O uso de chunks formados pelo verbo get por aprendizes de inglês como L2

Abstract

The investigation described in this Master Thesis has shown how chunks are acquired and produced in English as a second language (L2). For this, we reviewed previous researches that deal with these same constructions, called 'phrasal verbs'. Later, we based in theoretical working on the difference between verb-framed languages and satellite-framed languages, as well as those that discuss the Language Transfer Hypothesis, taking into account Corpus Linguistics as a methodological framework. This Master Thesis investigates the use of chunks with the verb get, contrasting its role in English L1 and their corresponding in Portuguese L1, with the purpose of understanding its use in the English L2 of native speakers of Portuguese L1. From this perspective, we notice the construction of these chunks in a satellite-framed language (English) and in a verb-framed language (Portuguese). This research main goal is to identify the use of chunks with the verb get in movement constructions by Brazilian learners of English L2. From the linguistic production developed by 52 students in two proposed tasks, we observed the ability of learners of English L2 to use chunks formed by the verb get + path. The results found enabled us to make a comparative analysis of forms and their frequencies with those found in the narratives collected in English L1 and in Portuguese L1. Thus, from the minicorpus collected, we sought to analyze the chunks used by the students, showing the frequency distribution of the verb get in chunks produced by learners of English L2. This could be done because the data transcription obtained through the students production was analyzed using the software TextSTAT. The data were analyzed in order to give us the opportunity to observe the convergence and the transfer of structures (chunks) formed from the verb get in English and the correlation with the Portuguese verbs. The results show that learners, when being in contact with a particular language, develop some learning strategies, which induces us to search for hypotheses about the patterns found in the use of English as L2.