Língua Inglesa Aspectos SIntático e Semânticos aula 4

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Lexicality: Implications for ELT
Professor Fabiana Ferreira
Description
The study of semantics and syntax and, mostly, of lexicality under these
points of view, with emphasis on relativity, transfer, lexical hypothesis,
regrouping lexical transfer, and the reconfiguration of traces.
Purpose
To understand how syntax and semantics are essential when teaching
English as a Foreign Language and how languages differ not only in
dictionary meaning, but also in different psychological, regional and
particular aspects of a certain society. By doing so, we can help learners
understand lexical relativity so that they are able to perform a transfer
from L1 to L2 and to learn to reconstruct the meanings of the lexical
aspects of L1 in L2.
Goals
Section 1
Lexical Relativity
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To describe the importance of Lexical Relativity in ELT.
Section 2
Lexical Transfer
To identify the impact of Lexical Transfer on SLA.
Section 3
Regrouping Lexical
Transfers/Recon�guration of
traces
To recognize the relevance of traces in ELT.
Warm up
Before focusing on lexicality and its functions, it is essential to
take a look at the concept of EFL. We are going to focus on its
academic use and how its approach is based on some views of
Hutchinson and Waters (1987), Rodgers (1969) and Swales
(1990).
In the past, English was learnt by wealthy people as it was
considered a sophisticated language. However, after the Second
World War and due to the great gain of economic power by the
USA, English became necessary for different reasons, but
basically because of the growing need of the language in
professions which did not need to use English before. It became a
necessity in science, technology, economy and, later on, also in
commerce and the oil industry.

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The importance of English Language Teaching has also grown in
the past decades. EFL usually refers to teaching English at places
where English is not spoken as a mother tongue. However,
recently the term has received criticism and has been replaced by
English as an Additional Language. Even though the label may
change – EFL or EAL – one thing remains the same: whenever
teaching English, the teacher will have to teach grammar, lexical
content and provide authentic activities.
First of all, the learner must understand that there are specific
kinds of genres that they need to be aware of so that they know
that not all productions in the English language are the same and,
therefore, they will have to learn how to tell them apart and use or
recognize the ones required. Some of the basic topics to be
analysed are: register, level of formality, layout or style required by
the reader, among others.
In this Unit, we will focus on lexical relativity, lexical transfer and
the reconfiguration of lexical transfer and regrouping and the
reconfiguration of traces.
Enjoy!
1 - Lexical Relativity
By the end of this section, you will be able to describe the importance of
Lexical Relativity in ELT.
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What is syntax?
The term “syntax” comes from the Latin word “syntaxis” and it means
“to arrange together and in sequence”.
So, when we talk about Syntax in Linguistics, we are referring to the rules
that dictate how words have to be put together to make phrases,
sentences and clauses. They are responsible for all the possibilities we
have for making statements, utterances and asking questions. Syntax is
also responsible for the grammar use behind all the options mentioned
above because it is what makes people understand when a sentence
begins, when it ends, when it is a question and so on.
For ESL (English as a second language) students, syntax may be a little
difficult. Consider, for example, the fact that in English syntax the
adjective comes before the noun. For instance:
A beautiful girl
If we consider Brazilian Portuguese, that structure may happen, but it is
not commonly used (a Brazilian Portuguese speaker will usually use the
noun before the adjective) and may cause the feeling that there is
something strange in the sentence. Especially beginners will tend to say
“a girl beautiful”, because they have a tendency to mirror the syntax that
is used in Brazilian Portuguese (uma garota bonita).
Native speakers use syntax unconsciously. However, they are able to tell
when a sentence does not seem to sound right even if they are not
aware of the grammar mistake related to that sentence.
In English, the order adjectives must be used is quite particular and
requires constant use to become natural by the ESL learner. They must
follow the order:
1. opinion;
2. size;
3. physical quality;
4. shape;
5. age;
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6. colour;
7. origin;
8. material;
9. type;
10. purpose.
How can that be used in an utterance? Have a look at the example
bellow:
We bought a nice big rough round old gray wooden
house.
nice = opinion
big = size
rough = physical quality
round = shape
gray = colour
wooden = material
Attention!
