Irregular

Plurals in ELF
Kevin Duggan, Lobsang Gammeter

Aim
The pluralisa=on of mass nouns and nouns
with zero endings in ELF conversa=ons using
VOICE

Mass nouns
There are a great many words which do not
call up the idea of some denite thing with a
certain shape or precise limits. I call these
mass-word[] (Jesperson 1924: 198)
E.g. informa=on, knowledge, darkness

The Zero Ending

[] some grammarians start with the idea of
plurality and see the zero ending as an
allomorph of the s-ending, as simply another
means of expressing plurality along with -en
(oxen) and certain vowel modica2ons
[] (Wickens 1992:12-13).
e.g. aircra^, sheep, deer

Methodology
A qualita=ve analysis of selected nouns in
VOICE with a lexicogrammma=cal approach
We chose the words
Informa=on, aircra^, advice, luggage and sheep

Informa=ons
7 occurences (vs. 400 of informa=on)
In the domains, ED, PB, PO, PR

Informa=ons
Business mee=ng
The par=cipant S2 is, female, Polish between
35-49 years old also the chair of the mee=ng
No na=ve speakers
Professional environment
Symmetrical power rela=on
People are acquainted

Sheeps
2 occurrences (vs. 6 of sheep)
In the domains of LE, PR

Sheeps
Its a conversa=on about sights in Scotland
The speaker S1 is female, German speaking
and between 17-24 years old
No na=ve speakers
Power rela=ons symmetrical
The par=cipants are predominantly
acquainted

Result
Informa(ons

ED

Aircra.s

Advices

Luggages

3 ! 18.75%

LE

PB

PO

PR

Total

Sheeps

7 (400)

6 ! 37.5%
1

4 ! 25%
1

3 (2)

3 (30)

1 ! 6.25%

1 (5)

2 (6)

2 ! 12.5%
16 (443) ! 3.6%

Domain Representa=on (of errors)

PO
ED
PB
PR
LE

Domain Representa=on

PO
ED
PB
PR
LE

Resul=ng Observa=ons
These mistakes occurred mainly in business
domains such as mee=ngs, panel discussions etc.
The ukerances were all part of spontaneous
speech rather than prepared
The frequency of the domains generally
corresponds to their representa=on in the corpus
Na=ve speakers are seldom present, and if so, in
the minority

Issues
No comparable research study is available
Hard to single out our selected feature in the
literature
Sample size is small, hence qualita=ve
approach
The selec=on of keywords is not denite
despite being rela=vely diverse in form and
content

References
Jespersen, Oko. 1924. The Philosophy of Grammar. London:
George Allen & Unwin Ltd.
Radford et. al. 2009 [1999]. Linguis2cs: An Introduc2on, 2nd
ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
VOICE. 2013. The Vienna-Oxford Interna2onal Corpus of
English (version 2.0 online). Director: Barbara Seidlhofer;
Researchers: Angelika Breiteneder, Theresa Klimpnger,
Stefan Majewski, Ruth Osimk- Teasdale, Marie-Luise Pitzl,
Michael Radeka. hkp://voice.univie.ac.at (17.05.14)
Wickens, Mark A. 1992. Gramma2cal Number in English
Nouns: An Empirical and Theore2cal Account. Amsterdam
and Philadelphia: John Bejamins Publishing Company.

Non-native speakers usage of make

Gwendolyn Graf and Patricia Burch

Aim and approach

Based on Rosenbergers findings about Swiss
English
Using the VOICE corpus, we will examine how
make was used by non-native speakers
The aim is to confirm or doubt Rosenbergers
theory

Aim and approach

Rosenberger differentiates between 7 categories,
4 of them concern do and 3 concern make:
Use of make instead of do or other light verb
Use of make instead of other verb
Use of make instead of other construction

Analysis
Rosenberger

Our Findings

Instances of make in the database

386

1807

Use of make instead of do or other light

verb

40

32

Use of make instead of other verb

71

Use of make instead of other construction

68

Total of non-native use

50

171

Examples
Category 2.1. and he will make his exams before
the normal (EDcon250: 714)
Category 2.2. may i make a stupid
question? (POwsd 258: 700)
Category 2.3. it makes me frustrated
so (PRqas19: 48)

Findings
Non-native use: 9.5% (Rosenberger: 13%)
Most non-native use by Danish, Dutch, German
and Portuguese speakers.
Significantly higher non-native use in categories
2.2. and 2.3. than in 2.1. (contrarily to what
Rosenberger examined)

Problems
We couldnt examine do as well because of the
framework of the paper
VOICE contains too many speakers of different
languages ! significance of L1 not possible to
state

References
Rosenberger, Lukas. 2009. The Swiss English
hypothesis. Tbingen: Narr Francke.

