The Many Functions of Formulaic Sequences

In the course of Chapter 4, we found that while most types of formulaic sequence appear to play a role in alleviating the speaker's processing effort, this is far from the whole story. Scripted weather forecasts indicate that formulaicity can be present where there are no pressures on the speaker's production, if there are particular pressures on the hearer's comprehension. It also seems likely that much stylistic repetition is dedicated to aiding the hearer's decoding, by directing attention and reinforcing particular aspects in the content. Formulaic discourse markers seem able to support both the speaker's and the hearer's processing simultaneously. By mapping out the structure of the text, they help the speaker to remain focussed, while making the content and the speaker's intentions easier for the hearer to follow. Another major role for formulaic sequences was found to be that they signalled the speaker's identity as an individual or as a member of a group. Finally, we identified a large set of formulaic sequences whose primary role is to manipulate the hearer into a desired action or perception. In total, then, the evidence in Chapter 4 presents a very mixed picture. There seem to be several roles for formulaic sequences, neither mutually exclusive nor obviously compatible. Many appear to relate to the speaker, but some are partly, or even exclusively, geared towards the interests of the hearer.

Introduction

We saw in the last chapter that the identification of formulaic sequences in text is extremely difficult, largely because of the absence of any single definition able to capture all the relevant features at once. Various solutions to this problem are possible. One is to live with a definition that is, at some level, exclusive. This means that types of string which fall outside that definition are simply set aside, even if they seem to have something ‘formulaic’ about them. Many of the definitions that we shall review in this chapter do this either explicitly or implicitly. Another solution is to accept a fragmented definition or, to put it another way, establish a bundle of features, any or all of which a formulaic sequence may possess, but none of which is individually necessary. To date, this approach does not seem to be much adopted in definitions of formulaic sequences, perhaps because there is still a strong underlying belief that they are a single linguistic phenomenon (something that I shall dispute later). Two more favoured approaches are the closely related ‘prototype’ definition, in which an individual example of a formulaic sequence is identified with reference to one or more definitions which can apply strongly or weakly, and the ‘continuum’ type of definition, where subtypes of sequences are set along a scale from most to least formulaic. Finally, there is always the possibility of discarding all the definitions that rest on form, in favour of a different type of definition.

Introduction

In the last chapter, it was possible to engage in some depth with the detail of formulaic language output from individual learners. This was because the research on children tends to be in the form of case studies, recording either all of their L2 utterances, or else regular samples. Research on adult learners is generally not like this. Within the case study approach, which predominates in the work on naturalistic acquisition in the L2 environment, accounts of formulaic language tend to be anecdotal rather than reflecting a full record or disciplined periodic collection. Meanwhile, formulaic language research on classroom-taught learners focusses on groups rather than individuals, so that it is rarely possible to gain more than a glimpse of a particular learner's profile over time. As a result, the data from adults and teenagers in published sources does not lend itself to a direct consideration of the interactional and processing functions of formulaic sequences, since the necessary context of utterances is not always given, and individual examples cannot be judged for their representativeness. In this chapter, then, we shall engage first of all with the data on its own terms, identifying the common patterns that are relevant to our current discussion. Only after that will it be possible to raise our main questions, regarding the roles which formulaic sequences may be playing in adult and teenage second language learners.

Introduction

In this chapter, we shall consider how various features associated with formulaic sequences might be used to help identify them, and in Chapter 3 we shall review approaches to definition. It might seem rather odd to do things in this order, since identifying something obviously relies on how you define it. However, the relationship between definition and identification is circular: in order to establish a definition, you have to have a reliable set of representative examples, and these must therefore have been identified first. In actual fact, in the case of formulaic sequences, identification relies less on formal definitions than the definitions rely on identification, and that tips the balance in favour of dealing with the two in this order. We do, of course, have our working definition of formulaic sequences (Chapter 1) to guide us.

Introduction

In a series of advertisements run on British TV early in 1993 by the breakfast cereal manufacturer Kellogg, people were asked what they thought Rice Krispies were made of, and expressed surprise at discovering that the answer was rice. Somehow they had internalized this household brand name without ever analyzing it into its component parts. It was as if the name of the product had taken on a life of its own, and required no more reference back to its ‘meaning’ than do words of foreign origin such as chop suey (‘mixed bits’) and spaghetti (‘little cords’). But how could this come about in the case of a name which, although oddly spelled, so transparently refers to crisp rice? In actual fact, overlooking the internal composition of names is a far more common phenomenon than we might at first think.

