GRAMMATICAL COLLOCATIONS VERB + PREPOSITION IN SPANISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE: ASPECTS OF NATURALNESS IN A2 AND B1 ANGLOPHONE LEARNERS

ABSTRACT The following article presents the results of the analysis of two written sub-corpora of Anglophone learners of Spanish a foreign language of levels A2 and B1, whose objective is to examine the production of grammatical collocations verb + preposition (GramCol v+p) in relation with the production of a comparable corpus of native speakers (NS) of Spanish. To this end, collocational occurrences are identified, correction from a collocational combinatory viewpoint is determined, and acceptable uses are described according to characterizing syntactic-semantic patterns. Based on frequency data, it is concluded that learners exhibit features of restricted naturalness in the use of the observed units, in terms that A2 level produces a lower number and lower variety than NS; while B1 learners, though reaching similar frequency as NS, they also present a lower variety, similar to that of A2. The above could be explained with the recurrent use of some collocations in particular by both groups of learners which contribute to gross frequency, though not to variety. Additionally, within acceptable collocational uses, learners´ lower frequency of subtypes which include pronominal verbs stands out as a difference regarding NS use. This work contributes from a phraseological perspective to the study of combinations verb + preposition of intermediate fixedness in the collective interlanguage of Anglophone learners of Spanish as a foreign language.