Aspect in Learner Writing: A Corpus-Based Comparison of Advanced Bulgarian and German Learners’ Written English Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Philosophie des Fachbereiches 05 der Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen vorgelegt von Svetlomira Rogatcheva aus Sofia 2014 Gutachter: 1. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Magnus Huber 2. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Joybrato Mukherjee Tag der Disputation: Table of Contents 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 3 1.1 Aim and motivation of the study ...................................................................................... 3 1.2. Terms and Concepts ........................................................................................................ 4 1.3. Preview ............................................................................................................................ 6 2. Aspect in English: Theoretical, Quantitative and Contrastive Perspectives .................. 7 2.1. Approaches to Aspect ...................................................................................................... 8 2.1.1. Situation Aspect vs. Viewpoint Aspect .................................................................. 10 2.1.2. Tense vs. Aspect ..................................................................................................... 16 2.1.3. The Progressive ...................................................................................................... 20 2.1.4. The Perfect – Aspect, Tense or neither? ................................................................ 22 2.2. Aspect in Recent Empirical Grammars of English ....................................................... 24 2.2.1. The Progressive in Recent Studies of English: Meanings and Frequency Distribution ....................................................................................................................... 26 2.2.2. The Perfect in Recent Studies of English: Meanings and Frequency Distribution 35 2.3. Contrastive Remarks on Aspect: German vs. English .................................................. 42 2.4. Contrastive Remarks on Aspect: Bulgarian vs. English ............................................... 47 2.5. Summary ....................................................................................................................... 52 3. Second Language Acquisition of Aspect in English: a Review ...................................... 54 3.1. L2 Acquisition of Temporality ...................................................................................... 54 3.2. Concept-Oriented Approach to the Acquisition of Aspect ........................................... 55 3.3. Form-Oriented Approach to the Acquisition of Aspect ................................................ 60 3.3.1. The Morpheme Order Studies ................................................................................ 60 3.3.2. Recent Perspectives to the Form-Oriented Approach ............................................ 64 3.3.3. The Aspect Hypothesis ........................................................................................... 68 3.3.4. The Discourse Hypothesis ...................................................................................... 75 3.4. L1 Influence on the Acquisition of Aspect ................................................................... 80 3.5. Summary ....................................................................................................................... 83 4. Corpus-Based Approaches to Aspect in Learner Language .......................................... 84 4.1. Corpora in the Study of Grammar ................................................................................. 84 4.2. Learner Corpora ............................................................................................................ 88 4.3. Learner Corpus Research on the Progressive and the Perfect ....................................... 95 4.4. Summary ..................................................................................................................... 102 5. Data and Method .............................................................................................................. 104 5.1. Research Framework ................................................................................................... 104 5.2. Software Tools ............................................................................................................ 106 5.3. Learner Corpus Data Design: ICLE ............................................................................ 109 5.4. The Bulgarian and the German Components of ICLE ................................................ 112 5.5. Native Corpus Data Design: LOCNESS, FLOB and FROWN .................................. 117 5.6. Methodology I: Quantitative Analysis ........................................................................ 121 5.6.1. Frequency Measurement and Retrieval of Aspect Forms .................................... 122 5.6.2. Frequency Comparison of Aspect Forms and Statistical Tests ............................ 127 5.7. Methodology II: Qualitative Analysis ......................................................................... 130 6. Aspect Use in Learner and Native Writing: Quantitative Results .............................. 140 6.1. Frequency Distribution of the Finite Verb Phrases in Learner and Native Writing ... 140 6.2. Frequency Distribution of the Progressive in Learner and Native Writing ................ 144 6.3. Frequency Distribution of the Perfect in Learner and Native Writing ........................ 149 6.4. Summary ..................................................................................................................... 154 7. Lexicogrammatical Variation in the Use of Aspect in Learner and Native Writing . 156 7.1. The Progressive and the Influence of Inherent Lexical Aspect .................................. 156 7.2. The Perfect and the Influence of Inherent Lexical Aspect .......................................... 161 1 7.3. Distribution of the Progressive and the Perfect across Clause Types ......................... 167 7.4. Adverbial Modification of the Progressive and the Perfect ........................................ 174 7.5. Distribution of Contracted Auxiliary Forms with the Progressive and the Perfect .... 180 7.6. Summary ..................................................................................................................... 182 8. Misuse of Aspect in Bulgarian and German EFL Writing........................................... 184 8.1. Approaching Advanced EFL Learners’ Misuse: New Tendencies and Old Problems 184 8.2. Classifying Misuse of the Progressive and the Perfect ............................................... 188 8.3. Learner Misuse of the Progressive Aspect .................................................................. 188 8.3.1. Overgeneralisation of the Progressive Aspect ..................................................... 189 8.3.2. Undergeneralisation of the Progressive aspect ..................................................... 198 8.4. Learner Misuse of the Perfect Aspect ......................................................................... 202 8.4.1. Overgeneralisation of the Perfect Aspect in Non-Perfect Contexts ..................... 203 8.4.2. Undergeneralisation of the Perfect Aspect ........................................................... 207 8.5. Measuring Bulgarian and German EFL learners’ Aspect Misuse: Issues of Misuse Quantification ..................................................................................................................... 211 8.6. Summary ..................................................................................................................... 218 9. Discussion .......................................................................................................................... 220 9.1. Aspect Variation Patterns in Learner Writing: Some Remarks .................................. 221 9.2. L1 Influence on the Use of Aspect in Bulgarian and German EFL learners’ English: Tracing the Untraceable? ................................................................................................... 229 9.3. Further Factors: L2 Proficiency, Writing Expertise, Exposure and Transfer of Training ............................................................................................................................................ 238 9.4. Towards a Model of Analysing Aspect Use in EFL Writing ...................................... 242 10. Conclusion and Prospects for Future Research .......................................................... 248 References ............................................................................................................................. 251 Appendix ............................................................................................................................... 268 A1 Tables and Frequencies ................................................................................................ 268 A2 German Summary ......................................................................................................... 290 Kapitel 1. Thema und Forschungsfrage ................................................................................. 290 Kapitel 2. Theoretischer Rahmen: Aspekt im Englischen ....................................................