Notice that this type of order which, as we mentioned before, comes
naturally to the native speaker, to ESL learners, however, may come as
quite a challenge, as memorizing the order and using it without thinking
in everyday conversations is not an easy task. That is one of the
important aspects of the English language to be analysed by the learner.
What is semantics?
Differently from syntax, semantics is concerned with the meaning of the
words and its changes, focusing on its literal sense, helping understand
human expression through language.
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Michel Bréal.
It was first studied by Bréal (1924) and defined as an aspect that
analyzes the meaning of words and their characteristics, such as sense,
reference, implication, and logical form; or, as later explained, it is the
study of meaning communicated through language, concentrated on its
literality without the interlocutor’s interference.
Since semantics worries about meaning, let us consider something quite
simple which is teaching interrogative, negative and affirmative forms. If
we concentrate on their literal meaning, these forms do not present any
aspect other than the fact that an interrogative sentence will allow no
other meaning than that of a question; negative is simply a denial and
the affirmative form is just a statement.
The problem we can see here is that no
utterance goes beyond the “concrete” idea of
the word and its various contexts.
For example, if we consider a more pragmatic view of the forms
mentioned above, we can understand that an interrogative sentence is
not always a question, since the context in which the utterance is
inserted is taken into account.
But what does it mean?
Let us discuss how electricity has been very expensive in Brazil:
Imagine a mother and a daughter in an interaction about the fact that the
daughter always forgets to turn off the lights of her bedroom. Her
mother might say: “Do you think I am rich?”. Although syntactically the
sentence is in question form, according to pragmatics, which considers
the context in which the utterance is, that is not considered exactly a
question, but a reprimand.
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The same would happen ifI said: “Would you like some coffee?”;
pragmatically, that is an offer; semantically, considering that this one
only considers the literal meaning, that is just a simple question.
Linguistic relativity
Sapir-Whorf
Before we discuss the topic of this sub-session, it is of major importance
to understand the studies of Sapir-Whorf.
Around the 1930s, the authors (Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf)
developed the idea that made a difference in many other studies of other
scholars: their proposal, which later became a hypothesis, was that the
language the person speaks will influence the way they think about
reality.
This hypothesis became later known as the Linguistic Relativity
Hypothesis and it has a connection with semiotics, how we develop
language and thought, meaning that each language incorporates a view
of the world. Therefore, different languages incorporate different views.
Considering that, people from di�erent
countries see the world in di�erent ways, how
does it happen in real life?
One of the most common examples of this hypothesis was brought by
Boas in his book is Handbook of American Indian Languages (1911)
concerning how Eskimos call “snow”.
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According to the author, they have dozens of different names for “snow”
because Eskimos categorize it considering its shape, that is, depending
on the kind of “snowstorm” they have, they visualize it differently, making
it necessary for them to call it differently as well. That does not happen
in places like Rio de Janeiro, for example, because “snow” is not part of
Rio’s reality, therefore, the population of Rio would not understand so
many different names.
Sapir said in The Status of Language and Science (1929):
Human beings do not live in the
objective world alone, nor alone in
the world of social activity as
ordinarily understood, but are very
much at the mercy of the particular
language which has become the
medium of expression for their
society. It is quite an illusion to
imagine that one adjusts to reality
essentially without the use of
language and that language is
merely an incidental means of
solving specific problems of
communication or reflection.
(SAPIR, 1929, P. 209)
That emphasizes the idea that thought and language are roughly linked
together, the world (culture and society) does influence how we perceive
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language and use it.
Culture and anthropology
Boas (1911) was an anthropologist who studied different cultures and
that is how he was able to understand the way language was used in
different societies. His book was first received with doubt from the
anthropological and linguistic society, especially the latter, who
considered his findings untrue, the result of disorganized and sloppy
academic work. Some linguists even got to the point of calling it “The
great Eskimo vocabulary hoax”, a name which they would later regret.
Boas (1911) studied two families of languages:

Inuit

Yupik
These are two dialects that originated from the same language and
which applied a big quantity of information in one word just by adding a
suffix to the base word.
