Decomposability and transparency: a corpus-based analysis of the use of phrasal verbs in ELF interactions

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the decomposability and transparency nature of the uses of phrasal verb (PV) structures through two corpora representing two dichotomous ends of the speaker continuum, namely, native speakers in British National Corpus (BNC) and non-native speakers in Vienna Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE). It examines the usage-based patterns of PVs through the natural uses of PVs in authentic oral communications of native and nonnative speakers, thereby providing explanatory adequacy to the phenomenon. To achieve this objective, a corpus-based analysis using the concordance programs BNCweb and AntConc 3.4.4 was conducted through BNC and VOICE to do a quantitative analysis on the frequency, decomposability and transparency characteristics of PVs. The findings point to both native and nonnative speakers demonstrating an interestingly similar use of PVs, displaying avoidance behavior in their PV use and a tendency to use one-word equivalent verbs instead of using PV correspondences. As for the decomposability nature, the analysis has pointed to a striking resemblance, namely the tendency to use PVs in their non-decomposable position and the avoidance of decomposable PVs in their natural decomposable position. Therefore, the current study has taken on a new significance by drawing attention to the existence of a similar processing system by two representative speakers of English, in their PV uses, evidenced by two spoken corpora, BNC and VOICE.