Repe==on in ELF Discourse

English as a Lingua Franca:

A Language in Contact (BA Seminar)
SS 2014
Dominique Brki
English Department UniBe

Petra Schli
Raphael Sommer

Content
"Aim and Approach
"Method
"Analysis
"Findings
"Problems
"References

25

Aim and Approach

"Aim and
Approach
"Method
"Analysis
"Findings
"Problems
"References

When and why is repe==on occurring in ELF

conversa=ons?
Research based on Julia Lichtkopplers theory of
repe==on
We focus on the repe==on of content words and
func=on words and their func=on in the conversa=on.
A^erwards, we compare our func=onal analysis to
Julia Lichtkopplers theory

26

Method
"Aim and
Approach
"Method
"Analysis
"Findings
"Problems
"References

Discourse Analysis (VOICE Corpus)

Qualita=ve Analysis
Examples out of dierent domains, to show that
repe==on is a common phenomenon in dierent types
of discourse
Design of our own approach -> in contrast to Julia
Lichtkopplers theory
New way of organizing forms and func=ons of repe==on

27

Analysis

Repe((on of Func(on Words

"Aim and
Approach
"Method
"Analysis
"Findings
"Problems
"References

Workshop discussion about young peoples rights in the labor market:

S1: [...] there is a lack of ins- infrastructure provided by by the dierent

employers which could actually facilitate the: the engagement in the in the:
in the labor market er and he gave er: examples for for two dierent kinds of
groups so for example er the lack of nurseries er that would actually help [...]
young mothers no to to actually er access a job because they could not leave
their their their (kid) er yeah in a in in in such an infrastructure but also [...]
when it comes to er PHYsically disabled people er and and i'm sure we can
come up with a a number of er examples but this was just to to point out
the... (POwsd372)

A striking repe==on of func=on words by, the, in, for, to, their, and, a,
er (par=cle to signal hesita=on)
Used to gain =me while searching for the words to con=nue the sentence
Seems to be rather automa=c and unconscious
Seems to appear quite frequently

28

Repe((on of Func(on Words

"Aim and
Approach
"Method
"Analysis
"Findings
"Problems

Lunch conversa(on about dierent university systems and other topics:

S3: but but er but you did the the course did you do at the university as well or
did you do it at another ins=tu=on here in vienna. (EDcon250)

"References

A repe==on of func=on words but, the

Used to gain =me while searching for the words to con=nue the sentence
Seems to be rather automa=c and unconscious

Seems to appear quite frequently

29

"Aim and
Approach
"Method
"Analysis
"Findings
"Problems
"References

Repe((on of Content Words

S6: yeah i don't know er but er the company said there won't do such such a
thing but i will think so
S3: yeah
S6: because they e:rm it's <pvc> konkurrence {compe==on} </pvc> (.)
S3: yeah of course
S6: <pvc> koncurrecy {compe==on} </pvc>
S4: of course (EDcon250)

Repe==on of content words/phrases konkurrence/koncurrecy (coinage), of

course
Conscious and goal-oriented repe==on
Konkurrence/koncurrecy: to correct the statement
Of course: to signal understanding

30

Repe((on of Content Words

"Aim and
Approach

"Method

S6: you you also do some kind of exam? er at the of the high school. dierent
from this one?
S5: er: yeah you take ONE exam only you take ONE exam. if you pass e:r from
that? you can go to university (EDcon250)

"Analysis
"Findings
"Problems
"References

Repe==on of content words/phrases exam, ONE exam, ONE exam only

Conscious and goal-oriented repe==on
Repeated to get the aken=on of the listener and to emphasize that there is
only ONE exam

31

Repe((on of Content Words

"Aim and
Approach
"Method
"Analysis
"Findings

Dinner table conversa(on among interna(onal students:

S3: i'm geng =red of the breakfast because it's all the =me the same the same
the same (LEcon8)

"Problems
"References

Repe==on of content words/phrase the same

Conscious and goal-oriented repe==on
By repea=ng the words the same three =mes, the speaker underlines the
content of his statement and emphasizes the uniformity of the repeated
breakfast

32

Findings
"Aim and
Approach
"Method
"Analysis
"Findings
"Problems
"References

Many people would not believe how

much power and poten=al lies in this
phenomenon and how signicant it is
for successful communica=on.

