ESSAY FINAL DISCOURSE AND TEXT 2021 | Ejercicios de Lingüística

THE USE OF WELL BY NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS

Pragmatic Markers cannot be taught in the same way as other lexical items but it is

important to discuss how and where they are used.

1. INTRODUCTION.

The boost in research based on authentic speech goes hand in hand with discovering that

repeats, pauses, false starts, pragmatic markers are not “errors” but are part and parcel of

“conversational grammar”. Pragmatic markers are also relevant for advanced learners of

English as a foreign language who want to achieve competence in speaking English. The

current study is restricted to the pragmatic marker “WELL”. The aim is to compare Swedish

learners’ use of well with native speakers’.

2. MATERIAL AND METHOD.

Spoken corpora are still a fairly new phenomenon. In order to describe Swedish learners’

use of the pragmatic marker wel I have used LINDSEI-SW, the Swedish component of the

recently compiled LINDSEI (Louvain International Database of Spoken English

Interlanguage) corpus of spoken learner texts (Guilquin et al. 2010).

The setup is the following: 50 swedish learners that have studied English for at least three

years and have a good command of the language, were interviewed by a native speaker.

They were encouraged to speak about a set topic and describe a four-picture cartoon.

A comparison is made with data from the LOCNEC (Louvain Corpus of Native English

Conversation) corpus compiled by Sylvie De Cock.

LINDSEI-SW No. of words = 102,131 / LOCNEC No. of words = 170,533.

3. OVERALL FREQUENCIES OF WELL.

Well is one of the most frequent pragmatic markers of English.

Raw figures LINDSEI-SW 391; LOCNEC 529

Relative frequency per 100,000 words LINDSEI-SW 544.17; LOCNEC 420.96

The native speaker corpus is used as a norm for interpreting the non-native speaker use in

terms of overuse and underuse. The Swedish learners overuse well in comparison with

native speakers.

According to different studies about the use of well in different countries (Gilquin 2008;

Müller 2004-5; Fung & Carter 2007; Hasselgren 2002), the pragmatic marker well is

overused by most of English learners in comparison with native speakers. There are both

formal and functional differences between native and non-native speakers. Well is used in

initial, medial, or final position by both learners and native speakers but with different

frequencies. Initial position in the turn is associated with turn-taking and the organisation of

discourse. In the learner corpus well occurred significantly more frequently embedded in the

utterance than initially. This is consistent with the idea that learners use well all over the

place with no special strategy in mind.

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THE USE OF WELL BY NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS

Pragmatic Markers cannot be taught in the same way as other lexical items but it is important to discuss how and where they are used.

INTRODUCTION. The boost in research based on authentic speech goes hand in hand with discovering that repeats, pauses, false starts, pragmatic markers are not “errors” but are part and parcel of “conversational grammar”. Pragmatic markers are also relevant for advanced learners of English as a foreign language who want to achieve competence in speaking English. The current study is restricted to the pragmatic marker “WELL”. The aim is to compare Swedish learners’ use of well with native speakers’.
MATERIAL AND METHOD. Spoken corpora are still a fairly new phenomenon. In order to describe Swedish learners’ use of the pragmatic marker wel I have used LINDSEI-SW, the Swedish component of the recently compiled LINDSEI (Louvain International Database of Spoken English Interlanguage) corpus of spoken learner texts (Guilquin et al. 2010). The setup is the following: 50 swedish learners that have studied English for at least three years and have a good command of the language, were interviewed by a native speaker. They were encouraged to speak about a set topic and describe a four-picture cartoon. A comparison is made with data from the LOCNEC (Louvain Corpus of Native English Conversation) corpus compiled by Sylvie De Cock. LINDSEI-SW No. of words = 102,131 / LOCNEC No. of words = 170,533.
OVERALL FREQUENCIES OF WELL. Well is one of the most frequent pragmatic markers of English. Raw figures LINDSEI-SW 391; LOCNEC 529 Relative frequency per 100,000 words LINDSEI-SW 544.17; LOCNEC 420. The native speaker corpus is used as a norm for interpreting the non-native speaker use in terms of overuse and underuse. The Swedish learners overuse well in comparison with native speakers. According to different studies about the use of well in different countries (Gilquin 2008; Müller 2004-5; Fung & Carter 2007; Hasselgren 2002), the pragmatic marker well is overused by most of English learners in comparison with native speakers. There are both formal and functional differences between native and non-native speakers. Well is used in initial, medial, or final position by both learners and native speakers but with different frequencies. Initial position in the turn is associated with turn-taking and the organisation of discourse. In the learner corpus well occurred significantly more frequently embedded in the utterance than initially. This is consistent with the idea that learners use well all over the place with no special strategy in mind.

4. CATEGORIZING WELL.

As an INTERJECTION well can be associated with the speaker’s deliberation. Well portrays the speaker “as pausing briefly to engage in a moment of real-time consideration before going on” (Schourop 2001:1046). Moreover when well is used in initial position in the utterance it can be argued that the deliberative meaning can be lost. Two main categories of examples about well uses: speech management and attitudinal. It is widely accepted that well also has the function of expressing an attitude to the hearer or to the preceding discourse. It has been described as a discourse marker signalling that what is said is not in line with expectations. The attitudinal uses of well have been categorized on the basis of the context. Well is found in disagreeing contexts. For example, well in the present study can have the function of introducing a set topic and it can be used by the speaker to embark on a description or narrative responding to the interviewer’s question. Well also has “activity-specific” functions when it is used to describe what happens in the cartoon. Well is multifunctional.

