Evaluative Meanings and Disciplinary Values - eTheses Repository ...

structure, argue and evaluate a writers/speakers discussion on a given topic in a given
context. Studies such as Sinclair (1991, 2004), Francis (1993, 1995) and Nattinger and
DeCarrico (1992) have also argued that phraseology and meaning are closely interrelated
because phraseology is closely associated with both lexicon and syntax simultaneously, hence
the frequently-lexico-grammar or lexico-grammatical pattern.
Knowledge of lexico-grammatical patterns is significant in producing fluent and
authentic language (Hunston & Francis, 1999). As Pawley and Syder (1983, p. 191) put it,
such fixed [linguistic] elements form a standard label for a culturally recognized concept.
Successful language learners, for instance, acquire not only the independent meaning of a
single item / word, but also the patterns it occurs in (e.g. anxious about/on/for/to-inf N for
the adjective anxious) (cf. Hornby, 1954) and the broader units of meaning associated with it
(e.g. Sinclair, 2004), in order to construct authentic discourse. In particular, the word choice in
the free slots in such patterns is the starting point for raising conscious awareness of the
linking between patterns and contexts. While Levin (1993) and Sinclair (1991, 1996) support
the theory that begins with lexis and extend its meaning into pattern, Francis (1993, 1995),
Hunston and Francis (1999), Francis, Hunston and Manning (1996, 1998), Hunston and
Sinclair (2000), and Hunston (2002b) begin with pattern and its meaning and then extend this
view into lexis. Indeed, investigations in large-sized corpora such as the British National
Corpus and the Bank of English suggest that there are certain advantages to this pattern-first
approach. This is largely because many words with similar meanings do not share similar
patterns, whereas words sharing a pattern do generally share a certain aspect of a similar
meaning (Thompson & Hunston, 2000; Hunston, 2002b). Looking at words from the point of
view of patterns rather than at patterns from the point of view of words is therefore a suitable
strategy for revealing the units of meaning in a text, which can be the starting point for
identifying the ideological stance of each disciplinary culture within academic contexts.
Following this assumption, the current study examines disciplinary differences from a
pattern-first perspective. In more detail, I propose to start with patterns, then look at the
adjectives within these patterns, then their collocates, and finally their contextual meanings.
3.3.2. Semantic sequences
The particular language pattern reflects the particular meaning and value of particular
disciplinary discourse (Charles, 2004). Widdowson (2000), for example, points out that 1) all
linguistic usage encodes representation of the world, 2) the systematic use of different
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