(Lichtkoppler 2007: 40)

33

6 func(ons of repe((on according to Lichtkoppler

"Aim and
Approach

Time-gaining repe==on

"Method

Ukerance-developing repe==on

"Analysis

Prominence-providing repe==on

"Findings
"Problems
"References

Ensuring accuracy of understanding

Showing listenership
Cohesion & borrowing

34

Repe((on of Func(on Words revisited

e.g. by, the, their, but, er, in, to etc.
"Aim and
Approach

"Time-gaining repe==on

"Method

frequent feature, especially for ELF speakers

"Analysis

no seman=c input, uneconomic

"Findings
"Problems
"References

o^en self-repe==on
used instead of a pause
stalling
hesita=on
no discourse-construc(ng, essen(al repe((on
may be annoying
avoidable repe==on

35

Repe((on of Content Words

koncurrencekoncurrecy
"Aim and
Approach

" Ukerance-developing repe==on

"Method

" Ensuring accuracy of understanding

"Analysis

" Cohesion & borrowing

"Findings
"Problems
"References

of course
" showing listenership
one exam // the same
" prominence-providing repe==on

essen(al, discourse-construc(ng repe((on

can serve as a rhetoric device
desirable and necessary for a beker understanding

36

Problems
"Aim and
Approach
"Method
"Analysis
"Findings
"Problems
"References

lack of secondary literature on repe==on

Our study is based on a hypothesis and more
work on this subject is needed in order to make
a representa=ve study. -> impulse for further
studies
Even if we have declared the repe==on of
func=on words and its =me-gaining func=on as
non-essen=al in the construc=on of a discourse,
we cannot completely change our way to speak
and in a way, we have to accept it since it is a
natural feature of language
37

References
"Aim and
Approach
"Method
"Analysis
"Findings

Lichtkoppler, Julia. 2007. Male. Male- Male? The sex is

male. The role of repe==on in English as a lingua franca
conversa=ons. Vienna English Working Papers 16(1). 39-65.

"Problems
"References

38

False Friends
Seminar: English as a Lingua Franca
Selina von Allmen, Vera Haftka
English Department
University of Berne

21 May 2014

Aim
>
>
>

Using VOICE-Corpus
German English False Friends
get vs. become

40

Aim
>
>
>
>

Using VOICE-Corpus
German English False Friends
get vs. become
economic vs. economical

Wehmeier, Sally and Michael Ashby (eds.). 2000. Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of
Current English. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

41

Research Question
>

Do our two False Friends occur in all of the three ELFdomains (Educational, Leisure, Professional Business)?

42

Approach
>

definition
False Friend: A word or expression that has a similar form to
one in a persons native language, but a different meaning.

Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English.

http://voice.univie.ac.at/index.xql
(accessed 13 May 2014)

43

Approach
>

own guess
Education

Leisure

Professional
Business

economical

yes

no

yes

become

yes

yes

no

44

Approach
>

procedure

1. add filter

45

Approach
>

procedure

2.choose domain

46

Approach
>

procedure

3. type in word
& search for results

47

Approach
>

procedure

4. check if
speakers
L1 is german

48

Approach
>

procedure

5. check if
word is used
wrongly

49

Approach
>

procedure

we found an example!

50

Approach
>

rather qualitative

51

Findings
>

Economical : Educational domain

>

S2= ger-CH, female, age 17-24

S2: <5> i think there </5> is another one if we take from (.) either
economical point of view or (1) just (.) it's a simplification (1) we
no more have (.) it's just simple. (.) <6> it's </6> not (.)

52

Findings
>

Economical: Leisure domain

!No False Friends found

>

Economical: Professional Business domain

!No False Friend found
!We expected to find one there

53

Findings
>

Become: Educational domain

!No entries for German speaker

>

S13= ger-AT, male, 17-24

S13: = and we (.) can't ever change it. (.) but (.) what we are facing is a:
{whispered parallel conversation starts} system introduced an:d e:r kept on
going by humans (1)so we can change it? hh but in order to: be able to change
it (.) we er must (.) t- e:r we mu- er we must be aware (.) of the faults the
system has (.) the system has advanta- er advantages (.) of course and
a LOT of it hh especially for people living in western europe?{parallel
conversation ends} hh but it also has disadvantages hh and (.) i think (.) we can
improve the disadvantages hh just e:r er but (.) er we ju- er as the first step hh
we have to get awa- er to (.) become aware (.) of (.) them

54

Findings
>

Become: Leisure domain

! False Friend used correctly

>

Become: Professional Business domain

! Germanism

>

S3= ger-DE, male, age 35-49

S3: <fast><4> and the the pre- </4> and then the pressure in the
market is become became big<5>ger </5></fast> =

55

Findings
>

Our findings
Education

>

Leisure

economical

yes

no

become

no

no

Professional
Business
no
yes

Our previous guess

Education

Leisure

Professional
Business

economical

yes

no

yes

become

yes

yes

no
56

Problems / Remarks
How do narrow down our topic?
> False Friend not always produced by German speaker
> Context was not included
> Same speaker did an error several times
>