Example
In Siberian Yupik, the word boat (angyagh) when adding a suffix and
making it “angyaghllangyugtuqlu” becomes “what’s more, he wants a
bigger boat”.
The problem found here is that creating a dictionary based on these
features is quite a difficult task. However, the anthropologist Igor Krupnik
agreed that Boas (1911) did create a fine dictionary of those languages
with the basic words and their differences, and it was he who helped
Boas (1911) perpetuate the idea that Eskimos have more words for
“snow” than the English language does.
Let us consider the culture of a society and how it affects the language
of this group:
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“Snow” is a common word for Eskimos. It is part of their everyday life,
routine and, therefore, their culture. The fact that they have about a
dozen words to describe distinct kinds of “snow” comes as natural, since
we understand they comprehend it differently from societies in which
“snow” is not so much part of their culture, like in Rio de Janeiro.
However, let us think about the idea of culture considering the city of Rio
de Janeiro:
Have you ever wondered how you would explain to a foreigner the
expressions “pegar jacaré” or “tomar um caixote”? We are not talking
about words and their meanings here, but idioms. These idioms use
words that are not completely literal and that, together with other words,
make up an expression that might be difficult for a foreigner to
understand.
They might be difficult even for people from other states to understand
because they are connected to the idea of going to the beach, which is
something very present in Rio. Going to the beach is part of the culture in
Rio.
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Teaching EFL to academic
students
Considering the topics we have discussed so far, how are we going to
make EFL academic learners aware of all the aspects they should know?
How are we going to help EFL academic learners comprehend that
language is not a literal word-for-word translation? And what might be
even more important, how are we going to help learners understand that
some words might have more than one definition?
When you become a teacher, you will most definitely find a student who
will ask you what “get” means, and you will catch yourself asking “What’s
the sentence?”. That happens because the word “get” alone might have
many meanings but, depending on the complement, it might have one
specific meaning.
Example
“Get up” means “to stand up”, “get away” means “to escape” and so on.
People are never happy with this aspect of the verb, especially when we
consider the size of the list of the verb “to get” in a good dictionary.
However, that is not the only verb with these characteristics: take the
verb “to play”, for example. It might mean “to play a game”, “to play an
instrument”, “to pretend”, “to play nice”, and so on.
Knowing only one meaning of a word can be limiting, since they have
conceptual, connotative, collocative, affective, stylistic, and other
meanings:
Conceptual meaning
How and when the way we think can affect the way we learn a
new language.
Connotative meaning
It varies according to age, culture, or individual experience and
emotions related to the world.
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Stylistic meaning
It reflects the social situation.
A�ective meaning
It conveys the individual feelings and attitude of the speaker.
Collocative meaning
It conveys to word “partnerships” that always co-occur together
and must remain the same.
It is important that the EFL learner is aware of all these possibilities and,
just like the word “snow” by the Eskimos, they may also come across
words that might be able to describe something that may seem simple
to us but that may have different meanings and collocations in the
English language. According to Grice (1975), the “knowledge of the
world” of the interlocutor should be considered in the use of the
linguistic structure.
Lexical relativity and ELT
Is a word for word translation the best way to learn a language? In this
video professor Fabiana Ferreira will discuss lexical relativity. Stay tuned!

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You are very close to reaching your goals.
Let’s practice!
Question1
Around the 1930s, Edward Sapir e Benjamin Lee Whorf developed a
very important theory. What is the basis of the Sapir-Whorf
Hypothesis?
Parabéns! A alternativa B está correta.
Language and thought work together and language is dictated by
the way we see the world. Language does not affect culture and
when we say that thought is necessary, it sounds incomplete.
Language is not only about vocabulary. Language is used differently,
but this sentence does not say why.
Question 2
Learning a language may be a challenge to some students. What is
the importance of teaching lexical relativity to EFL learners?
A Language affects culture.
B Language and thought function together.
C Thought is necessary.
D Language is used differently.
E Language is about vocabulary.
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Parabéns! A alternativa A está correta.
