1. Lexical patterning in academic talk
Pat Byrd
Georgia State University

2. Lexical Pattern defined
Repeated word or repeated sets of words
Repeated =
Repeated by many speakers/writers in a large corpus
Repeated by many speakers/writers but hard to find in a particular corpus
Repeated by a single speaker/writer in a corpus text…and maybe used by others but perhaps that person’s habit of speech
NOT a syntactic pattern
But
A repetition of a word
Or a set of words

3. Types of lexical patterns
Corpus studies have revealed a wide variety of often repeated lexical patterns in all types of communication.
These include
Single word formulas (thanks, okay)
Two-word collocates (help & people)
Multi-word sets with internal gaps (in the … place)
Multi-word sets that need completion (I don’t want to….)
Invariable multi-word sets (on the other hand)
Phrasal verbs (look up)
Prepositional verbs (agree with)
Multi-word idioms (… give someone a run for … money)
Names (Georgia State University)
Technical terminology (degree of freedom)
Phrase frames (the … of the, it is … to)

4. Conception of lexical patterning behind this study
#1. Language made up of a large lexicon with single words and multi-word units
We pull words and sets of words from memory and combine them using syntactic rules
Word sets often overflow the traditional syntactic boundaries of subject-predicate
#2. Prospecting ahead …Sinclair and Brazil
Words are used with other words…when we choose a word then we are choosing other words that are frequent with that word
Words come with grammatical expectations. If I start a statement with “while we” then listeners expect me to continue on with some verb/predicate that flows from that starting point

5. What we wanted to know…
How do the prosodic chunks and the lexical patterns interact?
How much of each sample is made up of lexical patterns?
How do speakers combine the lexical patterns into longer units?
What types of lexical patterns are found in the samples? What can teachers of oral communication make use of this approach to language analysis and the results of such an analysis?

6. Process for indentifying lexical patterns
Divided the two samples into prosodic chunks
Analyzed the lexical patterning found in each of the prosodic chunks
Created a list of lexical bundles in MICASE & checked the two lectures for appearances of any of the bundles, especially the high frequency bundles
Checked collocates based on MICASE
Used chains of collocates to suggest longer patterns
Used other reference sources when MICASE data didn’t support recognized or suspected patterns
COCA corpus (from Brigham Young)
AWL corpus
Google
Dictionaries
Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners of American English
Collins Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners

7. Lexical patterns used by the speakers in the samples
Formulaic single words
Lexical Bundles
Set or semi-set multiword units that don’t rise to the frequency level of lexical bundles in the MICASE corpus
Collocations

8. MICASE Lexical bundles in the sample lectures
Introduction to Biology
a lot of people
if you look at
in the in the
or something like that
the rest of the
to be able to
Sports in Ancient Rome
a little bit of
a lot of different
a lot of the
and then you have
and this is a
and you can see
are a lot of
as you can see
at the beginning of
at the end of
if you look at
in the case of
is going to be
thank you very much
that this is a
the beginning of the
the end of the
the rest of the
there are a lot
this is a very
we were talking about
you have to be
you look at the

9. Collocation Statistically significant relationships between 2 words
Example of collocates that come before the word theory in the MICASE corpus:
a, atomic, brain, Darwin’s, economic, evolutionary, expectancy, have, his, interactionist, my, no, of, political, quantum, etc.
Strong relationship between lexical words and function words:
theory + of, theory + about

10. Usefulness of collocations
Show relationships between words that can be several words apart…and might not be as easy to notice as adjacent words
Suggest longer patterns as collocations could be stringing together
Suggest set patterns with special meanings and uses: my theory is ….
Suggest patterns of use for a word
Source/origin: Darwin’s theory
Types: brain theory, evolutionary theory
Possible Idioms: my theory
Possible uses in combinations: have a theory

11. Visualizing lexical patterns in the MICASE samples
Worksheets for the two samples
Sports in Roman history: pages 4-5 in the handout
Introduction to biology: pages 6-8 in the handout

12. Tentative results
Analysis demonstrates the importance of repetition of previously used wording by both speakers
These are not words and phrases that have never been used in these combination but are words and phrases that many speakers of English use, especially college teachers at the beginning of terms and the beginnings of particular class sessions
Over 90% of the words in the samples were involved in lexical patterning
They are not putting together their remarks by a free combination of word to word to word but are combining widely used words and phrases to create these introductory remarks for these particular lectures
Prosodic chunks are a happy home for lexical patterns

13. Number of lexical patterns per prosodic chunk

14. Lexical patterns & prosodic chunks
A complete chunk is based on prosody rather than on syntax
Lexical patterns inside [complete prosodic chunks]
1. a single word: [okay]
2. a whole more or less fixed multi-word set: [what I wanna do today]
3. patterns that complete other patterns to build prosodic chunks, prospecting ahead for other patterns required by vocabulary and grammar:
[While we] >>> [recover the technology]
[What I wanna do today] >>>[is>>>to continue on>>>through our rapid tour]>>>[of Roman history>>>from the foundation of the city]>>>[down to the reign of Augustus]

15. Next steps
Analyze the lexical patterning in the content sections of the lectures when the teachers turn to talking about ancient Rome or biology
Consider how to use lexical patterns and prosodic chunks in teaching EAP listening and speaking