai was fa 8 but now I did not try to be on 90. I am a bit discouraged. Sunday Dec 3rd Su 9 6:05 p.m. I got on the last bus that day a bit earlier than usual, but still fou 10 lly speak at a normal speed, which seems a bit fast to non-native speakers. Thus 11 y. He said to me, “Some people think I’m a bit foolish. They don’t understand wh 12 ght for a few years. Her sight let us be a bit frightened, so we were not dare t 13 ough relation net . However, it is still a bit hard for students to get a positi 14 be useless. “You fool,” my friend became a bit impatient, -maybe afraid. “Necess 15 n playing, laughing, and jumping make it a bit noisy. However, A is obviously mo 16 ways has a teacher of midium age or just a bit older. He or she must has rich te 17 ear the economic development seems to be a bit slow. Furthermore, the market-ori 18 ody, besides studying hard. Though I was a bit tired, I spent suffi ciently today 19 down from the ceiling, not dust. I have a bit worried about my safety and that 20 f class must be in their 40’s or 50’s or a bit younger. They do want to teach th

Table 6.47 Frequency and percentage of positive, negative and neutral adjective collocates of a bit in CLEC

Collocates

of a little Positive Negative Neutral in all

CLEC 5 (15%) 25 (76%) 3 (9%) 33 (100%)

Semantic preference and semantic prosody of intensifi ers 119

Table 6.48 . The eight instances are a little bit angry , a little bit late (2), a little bit foolish , a little bit banal , a little bit diffi cult , a little bit easier and a little bit louder . The eight concordance lines reveal similar semantic preferences to its use in the native corpora. That is, it prefers to intensify adjectives expressing bad emotion, bad conditions, taking the comparative forms, such as higher and louder . So we can conclude that Chinese learners of English use a little bit in a native way in terms of its semantic preference.

All eight adjective collocates of a little bit carry negative meaning. Its semantic prosody is obviously negative. To conclude, Chinese learners of English use a little bit in a native way in terms of its semantic prosody.

6.4.2.4 Interim summary

The semantic preference and semantic prosody of the three phrasal intensifi ers ( a little , a bit , a little bit ) are explored in the learner corpora. Different from the fi ndings about the other two groups of synonym intensifi ers investigated in this section, learners can use a little , a bit and a little bit in similar patterning in terms of the semantic preference and semantic prosody.

6.5 Discussion

The examination of the semantic features of three groups of synonymous intensi-fi ers brings insights into the understanding of the interrelations of the components within the framework of EUM. Semantic prosody is at a stage of abstraction higher than semantic preference. Semantic prosody is an indication of the speakers’ atti-tude about the entities and propositions that he or she is talking about. The seman-tic preference remains relatively closely tied to the phenomenon of collocation.

The co-selection between the collocates and the node words, the semantic prefer-ence and the distinctive semantic prosody are good illustrations of the theory of EUM. Chinese learners of English use some intensifi ers quite differently than the native speakers, and at the same time, they can use some intensifi ers in a similar way as the native speakers in terms of semantic preference and semantic prosody.

Table 6.48 Concordance lines for a little bit in CLEC

1 0 fen for the ticket ?” “ Why?” I became a little bit angry. “ I’m very sorry “ 2 long time will fi nd it, sooner or later, a little bit banal. That is why my frie 3 oyment situation in China, I think it is a little bit diffi cult subject. Yes, Ch 4 l of romantic thoughts, sometimes sounds a little bit foolish. But a lot of fact 5 change to this new energy because of its a little bit higher price. Though indiv 6 to undertake the task. Although we start a little bit late, but if we keep on ma 7 ill be horrible disaster. Although it is a little bit late for humanity to pay a 8 ng your saxophone. The music is good but a little bit louder. It not only puts a

120 Semantic preference and semantic prosody of intensifi ers

The characteristic features of intensifi ers in learner English as well as the underly-ing factors accountunderly-ing for these features are as follows:

(1) Chinese learners of English use the synonymous intensifi ers interchangeably, even when they show different semantic preferences and semantic prosodies, which may disclose learners’ inadequate pragmatic skill.

Native English shows that synonymous intensifi ers may tend to express differ-ent pragmatic meanings and deliver differdiffer-ent attitudes. Pragmatic meanings and lexis are co-selected. The fi ve synonymous maximizers, completely , totally , entirely , absolutely and fully , are typical examples that show that near synonyms carry similar denotational meanings, but they function differently in their conno-tational meanings. Pragmatically, they express different attitudes ranging from being absolutely negative to obviously positive. For example, completely tends to collocate with adjectives with negative prefi xes and has obvious negative semantic prosody, entirely intensifi es adjective collocates ending in the suffi xes -able/ible and - al and the semantic prosody expressed by entirely is mixed; fully intensifi es adjective collocates with - ed and expresses a neutral semantic prosody. Each of the intensifi ers has its own particular semantic preference and carries particular semantic prosody. However, Chinese learners of English treat these pseudo-syn-onymous maximizers as interchangeable and ignore the co-selection between the lexis and the pragmatic meaning. The semantic preference of entirely and abso-lutely displayed in native English cannot be found in the learner English. Most of the fi ve investigated maximizers in learner English display mixed semantic proso-dies, which are markedly different from native English, pointing to learners’ unde-veloped pragmatic awareness. Learners’ inadequate pragmatic knowledge will no doubt cause misunderstanding. The building up of the learners’ pragmatic knowl-edge calls for reform in the compiling of dictionaries and textbook materials. It is suggested that the traditional way of teaching synonyms by listing them together without explicit explanation of their pragmatic usages should also be given up.

