英語空間介詞之語料庫量化分析：概念對稱性與其教學應用

A Quantitative Corpus-Based Approach to English Spatial Particles: Conceptual Symmetry and Its Pedagogical Implications

本文主要探討「概念對稱性」在英語空間詞語用中之重要性，並以語料庫為本之分析方法，評量現今台灣高中英文課本中空間詞的分佈比例及其語言真實性，提供教師更多教學依據。本文採用英國國家語料庫（BNC），利用統計方法，分析英語介系詞片語中13個空間詞與介詞片語中名詞詞組之間的相關性。我們觀察語料庫中歸屬於同一空間軸（如：垂直軸）之對稱空間詞（如：up/down）是否在真實語用中亦以對稱地方式與其他名詞共現。結果顯示，不同空間軸在實際語用中展現了不同程度的概念對稱性。此外，我們更進一步分析空間詞在目前三個主要版本的高中英文課本（包括遠東，龍騰以及三民版）中的分布狀況，檢視課本課文是否能切實反映語料庫中空間詞實際的語用狀況，進而針對語用真實性檢討教材設計之優劣，提供高中教師具體建議及教學方針。

The present study aims to investigate how conceptual symmetry plays a role in the use of spatial particles in English and to further examine its pedagogical implications via a corpus-based evaluation of the course books in senior high schools in Taiwan. More specifically, we adopt a quantitative corpus-based approach to investigate whether bipolar spatial particles (e.g., up/down) on the same spatial dimension (e.g., vertical axis) exhibit a symmetrical extension to similar sets of target domains in real language use. Our data is based on the British National Corpus. We examine the correlation patterns between 13 spatial particles and their co-occurring nouns in English preposition constructions through exploratory statistical methods. The distributional patterns of the spatial particles have clearly revealed different patterning on three dimensions with respect to their degrees of conceptual symmetry. On the other hand, we further analyze the distribution of the spatial particles in three major officially-approved versions of textbooks in senior high schools, namely, Far East, Lungteng and Sanmin. This evaluation features a critical comparison with the authentic corpusbased realization of these spatial particles in the BNC. The similarities and differences between the textbook illustration and the realistic corpus instantiation may shed light on the pedagogical practices for language teachers on the frontline.