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Article published In: English World-Wide
Vol. 40:3 (2019) ► pp.299–324

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Lexical bundles in conversation across Englishes

What can core and peripheral bundles reveal?

 | Hong Kong Baptist University
 | The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong
Published online: 24 September 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.00033.hua
Abstract
This study adopts . 2014. “The Circle of English: An Exploration of the ‘Core’ and ‘Periphery’ of World Englishes”. In Eugene Green, and Charles Meyer, eds. The Variability of Current World Englishes. Berlin: De Gruyter, 99–119.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar methodological framework to investigate core and peripheral lexical bundles (i.e. recurrent multi-word sequences) in conversation, using data from the British, Canadian, Singapore, and Hong Kong components of the International Corpus of English (ICE). The overlap and non-overlap comparisons reveal (dis)similarities in the use of bundles across the four World Englishes (WEs). Our findings suggest that in terms of discourse building blocks, the more advanced a variety is according to Schneider, Edgar. 2007. Postcolonial English: Varieties around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar Dynamic Model of New Englishes, the more lexical bundles it shares with the common core in conversation. Canadian English (CanE) shares the most common ground with British English (BrE). As a nascent variety, Hong Kong English (HKE) differs most from BrE, while Singapore English falls between CanE and HKE. Though the results do not correlate with Schneider’s Dynamic Model at the level of recurring chunks, they allow us to test predictions of WEs models. Quantitative and qualitative analyses enable the identification of bundles with significantly high frequency in each regional variety, thus enriching comparative research of WEs.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Existing research on lexical bundles in spoken discourse
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Corpus and English varieties
    • 3.2Identification of core and peripheral bundles
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Overview of core and peripheral bundles in conversation
    • 4.2Intervarietal comparison of bundles in conversation
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Sources
  • References
References (80)
Sources
ICE Canada. International Corpus of English. Compiled at the University of Alberta.
ICE Great Britain. International Corpus of English. Compiled at University College London.
ICE Hong Kong. International Corpus of English. Compiled at The University of Hong Kong and The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
ICE Singapore. International Corpus of English. Compiled at the National University of Singapore.
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