57

References
Dretzke, Burkhard and Margaret Nester. 2009. False Friends:
A Short Dicitonary. Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam jun. GmbH &
Co. KG.
> Oxford Dictionaries. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/
definition/english/false-friend (accessed 13 May 2014).
> Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English. http://
voice.univie.ac.at/index.xql (accessed 13 May 2014).
> Wehmeier, Sally and Michael Ashby (eds.). 2000. Oxford
Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English. Oxford
and New York: Oxford University Press.
>

58

The role of repetition in ELF interviews and service

encounters

A presentation by Isabelle Bertschinger and Patrik Frei

Contents
- Aim and approach
- Analysis
- Findings
- Problems
- References

Aim and approach

Theoretical framework: Discourse Analysis, ELF, Corpus
Linguistics
! Research question: Is there an underlying pattern for
repetition in dyadic interview (PR and LE domain) compared
to service encounter (PB domain) situations for the
respective interlocutors?
! Difference between knowledge-providing and knowledgedemanding interlocutor

Aim and approach

Methodology
ELF research, therefore VOICE corpus
! 5 interviews (4 PR domain and 1 LE domain)
! 3 service encounters (3 PB)
! Personal requirement: More than five different L1
Comparative study
1) Comparison of repetition types interviewer/interviewee and
student/service staff
2) Comparison of repetition in the two types of social
interaction

Aim and approach

How is the analysis carried out?
! Qualitative approach (describing the different types of
repetition we encounter)
! Criteria for search
1) Dyadic conversations
2) Different usage of repetition of the respective
interlocutors (analysis done with Lichtkopplers and
Tannens terminology)

Analysis

Types of repetition more frequently used by interviewer

S4: and im come from because of present for the conference

S1: you are a presenter
S4: yeah
(Source: VOICE PRint603)

! Ensuring accuracy of understanding typical for interviewer; wants to check if he

understood interviewee correctly and helps him find correct term

Analysis

Types of repetition more frequently used by interviewee

S1: and er I dont know the m- e- there there were different groups
th- we we were separated
S2: mhm
(Source: VOICE LEint551)

! Time-gaining repetition helps the interviewee to think about what he wants to

say next; interviewee more likely to be under pressure than interviewer

Findings
-

Occurrence of Lichtkopplers types of repetition is not equally distributed

between knowledge-providing and knowledge-demanding interlocutor.

There is also a difference in distribution when we compare the interviews

with the service encounters

Interview tendencies ! Interviewer: ensuring accuracy of understanding,

showing listenership
Interviewee: stronger tendency to time-gaining
utterance-developing

-
! Interviewer more interaction-oriented, interviewee more productionoriented

Findings
Service encounter tendencies ! Student (ask): prominence-providing
ensuring accuracy
Service clerk (response): utterance-developing
showing listenership

! Service clerk more production oriented, student more comprehensionoriented

! Link to other studies: Unequal distribution of types of repetition ! still all

serve the same goal (successful communication)

Problems

1)Restricted amount of data on VOICE

! only tendencies can be formulated

2) Sometimes exact type of repetition cannot be

determined because of missing audio file

References

Lichtkoppler, Julia. 2007. Male. Male- Male? The sex is male. The role of
repetition in English as a lingua franca conversations. Vienna English Working
Papers 16(1). 39-65.
Tannen, Deborah. 1989. Talking voices: Repetition, dialogue, and imagery in
conversational discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
VOICE. Corpus Description. http://www.univie.ac.at/voice/page/corpus_description
(accessed 10 May 2014).
VOICE. LEint551. http://voice.univie.ac.at/index.xql (accessed 10 May 2014).
VOICE. PRint603. http://voice.univie.ac.at/index.xql (accessed 10 May 2014).

English as a Lingua Franca

A Study on Code Switching

Laavanya Amirthalingam, Nina Richard,

Eyvonne Rachel Ranjan

Theoretical Framework & Methodology

> The Role of Code-Switching in ELF Klimpfinger
> ELF contexts but not permanent communities
> 20 instances in the VOICE corpus PO domain
> ! 1. Specifying an addressee
> ! 2. Appealing for assistance
> ! 3. Introducing another idea
> ! 4. Signalling culture

21. 05. 2014

71

Discourse Analysis & Qualitative

Approach
> Using Klimpfingers categorisation and analysing the

examples as to how they fit the four categories

> ELF contexts, however, are not permanent

communities but ad hoc groupings of speakers

> Originally: comparison, problems with categorisation !

only PO domain

21. 05. 2014

72

Example 1 (Appealing for assistance)

S7 [French (B)]: in fact i th- i think erm (.) the(re) are er a lot of
erm MAterial (.) erm <smacks lips> erm in page fi- <soft> no
<un> x x x x x </un> (.) </soft> by by (i-) <soft> er by? by </
soft><8> er </8><L1fre> je (dirai) en <9> francais </9> {i will
say it in french} </L1fre> (.)

