The comparative corpus-based study of syntactic variations of multi-word units of the word “example” and “instance” in academic writings by native English writers

Relying on limited lexical choices among English non-native writers may lead to the tendency of overusing certain common expressions. The current study explored variability in choices of words, specifically in giving examples in academic writings, as an important function that allows writers to make their message clearer to the readers. The nouns example and instance used by native speakers in academic writing were compared in order to gain an insight into similarities or differences of the frequency of co-occurrences with different significant verb collocates based on corpus data. The findings suggest that, first, the use of direct second person imperatives were found to be prevalent. Second, the verbs be and see were found to be the top four most frequent verb collocates of both example and instance in either the left or right positions. Third, the verb provide was also commonly used both with the nouns example and instance to say that certain things, people or incidents act as examples. Last, both example and instance were more commonly used as verb complements in sentences. The findings can be used in classrooms as corpus-informed materials that represent alternative linguistic patterns for an exemplifying function.

英语非母语写作者受限于有限的词汇选择，可能会出现过度使用某些常用表达的倾向。本研究聚焦词汇选择的多样性，尤其是学术写作中的举例行为——举例作为一项核心功能，可帮助作者向读者更清晰地传递信息。本研究基于语料库数据，对比了英语母语者在学术写作中使用的名词example（例子）与instance（实例），以探究二者与不同重要动词搭配词的共现频率差异与共性。研究结果显示：其一，直接第二人称祈使句的使用较为普遍；其二，be与see这两个动词被发现是例子与实例在左右两侧位置搭配频次最高的前四位动词搭配词；其三，动词provide（提供）也常与例子和实例搭配，用以表示某些事物、人物或事件可作为例证；其四，例子与实例在句中更多作为动词补语使用。本研究结果可作为基于语料库的教学材料，为课堂教学提供用于举例功能的多样化语言范式。