Collocations and Phrases and the
Academic Word List
AUTHOR
PAT BYRD
1
Collocations and Recurrent Phrases in the Academic Word List Pat Byrd
TESOL March 23, 2007
1. Overview of the Academic Word List (AWL)
2. Current project and its implications for writing teachers and materials used in teaching writing
3. Examples of Data from the project:
A. required (from sublist 1)
B. persistent (from sublist 5)
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require: 3635 uses of the family in the AWL corpus required (1368)
requires (636) requirements (560) require (552)
requirement (351) requiring (168)
Category Data and Examples Analysis and Comments
1. Major Collocations and
Recurrent Phrases
required to (2058.23)
required for (601.45)
required the (457.45)
required by (326.06)
required a (221.95)
is required (1239.90) are required (766.97) the required (528.94)
be required (304.05) was required (245.43)
The highest collocates using log-likelihood in Wordsmith
Tools 4.0. The number is parenthesis is the log
likelihood. See chapter XXXX for a discussion of
statistical measures of collocational relationships. These are not necessarily set
phrases but are collocational relationships and thus other
words might be inserted as in employees are also required.
required information (201.93)
not required (168.32)
Additional collocational
pairs with high log-likelihood scores.
is required to (103/29) are required to (100/29)
be required to (60/17)
required to be (51/15)
required by the (42/12)
is required for (36/10)
The six most frequent three-word clusters. These set phrases demonstrate that the
most characteristic use of required is as the past
participle in a passive verb phrase. Notice also the
characteristic use of the infinitive complement (Note:
first number in parenthesis is the raw count and the 2nd is
normed per million words.)
They are unlikely to satisfy the test required
by the main argument
Required is also frequent in participle clauses.
would have required all educational
Required sometimes appears in an active voice verb
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providers to
the tools of telecommunications
have required the development of skills
and conventions
phrase but this use is not as
frequent as the use in passive voice verb phrase or a participle clause.
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2. Other Patterns
they are required to seek approval
although they are not required to label them
differently
While required has three possible complement patterns, the most
characteristic is with an infinitive as shown with the
high log likelihood score given above for the
collocational relationship between required and to.
This in itself has
required more covert intellectual processes
The use of an NP
complement as direct object occurs in the active voice
pattern.
In one school selected, it is required
that each administrator, except
for the head, teach at least one class
While that clauses are found in the data, they are
extremely rare.
the consumer would
be required to notify the seller of the lack of
conformity within one month
some degree of a
priori judgement will always be required, no
matter which procedure is used
Approximately 7%
(99/1368) of the uses of required also involved a
modal auxiliary verb. The most frequent and strongest
relationship is with would.
Collocational Relationships: would …required (137.6)
will …required (59.7) may … required (56.32)
we aren't bound by
the required state curriculum
Use as an attributive
adjective is also rare.
Institutional agents:
by the workplace, by the better colleges, by
authority, by the Act, by shareholders
Methodological and requirements of
approaches to logical
Of the 729 uses of required
in sentences with passive verb phrases, only 96
included a by-phrase. None of these by-phrases involve a
human agent. However, by does collocate with required, a relationship that indicates
the importance of passive
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argumentation: by
correlation-based methods, by the main argument, by the
theorem, by the first property, by the second
property
Generic human groups: by an elderly
person, by the trainee, by those who do not
accept
voice uses with this verb.
required by law required by statute
Some phrases are not often attested in the concordance
but seem likely to be more numerous in particular
disciplinary sub-sets.
Required: Prepare a five-year
Required Reading
Used in headings for problems and lists in
textbooks
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persist persisted
persistence persistent: 35 uses
persistently
persisting persists
Category Data and Examples Analysis and Comments
1. Major Collocations and
Recurrent Phrases
persistent interaction (48.91) persistent http (30.16)
persistent puckers (27.24) persistent endo (25.03)
persistent sodium (25.03) and persistent (32.18)
conformations persistent (28.95) a persistent (27.29)
frequent persistent (25.66) more persistent (23.61)
The highest collocates using log-likelihood in Wordsmith
Tools 4.0. The number is parenthesis is the log
likelihood. See chapter XXXX for a discussion of statistical
measures of collocational relationships. These are not necessarily set phrases but are
collocational relationships and thus other words might be
inserted as in
persistent http persistent puckers
persistent endo
Some of the noun phrases with persistent seem to be edging
toward technical language with set phrases that are likely to be
of more restricted use than words in the higher frequencies
that exhibit wider ranges of use. For example, persistent-
connection http or persistent C3 endo puckers.
conformations persistent
persistent interaction
While the data on collocations
and phrases is limited because the use of persistent is so rare,
the data do suggest relationships that could be
suggestive for analysis in other sources. For example, the
strong pull between conformations and persistent is
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shown by the 542,000 uses of
the two words near each other in web-based materials on
google. The words persistent and interaction were used in the same environment on
google 2,870,000 times. Thus, other sources might be used to
confirm the importance of particular collocations and
phrases and/or to confirm their limitation to particular
discourses. (Google search on March 16, 2007.)
and persistent (6)
a persistent (2) the persistent (2)
persistent interaction (2) some persistent (2)
of persistent (2)
The six most frequent clusters.
