Advances in Corpus-based Research on Academic Writing by Viviana Cortes & Eric Friginal

Author:Viviana Cortes & Eric Friginal [Cortes, Viviana & Friginal, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Published: 2020-02-04T11:08:19+00:00

3.2Bundles with a productive variable slot

This section adopts the approach found in Biber (2009) and Römer (2010) that uses a bottom-up approach to identify recurring sequences, in this case four-word lexical bundles, and then looks further to identify variable slots within those bundles. As Gray and Biber (2015) found, one of the most productive variable slots in four-word bundles was the second position (1*34). In the present study, it was also the case that the pattern that stood out as having an extremely productive variable slot across a range of disciplines was the second slot. One bundle, the * of the, was particularly prevalent. Chen and Baker (2010), also looking at four-word bundles, reported that the * of the was a productive frame and occurred in the four corpora used in their study.

Table 3 lists all the bundles for the frame the * of the and also indicates the disciplines in which the frame occurs. In looking at this pattern that ended the bundle with a definite article, we became curious about the pattern the * of a, since the use of the definite article the seemed that it would be more restrictive than the use of a as an indefinite article in that frame. This, however, this is another good example of how our intuition often is incorrect. The pattern the * of a only occurred two times in our entire corpus of over 25 million words.

As seen in Table 4, the 23 most common fillers for the variable slot in the frame the * of the are: end; size; nature; rest; top; center; surface; quality; development; shape; cost; bottom; width; beginning; importance; design; base; case; temperature; turn; length; needs; and value.

Table 4.Bundles by discipline for the frame the * of the

4 word bundlesArchBusCulDigiFashFilmHospInt DeStd ATotal Disc

the end of the P P P P P P P P P 9

the size of the P P P P P P P P 8

the nature of the P P P P P P P 7

the rest of the P P P P P P P 7

the top of the P P P P P P P 7

the center of the P P P P P P 6

the surface of the P P P P P 5

the quality of the P P P P 4

the development of the P P P P 4

the shape of the P P P P 4

the cost of the P P P 3

the bottom of the P P P 3

the width of the P P P 3

the beginning of the P P P 3

the importance of the P P 2

the design of the P P 2

the base of the P P 2

the case of the P P 2

the temperature of the P P 2

the turn of the P P 2

the length of the P P 2

the needs of the P P 2

the value of the P P 2

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