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Article published In: Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 31:2 (2018) ► pp.660–685

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Identifying verb collocational patterns in a specialized medical journal corpus

A pedagogical approach to phraseology

 | University of Barcelona
 | Kobe Gakuin University
Published online: 27 December 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.16019.ver
Abstract
This paper examines the collocational patterns of frequent verbs in medical research articles, and proposes a way to help non-native speakers of English learn word combinations frequently used in specific professional genres. We explore the correlations in the syntactico-semantic behavior and the collocational patterns of related verbs, in order to systematically teach recurrent word combinations.To this end, we present a corpus-based analysis of the collocational patterning of the verbs which belong to the same semantic frame in FrameNet, the frame EVIDENCE. These verbs were identified in 397 medical research articles from a pre-release version of the PERC (Professional English Research Consortium) corpus (3,155,118 tokens and 115,960 word types). The verbs examined, in approximate order of degree of increasing certainty, are suggest, argue, show, reveal, prove, demonstrate, substantiate, verify, confirm and corroborate. The results reveal that verbs that can be grouped into semantic and syntactic coherent sets also share combinatorial properties. We conclude that, rather than studying isolated verbs, making learners aware of these patterns of verb groups can greatly contribute toward efficient learning of the language of professional texts.
Resumen
Este artículo examina los patrones colocacionales de verbos frecuentes en artículos de investigación médica para proponer una manera de ayudar a los hablantes no nativos de inglés a utilizar las combinaciones de palabras que se usan recurrentemente en géneros profesionales específicos. Exploramos las correlaciones en el comportamiento sintáctico-semántico y los patrones colocacionales de verbos que están relacionados, con el fin de enseñar combinaciones de palabras de forma sistemática. Para ello, presentamos un análisis basado en corpus de los patrones colocacionales de los verbos que pertenecen a un mismo marco semántico en FrameNet, el marco EVIDENCE. Estos verbos se identificaron en 397 artículos de investigación médica en una versión preliminar del corpus PERC (Professional English Research Consortium). Los verbos examinados, en grado creciente de certeza, son: suggest,argue, show, reveal, prove, demonstrate, substantiate, verify, confirm y corroborate. Los resultados revelan que los verbos que se pueden agrupar en conjuntos semánticos y sintácticos coherentes también comparten propiedades combinatorias. Concluimos que hacer conscientes a los alumnos de estos patrones verbales, en lugar del estudio de verbos aislados, contribuye al aprendizaje eficiente del lenguaje de los textos profesionales.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.FrameNet
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Results
  • 5.Discussion and conclusions: Implications for teaching
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (92)
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