Abstract In this study, the role-playing game Final Fantasy 7 was analysed in regards of its qualities for English language development. Areas concerning language, specifically vocabulary, and video games explored in this study were academic words, words that express time, collocations, frequency, and keywords. Other areas investigated in this study are video games in connection to the syllabus for English, students’ outside of school interests, and implications for teaching. Data from a corpus-based vocabulary analysis showed that the players of Final Fantasy 7 will encounter a rich variety of words and linguistic features. Further, the text of Final Fantasy 7 shares a lot of the same qualities with texts from English 5 and 6, concerning academic words. Although, an analysis of keywords in the game and in the school texts also showed some differences, mainly in terms of grammatical variations, which indicate that Final Fantasy 7 can function as a complement to typical school texts.

Digital games are often considered a pastime activity with little to no real or tangible benefits. This, however, is contrary to studies on the usefulness of digital games in second language (L2) learning. There are several aspects of L2 learning that are affected positively by gaming, as well as other extramural English (EE) activities. One of these aspects is vocabulary, which has been proven to be substantially improved by gaming through incidental learning.  Collocations are often referred to as word pairs that co-occur more frequently than any other two words. The definition of a collocation is a contested subject, making research and theories around collocations widespread and varied depending on what definition a given author subscribes to. In the present study Howarth’s (1996) definition of collocations has been used. The hard-to-define nature of collocations extends into the act of teaching - collocations are rarely taught because they follow no set rule or pattern. This means that L2 learners must acquire their collocation knowledge incidentally, either in the classroom or through EE activities.   The present study aims to investigate the relationship between EE activities, primarily gaming, and the collocation knowledge of 87 Swedish teenagers in upper compulsory school and upper secondary school. This was done through a Productive Collocation Test (PCK) as well as a questionnaire. The results of the study show that students who engage in EE activities are more knowledgeable in terms of collocations than those who do not. Additionally, out of the EE activities included in the questionnaire gaming seems to be the best way to acquire collocation knowledge.   The present study concludes that there is a connection between EE activities, especially gaming, and collocation knowledge. Informants that claimed to spend more time per week playing digital games generally scored higher on the collocation test. This was also true for the students who claimed to spend a considerable amount of time on visual media per week. These informants also had knowledge of collocations that very few of the respondents knew, particularly the students who partake in gaming. The findings of the present study suggest that digital games could be used as a tool for teaching collocations. However, more research is required to carry this idea further.

Dans cette thèse, nous avons étudié d’une manière structurée et détaillée la sémantique des verbes gnat’ et gonjat’. Pour cela, nous avons tout d’abord formalisé leur potentiel sémantique qui comprend les composants de leur valeur de base et ce qu’ils génèrent dans des situations nouvelles, dans des cotextes particuliers. Pour chaque valeur sémantique, nous avons présenté un schéma sémantique, un schéma actantiel en précisant les rôles sémantiques, la nature des actants et leur réalisation syntaxique, ainsi que des illustrations d’emploi dans des cotextes des plus représentatifs, des synonymes, la famille morphologique. Les valeurs plus ou moins communes à gnat’ et à gonjat’ ont été étudiées ensemble, ce qui nous a permis de mettre en évidence leurs similitudes et différences. Puis, nous avons traité la question de la catégorie grammaticale des verbes de mouvement. Après avoir exposé les propriétés traditionnellement attribuées aux corrélats déterminé / indéterminé et les particularités qui sont générées dans l’emploi de chacun de ces corrélats, nous avons analysé la corrélation déterminé / indéterminé en général, et en particulier, entre gnat’ et gonjat’. Faisant partie