It is important to comprehend that a word may have more than one
definition. Verbs do not need to be used in every utterance. EFL
learners do not need to know about the vocabulary of Eskimos.
Adjectives are not always used and there is not a certain number of
words to be used in an utterance.
2 - Lexical Transfer
By the end of this section, you will be able to identify the impact of
Lexical Transfer on SLA.
A That one word may have more than one definition.
B That verbs must be used in every utterance.
C
That “snow” can be described by more than a dozen
words by Eskimos.
D That adjectives are always used.
E
That there is a certain number of words that must be
used in an utterance.
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What is lexical transfer?
When we discuss lexical transfer, we are talking about:

L 1
The native tongue.

L 2
The target language.
So it all comes down to language acquisition and how learning a second
language is affected by the learner’s mother tongue.
One of the aspects that is important in this point happens as the learner
transfers to L2 vocabulary that which is similar to what is available in L1
(KELLERMAN, 1977: 96). This is called psychotypological perspective.
Now, we have always heard people say “after you have learnt one
language, it is easier to learn another”, and that is not wrong. A person
who has decided to learn a third language will not try to transfer from L1
to L3 as they did when they learnt L2, that is, they will not move back to
L1 before moving on to L3. That means they are more typologically
closer to L3 or L4 and so on. That is known as a cross-linguistic
influence.
Bearing this in mind, there are three types of transfer that may occur:
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Positive transfer: cognates, lexical
selection etc.
Cognates – words that are correctly transferred into L2 due to
their similarity to L1;
Lexical selection – it has to do with the Sapir-Whorf
Hypothesis: the learner is able to select or choose the correct
translation of the word, among many others, and infer it in L2.
Negative transfer: lexical errors.
Lexical error - it is the incorrect translation from L1 to L2, which
shows how, in language acquisition, the EFL student may be
influenced by the similarity of the words in L1.
The Linguistic Aspect A�ected by the
Transfer
That is the influence the EFL learner lets themselves be led by
L1 syntax, morphology and lexis, which makes them transfer L1
into L2 in an incorrect way due to lack of knowledge on lexical
relativity.
Therefore, the knowledge of the world, the understanding that learning a
language requires opening to new possibilities and accepting the
different meanings of one single word is necessary. However, many
aspects may cause problems in these transfers, such as:
Age;
Personality, motivation, language attitude;
Social, educational, and cultural background;
Language background, and many others.
We are going to focus on some of these difficulties in the sub-sections
below.
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Lexical borrowing
This aspect happens when the learner makes a “literal” translation of the
word from L1 into L2. That may happen when words are too similar to
the ones in L2, expressions, and false cognates, also known as false
friends. These false cognates are words that have a similarity to the
words in L1 but a completely distinct meaning. You can find some of the
examples below (in the first column, you will find the word as it is in; in
the second column, you will see how Brazilian students usually translate
it and in the third column, you will find the correct translation in Brazilian
Portuguese):
Word in English
How Brazilians
translate it
Correct translat
Actually Atualmente Na verdade
Fabric Fábrica Tecido
Prejudice Prejuízo Preconceito
Push Puxar Empurrar
Parents Parentes Pais
Pretend Pretender Fingir
Retire Retirar Aposentar-se
Sensible Sensível Sensato
Soda Soda Refrigerante
Terrific Terrível Muito legal
False friends
It is worth mentioning that some expressions in the English language
might come across as strange to Brazilian Portuguese speakers
because of the way these EFL learners tend to think of language.
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Take the word “service” in L2, for example; it might be translated as
“ofício” or “oficina” to these pupils, when it actually means “posto de
gasolina”, in British English (service station). However, even if the EFL
speaker knows this, they might come across the expression “church
service”, which they might wrongly think of as “serviço na igreja”.
However, when they see it in a context, and they understand that there
are nuances to the language that make words, possibly, have more than
one meaning, as in “She always goes to church service on Sundays”, they
might comprehend that the word, here, does not mean what they think it
does. It means “missa” or “culto”. It is important to make the EFL student
aware of these transfers also in expressions.