Because of the limited use of this word, no three-word
clusters occur in the corpus. Two-word set phrases are
given here. The number in parenthesis is the raw
frequency count:
the repeated and persistent attempts of most
modern judicial systems
less-specific, close, and persistent interaction of sodium ions
a single-minded and
persistent obsession with knowledge
The pattern tool in Wordsmith Tools 4.0 showed a lengthy
frame around persistent. Note that such frames do not often
use all of the possible words. Also, the two-word phrase and persistent is a component of
this frame.
The [word] and persistent [word] of
persistent interaction
persistent sodium
Typical use is as an attributive
adjective (31 of 35 uses). One use is with offenders but other
nouns refer to non-animate abstractions like expansion,
optimism, expansion, marginalization, increase.
2. Other Patterns
more frequent and more
persistent than was observed
used in comparisons one
formed with than but in other patterns, too
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conformations that are persistent for longer than
the oldest, most persistent, and most
cohesive forms
3. Additional Information
persistent interaction
18 of the 35 uses are in "science": The use in the
sciences is neutral and means "ongoing" without any
suggestion that the continuation is a problem. The
major trend in the other disciplinary areas is to
associate the word with negative meanings.
persistent offenders
despite the repeated and persistent attempts
Some persistent administrative problems.
Three uses offer in the "law" subcorpus; all are negative in
tone or meaning.
the problems of persistent labor surplus
areas a persistent public
perception that the Employment Contracts Act
is unfair
Significant and persistent failure.
Five uses are in "commerce”; three of those uses seem
negative in tone.
persistent mutual
antagonism
Nine uses in the arts; six used
in clearly negative settings.
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persistent downward
revision
a single-minded and persistent obsession
persistent economic difficulties
chronically persistent
shortage of mental health manpower
The persistent
marginalisation and impoverishment."
persistent problems
Adolescent self-
consciousness is probably quite persistent.
He’s so persistent and so strong and so
invincible, that, maybe at the end, he's presented as
a contrast.
Persistent is found only 3 times
in MICASE spoken academic English (1.6 uses per million
words in MICASE vs. 10 uses per million words in the AWL
corpus). Two of the uses in MICASE have a clearly negative tone: The even more
limited use of persistent in spoken academic English
points to differences between academic writing and speaking
explored by Biber (2006), Carter and McCarthy (2006),
and Pickering and Byrd (forthcoming) . Note that only
one of these uses is as an attributive adjective in contrast
to the use in AWL. All three of these uses are in the social
sciences or arts rather than in the sciences, commerce, or law. The negative tone fits the
general pattern of meaning found in the AWL corpus for
non-science uses of persistent.
persistent cough Medical uses such as persistent
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persistent pain
persistent vegetative state
cough are not included in AWL
corpus. Note contrast with the conversational “cough that just
won’t go away.” On March 5, 2007, Google showed 45,100,000 uses of persistent.
Persistent cough was 960,000 of these; persistent headache
was counted 1, 020,000 times; persistent pain was found 1,
420,000 times. As a result of numerous newspaper articles
about a woman in the State of Florida in the U.S., the term
persistent vegetative state.
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Selected Bibliography of Publications on AWL
Coxhead, A. (2006). Essentials of teaching academic vocabulary. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2), 213-238.
Coxhead, A., & Byrd, P. (Forthcoming). Preparing writing teachers to teach the
vocabulary and grammar of academic prose. Journal of Second Language Writing.
Coxhead, A., Bunting, J., Byrd, P., & Moran, K. (forthcoming). The Academic
Word List: Collocations and recurrent phrases. Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press.
Pickering, L., & Byrd, P. (Forthcoming). Investigating connections between spoken and written academic English: Lexical bundles in the AWL and in
MICASE. In D. Belcher & A. Hirvela (Eds.), the Oral/Literate Connection: Perspectives on L2 Speaking, Writing and Other Media Interactions. . Ann
Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Selected Bibliography of Web-based Resources
Averil Coxhead’s Website at Massey University has links to the Academic Word List site with the word families and headwords given in different printable lists. Also, the site lists her publications: http://language.massey.ac.nz/staff/ac.shtml
Copies of the materials used in this TESOL presentation are available on Pat
Byrd’s website at http://www2.gsu.edu/~eslhpb/PatByrd/
Corpus-based Reference Resources for Writing Teachers & Materials Developers
Biber, D., Conrad, S., & Leech, G. (2002). Longman student grammar of spoken
and written English. Harlow, England: Pearson Education.
Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, E. (1999). Longman grammar of spoken and written English. Harlow, England: Pearson
Education Limited.
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Carter, R., & McCarthy, M. (2006). Cambridge grammar of English: A
comprehensive guide. Spoken and written English grammar and usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Macmillan English dictionary for advanced learners of American English . (2002).
Oxford: Macmillan Education.
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