de la catégorie grammaticale des verbes de mouvement, gnat’ et gonjat’ s’opposent sur le plan grammatical en tant que déterminé vs indéterminé et leurs caractéristiques grammaticales induisent quelques différences sémantiques. Ainsi, la plupart des différences observées entre gnat’ et gonjat’ ne sont pas en fait pas d’ordre lexical, mais résultent des différences grammaticales du déterminé gnat’ et de l’indéterminé gonjat’. Dans la partie consacrée à la dérivation morphologique, nous avons eu pour objectif d’examiner les effets de la préverbation et les modifications de sens que la préverbation entraîne pour ces verbes. Nous avons étudié les préverbés formés sur la base de gnat’ / gonjat’ à valeur spatiale en les regroupant en fonction de l’orientation spatiale : à partir du point de départ, vers le point d’arrivée, les deux en même temps ou en rapport avec un repère. Une attention minutieuse a été accordée aux différences sémantiques et aspectuelles de certains préverbés partageant les mêmes valeurs spatiales. L’étude des préverbés combinés aux préverbes à valeur non spatiale a été organisée en fonction de la morphologie de l’aspect : les préverbés hors couple et les couples de verbes. Quelques particularités ont été observées. Pour que l’étude sémantique soit complète, nous y avons inclus la question des phrasèmes comportant ces verbes. Puis, nous avons analysé le parallélisme qui existe entre gnat’ / gonjat’ simples et préverbés et le verbe dit de position sidet’ : les valeurs que ces verbes ont en commun et aussi, les limites de leur corrélation, Enfin, en partant directement des situations linguistiques concrètes avec gnat’ / gonjat’ simples et préverbés nous avons exposé un certain nombre de mécanismes qui aboutissent à un effet expressif. / In this thesis, we have studied the semantics of the verbs gnat’ and gonjat’ in a structured and extensive way. To achieve this, we began by structuring their semantic potential, which includes their basic value and what it produces in new situations, in specific cotexts. For each semantic value, we have presented a semantic schema, mapping the semantic roles of the actants, their nature and their syntactic development, together with examples of usage in the most representative cotexts, the synonyms, the morphological family. The more or less common values of gnat’ and gonjat’ have been studied together, so that we could bring their similarities and differences to light. Then, we dealt with the question of the grammatical category of the verbs of motion. Having presented the usually attributed properties of the correlate determined / indetermined and the particularities that emerge in the usage of each of these correlates, we have focused on the determined / indetermined correlation in general and between gnat’ and gonjat’ in particular. While belonging to the same grammatical category of the verbs of motion, both gnat’ and gonjat’ are opposed on a grammatical level, as determined and indetermined, and their grammatical characteristics lead to some semantical differences. Hence, most of the observed differences between gnat’ and gonjat’ are not of a lexical type; they are rather the result of the semantical differences between the determined gnat’ and the indetermined gonjat’. In the part of our thesis dedicated to morphological derivation, our goal was to study the impacts of verbal prefixation and the change of meaning as a result of the prefixation for these verbs. We have studied prefixed verbs based on gnat’ / gonjat’ with spatial meanings, clustering them depending on their spatial orientation: from the starting point, to the point of arrival, both at the same time or in relation to a landmark. A particular focus has been placed on the semantical and aspectual differences of some verbs with prefixes that share the same spatial values. The analysis of verbs with spatial prefixes was done according to the morphology of the aspect: the verbs with prefixes outside aspectual pairs and the pair of verbs. Some particularities have been observed. For the semantic study to be complete, we have added the question of the phrasemes using these verbs. Then, we studied the similarity between gnat’ and gonjat’ in their simple and prefixed forms and the verb of position sidet’: what those verbs have in common but also the limits of their similarities. Finally, we have taken concrete linguistic situations involving gnat’ and gonjat’ in their simple and prefixed forms in order to outline a number of mechanisms leading to an expressive result.