The word “realise”, or “realize” in American English, used to be a false
cognate, since it seemed to be “realizar”, but it actually meant
“perceber”. However, as you probably have noticed, I used the expression
“used to be a false cognate”. You must be asking yourself why I did that:
Have you already paid attention to the number of
people who have been using the word “realizar” instead
of “perceber” and meaning it as in English?
Sentences such as “Eu sempre pensei na possibilidade, mas nunca
realizei que isso pudesse realmente acontecer” have been more and
more common each day. It is a quite interesting phenomenon: the effect
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of L2 on L1 to the point of changing L1. It is a very new aspect that
should, and probably will, be analyzed by scholars in the future.
Second Language
Acquisition and interference
In his work Languages in contact, when Weinreich (1953) first studied the
effects of L1 on L2 for EFL learners he realized how one can interfere in
the other. He called this “problem” faced especially by a beginner an
“interference”, which was later called “transfer”. When an EFL learner is
beginning to analyze L2, it is quite common to find them facing many
difficulties due to their lack of knowledge of L2.
Uriel Weinreich.
It is quite common to find L1 students complaining about how difficult
the English language is, but that happens mainly because they are not
ready to deal with these transfers and are expecting to deal with “fast
food” English.
Now, why do I call it that?
Becausebeginners are always looking for something that will not have
to make them think or memorize something. They are looking for
something always faster, they want to learn English in a fast way, and
they want it ready. One of the possibilities that I would like to bring
awareness to is that these types of learners expect to go to a language
school or school, but they are not willing to study at home. This way, it
does not matter how fast your course is, you will not be proficient
without a certain amount of dedication.
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Therefore, we are focusing here on the fact that the more you get in
touch with the target language, the easier the learning becomes. That
happens because your vocabulary in L2 is widening, and the translation
is successful. Take into consideration what Odlin (1996) said about
Weinreich’s point of view and what he added as his own:
what Weinreich (1953) termed as an
“interlingual identification” occurs
anytime an individual judges
structures (in the widest sense of
the term) in two languages to be
identical or at least similar. Such
judgements may be conscious or
unconscious, they may be accurate
or inaccurate, and they may be made
either by fully competent bilinguals
or by learners still in the earlier
stages of acquiring a new language.
(ODLIN, 1996, p. 29)
This way, transfer can lead to errors, but it can also help the learner
comprehend the traditional use of L2, making it, sometimes, easier, and
faster. One of the suggestions we make to acquire more vocabulary and
understand the transfer from L1 to L2, sometimes even unconsciously, is
creating the habit of reading. Choose an easy genre you like, at first.
Then, start building up the level of difficulty. It is quite hard to make
people want to read these days, but believe me, it will make language
acquisition much easier.
Transfer and Motivation
Whenever one is taking a course on Teaching Methodologies for the
English language, it is almost impossible not to hear the expression
“motivate your students” or to even have a topic of the course called
“how to motivate your students”. This is a very difficult subject to be
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discussed with Brazilian teachers but let us go through what scholars
have to say about it first.
So, what would the difference be among these learners? Their L1 or
motivation? Let us think about it for some time and I would have a
question for you:
 As we mentioned before, students tend to think that
learning a new language is simply translating word
for word, and that is corroborated by Blum &
Levenston (1977: p. 16) and Ringbom (2006:104).
 The acquisition of a new language and motivation
are related and when the latter happens, the
acquisition of EFL runs much more smoothly.
According to studies, the connection between
motivation and the expansion of vocabulary shows
a high rate of results.
 On the other hand, there is a possibility that some
others consider that these individuals who score
high grades on vocabulary tests may just have a
better aptitude for acquiring vocabulary, and that
would happen because these learners are motivated
by accomplishing the activity, not because they are
motivated to acquire the language.
 However, it would mean that those who score
higher and those who score lower would have the
same kind of difficulty when performing these
tasks.
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What do you think?
There is a dividing line here among scholars: some think that language
acquisition is based on motivation; while others regard lexical usage as
motivated only by the accomplishment of tasks, not being important to
acquisition and proficiency. These scholars’ point of view say that
motivation only creates good task performers, but not people who are
able to communicate well when faced with different situations.
