A Study On Chinese Lexical Bundles In Spoken And Written Genres

"Lexical bundles are simply sequences of word forms that commonly go together in natural discourse"(Biber et al.,1999).In terms of frequency and structures,lexical bundles can be regarded as extended collocations with high frequency.In terms of meaning,the whole meaning of lexical bundles are composed of their parts.The study of lexical bundles,at home and abroad,proves that lexical bundles can be found in different languages,such as English,Spanish,Korean and German.Furthermore,former studies of lexical bundles found that lexical bundles could be regarded as "building blocks" in language production,which could improve language processing and language fluency.And they can serve several kinds of functions in speaking and writing,such as expressing stance,organizing discourse and expressing references,which can improve communication.Furthermore,some study found that lexical bundles in different languages and different genres showed different characteristics in terms of number and frequency,structures and functions.However,the discussion of dispersion of lexical bundles is untouched in former study.Furhermore,Chinese is different from English,Spanish and Korean and corpus-based study of Chinese lexical bundles is rare.It is unclear what characteristics Chinese lexical bundles have and how they will be reflected in different genres.Therefore,it is necessary to make deeper and systematic discussion of Chinese lexical bundles based on large corpus.This study focuses on qualitative and quantitative analysis of Chinese lexical bundles.Qualitative analysis is devoted to the definition,identification and classification of Chinese lexical bundles.In this part,it is necessary to discuss the following two perspectives,which were not investigated in former study.First,some characteristics of Chinese languages should be incorporated in the definition of Chinese lexical bundles.Second,the complementary relationship of defining and identifying Chinese lexical bundles should be realized.For quantitative analysis,by referring to the framework of genre analysis,this study makes exploration on Chinese lexical bundles,by examining two one-million corpuses of LLSCC(The Lancaster Los Angeles Spoken Chinese Corpus)and LCMC(Lancaster Corpus of Mandarin Chinese).LLSCC is composed of the following four genres:natural conversation,TV scripts,narratives,special topics(debates and interview).LCMC includes the following four genres:academic writing,news,fiction and non-fiction.By comparing the number and frequency,structural and functional classifications and the dispersion of Chinese lexical bundles in eight genres,a comprehensive picture of Chinese lexical bundles is shown by answering the following questions:1)What characteristics do Chinese lexical bundles have in terms of definition,identification and classification?And how can the complementary relationship between defining and identifying Chinese lexical bundles be realized?2)Are there any different/similar characteristics in terms of the number,frequency,structural classification,functional classification and dispersion of Chinese lexical bundles in such genres as natural conversation and academic writing?If yes,can these differences or similarities indicate some characteristics of different genres and the Chinese language?3)Are there any different/similar characteristics in terms of the number,frequency,structural classification,functional classification and dispersion of Chinese lexical bundles in such genres as natural conversation,TV scripts,special topics and narrative?If yes,can these differences or similarities indicate the characteristics of different genres and the Chinese language?4)Are there different/similar characteristics in terms of the number,frequency,structural classification,functional classification and dispersion of Chinese lexical bundles in such genres as academic writing,news,official documents and fiction?If yes,can these differences or similarities indicate the characteristics of different genres and the Chinese language?In quantitative analysis,the definition,identification and classification of Chinese lexical bundles are discussed in details,which provide answers to the first questions.During the defining and identifying process,the following steps are conducted:defining,identifying and re-defining.The characteristics of Chinese lexical bundles,in terms of form,structure,meaning and frequency,should be merged into the identifying factors,implying the guidance of definition to identification.Meanwhile,the concrete identifying conditions of Chinese lexical bundles,such as frequency,MI score,form,structure,meaning,intuition,should be incorporated to re-defining process,making improvements to the first definition of Chinese lexical bundles in this paper and showing the assistance of the identification to the definition.On the basis of the definition,the identification and the dispersion,two lists of Chinese lexical bundles are summarized,which can be used to teach Chinese as a foreign language,in order to improve teaching effect.In terms of structures,based on the word classes of the main components of Chinese lexical bundles,they can be classified into the following kinds:VP-based bundles,NP/PP based bundles,AP-based and Dependent clause bundles.In terms of functions,based on the functions of the main components of Chinese lexical bundles in context,they can be classified into the following kinds:stance bundles,discourse organizers,referential bundles,special functional bundles and multi-functional bundles.In qualitative analysis,lexical bundles in such four spoken genres as natural conversation,TV scripts,narratives,special topics(debates and interview),and such four written genres as academic writing,news,fiction and official documents are explored,which provides answers to the second,third and fourth questions.Major findings are concluded as follows.(1)In terms of number and frequency,it is found more frequent Chinese lexical bundle with larger number in such spoken genres as natural conversation,TV scripts,narratives and special topics(debates and interview)than such written genres as academic writing,news,official documents and fiction.And this can be attributed to the Chinese characteristics merged with the context and communicative purpose of spoken genres,such as more and frequent Chinese lexical bundles combined with 1st or 2nd personal pronouns,inquiry words,Uarticles and AP-based bundles serving as predicates.