現今資料大量且快速數位化的時代，各領域對資訊探勘分析技術越趨倚重。而在數位人文中領域中從2009年「數位典藏與數位人文國際研討會」開始，此議題逐漸受到重視，主要目的為將數位文物結合資訊分析與圖像化輔助，透過不同層面的詮釋建構出更完整的文物資訊。 本研究建構一個針對各種中文語料分析的工具，藉由latent semantic analysis、pointwise mutual information、Person’s chi-squared test、typed dependencies distance、word2vec、Gibbs sampling for latent Dirichlet allocation等計算語料中關鍵詞彙關聯強度的方法，並結合分群方法找出可能的主題，最後擷取符合分群結果的相關句子予以輔助人文學者分析詮釋。透過提供各種觀察語料的面向，進而提升語料相關研究學者的效率。 我們利用《人民日報》、《新青年》、《聯合報》、《中國時報》作為實驗與測試的中文語料。且將《新青年》藉由此套工具分析後的結果提供給專業人文學者，做為分析詮釋的參考資訊與佐證依據，並在「2015年數位典藏與數位人文國際研討會」中發表論文。目前我們透過各種中文語料評估工具的效能，且在未來將公開此套工具提供給更多學者使用，節省對於語料分析的時間。 / In recent years, a wide variety of text documents have been transformed into digital format. Hence, using data mining techniques to analyze data is becoming more and more popular in many research fields. The digital humanities gradually have taken seriously since "International Conference of Digital Archives and Digital Humanities" began in 2009. The main purpose of the digital heritage combined with information analysis and visualization could improve the effectiveness of cultural information through different levels of interpretation. In this study, we construct a set of tools for Chinese text mining, calculating associated strengths of collocations work through latent semantic analysis, pointwise mutual information, Person’s chi-squared test, typed dependencies distance, word2vec, and Gibbs sampling for latent Dirichlet allocation etc. The tools employ clustering method to identify the possible topics, meanwhile, the tools will extract the relevant statements according to the clustering results. These clustering and relevant statements contribute and improve the efficiency of humanities scholars’ analysis through providing a variety of observations about the corpora. At the experimental stage of this study, we considered the "People's Daily", "New Youth", "United Daily News", and "China Times" as as the corpora for testing. Among the research, humanities scholars analyzed the "New Youth" by the tools and published a paper in the "2015 International Conference of Digital Archives and Digital Humanities". Currently, we assess the effectiveness of the tools through a variety of Chinese corpora. In the future, we will make the tools freely available on the Internet for Chinese text mining. We hope these time-saving tools can assist in humanities scholars’ study of Chinese corpora.

The diploma thesis explores the four seasons from the view point of the linguistic picture of the world theory. The etholinguistic approach is applied in the thesis - attention is paid to the Czech-specific perception of reality especially focused on the weather and the changes of the nature in the course of the four seasons. Human perception of the change is based upon the senses - the sense of hearing, the sense of smell, and touch and the eyesight. Each season is unique. The seasons can be differentiated by their season specific stereotypes, season prototypes, and connotations. On the linguistic pictures of each season collocations are built, from which new lexical items originate, describing the season as such. Due to anthropocentrism we perceive individual astronomical and meteorological issues as personified items to which we ascribe human behaviour and human qualities. The motto of the thesis says: "I will not do the spring sowing next year. " The motto denotes the interaction of two conceptual schemata (the scheme of a cycle and the scheme of a journey) realizing the fact that the natural cycle corresponds in our mental representation with the phases of human life. The difference between the concepts is that man always reaches the terminal point of his journey unlike the nature constantly...

Avhandlingen tar sin utgångspunkt i två uppslagsord i Svenska Akademiens Ordlista 2006: bautasten och bauta-. Övergripande syfte är att beskriva och förklara lexikala förändringar hos ord bildade med bauta(-) i svenskan under perioden 1664–2006, med särskild hänsyn till dessa förändringars relation till ordens etableringsgrad. Materialet består av 838 belägg för ord bildade med baut- eller böt-, och därutöver undersöks 30 ordböcker. Ordet bautasten är ett isländskt lånord i svenskan. Undersökningen av fornvästnordiska ord visar att bautasteinn kan vara ’sten som är slagen ned i jorden’ eller ’sten rest över en fallen krigare’, två betydelser som kan sammanföras i betydelsen ’minnessten’. Denna betydelse framträder också tydligt i samtliga texter. Historiens höga status under stormaktstiden har haft stor betydelse för att ordet bautasten lånades in i svenskan år 1664. Språkstrukturella faktorer har sannolikt lett till att ordet har uppmärksammats och att det har kunnat användas i svenskan. Under perioden 1664–1790 har etableringsgraden hos bautasten inte har varit hög, men vissa tecken tyder på att den höjs under perioden. Fram till ca 1900 stiger etableringsgraden hos bautasten, men