However, I would ask you to consider teaching adjectives to a group of
14-year-olds. Would you rather use a heavy text usually found in
Cambridge books about the everyday life of a British family or a short
text with the story of Goku (Japanese Manga cartoon teenagers usually
love)? After doing the proposed activity, drill sentences using those
adjectives and perform a controlled activity, then a freer practice activity
using those adjectives.
Do you think those students would become only great task performers?
Food for thought.
Types of lexical transfer
Considering the topic of this section, we are focusing on language
acquisition, so we could not disregard the types that exist. There are two
types:
Transfer of form 
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The use of L1 producing L2, something that is called code-
mixing.
For example: Ela gosta de mim – She likes me.
Transfer of semantic patterns of L1 into the target language,
such as calques and semantic expressions.
“Calques” are words or phrases that are translations of L2, but
the L1 speaker does not worry about the real meaning of that
word in L2. One example of this is what we now call
“gerundismo”.
When “gerundismo” first started being used, it was very much criticized
but, nowadays, more and more people have started using it without any
problems. The problem of “gerundismo” is not that it does not exist in
Brazilian Portuguese, but it has been used wrongfully and it is not as
common as it is in the English language. In L2 (being English here), this
type of semantic structure is used at specific times.
For instance, let us imagine you want to call me today at 3 pm, but I will
be busy. It is proper to say “At 3 pm, I will be working. Can you call me at
5:30?”. It is used to describe what the individual will (future) be doing (a
continuous activity) at a certain period (let us say I work from 8 am until
5 pm).
The same should be used in L1, but this structure is used in any situation
regarding simply the gerund or future. One example is when one says in
Brazilian Portuguese “eu vou estar te transferindo” (it first started being
heavily used by call centers), without the specific time; whereas the
Transfer of meaning 
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individual should simply say “eu vou te transferir” or “eu estou te
transferindo”. The wrong use of the gerund here is not only a mistake of
L2 understanding, but also of L1.
Lexical Transfer and SLA
What is lexical transfer? Does it help or interfere with EFL learning?
Watch this video to find out!
You are very close to reaching your goals.
Let’s practice!
Question 1
The acquisition of a second language may be affected by a learner’s
first language. What is the name given when L1 is transferred (with
interference) into L2?

A Motivation.
B Positive transfer.
C Negative transfer.
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Parabéns! A alternativa C está correta.
When an EFL learner is motivated, they can be considered good at
performing activities or acquiring the language correctly. It is
considered a negative transfer when that utterance is translated
wrongly, for many distinct reasons. A positive transfer can only be
called that when the transfer is successful. Syntax is connected to
the arrangement of an utterance and semantics is about the
meaning of words.
Question 2
Resorting to a first language, while learning a second one, may
cause different problems. What is the problem false cognates cause
for EFL learners?
Parabéns! A alternativa E está correta.D Syntax.
E Semantics.
A They help them.
B They help them translate words into L2 or L1.
C They are indifferent.
D They hinder good writing.
E
They confuse the learner because they look like a
word in L1 but mean something else.
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False cognates do not help EFL learners. On the contrary, they
confuse them because they are like some words in L1 and mean
something else. They are not indifferent and they do not hinder or
interfere in, only good writing, but all skills.
3 - Regrouping
Lexical Transfers/
Recon�guration of traces
By the end of this section, you will be able to recognize the relevance of
traces in ELT.
Types of calques
Before we get into the topic of traces, we believe it is important to
understand a bit more about calques and language acquisition. In a way,
they are transfers as well. Some scholars consider them to be just
another name for “loan translation”, and there are types of distinct
calques that will also be aspects that affect acquiring a language. Let us
have a look at the different types of calques and how they influence EFL.
Idioms in L2 that are translated word for word.
Phraseological calques 
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Ex.: Someone says “Have it your way!” (Faça como quiser) and
they translate it as “Tenha-o do seu jeito”.
Syntactic functions in L1 are directly transcribed into L2 but have
no connection to the real meaning of that word in L2. This is
something that is very commonly found in menus of restaurants
that try to express that function into L2 without success.
