浙江林学院国际教育学院

ACorporaStudyofEnglishDimensionAdjectivesInAcademicSpeakingandWritingChenShengweiInternationalCollegeZhejiangForestryUniversity陈声威浙江林学院国际教育学院1.Adjectives•Biberetal.(1999):centraladjectivesperipheraladjectivescolor,size,dimension,time,etc-descriptive,characterizingthereferentofanominalexpression2.Whatdimensionadjectivesinfocus?broaddeephighlonglowtallwidehighvs.tallTsui(2001):…hightobeusedinametaphoricalsensewithmoreabstractnouns;talltobeusedmorefrequentlywithconcretenounssuchaspeople,treesandbuildings.3.Researchquestions(1)Whatistherelationshipofdimensionadjectivesbetweenliteralandnon-literalusesinacademicEnglishspeakingandwriting?(2)Whatarethefeaturesofacademicadjectivesintheirnon-literaluses?•Definingliteralusesofdimensionadjectives:wheretheydefinethespatialextentsofconcreteandvisibleobjects4.Thecorpora4.1MICASE-1.7millionswordsfrom152speecheventsrecordedtheUniversityofMichigan1997–2001-lectures,colloquia,researchgroupmeetings,dissertationdefense,facultymeetings,studentstudygroups-EnglishLanguageInstitute,TheUniversityofMichigan;RitaSimpson,JohnSwales4.TheCorpora4.2Hyland-1.3millionwords-80recent(by2004)researcharticles,10eachfromeightfields-ProfessorKenHylandoftheInstituteofEducationofUniversityofLondon5.DatacollectedTable1:Percentageofliteraluseofthedimensionadjectives(baseformonly)MICASEHylandTotalLiteral%TotalLiteral%1tall262492tall54802deep512447deep6014233high66211217broad7713174wide621016wide16225155broad60915long4394196low286176high10483337long69950.7low73260.8By“baseform”,hereitmeansthecomparativesoftheadjectives,e.g.higher,andhighest,arenotcovered.6.Thefindings6.1Allhavebeenusedmoreorlessinliteralsense.(1)tall:24outof26inM,4of5inH;(2)Majorityrangingbetween10–50%;(3)Average:27.7forM,21.3forH.6.ThefindingsThedimensionadjectivesareratherfrequentlyused,andmorefrequentlyusedinnon-literalsensethanliteralsense,inbothacademicspeakingandwritingLiteralusesoftallvs.highregardingTsui(2001)Inthisstudy:tall–92%inMand80%inHhigh–17%inMand3%inH-SupportingTsui(2001)•Inthesituationwhenbothareusedinliteralsense,authorsorspeakerstendedtousehighmorefrequentlythantall.hightallMICASE11224Hyland3346.Thefindings6.2deep,high,long,widepositiveinmeaning,indicating“greatness”invaluethusmorecompatibleininvestigation•Thefourdimensionadjectivesareusedinnon-literalsense52%lessfrequentlyinspeakingthaninwriting(seeTable1)Reason:tobeexploredIncompatibilitywithSwalesandBurke(2003):Evaluativeadjectivesoverallare30%morefrequentinthespokendata.6.Thefindings6.3Non-literalusesofthefouradjectives:theirsemanticfeatures(lexicographicimplication)(1)Alldescribinghumanunderstanding,learningorexplorationofthenatureofsomething.mostfrequentco-occurrence(collocation)–knowledge•deeprationale,deepunderstanding,deepsense,adeepstudy,deepinstinct;•highlearning,highawareness,ahighestimate,hightrust;•widethinking,widevocabulary,widesense,wideperspectives(2)deep,highandwidearealsocommonindescribingtherangeandinfluenceofhumanactivitiesornaturalphenomena.e.g.deepscrutiny,deepencumbrance,deepimpact,deepchange,deeppenetration,deeprole,deeppricereduction;highrelation,hightemperature,highassociation,highisolation,highresponsiveness;widesearch,wideexpanses,wideinvolvement,wideassortment,widecirculation.•Moreimplicationstobefound…Thankyou!Commentsandsuggestionsarewelcome.