Learning and using synonyms in the old ways will be a potential trap for learners because it emphasizes the denotational meaning of words rather than their usage (Tognini-Bonelli, 2001: 34; Xiao & McEnery, 2006: 111).

(2) Chinese learners can use diminishers properly in terms of their semantic preference and semantic prosody, which can be mainly attributed to the positive sociopragmatic transfer.

This research shows that diminishers display negative semantic prosodies, which is in line with the fi ndings of Wu (2010). Diminishers are in many cases used to collocate with adjectives of negative meaning. They function to mitigate threats and down tone the degree of negative attitudes. The present study shows that learners are able to use the synonymous diminishers a little , a bit and a little bit similarly to the native speakers in terms of both semantic preference and semantic prosody. The proper use of the diminishers can be mainly traced to the

Semantic preference and semantic prosody of intensifi ers 121 Chinese learners’ traditional cultural backgrounds. The concept of politeness and modesty in Chinese culture enables learners to down tone rough attitudes and to be polite to save face. As Brown and Levinson (1987) propose, the concept of sav-ing face is a universal human need, and it is the key motivatsav-ing force for politeness and rapport management. Though there are different strategies in specifi c speech act performances, general concepts and dimensions of politeness do exist (Hill et al., 1986; Yu, 2003). To abide by the politeness maxim (Leech & Leech, 1983), downtoners become the devices to minimize the dispraise of others and to save face.

Learners’ proper employment of diminishers in the present study shows that socio-pragmatic knowledge in L1 is transferred positively in producing L2 (Kasper, 1992:

209). Sociopragmatic transfer is operative when social perceptions underlying lan-guage users’ interpretation and performance in L2 are infl uenced by their assess-ment of equivalent L1 contexts. Chinese learners’ traditional concepts of politeness are transferred positively in using diminishers to mitigate the negative attitude.

(3) Learners display limited collocational abilities in using intensifi ers, which are embodied in the narrow semantic fi elds of the adjective collocates of intensifi ers.

The semantic preferences of the investigated synonymous intensifi ers suggest that learners have very limited collocational abilities. Learner collocates tend to cover narrower semantic fi elds in comparison with those of the native speakers. For example, for the booster very , learners primarily use adjective collocates of very to the semantic fi eld of comments and evaluation, and they do not use adjective col-locates of the semantic fi eld of relationship; for the booster so , learner colcol-locates are restricted to the semantic fi eld of quantity features, and they do not employ any adjective collocate in the semantic fi eld of relationship; for the booster too , learners use collocates within the semantic fi eld of quantity features and ignore the semantic fi eld of relationship. They are more likely to use intensifi ers to modify adjective collocates in the narrower and more focused ranges of semantic fi elds. This suggests that the learners’ collocational knowledge is limited and their collocational aware-ness is inadequate. Although there is a growing recognition of collocation in lan-guage teaching, there seems to be a lack of awareness of its true signifi cance (Howarth, 1998). Learning vocabulary and learning the collocations of the vocabu-lary are inseparable. The development of collocational skill is vital to learners’

English ability and the accomplishment of the communicative purpose.

(4) Chinese learners of English display their sound knowledge in the employ-ment of familiar intensifi ers in terms of semantic features.

Chinese learners of English tend to use familiar intensifi ers properly and unfa-miliar intensifi ers improperly. This trend appears to be noticeable in their use of the three groups of synonymous intensifi ers under study. The group of synonym boosters very , so and too and the group of diminishers a little , a bit and a little bit are all overused by learners and most of them are used appropriately, which forms

122 Semantic preference and semantic prosody of intensifi ers

a sharp contrast with their use of maximizer group synonyms, which are underused and employed improperly by learners. This cannot be taken as a coincidence but to be taken seriously. This is largely due to textbook input bias in that overused intensifi ers by learners often have frequent occurrences in textbooks and are emphasized unduly during English learning and teaching process.

Since the more emphasized linguistic items in learning and teaching can become familiar to learners, intensifi ers, as a key device to express the attitudinal mean-ings, deserve the same amount of attention in the teaching material and classroom teaching processes as nouns, verbs and adjectives do. With this effort, the overuse and underuse of intensifi ers can be avoided and the misuse of certain intensifi ers can be reduced.

6.6 Summary

Three sets of synonymous intensifi ers have been examined in this chapter. The characteristic features of these intensifi ers in terms of semantic preference and semantic prosody have been analyzed. We have found that learners have used intensifi ers very differently from native speakers in some cases, while they are able to use a few intensifi ers similarly to native speakers. For example, in case of ampli-fi ers, learner English differs from native speaker English signiampli-fi cantly either because of semantic preferences or semantic prosody, but in the case of downton-ers, learners reveal similar features to native speaker English in terms of colloca-tion, semantic preference and prosody.

In all cases examined, L1 transfer seems to be an important causal factor for errors and inappropriateness in output. Another factor which has probably caused learner errors is pedagogic input bias, by which is meant the undue emphasis given to relevant linguistic forms in the pedagogic process.

Where language knowledge is concerned, leaner English is characterized by noticeable weakness in collocational knowledge. Learners’ collocational range is seriously limited and narrowed. More seriously, they do not possess the skills for using words pragmatically.