Ex.: A person wants to say “escondidinho de carne seca” and
says “little hidden of dried meat”. The native speaker might even
understand “dried meat”, although the American version is called
“jerked beef” and is different from the Brazilian one, but they will
not be able to understand what “little hidden” is.
Differently from “Phraseological calques”, which refer to idioms,
this one is only about words. It happens when words are
translated literally.
For example.: Imagine someone saying about a kitchen appliance
“It’s a great cooker”. The correct translation would be “É um
ótimo fogão”, but most people in Brazilian Portuguese would say
“É uma ótima cozinheira”.
This is used when words in L2 are adopted in L1 without change
in meaning. One of the examples we have already mentioned
earlier is the verb “to realise”. Brazilian Portuguese speakers have
been using it as “perceber” for some time, now, when it used to
mean only “realizar alguma coisa, fazer algo”.
These are used when the inflection of the word is expressed from
L1 to L2. Unlike one-work calque, changes in meaning are not
Syntactic calque 
Loan-translations 
Semantic calques 
Morphological calques 
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usually perceptible. It usually involves coining a new term on a
foreign model. It has a lot in common with calquing phrases or
sentences. For instance, did you know that the phrase ‘it goes
without saying’, which has been used in English for about a
hundred years, is a calque of the French il va sans dire?
Another example more aligned with the phonological-
morphological interface would be: usually EFL learners tend to
say the word “catholic” as [kæ’θəlɪk], whereas the correct
pronunciation is [ˈkæθəlɪk]. That means, Brazilian speakers
usually make the second syllable stronger, whereas, in standard
English, the first syllable should be the strong one.
Let us now have a look at the reconfiguration of traces.
Trace evidence and syntax
Empty Category Principle -
ECP
For us to understand the basic idea of what a “lexical trace” is we must
go back to our phonetic and phonological knowledge of the English
language and syntax. First of all, “trace” is surrounded by what is called
the Empty Category Principle (ECP), that is, it is an empty category that
has a position in the syntactic structure.
Does that sound too complicated? Let us
break it down a bit.
Do you remember when we said we would have to look back on our
phonetic and phonological knowledge? Time to put it to work:
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Have you ever paid attention to the use of the contraction of “want to”
which becomes “wanna", in American English? What happens is the
disappearance of the letter “t”, making it null and, as something which is
“null” in a word, it fits the ECP.
Let us consider the examples:
“I want to go, now. It’s too late”; in American English, it is very clear and
easy to simply say “I wanna go”, or “They want to travel” can be said as
“They wanna travel”. A good English language speaker will know when it
happens and will understand it as “want to”, even if they can’t hear the “t”
sound.
Now, if we are talking about syntax and worrying about the order of
words, it seems that the easiest solution would be to just follow the
usual order (person + verb + object). That would be the safest way to go.
However, there are nuances in language that may change this and make
us change or replace one word for another when considering the
utterance in question. Let us imagine someone says to you: “Annie will
show the garden to Nick”, but you do not quite hear the last word, then
you ask: “Who will Annie show the garden to? And the answer will be
“She’ll show the garden to Nick”. It may seem simple (changing who
“will” refers to the insertion of “who” and swapping it for Nick), but what
we are doing here is changing the order of the “formulaic” expressions
we thought were the only possibility in the English language as EFL
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learners. The idea is that “will” leaves a trace of “Annie”, and “who” leaves
a trace of “Nick”.
When you are an EFL teacher, make sure your students know how to use
these traces, especially the wh- ones, which Brazilian Portuguese
learners seem to have a lot of problems to understand.
Trace and questions
Now, we are again discussing the phonetic and phonological aspects of
a sentence with “want to”. Let us imagine that you say something like
“Charlie wants Marvin to go”. According to what we said earlier, in
American English mostly, this option does not provide us with the
possibility of “wanna”, since for that to happen “want” and “to” have to be
next to each other. Here, the contraction is being hindered by the word in
the middle: Marvin. However, if you turn this sentence into a question
(especially a wh- question), you might think you could use the
contraction normally.