den avtar sedan fram till 1973. I avhandlingen antas att ordets växlande etableringsgrad har varit beroende av synen på historien. I början av 1970-talet stiger etableringsgraden åter hos bautasten och 1985 finns första belägget för bauta- som förstärkande förled, vilket med stor sannolikhet har sin orsak att söka hos den stora populariteten hos och spridningen av seriealbumet Asterix. Förleden bauta- har visat sig vara mycket användbar som förstärkande förled. I materialet finns 3 ord bildade med bauta(-) som inte är etablerade i språksamfundet. / The starting point for the dissertation is two entry words in Svenska Akademiens Ordlista (SAOL 13, 2006): bautasten and bauta-. The overall purpose is to describe and explain lexical changes in words created with bauta(-) in the Swedish language during 1664–2006, placing particular em¬phasis on these changes in relation to the degree of establish¬ment. The material consists of 838 pieces of evidence of words created with baut- or böt- and, in addition, 30 dictionaries are exam¬ined. The word bautasten (‘menhir’, ‘standing stone’) is an Icelandic loan word in the Swedish lan¬guage. The examination of Old West Norse words shows that bautasteinn can be ’sten som är slagen ned i jorden’ (‘stone beaten into the ground’) or ’sten rest över en fallen krigare’ (‘stone erected over a fallen warrior’), two meanings which can be brought together in the meaning ’minnessten’ (‘memorial monument’). This meaning also clearly appears in all texts. The high status of history during the Swedish Age of Greatness was significant for the inclu¬sion of the word bautasten into the Swedish language in 1664. Language-structural factors have likely lead to the word being noticed as well as made it possible to use in the Swedish language. During 1664–1790, the degree of establishment of bautasten was not high, but there are indi¬cations that it increased during the period. Until about 1900, the degree of estab¬lish¬ment of bautasten increased, but then it decreased up until 1973. In the disserta¬tion it is assumed that the varying degree of establishment has been dependent on the view of history. In the beginning of the 1970s, the degree of establishment of bautasten increased once again and in 1985, the first instance of bauta- as an augmentative prefix appears, which most likely can be attributed to the great popularity and wide spread of the cartoon magazine Asterix. The prefix bauta- has proven to be very usable as an augmentative. There are 3 words created with bauta(-) in the material that are not established in the language community

The present master thesis analyses the idiolects of presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump against the background of the speeches of other candidates for the post of President of the United States in 2016. Using the 'corpus-assisted discourse analysis' (Partington et al., 2013), the thesis strives to uncover words, phrases and patterns that distinguish the speech of the two candidates in a political discourse from other presidential candidates. First, the thesis examines the keywords, collocations, negative keywords and clusters of the respective target corpora. While the main focal points of the study are lexical and grammatical indicators of style, proper nouns and lexical indicators of content ('aboutness keywords') are subjects to analysis as well. In the next step the results of the respective analyses are compared, i.e. the differences between the speeches of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are discussed.

From Verbs to Nouns and Prepositions Departicipial Forms in Czech: Form, Function, Complementarity Olga Richterová Abstract The present work gives a rough overall picture of the behaviour of departicipial forms ending in - ící/oucí (e.g. vedoucí - leading or leader, or fungující - functioning, working) in synchronous written Czech. In literature, these forms are called participial adjectives, deverbal adjectives or derivatives of the present transgressive. The main focus of the dissertation is on the word-class categorization of the analyzed forms, defined by the variety of functions which departicipial forms fulfill. Part-of-speech membership recommendations belong to the main outcomes of the work, the description of verbal, nominal or even preposition-like behaviour of the analyzed forms being one of the most prominent goals of the whole effort. The analysis is centered around the most frequent form, vedoucí (including the lexical unit vedoucí k - leading to). The preservation of prepositional valency was identified as one of the criteria of possible prepositionalization of these forms. Given the absence of reliable tagging, the work is mainly based on manual analyses of random corpora samples. Furthermore, it makes an innovative use of a tool called 'p-kolokace' (p- collocations), which is based on two...

