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Article published In: ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 176:2 (2025) ► pp.161–183

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A multi-corpus approach to the placement of however

Nativeness vs expertise

ORCiD logo with link | UCLouvain
ORCiD logo with link | UCLouvain
Published online: 16 September 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/itl.25002.dup
Abstract
While in recent years, many studies have been devoted to the frequency of connectors in second-language (L2) writing, the issue of connector placement has received scant attention. In this study we focus on the highly frequent and mobile connector however to identify L2 learners’ placement preferences. The study aims to contribute to the current debate around the notions of nativeness/non-nativeness and expertise/noviceness, and for this purpose relies on three corpora that differ in terms of nativeness and expertise. The results show that novice writers with English as a first language (L1) are not significantly different from novice writers from other L1s, both populations favouring initial positioning of however, while expert writers display more flexible positioning.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Connectors in Learner Corpus Research
  • Data and methodology
    • Data
    • Methodology
  • Results and discussion
    • Expertise and L1 effects
    • Discourse implications of the placement of however
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (38)
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