in Korean English (two-tailed with Yates’ correction is 22.5 when is compared a bit of χ2 with in SK and the BNC, df=1, p <0.0001). Four occurrences in LK suggest that OTHER of the form may be developing with the presence of two closely related a bit of a passion, strings relating to studies from two speakers: and I studied a bit of sociology I studied a bit of and what appears to be a reformulation as a speaker produces infectious disease we had a bit which suggests the speaker was primed to refer to small amounts of we had a few complaints as but then became aware of the problematic string and a bit of we had a bit of complaints reformulated. 3.2 a little bit Returning to 3 it is interesting to note that the string takes up 15% of all uses of a lot a in both Korean corpora while the corresponding figure is 4% in both British corpora. The variation of the second most frequent 2-gram, in both Korean corpora appears to be a little, less striking with 8% of SK, 6% of LK and 2% of the British corpora but these numbers hide a surprising point. The 3-gram takes up 78% of all strings in SK, 79% in LK a little bit a little but just 31% and 32% in SCO and the BNC (see Table 5, p <0.0001 when is a little bit compared with for SK and the BNC, two-tailed FE). a little OTHER After the highest frequency of 70 occurrences of in SK the second most frequent a little bit a string is but with just three occurrences there is a notable drop in little * a little different frequency that is shared with LK. It seems reasonable to suggest that speakers of Korean English are primed to use the string and that this may partially explain the smaller a little bit frequencies of the string seen in Table 3. The phrase appears as an adjective a bit a little bit modifier in most cases with examples ranging and to little bit different a little bit better a and this could reflect the L1 primings for the item (chokum). little bit free a little bit hard; Table 5: Frequency details for and high frequency R1 items in four corpora a little
in Korean English (two-tailed χ2 with Yates’ correction is 22.5 when a bit of is compared with OTHER of in SK and the BNC, df=1, p <0.0001). Four occurrences in LK suggest that the form may be developing with the presence of a bit of a passion, two closely related strings relating to studies from two speakers: I studied a bit of sociology and I studied a bit of infectious disease and what appears to be a reformulation as a speaker produces we had a bit of we had a few complaints which suggests the speaker was primed to refer to small amounts as a bit of but then became aware of the problematic string we had a bit of complaints and reformulated. 3.2 a little bit Returning to 3 it is interesting to note that the string a lot takes up 15% of all uses of a in both Korean corpora while the corresponding figure is 4% in both British corpora. The variation of the second most frequent 2-gram, a little, in both Korean corpora appears to be less striking with 8% of SK, 6% of LK and 2% of the British corpora but these numbers hide a surprising point. The 3-gram a little bit takes up 78% of all a little strings in SK, 79% in LK but just 31% and 32% in SCO and the BNC (see Table 5, p <0.0001 when a little bit is compared with a little OTHER for SK and the BNC, two-tailed FE). After the highest frequency of 70 occurrences of a little bit in SK the second most frequent a little * string is a little different but with just three occurrences there is a notable drop in frequency that is shared with LK. It seems reasonable to suggest that speakers of Korean English are primed to use the string a little bit and that this may partially explain the smaller frequencies of the string a bit seen in Table 3. The phrase a little bit appears as an adjective modifier in most cases with examples ranging little bit different and a little bit better to a little bit free and a little bit hard; this could reflect the L1 primings for the item (chokum). Table 5: Frequency details for a little and high frequency R1 items in four corpora
article_environ_postprint.docx