Formulaic language

• Formulaic language


  Involves the storage of co-occurring words (rather than symbols)
• Formulaic language


  • It's a game of two halves
  • What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?
  • Her presentation was all over the place
  • Who'd a thought it / thunk it
  • She's a real character. In fact she's larger than life
  • He's not very happy at the moment. In fact he's down in the dumps
  • For crying out loud
• Language can be viewed as an abstract system where linguistic structures can be described in terms of abstract labels like Subject, Verb, Object, Noun Phrase, Verb Phrase, etc.
• The ability to use language in an abstract manner is viewed as a key linguistic skill
• Wug style tests have been used in language acquisition research to assess knowledge of abstract linguistic structures
• Formal accounts like Chomsky emphasize the importance of abstract linguistic knowledge
• In contrast with the abstract system view, formulaic language involves the storage of co-occurring words
• Formulaic language


  Chunk-like, rolls off our tongue, sounds as if it has been stored as a whole, relatively resistant to manipulation
• Formulaic language


  • It's a game of two halves
  • What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?
  • Her presentation was all over the place
  • Who'd a thought it / thunk it
  • She's a real character. In fact she's larger than life
  • He's not very happy at the moment. In fact he's down in the dumps
  • For crying out loud...
• Collocations


  Words which are very likely to co-occur in the same fragment of text - often next to each other
• Adj + N collocations

  • That's a weak / *feeble cup of tea
  • That's a *weak / feeble excuse
  • She's a serious / *keen workaholic
  • He's a ?serious / keen sportsperson
  • She has high / *tall hopes
  • He told a *high / tall story
• V + N collocations

  • He *did / made a decision
  • Could you do / *make me a favour
• Formulaic language is "chunk-like" and "rolls off our tongue"
• Formulaic language sounds as if it has been stored as a whole
• Formulaic language is relatively resistant to manipulation
• Collocations are words which are very likely to co-occur in the same fragment of text - often next to each other
• Adj + N collocations are combinations of an adjective and a noun that commonly occur together
• V + N collocations are combinations of a verb and a noun that commonly occur together
• Properties


  • Idioms
  • Phrasal verbs
• Types of idioms


  • Constructional idioms
• Theoretical Imps


  Theoretical implications
• Clin.Imps.


  Clinical implications
• Formulaicity in ClinPops


  Formulaicity in clinical populations
• Conc Rems


  Concluding Remarks
• V + N collocations


  • He *did / ✓made a decision
  • Could you ✓do / *make me a favour
• V + N collocations

  • She's a stern boss who ✓brooks / *suffers no dissent
  • She's a stern boss who doesn't *brook / ✓suffer fools gladly
• Range of collocations


  • Two word Adj + N or V + N collocations
  • Multi-word chunks, e.g. down in the dumps and larger than life
  • Entire sentences, e.g. I couldn't agree more
• Detecting collocations


  If two words exist in a collocation, then their chances of co-occurring within a multi-word fragment, are greater than would be predicted from their individual frequencies.
• log p(x,y) / p(x) p(y)
• Introduction


  • Collocations
  • Phonological processes in formulaic language
  • Idioms
  • Theoretical implications of formulaic language
  • Clinical implications
  • Concluding Remarks
  • Reading
• Phonological processes


  Phonological reduction = omission / combination of sounds
• Phonological processes


  • What do you want to do? "wA dZ @ wAn @ "dU:
  • Do yetis have big feet? *dZetIs h@v bIg fi:t
  • I'd like some fish and chips aId laIk s@m fIS n tSIps
• skwi:t (Californian English)
• Why does phonological reduction happen?

  • There is a natural tendency towards phonological reduction ⇒ greater speed efficiency
  • Speed/Efficiency ⇐ ⇒ Intelligibility
• Types of collocations


  • Adj + N
  • V + N
• Collocations


  • Have a range of possibilities
  • Can be detected through statistical analysis
• Phonological processes


  Changes in the pronunciation of words in formulaic language
• Idioms


  Formulaic expressions with non-compositional or unpredictable semantics
• The meaning of idioms is not predictable from the form
• Idioms pose a lot of difficulty for L2 speakers of English