S1[Romanian]: <8> mhm </8>

S1: <9><un> x </un></9> yah

S7: <L1fre> je je (dirai) en francais {i i will say it in french} </
L1fre> (.) <1> er erm (.) okay </1> (.)

S1: <1> okay i'll i'll translate in a second </1>

S7: er

(gap 00:00:51) {non-e; S7 presents his opinion in french}

[POwsd372:51_37]

21. 05. 2014

Example 2
S1 [Romanian]: er (1) {S1 starts writing}<3><un> xx </un></3>

S6 [Spanish]:<3> in my opinion </3> er i think that (.) is needed to (.)
increase er the (creation) of the companies {S1 stops writing} an:d erm i
think that is er needed (1) (have a permission) {S1 starts writing} of the
(1) er enterprising spirit (.) between the YOUNG people (.) and <L1spa>
especial {especially} </L1spa> with er (.) people that have erm less
possibilities (.) hh because many people think that take a bike (1) and
take a <pvc> (mope) </pvc> (1) erm is (an er) enterprise (1) but (.) i'm
watching all all the (.) weeks (.) many people that don't have possibilities
to access (1) the labor market (.) but make. (1) new ideas of enterprises
(.) that facilitates hel- possibility to introduce er have a (.) normal life (1)
people that life to of the rags (.) er <un> xx </un> (.) people then don't
have the papers (1) and people er then (don't) have er any <pvc>
educations </pvc> (1) and {S1 stops writing} (.) with a LITTLE very
little er (2) HELP <un> xxxxx x </un> help or <spel> n g o </spel> help
(.) they can make (.) a project (.) enterprise project (.) and they can (.)
make a a life project (and) (2)



[POwsd372:56-57]

21. 05. 2014

Example 3
S6 [German]: before you start discussing something else (.)

S5 [Italian]: yes

S6: i i know it is not (.) its not a hundred per cent possible
probably (.) er:m

S4 [Polish]: if we can first identify the stages like PRE IN
<2>and POST</2> (.)

S6: <3><L1ger>ja {yes}</L1ger> something exactly something
like that </3>

S4: and put it on the <4>time frame</4>



[POwgd243:61-86]

21. 05. 2014

Findings
> Klimpfinger: 6 workshop discussions, 2 working group
>
>
>

>

discussions
104 instances of code-switching (both into L1 and LN)
(12 hours of recorded data)
Klimpfinger stated that overlapping cases of codeswitching could occur but they all fit into the four
categories in most cases
9 out of 20: no applicable category

21. 05. 2014

76

> ELF speakers switch to another language to direct what

they say to one or more specific addressees, they switch

to get assistance of another speaker, or because they
feel another language is more appropriate to express a
certain idea. Furthermore, ELF speakers switch
languages to communicate their bi-/multilingual identity
and show group membership.

21. 05. 14

77

Problems
> Originally comparison between PO and ED
> Problems with categorization
Overlapping categories
No category applicable

21. 05. 2014

78

References
Auer, Peter, and Carol M. Eastman. 2010. Code-switching. In
Jrgen Jaspers, Jan-Ola stman and Jef Verschueren (eds.).
Society and Language Use (Handbook of Pragmatics
Highlights 7), 84-112. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John
Benjamins.
> Klimpfinger, Theresa. 2007. Mind you, sometimes you have
to mix The role of code-switching in English as a lingua
franca. Vienna English Working Papers 16(2).
> Myers-Scotton, Carol. 1997. Code-switching. In Florian
Coulmas (ed.). The Handbook of Sociolinguistics (Blackwell
Handbooks in Linguistics: 4), 217-237. Oxford: Blackwell.
> VOICE Project. 2009. Using VOICE Online. Vienna. http://
www.univie.ac.at/voice/help (19.05.2014).
>

Confusion of
which and who
A qualitative research on mistakes in
two domains of the VOICE corpus

