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Title:
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A Corpus-Based Analysis of Simultaneous Speech in English Conversation
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Author:
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Anping He
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Degree Awarded:
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Victoria University of Wellington
, English Language Institute
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Degree Date:
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1997
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Text/Corpus Linguistics
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Subject Language(s):
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English
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Director(s):
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Graeme Kennedy
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Abstract:
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This is a study of the distribution of simultaneous speech in a 91,802-word subcorpus from the London-Lund corpus of spoken English. Five categories of simultaneous speech (successful and unsuccessful/unsuccessful turn-bidding, successful/unsuccessful turn-competition and backchanneling) were analyzed in terms of:(a) characteristics of the prosodic, lexical and grammatical context in which simultaneous speech occurs; (b) linguistic devices and strategies in aspects of prosody, discourse and pragmatics which are frequently used to introduce simultaneous speech; (c) variables such as speech domain, degree of familiarity between interlocutors, speakers' status and gender which may influence the frequency of simultaneous speech and affect the occurrence of the linguistic features and devices associated with simultaneous speech. In a complementary case study, 288 instances of simultaneous speech in Chinese (Cantonese) were also analyzed in a 10385 sample of Chinese conversation, and compared with simultaneous speech in English. The descriptive findings of the study help to explain why Chinese learners of English find it difficult to take a turn in English conversation, and especially to bid for a turn. Thus the study enhances our awareness of the linguistic features of English conversation and the factors which can affect Chinese students' pragmatic and discourse competence. Moreover, the computer corpus approach adopted in the research provides a way of obtaining rich input for teaching English discourse devices in terms of prosody, lexicon and syntax and suggests further application of corpus-based research in the study of language teaching and learning.
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