Error Analysis of Support Verb Constructions in Written Spanish Learner Corpora

Abstract

This article studies the use of support verb constructions (SVCs) in the written production of learners of Spanish. SVCs are lexical combinations whose content is similar to verbal predicates but is distributed between a verb and a noun, the noun being the carrier of the core lexical meaning of the predicate. Although there is considerable agreement on the importance of these constructions in the learning process, their use in the production of learners of Spanish has so far attracted little attention. This study examines the difficulties posed to learners by this construction by means of a qualitative analysis of the errors registered in 3 samples consisting of essays by learners with 3 different mother tongues (English, Swedish, and Japanese). It focuses on 3 types of error, 2 of which—the support verb choice and the determiner choice—seem to be especially problematic due to the unpredictability of the units involved. The third type—using an SVC instead of a more idiomatic 1‐word verb—is regularly found only in the samples of the Japanese speakers, which suggests the influence of a particular mother tongue in its production.

Introducing the CORYL Corpus: What it Is and How We Can Use it to Shed Light on Learner Language

“…This finding confirms those of Salido (2016), obtained in an error analysis of 'Support Verb Constructions' (svcs) in written Spanish learner corpora. This study maintained that one of the most frequently collocation types used correctly and incorrectly in the corpus was that of svcs.…”

“…Here all-purpose forms, such as have, get, or a lot, were shown to be used in contexts where native speakers chose a word more specific to the collocation, such as acquire, undergo or profusely. This reflects Salido's (2016) findings in his study of support verb constructs, referred to above; Salido noted that svcs were common in both correct and incorrect collocations in learner language. A study of core words in coryl might involve searching for the word itself, for example get, and finding which words it tends to collocate with.…”

Конструкции с опорным глаголом в русском и итальянском языках / Support Verb Constructions. A Russian-Italian Contrastive Analysis

“…Во-вторых, по результатам исследований многие коллокации, произведенные учениками, являются нестандартными: от приблизительно 20% по данным (Garcia Salido 2014;Benigno, Vedder 2016; Wang 2016) до более 30% по результатам (Nesselhauf 2004;Laufer, Waldman 2011). Самой распространенной ошибкой является выбор неправильного глагола (Nesselhauf 2004;Gilquin 2007;Laufer, Waldman 2011;Garcia Salido 2016;Wang 2016). Значительная часть нарушений в глагольно-именных кол-локациях вызвана трансфером с родного языка (Altenberg, Granger 2001;Nesselhauf 2005;Gilquin 2007;Juknevičienė 2008;Laufer, Waldman 2011;Scinetti 2013;Benigno, Vedder 2016).…”

“…Значительная часть нарушений в глагольно-именных кол-локациях вызвана трансфером с родного языка (Altenberg, Granger 2001;Nesselhauf 2005;Gilquin 2007;Juknevičienė 2008;Laufer, Waldman 2011;Scinetti 2013;Benigno, Vedder 2016). Кроме отрицательного трансфера с L1, материал исследований свидетельствует о потенциальном положительном влиянии родного языка в случае полностью эквивалентных коллокаций (Kaszubski 2000;Nesselhauf 2005;Gilquin 2007;Scinetti 2013;Benigno, Vedder 2016;Garcia Salido 2016;Wang 2016). Другие ошибки являются интралингвистическими и обусловлены, например, нарушением принципа лексической связанности (Howarth 1996;Nesselhauf 2005; Wang 2016).…”

Exploring a Loan Translation and Its Consequences in an Oral Bilingual Corpus

“…Copying the meaning and form from one language to another results in a literal translation, which can be of the svc type. The study of support verb constructions is a concern not only in minority language settings (Backus and Dorleijn, 2009;Otheguy, 1993) but also in the domain of second language acquisition and pedagogical materials design since the accurate selection of the collocate verb can be difficult for learners and is very often subject to interlingual transfer, even among advanced language learners (Salido, 2016). In a study of verb+NP collocation errors made by Hebrewspeaking learners of English, Laufer and Waldman (2011) found that nearly 90% (42/47) of the error types in svc s that persisted from basic to advanced levels of L2 proficiency were direct translations of their semantically equivalent Hebrew collocations.…”