Lexical verbs in verb-noun collocations : empirical evidence from a Malay ESL learner corpus
Previous studies have shown that verbs are indeed one of the essential lexical items that seem to dominate a text. At tertiary levels, learners are often presented with a list of verbs that are essential for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses such as academic writing. However, it is belie...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2021
|
| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/18434/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/18434/1/48419-173365-1-PB.pdf |
| _version_ | 1848814571813339136 |
|---|---|
| author | Shazila Abdullah, Roslina Abdul Aziz, Rafidah Kamaruddin, |
| author_facet | Shazila Abdullah, Roslina Abdul Aziz, Rafidah Kamaruddin, |
| author_sort | Shazila Abdullah, |
| building | UKM Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Previous studies have shown that verbs are indeed one of the essential lexical items that seem to dominate a text.
At tertiary levels, learners are often presented with a list of verbs that are essential for English for Academic
Purposes (EAP) courses such as academic writing. However, it is believed that the learning and teaching of these
verbs goes far beyond the lists of EAP verbs. This is because knowledge of lexical verbs entails not only the
knowledge of grammatical structures, but also the knowledge of semantic and syntactic structures. Therefore, this
study aims to investigate how commonly used lexical verbs are used in learner writing in the perspectives of
grammatical, semantic and syntactic features of verb-noun collocations. To achieve this, a corpus-based study
using WordSmith Tools was employed on a learner corpus of Malay ESL learners to identify most-commonly used
lexical verbs. These verbs were further given a linguistic analysis using a phraseological-based approach. The
findings revealed that the use of transitive verbs led to several occurrences of verb-noun collocations and that the
phraseological patterns of these verbs are bound by both lexical and grammatical patterns. This leads to the
conclusion that the teaching of lexical verbs, specifically Verb-Noun collocations in academic writing should not
only include the semantic elements, but also the syntactical elements of the verbs. It is then recommended that a
lesson on lexical verbs should incorporate the teaching and learning of both lexis and grammar. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-15T00:36:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | oai:generic.eprints.org:18434 |
| institution | Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-15T00:36:12Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | oai:generic.eprints.org:184342022-04-16T07:09:40Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/18434/ Lexical verbs in verb-noun collocations : empirical evidence from a Malay ESL learner corpus Shazila Abdullah, Roslina Abdul Aziz, Rafidah Kamaruddin, Previous studies have shown that verbs are indeed one of the essential lexical items that seem to dominate a text. At tertiary levels, learners are often presented with a list of verbs that are essential for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses such as academic writing. However, it is believed that the learning and teaching of these verbs goes far beyond the lists of EAP verbs. This is because knowledge of lexical verbs entails not only the knowledge of grammatical structures, but also the knowledge of semantic and syntactic structures. Therefore, this study aims to investigate how commonly used lexical verbs are used in learner writing in the perspectives of grammatical, semantic and syntactic features of verb-noun collocations. To achieve this, a corpus-based study using WordSmith Tools was employed on a learner corpus of Malay ESL learners to identify most-commonly used lexical verbs. These verbs were further given a linguistic analysis using a phraseological-based approach. The findings revealed that the use of transitive verbs led to several occurrences of verb-noun collocations and that the phraseological patterns of these verbs are bound by both lexical and grammatical patterns. This leads to the conclusion that the teaching of lexical verbs, specifically Verb-Noun collocations in academic writing should not only include the semantic elements, but also the syntactical elements of the verbs. It is then recommended that a lesson on lexical verbs should incorporate the teaching and learning of both lexis and grammar. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2021-12 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/18434/1/48419-173365-1-PB.pdf Shazila Abdullah, and Roslina Abdul Aziz, and Rafidah Kamaruddin, (2021) Lexical verbs in verb-noun collocations : empirical evidence from a Malay ESL learner corpus. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 27 (4). pp. 144-156. ISSN 0128-5157 https://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1447 |
| spellingShingle | Shazila Abdullah, Roslina Abdul Aziz, Rafidah Kamaruddin, Lexical verbs in verb-noun collocations : empirical evidence from a Malay ESL learner corpus |
| title | Lexical verbs in verb-noun collocations : empirical evidence from a Malay ESL learner corpus |
| title_full | Lexical verbs in verb-noun collocations : empirical evidence from a Malay ESL learner corpus |
| title_fullStr | Lexical verbs in verb-noun collocations : empirical evidence from a Malay ESL learner corpus |
| title_full_unstemmed | Lexical verbs in verb-noun collocations : empirical evidence from a Malay ESL learner corpus |
| title_short | Lexical verbs in verb-noun collocations : empirical evidence from a Malay ESL learner corpus |
| title_sort | lexical verbs in verb-noun collocations : empirical evidence from a malay esl learner corpus |
| url | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/18434/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/18434/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/18434/1/48419-173365-1-PB.pdf |