Speech Management- a. Choice b. Change c. Prospective d. Marking stages in a narrative e. Quotative
Attitudinal a. Opinion b. Disagreement.

WELL AS A SPEECH MANAGEMENT SIGNAL. 5.1 THE CHOICE AND CHANGE FUNCTIONS Well can be associated with two main functions: the choice-related (used for pausing and planning) and the change-related (or repair) function. (Allwood et al.1990).

CHOICE-RELATED [B] [overlap] /} and they mm erm. took me out to parties and [breathes] well different places so I could meet more people .. so .. em.. to get over my shyness. [B]
TURN-HOLDING [B] and he seems to be:. well. viewing her and he’s drawn some: sketches some outlines on the on the canvas and ha= hasn’t really done very much work. [B/] (LINDSEI-SW 005)
FILL A GAP WHILE PLANNING. [B] ERM. I think well about the same time .. he: or. yeah I think so because he just told me to to: well sort of hold my. legs up in the air and just put them down when [overlap] .. when you [B]. (LINDSEI-SW 015)

(15) B 1 okay .. well there’s em a man who’s. making eh a drawing of a of a girl and well how:. how. detailed should I be. you know A 2 it’s up to you B 3 okay and well he’s standing there in front of the: .. the painting and erm. A 4 yeah B 5 well she goes. when when he’s finished the painting he she goes. forward to see it and I don’t think that she looks very. satisfied because he’s sort of painted her as she really looks A 6 yes B 7 and em then she she goes back to her chair and sits down an’ I think that she’s given him some instructions because. he changes the painting and. and she looks more like a photo model A 8 mm B 9 and em. then she presents the the the painting for her. friends and well she is very:. happy with it and they they look more suspicious of it I believe (LINDSEI-SW 006) This function of well, which was only found in the picture description section (usually to introduce the main character), was used 33 times by the Swedish learners and only 16 times by the English students. (Table 8). 5.4 WELL MARKING A TRANSITION TO A DIRECT SPEECH QUOTATION. When well introduces direct speech it is also structural and prospective. Well locating with a form of Say, think, feel, or go is used to alert the speaker that what is coming next is a direct speech quotation. Examples of well and a quotation in direct speech were most frequent in the picture description and mainly found in LOCNEC. WELL with this function was used ten times in the learner corpus, to be compared with 49 times by native speakers. To sum up the discussion in Section 5, well has a number of speech management functions facilitating the speaker’s progression through discourse. Functions have to do with hesitation, planning ahead, giving feedback, embark on an extended answer to an interview question, to perform one of the set tasks, to mark the stages in the story or to introduce a quotation in direct speech.

THE ATTITUDINAL WELL - TAKING UP A STANCE TO THE HEARER OR TEXT. The attitudinal Well expresses attitudes or feelings to the hearer or to the preceding discourse. It can be used to take up different attitudes to the hearer or to the text, for example to correct and error made by the hearer, to agree with what has been said, to qualify an opinion or to signal unwillingness to answer a question. (18) In the following example the combination Oh well and the concomitant non-vocalic sound suggest an emotional stance in addition to modifying an opinion. (19)

Well (well no, well actually, yeah well, well but, well yes but) signals a correction, explanation or clarification, if the preceding discourse is challenging or makes the wrong assumption. (20) Well can also introduce the answer to a question which requires confirmation, clarification, explanation or justification. (21) More typically, well in answers to questions is associated with the speaker’s unwillingness or reluctance to answer a question directly. (22) To sum up, the attitudinal well expresses attitudes towards the hearer or the text. It is softening or downtoning and used before an opinion or before corrections, clarifications, denials. It can also express an emotion or feeling such as disapproval or resignation. When we look at the attitudinal function, well appears to be underused by the learners in both functions. (Table 10).

DISCUSSION. Table 11 summarizes the distribution of the speech management functions and the attitudinal functions of well in the Swedish component of LINDSEI and in LOCNEC. TABLE 11 The table shows that the Swedish learners use well significantly more for speech management than the native speakers, and less for attitudinal functions. In our study the Swedish learners were shown to significantly overuse well in the choice function but not in the change function. One should bear in mind that it is not possible to decide from the data discussed whether the differences between non-native speakers and the native speaker norm are representative of all individuals. Students are exposed to spoken English via television, meeting and communicating with native speakers. The learners’ preferences may therefore be linked to their desire to “sound English”. According to Liao (2009: 1314), the use of a pragmatic marker is “an ideal indicator of the extent to which an L2 speaker desires to be included in the local community because DMs [discourse markers] are often not part of the traditional classroom curriculum and L speakers generally acquire these expressions through contact with native speakers”.

ESSAY FINAL DISCOURSE AND TEXT 2021, Ejercicios de Lingüística

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THE USE OF WELL BY NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS

4. CATEGORIZING WELL.