English as a Lingua Franca - Seminar

Marc Ritter & Simon Luginbhl
21.05.2014

Aim and approach

# Research confusion of relative pronouns which and

who with regard to domain and native language of

speaker

# Qualitative approach
# Find differences or similarities in domains and L1 by

investigating mistakes
# Put results into theoretical context

21.05.2014

Theoretical Framework
# Theory of Interlanguage: mixture of L1 and L2 in

grammar and vocabulary

# When learning the second language, some inferences to

the native language are made

# The L1 can influence grammar and vocabulary of the

target language
# Who is the most common subject pronoun in ENL
(Yule, 1998)

# Literature suggests that which has to compete with that

- especially in spoken language (DArcy & Tagliamonte, 2008)

21.05.2014

Methodology
# VOICE Corpus
# Focus on leisure- and educational domain
# Picked first 50 search results of each domain and

pronoun
# Qualitative analysis of mistakes found
# Comparison of the two domains

21.05.2014

Analysis
# Leisure domain
# 6 mistakes in use of who
# 0 mistakes in use of which

# Educational domain
# 3 mistakes in use of who
# 2 mistakes in use of which

21.05.2014

Analysis ED: Examples who

Speaker: Female, age 17-24, F1: Dutch
" you have to: e:r(.)yeah that's the system(.)er we have

this(.)huge company(.)<slow>who provides

e:rm</slow>(.)all these kinds of things(.)e:r and it's
a=

Not an actual mistake because in ENL nouns with a

collective human refernt, such as say government, who and
which are both permitted. (Cogo, Dewey, 2012)
Although in such cases in ELF it seems the emergent
trend is towards the preference for the which pronoun.
(Yule, 1998)

21.05.2014

Analysis ED: Examples who

Speaker: Male, age 25-49, F1: Maltese
" er(.)you see(.)WHENyou are(.)at ho:me(.)and you

do(.)a mistake(.)you don't really mind(.)because you

know that it's only your(1)FAMILYwho are going to
notice a mistake(.)
Not an actual mistake because in ENL nouns with a collective
human refernt, such as say government, who and which are both
permitted. (Cogo, Dewey, 2012)
Although in such cases in ELF it seems the emergent trend is
towards the preference for the which pronoun. (Yule, 1998)
21.05.2014

Analysis ED: Examples which

Speaker: Female, age 50+, F1: Maltese
" so it i just(.)i just say yes<2>because</2>i mean

there is<3>someone which i don't</3>

Mistake: Use of which in reference to a human subject
Who may be the preferred form if the speaker wishes to
highlight the human aspect of the referent (Yule, 1998)

21.05.2014

Analysis ED: Examples which

Speaker: Male, age 50+, F1: Maltese
# <4>it used to be</4> something which was very

common not only in malta(.)

# Yule (1998) states that which tends to be significantly

less frequent in subject relative clauses than both that

and the zero relative in spoken English. [...] This appears not to be the case in ELF interactions however,
where which is used more widely. (Cogo, Dewey, 2012)
# Example for preference of which over that in ELF
21.05.2014

Analysis LE: Examples who

Speaker: Female, age 17-24, F1: German
" <1>and</1>i read in my tour guide there is some

stone hh who som:e farmer in er a few years ago they

er(.)<smacks lips>put his(.)seventy-yearsold<@>dog<2>who was</2>dead</
@>@@@@then there and er yeah.(.)
Mistake: Use of who in reference to an object (stone)
In Standard English, which is used to refer to lifeless
objects. (Morrissey, 2013)
21.05.2014

Analysis LE: Examples who

Speaker: Female, age 17-24, F1: Italian
" er<LNger>betrieb{company}</LNger>who

produced cartoon er(.)you know?

Again, not an actual mistake because in ENL nouns with
a collective human referent, such as say government, who
and which are both permitted. (Cogo, Dewey, 2012)
Although in such cases in ELF it seems the emergent
trend is towards the preference for the which pronoun.
(Yule, 1998)

21.05.2014

Findings
# There are fewer mistakes than expected
# More wrong utilisations of who than of which
# Number of mistakes about the same in both domains
# Some instances of instant correction
# Predominantely german, italian, dutch and maltese

speakers of English

21.05.2014

Findings
# In the case of german speakers of English the reason

for a who-overuse might result from the different

use of the german relative pronous der/die/das and
welch/welche/welches.
# In German, der/die/das is used more often than

welch/-e/-es in spoken language.

# Supposing that der/die/das is represented by who,

whereas welch/-e/-es is represented by which

21.05.2014

Findings
# In the case of Italian speakers of English, mistakes can

occur because of the relative pronoun che which is

used when referring to either the subject or object of
the main clause. However it does not distinguish
between [+/-human] NPs.
# This can lead to the wrong assumption that it is not that

important which pronoun to choose.