Negli ultimi 70 anni, c'è stato un incremento degli studi e ricerche inglesi sulle collocazioni (Firth 1957; Hoey, 2005; Moon, 1998b; Sinclair 1991; 2004; Stubbs, 1996; 2001), i quali hanno evidenziato che la fraseologia è pervasiva alla lingua (Altenberg, 1998; Biber et al., 1999; Cowie, 1991; 1992; Howarth; 1998). Questo indica anche che una buona padronanza delle collocazioni è necessaria se i discenti mirano a raggiungere una fluidità simile a quella di un nativo nella L2. Infatti, la ricerca sulla produzione di linguaggio formulaico da parte degli apprendenti ha dimostrato che le collocazioni sono essenziali nell'acquisizione della lingua seconda (Cowie, 1998; Pawley & Syder, 1983; Peters, 1983) e sono una componente chiave per lo sviluppo della "fluency" (Ellis, 2002; 2003; Ellis et al., 2015; Howarth, 1998). Nonostante il maggior numero di studi sulle collocazioni, la maggior parte degli studiosi si è concentrata su dati scritti e su un insieme ristretto di combinazioni, come le collocazioni verbo + sostantivo. La scarsa disponibilità di corpora orali di discenti e la maggiore attenzione per le sequenze formulaiche più soggette a errori hanno portato i ricercatori a trascurare collocazioni come avverbio + aggettivo. L'intensificazione è una parte intricata dell'apprendimento delle lingue straniere (Lorenz, 1999) e merita ulteriore attenzione, soprattutto per quanto riguarda i dati parlati, che riflettono meglio il linguaggio dei discenti (Myles, 2015). Il presente lavoro indaga le collocazioni di avverbi + aggettivi in un corpus parlato di recente compilazione di studenti italiani avanzati di inglese L2. La tesi adotta un approccio di Analisi Interlinguistica Contrastiva (Granger, 1998) per verificare se: a) ci sono differenze tra la produzione di collocazioni degli studenti italiani di inglese rispetto ai coetanei madrelingua; b) ci sono differenze tra le collocazioni prodotti dagli studenti italiani e quelle dei madrelingua in termini di modelli sintattici e significato lessicale; c) la congruenza della L1 ha un effetto di trasferimento sulla produzione da parte dei discenti di collocazioni poco frequenti e/o non attestate. Per rispondere alle tre domande di ricerca, sono state condotte analisi quantitative e qualitative sull'Italian Spoken Learner Corpus (ISLC) e sul corpus gemello di LINDSEI, LOCNEC. LOCNEC è stato utilizzato come corpus di riferimento di madrelingua per il suo alto livello di comparabilità con ISLC. Per le analisi quantitative, è stato seguito l'approccio di Durrant e Schmitt (2009) per il calcolo dei punteggi delle misure di associazione delle collocazioni (t-score e MI) sulla base del corpus di riferimento BNC e le collocazioni sono state poi divise in tre categorie in base al loro punteggio: collocazioni (t-score e MI maggiore o uguale a 2 e 3 rispettivamente), collocazioni infrequenti/non attestate (t-score e MI non disponibili a causa dell'infrequenza), collocazioni in area grigia (t-score e MI inferiore a 2 e 3 rispettivamente). I test T-test e Wilcoxon rank sum test sono stati utilizzati sulle collocazioni estratte da ISLC e LOCNEC e sono state calcolate le dimensioni degli effetti. Inoltre, i test sono stati impiegati per valutare i valori medi individuali di t-score e MI degli studenti e dei madrelingua. Per quanto riguarda le analisi qualitative, è stato impiegato uno schema a tre livelli per analizzare due serie di collocazioni: la prima serie comprende 11 collocazioni con t-score e MI maggiore uguale a 2 e 3 rispettivamente e una frequenza di 5 nell'ISLC; la seconda serie comprende 9 collocazioni infrequenti/non attestate con una frequenza maggiore o uguale a 2 nell'ISLC. Seguendo lo schema, i due set di collocazioni estratti sia dall'ISLC sia dal LOCNEC sono stati analizzati tenendo conto del loro background collocativo (etimologia, livello CEFR, congruenza L1), delle variabili del discente (sesso, esperienza di soggiorno all'estero, corso universitario, altre lingue), e delle variabili testuali (funzione attributiva vs predicativa dell'aggettivo, pronomi vs it-sentences, tempo verbale, affermativo vs negativo, connotazione positiva vs negativa). I risultati dei test statistici sono stati tutti significativi con effect size medio-grandi e, insieme alle analisi qualitative, hanno indicato che: gli studenti italiani di inglese producono un minor numero di collocazioni; un maggior numero di non-collocazioni; le loro combinazioni sono meno collocative di quelle dei madrelingua (ovvero, i loro punteggi di misura delle associazioni sono in media più bassi di quelli dei nativi); non ci sono differenze marcate in termini di modelli lessico-grammaticali tra le collocazioni degli studenti e quelle