A corpus-based study of like in Estonian EFL learners’ speech
Date
2021
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Pragmatic markers (PMs) are an essential part of conversation. However, with PMs
such as like appearing everywhere, they are stigmatised as being only used for hesitation
and therefore being meaningless. While definitely an important function of like, the word
has a multitude of other uses that are prominent in speech. This paper hopes to disprove the
common belief that like is only used for hesitation, as well as determine how different is
the use of like in speech between Estonian learners of English as a Foreign Language
(EFL) and native speakers. In order to answer that question, a corpus-based study was
carried out, using the Estonian subcorpus of the Louvain International Database of Spoken
English Interlanguage (LINDSEI-EST) and Louvain Corpus of Native English
Conversation (LOCNEC) respectively. While there have been theses written utilising the
LINDSEI-EST corpus, PMs in Estonian EFL learners’ speech have received almost no
attention so far.
Description
Keywords
õppijakeel, õppijakorpus, pragmaatilised markerid, like