(2)In terms of structures,lexical bundles in such four spoken genres as natural conversation,TV scripts,narratives and special topics(debates and interview)and such four written genres as academic writing,news,official documents and fiction have shown similarities and differences,indicating the characteristics of Chinese language and communicative purpose of different genres.Similarities in structures of Chinese lexical bundles are found in different genres in the following three perspectives,which imply the characteristics of Chinese language.① the number of VP-based bundles occupies a large proportion of all the lexical bundles,which indicated frequent use of verbs in Chinese.② Non-passive VP-based bundles have indicated the subjectivity of Chinese language,because Chinese passives are usually connected with the inflictive meaning.③ The large number of NP/PP-based bundles with classifiers signify the diversified and frequent use of Chinese classifiers.Differences in structures of Chinese lexical bundles are found in different genres in three dimensions,which imply the context of different genres.① in spoken genres,some AP-based bundles can function as interrogation and negation,without the help of auxiliary verbs,which shares the similar use with verbs to help the turn-taking in communication.There are no this type in written genres.②Dependent-clauses bundles without conjunctions in the spoken genres are more than those in the written genres,because Chinese put more emphasis on meaning rather than form and the logical relationship is not based on overt conjunctions but context.③Third,more lexical bundles with 1st or 2nd personal pronouns in spoken genres are usually used to indicate the context and communicative purpose of spoken genres,which is a way of clear reference and turn-taking in speaking.(3)In terms of functions,lexical bundles in such spoken genres as natural conversation,TV scripts,narratives and special topics(debates and interview)and such written genres as academic writing,news,official documents and fiction have reflected the characteristics of Chinese language,and the context and purpose of different genres.Similarities in functions of Chinese lexical bundles are found in different genres in the following two perspectives,which imply the characteristics of Chinese language.① many stance bundles are composed of Chinese word "shi".② many referential bundles are composed of classifiers.Differences in functions of Chinese lexical bundles are found in different genres in the following two perspectives,which imply the context of different genres.①major functions of bundles in different genres are different.For example,lexical bundles,in such spoken genres as natural conversation,TV scripts,narratives and special topics(debates and interviews),are mainly used to express stance.However,lexical bundles,in such written genres as academic writing,news,official documents and fiction,are mainly used to express reference.② Components of bundles in different genres are different.Many lexical bundles in spoken genres are combined with 1st or 2nd personal pronouns,inquiry words and particles,which indicate the context and communicative purpose of interactions.Bundles with 1st or 2nd personal pronouns,inquiry words and particles are rare in Chinese written genres,which conform to the context and communicative purpose of writing.(4)In terms of the relationship between structural and functional classification,Chinese spoken and written genres have indicated similarities and differences.Similarities are found in different genres in the following two perspectives,which imply the characteristics of Chinese language.① Stance bundles mainly consist of VP-based bundles.② Referential bundles mainly consist of NP/PP-based bundles.Differences are found in different genres in the following three perspectives,which imply the context of different genres.① AP-based bundles in written genres mainly express stance.However,AP-based bundles in spoken genres not only express stance,but also serve special conversational functions.② dependent clause bundles in written genres express stance and serve as discourse organizers.On the other hand,dependent clause bundles in spoken genres serve as discourse organizers and serve special conversational functions.③ few bundles in written genres have special conversational functions.In contrast,VP-based bundles and dependent clause bundles in spoken genres serve special conversational functions.(5)In terms of dispersion,Chinese spoken and written genres have indicated differences,which imply the context of different genres.Differences in dispersion of Chinese lexical bundles are found in different genres in the following two perspectives.① The number of lexical bundles with wide dispersion is different.For example,lexical bundles,in such spoken genres as natural conversation,TV scripts,narratives and special topics(debates and interviews)have more bundles with wide dispersion than in those written genres.② The value of lexical bundles with wide dispersion is different.For example,lexical bundles,in such spoken genres as natural conversation,TV scripts,narratives and special topics(debates and interviews)have more bundles with higher value than in those written genres.By exploring the Chinese lexical bundles,the present study has theoretical,practical and methodological significance for the field of studies of lexical bundles.Firstly,from a theoretical perspective,the study focuses on the defining,identifying and classifying of Chinese lexical bundles.By taking the characteristics of Chinese language into consideration,the definition,identification,and classification of Chinese lexical bundles are more meaningful.The complementary relationship between definition and identification have been realized,which can help to disclose the rules of Chinese lexical bundles,and enriches the study of lexical bundles from a different language.Second,from an empirical perspective,with comparison,the rules of lexical bundles in spoken and written genres have been found,which indicated the characteristics of Chinese language and different genres.On the basis of the definition,the identification and the dispersion,two lists of Chinese lexical bundles are summarized,which can be used to teach Chinese as a foreign language,in order to improve teaching effect.In the methodological perspective,dispersion(D value)has been adopted to show an overall picture.By comparing the dispersion of Chinese lexical bundles in many Chinese spoken and written genres,an overall picture of the characteristics of Chinese lexical bundles has been shown clearly,which enriches the study of lexical bundles.