dei madrelingua, ma gli studenti tendono ad assegnare alle loro collocazioni funzioni più creative dal punto di vista pragmatico; non è stata trovata alcuna prova di trasferimento L1 (negativo) in relazione alla produzione da parte dei discenti di collocazioni infrequenti/non attestate, sostenendo così ulteriormente la conclusione precedente. I risultati corroborano ulteriormente la letteratura sulle collocazioni prodotte dai discenti e aggiungono un altro tassello al puzzle della lingua parlata: il ritardo collocazionale, cioè lo sviluppo più lento delle prestazioni di produzione di collocazioni, può essere trovato anche nei dati parlati e i discenti sembrano anche produrre meno collocazioni identificate da punteggio t-score. Questo ha due importanti, anche se semplici, implicazioni: che gli studenti dovrebbero probabilmente essere esposti a più input di lingua parlata, e che le teorie di acquisizione della lingua seconda potrebbero utilmente rivedere i processi di acquisizione fraseologica degli studenti nel contesto EFL. Un'altra scoperta è relativa ai modelli lessico-grammaticali delle collocazioni degli studenti non erano marcatamente diversi da quelli dei madrelingua, ma erano meno vari e mostravano una creatività pragmatica. Questo potrebbe informare gli studiosi sui potenziali processi di fossilizzazione (Selinker, 1972) nella fraseologia e/o sulle strategie di semplificazione o di evitamento (Farghal & Obiedat, 1995). Infine, anche se gli studi tradizionali hanno trovato che la congruenza L1 gioca un ruolo chiave nella produzione di collocazioni (cfr. Bahns, 1993; Granger, 1998b; Nesselhauf, 2005; Wang, 2016), nessuna prova di congruenza L1 è stata trovata per quanto riguarda i dati parlati, il che è un'interessante controprova. Nel complesso, questa tesi ha sottolineato che la produzione di collocazioni, sia quantitativamente sia pragmaticamente, è in ritardo rispetto alla competenza collocazionale e, sebbene questa linea possa essere molto sottile e non significativa nei testi scritti, il divario si allarga nella lingua parlata. / In the last 70 years, there has been an increase in English studies on collocations (Firth 1957; Hoey, 2005; Moon, 1998; Sinclair 1991; 2004; Stubbs, 1996; 2001) and research which have documented that phraseology is pervasive to language (Altenberg, 1998; Biber et al., 1999; Cowie, 1991; 1992; Howarth; 1998). This also indicates that a good command of collocations is needed if learners aim to achieve native-like fluency in the L2. Indeed, research on learner production of formulaic language has shown that collocations are essential in the acquisition of second language (Cowie, 1998; Pawley & Syder, 1983; Peters, 1983) and are a key component for the development of fluency (Ellis, 2002; 2003; Ellis et al., 2015; Howarth, 1998). Despite the surge in studies on collocations, the majority of scholars have focused on written data and on a restricted set of combinations, such as verb + noun collocations. The poor availability of spoken learner corpora and the more error-prone formulaic sequences have led researchers to neglect collocations such as adverb + adjective. Intensification is an intricate part of foreign language learning (Lorenz, 1999) and deserves further attention, especially as regards spoken data, which is a better reflection of learner language (Myles, 2015). The present work investigates adverb + adjective collocations in a newly compiled spoken learner corpus of advanced Italian learners of English L2. The thesis adopts a Contrastive Interlanguage Analysis (Granger, 1998) approach to verify whether: a) there are any differences between the collocation production of Italian learners of English compared to native-speaker peers; b) there are any differences between the Italian learners’ collocations and the native speakers’ in terms of syntactic patterns and lexical meaning; c) L1 congruency has a transfer effect on the learner production of infrequent and/or unattested collocations. In order to address the three overarching research questions, quantitative and qualitative analyses were carried out on the Italian Spoken Learner Corpus (ISLC) and the sister corpus of LINDSEI, LOCNEC. LOCNEC was used as the native-speaker reference corpus for its high level of comparability to ISLC. For the quantitative analyses, Durrant and Schmitt’s (2009) approach was followed for the calculation of the collocation’s association measure scores (t-score and MI) based on the large reference corpus BNC and the collocations were then divided into three categories based on their score: collocations (t-score and MI equal or greater than 2 and 3 respectively), infrequent/unattested collocations (t-score and