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Phrasal verbs, like many types of formulaic language, present a challenge for learners of English to master. While phrasal verbs are pervasive in the English language, many non-native speakers of English, even those with high proficiency, struggle to understand and produce them fluently (Gardner & Davies, 2007; Garnier & Schmitt, 2016; Larsen-Freeman & Celce-Murcia, 2015; Schmitt & Redwood, 2011; Siyanova & Schmitt, 2007; Strong & Boers, 2019). This underuse of phrasal verbs by non-native speakers causes them to sound unnatural, especially in speech (Larsen-Freeman & Celce-Murcia, 2015). Many researchers have investigated phrasal verb knowledge, learning, and use by English learners and a variety of causes have been speculated; however, understanding of the underlying causes of this phenomenon is far from conclusive. Some researchers have shown that learners have trouble mastering the multitude of meanings, especially those that are more idiomatic (Gardner & Davies, 2007; Garnier & Schmitt, 2016; and others). Schmitt and Redwood (2011) argued “the opaque and idiomatic nature of some phrasal verbs presents obvious difficulties for learners and these problems are compounded when we take into account the significant number of phrasal verbs that are also polysemous” (p. 174). These factors are possible key factors in making phrasal verbs difficult for learners to master.

This study investigates the impact of three types of focus-on-form instruction (FFI) on learners’ reading comprehension and their development of the English past unreal conditional. The study also investigates whether the learners’ grammar development is implicit or explicit in nature. Fifty-one intermediate-level ESL learners were distributed into three groups. Each group read passages with different levels of explicitness of the grammar form: in the first input flood (IF) group, a baseline or control group, nothing was added to the text. For the second, textual enhancement (TE) group, the forms were enlarged and in bold. For the third rule presentation (RP) group, metalanguage describing the past unreal conditional was added to the flooded and enhanced forms. After reading, the participants’ form noticing was measured through a selfcircling test; their reading comprehension was measured through a free-recall test. Timed and untimed grammaticality-judgment tests (GJTs) were used to measure form learning. One week later, a second (delayed) GJT test was administered to measure sustained form learning. When compared with the IF group, the RP group showed significantly higher results on the GJTs and significantly lower results on comprehension. The timed GJTs and noticing scores showed a significant inverse correlation with comprehension. These results lead to three suggestions. First, more explicitness leads to better development of implicit grammar knowledge. Second, less explicitness leads to more focus on meaning and concomitantly higher comprehension scores. Third, the effectiveness of FFI should be re-considered in light of this potential inverse (VanPatten, 1990) or trade-off (Barcroft, 2002) relationship between form and meaning.

International audience; This paper investigates the loss of the word order ‘Object-Verb’ (OV) in the history of Latin/Romance. It is argued that the immediate cause of this development is an independent change in the grammar of Latin, namely the genesis of A-movement for subjects (which was discussed in detail in Danckaert (2017), ‘The Development of Latin Clause Structure’, OUP). Using Yang’s (2000, 2002) variational acquisition model, I present corpus data which show that despite remaining the minority pattern throughout the lifespan of the Latin language (ca. 200 BC - 600 AD), in Late Latin the order ‘VO’ is in fact cued more robustly than the competing order ‘OV’, an observation which leads to the correct prediction that in the long run the former will oust the latter.

1850年に出版された文学作品９作品を取り上げ、そこに見られる命令等を表す義務の表現構文を分析し、仮定法、should、法助動詞、不定詞、動名詞の構文、そして能動態、受動態、さらに肯定、否定についてその使用頻度を調べ、その傾向を分析した。アメリカ英語の特徴として仮定法の構文を好むと一般にいわれていることについては、1998年と1948年のベストセラー作品を通してそれを確認してきたが、1900年についてはその頻度が非常に低かった。今回の調査においてもその傾向が一段と強くみられ、イギリス英語の特徴とされるshouldの構文が多用されていることが分かった。