2022 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
A New Frequency-Based Account of Common English Prepositions and Their Acquisition by Japanese Learners
| Project/Area Number |
21K00653
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| Research Institution | Fuji Women's University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2021-04-01 – 2025-03-31
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| Keywords | prepositions / cognitive linguistics / SLA / frequency / semantics / force dynamics |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The frequency of the senses of the prepositions AT, FOR, IN, ON, and TO were determined based on a random selection of sentences in six subsections (Academic, Fiction, Magazines, Newspapers, Spoken, TV/Movies) of the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). Measures to determine Japanese students' knowledge of the target prepositional senses were piloted with three classes (32 participants). Based on a review of the relevant literature and preliminary results of the research, I wrote and submitted three entries for the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Cognitive Linguistics. These articles, currently under review, included an article (4,289 words) on the semantics of prepositions based on the Cognitive Linguistic framework. The article reviews key approaches adopted in the last four decades and also discusses outstanding issues. Another article (3,411 words) dealt with force dynamics, a theoretical framework often employed when accounting for prepositional meaning. The third article (4,435 words) discussed pedagogical applications of the Cognitive Linguistic framework. Since a key application has been related to the semantics of prepositions, the article discussed this work along with the use of abstract diagrams in instruction materials. My 2022 article "Second Language Acquisition of English Prepositions", which previously appeared in The Bulletin of the Faculty of Humanities, Fuji Women’s University, Vol. 59 (pp. 17-44), was republished in the 55th issue of Collected Articles on English Language by the Ronsetsu Shiryo Hozonkai in Tokyo, Japan.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
The research has progressed smoothly. I had originally planned to attend more conferences as well as a workshop on corpus linguistics during the first phase of the research, but was unable to because of the COVID crisis. Instead, I attended the 15th Researching and Applying Metaphor Conference (held in Bialystok, Poland, in September 2022) online. I also received approval for a six-month sabbatical at the University of Birmingham (in the Fall semester of 2023) so that I can collaborate with scholars working in the field of Cognitive Linguistics and hone my corpus analysis skills.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
The research has been paused for a year so that I can work on collaborative research projects while on my sabbatical in the fall of this year. The sabbatical will also provide an opportunity to develop the technical skills that I will need for the corpus analysis and the development of pedagogical materials using Adobe Captivate. When I recommence the research in the spring of 2024, I will focus on development of a model lesson, and the creation of a proposal for a book that examines the L2 acquisition of prepositions.
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| Causes of Carryover |
The amount being carried over is very small but will be useful during the final year of the research.
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