MI scores unavailable due to infrequency), grey area collocations (t-score and MI lower than 2 and 3 respectively). T-tests and Wilcoxon rank sum tests were computed on the collocations extracted from ISLC and LOCNEC and effect sizes were calculated. In addition, the tests were employed to assess the average individual t-score and MI values of learners and native speakers. As regards the qualitative analyses, a three-fold scheme was employed to analyse two sets of collocations: the first set comprises 11 collocations with t-score and MI equal or greater than 2 and 3 respectively and a frequency of equal or greater than 5 in the ISLC; the second set includes 9 infrequent/unattested collocations with a frequency equal or greater than 2 in ISLC. Following the scheme, the two sets of collocations extracted from both ISLC and LOCNEC were analysed by taking into account their collocational background (etymology, CEFR level, L1 congruence), the learner variables (gender, stay-abroad experience, university course, other languages), and the text variables (attributive vs predicative function of the adjective, pronouns vs it-sentences, tense, affirmative vs negative, positive vs negative connotation). The results of the statistical tests were all significant with medium to large effect sizes and, together with the qualitative analyses, indicated that: Italian learners of English produce a fewer number of collocations; a higher number of non-collocations; their combinations are less collocational than native speakers’ (i.e., their association measure scores as on average lower than the natives’); there are no marked differences in terms of lexico-grammatical patterns between the learners’ collocations and the native speakers’, but the learners tend to assign more pragmatically creative functions to their collocations; no evidence of L1 (negative) transfer was found in relation to the learners’ production of infrequent/unattested collocations, thus further supporting the previous finding. The findings further corroborate the literature on learners’ collocations and add another piece to the puzzle of spoken language: collocational lag, that is the slower development of collocation performance, can also be found in spoken data and learners also seem to produce fewer t-score collocations. This has two important, though simple, implications: that learners should probably be exposed to more spoken language input, and that second language acquisition theories might usefully review phraseological acquisition processes of EFL learners. Another finding is that the lexico-grammatical patterns of learners’ collocations were not markedly different from native speakers’, but they were less varied and displayed pragmatic creativity. This could inform scholars about potential fossilisation processes (Selinker, 1972) in phraseology and/or simplification or avoidance strategies (Farghal & Obiedat, 1995). Lastly, although mainstream studies have found that L1 congruency plays a role in the production of collocations (cf. Bahns, 1993; Granger, 1998b; Nesselhauf, 2005; Wang, 2016), no evidence of L1 congruency was found as regards spoken data, which is an interesting counter-finding. Overall, this thesis has underlined that collocation production, both quantitatively and pragmatically, lags behind collocation competence and, although this line may be very thin and not significant in written texts, the gap widens in spoken language.

The goal of this thesis is to analyze the textual composition of René Goscinny’s Astérix and Le petit Nicolas, demonstrating how they differ and why. Taking a statistical look at the comparative qualities of each series of works, the structural differences and similarities in language use in these two series and their respective media are highlighted and compared. Though one might expect more complicated language use in traditional text by virtue of its format, analysis of average word length, average sentence length, lexical diversity, the prevalence of specific forms (the passé composé, possessive pronouns, etc.), and preferred collocations (ils sont fous, ces romains !) shows interesting results. Though Le petit Nicolas has longer sentences and more relative pronouns (and hence more clauses per sentence on average), Astérix has longer words and more lexical diversity. A similar comparison of the albums of Astérix written by Goscinny to those of Uderzo, paying additional attention to the structural elements of each album (usage of narration and sound effects, for example) shows that Goscinny's love of reusing phrases is far greater than Uderzo's, and that the two have very different ideas of timing as expressed in narration boxes.