21.05.2014

Findings
# In the case of L1 Dutch speakers the confusion of who

and which might have its root in the dutch grammar of

relative pronouns. The choice of using die, dat or
wat is not tied to the liveliness of a subject/object.
Other characteristics of the sentence like the definite
article or the singular/plural form of the noun are
defining which relative pronoun is used.

21.05.2014

Restrictions to our Study

# Since we used a qualitative approach, we only

analysed a non-representative number of instances

# We only used excerpts from two domains of the

VOICE corpus
# Results may therefore be misleading
# Connection of mistakes made and L1 needs further

grammatical knowledge in multiple languages

21.05.2014

References
#

Cogo, A., Dewey, M. (2012). Analysing English as a Lingua Franca. A Corpus-driven

Investigation. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.

DArcy, A., Tagliamonte, S. (2008). Who knew? New insights into the social life of
relatives.New Ways of Analyzing Variation (NWAV),37, 6-9.

Yule, G. (1998). Explaining English Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Andres Morrissey, F. (2013) Modern English Grammar. Bern: English Department,

University of Bern

http://www.neocate.com/images/uploads/Images/research-icon1.jpg (20.05.14)

http://www.flags.net/GERM.htm (20.05.14)

http://www.flags.net/NETH.htm (20.05.14)

http://www.flags.net/ITAL.htm (20.05.14)
21.05.2014

I See & I Understand

as a means of backchanneling

Example 1:
S5: <7> yea:h </7> yes yes yeah right (1)
S3: yeah i saw them they're quite big. (.) i i wh- <8> when we </8> entered they're
quite (.)
S2: <8> @@ </8>
S4: i KNOW because these italian pizzas er used to be (.) quite big (1)
S3: are you only coming for this session then from: er from slovakia.
S6: yeah (1)
S2: hm (.)
S5: and you are (.) in a student here? (.)
S3: i'm er: i'm i'm working at the english department. and i'm working as a (.) erm as
an assistant er on e:r on my <spel> p h d </spel> at the english department at the
university of vienna <9> yes </9>
S5: <9> ah </9> ye:ah i understand. (.)

Example 2
she: was e:r (.) er private school in [place1]'s over here =
S1: = aha =
S3: = [org1]
S1: ah okay i see
S3: right so that they're always over their demands (.) they're always er they always
speak english no er no maltese =
S1: = it's true they prefer english (.)
S3: yes (.)
S1: okay i see

The End

Seminar English as a Lingua Franca: A language in contact,

Dominique Brki, SS 2014

Code-switching and borrowing in ELF: Cultural purpose

or communicative necessity?

Chlo Canolle and Silvan Dermont

Aim and approach

Theoretical framework: code-switching vs. borrowing in ELF
Borrowing: the process of incorporating words of one language
into another (e.g. in order to express specific cultural concepts),
Code-switching: describes the socially significant use of
different languages within the same conversation or even
utterance (Myers-Scotton 1993, Milroy & Muysken 1995). (Plzl
2003: 9)

Aim: Are communicative reasons more important than socially

significant use when you code-switch (in contrast to borrowing)
in ELF talk?
Methodology: Qualitative / discourse analysis
Data: VOICE ! only working-group discussions within the
Educational domain
Command in VOICE POS: FW,e:ED*wgd*
Why this speech event type and domain?
! The goal of working-group discussions in education is to
exchange knowledge and therefore should point at effective
communication and less at cultural or group membership

Analysis
Example 1
Working group discussion about the presentation of a specific future scenario
concerning the linguistic landscape of Europe.
S5 :
<6> how do you say <LNfre> subvention {subventions, subsidies}
</L1ger><6/><toS2><L1ger> wie sagt du das {how do you say that} </
L1ger></toS2> =
S2: =subventions?=
S6: =<un> x xx </un>=
S5: =<loud> subvention?</loud>
S2: no (.)
S5: how you say that in English?
S2: support financial suppot
S5: financial <7> support </7> (2)
S6: <7> mhm </7>
! Communicative purpose (switch into L1)

Analysis
Example 2
Working group discussion between students on measures for preventing acts
of terrorism.
S7: the war on drugs the war on <7> crime </7> {S9 joins the group}
S9: <7> so which group </7> are you (.)
SS: two.
S9: I join you. (.)
SS: @@@@@@@
S5: <un> xxx </un> isnt it?
S9: no (1) look) like Im just tired and I dont want to (.) er discus (2) with er
S5: <L1ger> na komm hock dich her da {come and sit down next to me} </
L1ger> (.)
S7: all right {loud sound of chair being moved} (.) so (1)
! Neither cultural, nor communicative reasons. (but specifying an addressee)

