7. Adjective + Noun sequences in attributive or NP-final positions: Observations on lexicalization

Abstract

Frequent Adjective + Noun sequences in the British National Corpus based on the most frequent ‘central’ adjectives were examined in their use as noun premodifiers and in other uses (predicative, adverbial, or with N being the head of a noun phrase). Hyphenated and non-hyphenated occurrences were taken into account. An investigation of the presence of these sequences in dictionaries shows a relatively strong correlation with frequency of occurrence, as well as with hyphenated spelling. Six Adj + N sequences were more closely examined in the Periodicals and Spoken sections of the BNC, and evidence of reanalysis was found in changes of scope, predicative uses of an adjectival nature, adverbial uses, and occurrences of Adj + N as subjects or objects with restricted sense. A small, but not negligible, proportion of unambiguously lexicalized occurrences was found. Finally, the accentual behaviour of Adj + N sequences was investigated in a laboratory experiment. The prevalence of the /12/ accentual pattern across the frequency of occurrence range and in attributive as well as predicative uses showed that degree of lexicalization had no influence on the stress pattern.

References

“…Compared to the random sample of ANs, the 'compound adjectives' had significantly higher attributive proportions (t=7.6849, p=3.089e-12), significantly higher spelling ratios (t=5.1099, p=2.293e-06) and significantly higher positional family sizes (t=10.5929, p= 8.296e-15). The frequency data therefore strongly support the view that there is a group of AN collocations that function as compound adjectives, as suggested by Bauer (1983: 211), Jespersen (1914: 320) and Arnaud (2008). Just as with the appositional types, we would therefore predict that [AdvAN]N constructions will be found in which the AN constituent forms one of these compound adjectives.…”

Intensificatory Tautology in the History of English: A Corpus-based Study

“…3c). Frequent co-occurrence of lexemes sharing core semantic features may lead—as in this case—to the (co-) lexicalization of the elements within the cluster (see, e.g., Lorenz 2002:149; Arnaud, Ferragne, Lewis & Maniez 2008:111). Furthermore, in this particular case, the tautological nature of the combination(s) further foregrounds their degree import (“more form stands for more meaning,” see section 2), thus making them prime candidates for undergoing well-established pathways of grammaticalization (i.e., adjective > degree adverb; see Hopper & Traugott 2003; Traugott & Dasher 2005).…”

The Effectiveness of Focused Instruction of Formulaic Sequences in Augmenting L2 Learners’ Academic Writing Skills: A Quantitative Research Study

“…With the growing interest in the formulaicity of language production, the body of research concerning formulaic sequences has attempted to determine the characteristics that identify this language phenomenon. Several researchers in the field of second language acquisition have defined formulaic sequences as prefabricated chunks that are stored in and retrieved from the memory as wholes (Arnaud, Ferragne, Lewis, & Maniez, 2008;Chen, 2009;Conklin & Schmitt, 2008;Pawley & Syder, 1983;Sinclair, 1991;Tremblay& Baayen, 2010;Wood, 2001Wood, , 2006. Among those researchers is Weinert (1995) who points out that formulaic sequences refer to multi-word (How do you do?)…”