Introduction

In Chapter 2, we studied the Noun Phrase from two points of view. First, from a phrase-external perspective, we discussed the contexts in which NP is found, and introduced subtheories that account for NP distribution. We then examined the internal structure of the phrase, describing the basic structural and functional relations among constituents that co-occur with a noun to form NP (or DP). In this chapter and in Chapter 4, we will consider these same issues with respect to the Verb Phrase (VP). We will begin the discussion in this chapter with an overview of the distribution of VP, and provide a preliminary description of principles that account for this distribution (Section 3.2). We will see that there are two grammatical relations that restrict the distribution of VP: the relation between VP and the clausal subject, and the relation between VP and Tense. Subsequent sections of this chapter will be concerned with relations between the head of the phrase and its arguments. Section 3.3 discusses the external argument, or subject; Sections 3.4–3.7 describe complements or internal arguments. Although we will not provide a detailed account of the properties of verbal arguments, we will see that the subtheories introduced in Chapter 2 provide a means of structurally distinguishing verbal arguments from non-arguments. In Chapter 4, we will take up several additional issues related to the structure of the Verb Phrase, including how clitics and auxiliary verbs are related to the verb and its arguments.

Introduction

The extent of Modern Spanish

Modern Spanish is spoken by just under 300 million people world-wide, and is thus one of the three or four most widely spoken languages, after Mandarin Chinese, English and possibly Hindi. Spanish is the primary or official language in numerous countries, including Spain and its dependencies, Equatorial Guinea, eighteen countries of Central and South America, and the US protectorate of Puerto Rico. Spanish is robust as a first or second language in many areas of the southwestern United States, as well as in other agricultural areas of the US, and urban areas such as Miami and New York. According to the 1990 census, about 17.3 million people over the age of five speak Spanish at home in the US.

Many countries in which Spanish is the official or primary language are linguistically diverse, with bilingualism a common, but not universal, phenomenon. In the north of Spain, primary languages include Basque, Catalan and Galician. In Latin America, many indigenous languages are used alongside Spanish. In Bolivia, for example, at least half the population speaks either Aymara or Quechua natively, and it is estimated that 40% of these speakers do not speak Spanish (Grimes 1988:85–87; Kurian 1992:184). In Paraguay, Guaraní is spoken by over 3 million speakers, with a majority of rural speakers being monolingual (Grimes 1988:125). Relatively large populations of speakers of indigenous languages are also found in Peru (Ayacucho Quechua and Cuzco Quechua), Guatemala (Mayan languages) and Ecuador (Quichua). Many other indigenous languages are spoken, by populations numbering from dozens of speakers to tens of thousands.

Introduction

In this chapter, we will examine several constructions whose derivations are standardly assumed to involve movement to CP, the highest projection of clausal structure. As the discussion will show, the claim that operator-like phrases such as interrogatives move overtly to CP in Spanish has been debated in recent literature. In 6.2, we discuss Wh-movement, beginning with a summary of core properties, and then turning to issues of structure – particularly landing sites – as discussed in recent work. Section 6.3 discusses Contrastive Focus Phrases, which have been argued to be derived by A′-movement also. We again review properties of the construction and then the derivation, with emphasis on the landing site. Section 6.4 briefly summarizes several other phenomena that have been analyzed as involving A′-movements, although these constructions lack an overt operator-like element, or in some cases any overt movement. This section begins with “Scrambling” as discussed in Ordóñez (1997), then introduces three constructions that have been argued to be derived via movement of a null operator: parasitic gaps, complex adjectivals, and null indefinite objects. Section 6.5 discusses Xo movement to (and through) the head of CP.

Wh-movement

Traditionally, the “rule” of Wh-movement is assumed to subsume the movement of interrogative phrases in direct and indirect questions, as well as the movement of relative pronouns in relative clauses. Here, the properties of Wh-movement will be illustrated for interrogatives only. For discussion of relative clauses, see Plann (1980), Suñer (1984), Rivero (1990) and Brucart (1994). In this section, we will describe several characteristics of Wh-questions.

This textbook is intended to present a broad view of Spanish syntax, one which takes into account the results of recent research, but which does not focus on theoretical discussion, nor assume familiarity with current theory. In order to describe insights based on recent research, it is of course necessary to introduce enough theoretical machinery so that the approaches that have been explored are understandable. Earlier discussions, especially Chapters 2 and 3, are framed within the assumptions of the Principles and Parameters framework as developed in Chomsky (1981, 1986). Chapters 4 and 5 introduce some basic elements of the Minimalist framework of Chomsky (1993, 1995). That discussion is largely informal, and rather than providing a comprehensive introduction to the theory, it is intended to give just enough background to allow the reader to understand the lines of investigation that have been pursued in accounting for such issues as clause structure and constituent order.

Chapter 1 presents a descriptive overview of the grammar, combining many generalizations of a traditional nature with some generalizations that arise within generative grammar. This description is intended to include both those generalizations that would be of particular interest to students of Spanish linguistics, and information of a broader nature for readers who are not Spanish specialists. Chapter 2 focuses on the Noun Phrase (NP). In the course of the discussion, basic theoretical mechanisms of the Principles and Parameters framework, such as Theta-role assignment, Case assignment and Predication are introduced, in order to account for the external distribution of NP.