Analysis
Example 3
Working group discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of
different scenarios concerning the future of English in Europe.
S5: yes and the (.) the (.) discussion is going (.) on it th- its actually for
Europe a chance hhh for everyone to speak English because then (.) we can
(.) go further and and and e:rm not so slowly (.) <toS1><LNger> gott wie iwie ist schnell auf auf English {god what does fast mean in English} </
LNger></toS1>
S1: <to S5> fast </to S5>
S5: fast (.) <whispering><LNger> gott {god} </LNger></whispering>
(S1: 17-24, female, ger-AT)
(S5: 17-24, female, pol-PL)
! Communicative purpose, but into LN

Findings
When switching into another language for whole utterances
occurs, then it seems that communicative reasons are more
important than the socially significant use
! Lack of vocabulary in English
But: ELF speakers switch into L1 to express cultural
membership when they know it will not lead to
misunderstanding (e.g. example 2), or when the matter of the
switch does not concern the ELF talk.

Problems
Investigation limited to educational domain, other domains
would lead to other findings
! Generalisations cant be made with this qualitative study

References
Hllen, Werner. 1992. Identifikationssprachen und
Kommunikationssprachen. Zeitschrift fr Germanistische
Linguistik 20. 298-317
Klimpfinger, Theresa. 2007. Mind you, sometimes you have to
mix: The role of code-switching in English as a lingua franca.
Vienna English Working Papers 16(2). 36-61
Plzl, Ulrike. 2003. Signalling cultural identity: the use of L1/Ln
in ELF. Vienna English Working PaperS 12(2). 3-23.
VOICE. 2013. The Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of
English (version 2.0 XML). Director: Barbara Seidlhofer;
Researchers: Angelika Breiteneder, Theresa Klimpfinger,
Stefan Majewski, Ruth Osimk-Teasdale, Marie-Luise Pitzl,
Michael Radeka.
1

Jasmin Lallo, Ava Moll, 21.05.2014

CONDITIONALS IN SWISS
ENGLISH
An Analysis of the Swiss Use of Conditionals vs. The
German Speakers Use of Conditionals

Aim
$

Comparison of the use of conditionals in Swiss

English and the use of Conditionals among other
German speakers (is the use of if + would in
the same sentence segment Swiss-specific? )

Jasmin Lallo, Ava Moll

Theoretical Background
Statistical Data of SNSF Project Language Contact
and Focusing: The Linguistics of English in Switzerland
$ Conditionals as particular difficulty for non-native
speakers of English
$ Characteristic of the Swiss English database:
Tendency to overuse if in combination with
would (as a general marker of conditionality)
$

(Rosenberg 2009: 175-178)

Jasmin Lallo, Ava Moll

Analysis
$

Swiss speaker example

Er if we would-really would say okay, now we er we
speak with you English [...]. (G4M04-O)
(Rosenberger 2009: 176)

Jasmin Lallo, Ava Moll

Analysis
$
$

German speaker example

Ger-DE:
so what's the money available for this kind of policy
that seem to cost quite a bit of (them) (1) er (.) if i
would now turn the question to you of where you see
the problems with this policy (1) what are some of
some of the (.) ideas: that (.) you come up with (.)
<1> (when) </1><un> x </un> where there's really
<slow> some need </slow> for (.) <fast> [S3] </fast>
(VOICE Corpus, EDsed301:10)

Jasmin Lallo, Ava Moll

Findings
Would in combination with if also used as a
general marker of conditionals in German English
$ -> Research Question for a possible paper:
$

Is would as a general conditional marker used just as

much in Austrian and German English as it is in Swiss
English?
Hypothesis: Would widespread among German speakers as
general marker of conditionality (see German wrde)
Jasmin Lallo, Ava Moll

Methodological Approach
Quantitative study by means of the VOICE corpus
(Educational domain)
$ -> Search for the word would in conditional
sentences uttered by German speakers
$ Categorization according to the table
$

Jasmin Lallo, Ava Moll

Methodological Approach
$

(Rosenberger 2009: 177)

Jasmin Lallo, Ava Moll

Set up table,
using the same
criteria/
categories
within the topic
of conditionals
Categorize
statistic results
according to
Austrian,
German and
Swiss English
speakers

Problems
Representativeness
$ Which examples to select?
$ Research based on criteria of the SNSF project;
validity of said project?
$ Significance of individual speakers age
$ Individual differences of language mastery
$

Jasmin Lallo, Ava Moll

References
Rosenberger, Lukas. 2009: The Swiss English
Hypothesis. Tbingen: Narr Francke Attempto Verlag
GmbH + Co.
$ VOICE Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of
English. http://www.univie.ac.at/voice/index.php
(accessed 13 May 2014)
$

Jasmin Lallo, Ava Moll