Example
“Where does Charlie want to go?”. You would think that this way we can
put “want” and “to” together and make “wanna”, right? Well, not really.
The sentence is in the third person singular, which makes it include a
“wants” in the middle, so saying “Where does Charlie wanna go?” is not
possible because the trace of “s” is there. The trace from where the
sentence came from might not be audible, but it’s enough to make
“want” and “to” apart. You can switch words around. However, ignoring
the trace of third person singular, in the case of our example, makes the
sentence sound weird. This using the wh- question, moving subjects and
objects is called a “movement” and it is very important when you are
dealing with traces.
As an EFL teacher, you might find students with more difficulties moving
words around in the sentence. You can learn a lot from a language once
you understand how they move around.
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Brazilian Portuguese speakers have a tendency not to understand
questions such as “Who speaks English better than John?” because they
are used to using auxiliaries, and they get very frustrated when they see
a question without an auxiliary but that will use the verb as if it were third
person singular, even though the answer might be plural.
That happens because they do not understand the inaudible trace is
there, but that replaces a subject, which might be singular or plural. Be
careful to make them understand that “who” is replacing a singular
subject, even if the answer is plural (reinforce that the speaker might not
even know the answer is plural). It just would not fit into the structure.
Traces and Brazilian
Portuguese
If your students sound frustrated with the movement of words or the
traces in English, make it clear to them how much more difficult these
topics are in Brazilian Portuguese. For example, there are things we can
do in Brazilian Portuguese that English speakers could never think of.
One of the most common aspects of Brazilian Portuguese is inverting
the order of the sentences by simply adding a comma, as in: “Para onde
vou domingo, eu não sei.”, which would be something like “I don’t know
where I am going on Sunday”, but in English the utterance “To where I am
going on Sunday, I don’t know” sounds strange and clearly from a person
who is not familiar with the language.
Ask them to think about how we answer some questions positively. In
English, if I ask someone “Would you like to go to the movies with me?”,
they will probably say “Yes, I’d love to.” or “No, thanks. I have to work.”. In
Brazilian Portuguese, we do not use “yes” or “no”, most of the times. We
answer with the verb. Pay attention to these interactions:
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A: Você quer ir ao cinema comigo.
B: Quero. Que filme?
A: Você quer ir ao cinema comigo?
B: Quero, não. Vou ter que trabalhar.
Not only do we answer using the verb, but we also use the word “não”
after it, as in “Quero, não”, instead of “Não quero”, or we say something
such as “Não vai dar”, meaning it will not be possible instead of the
common “Não, obrigada”. This leads us to something that differs
Brazilian Portuguese from other languages, which is also the need of
giving some kind of excuse: “I will be working,” “It’s my aunt’s birthday,” or
“I am sorry. I am broke.” I would like to call your attention here to the fact
that we always (or most of the time) give an excuse (even if it is not
true). We do not just simply say “I already have plans”, we tend to explain
ourselves, which is something that does not happen in Germany, for
example.
Traces and debates
Although we have discussed a lot about traces and movement here,
there are still some scholars who question their existence, giving room
to other sorts of explanations. These people eliminated traces to
consider the extraction of complements, subjects, and adjectives.
Pollard and Sag (1994, p. 378-387) and Sag and Fodor (1995) do not
even consider traces as a possibility for the explanation of the ECP
words or movement and considered Natural Deduction to explain the
elimination of logical connectives. And, among all the debate around
traces, the COHORT came along, created by Marslen-Wilson in 1987.
According to this concept, trace is an interactive model that can move to
higher, more abstract levels of knowledge and can interact with lower
levels of processing. Scholars call it an elevator going nowhere.
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However, the COHORT model interacts in a linear way, not going up and
down, as they say, and not interacting with lower levels of processing,
but relying on them.
It is all nice and well, but what does it mean?
The trace will work with phonemes (like the “t” sound”), physical acoustic
features and words; whereas the COHORT is a “modular” model that will
work with: acoustic information; context, semantics and frequency of
use to narrow down the options; choosing the best options. But I still do
not get it? Yes, it is hard.
Let us break it down:
Imagine you hear the phonemes /p/ or /l/; acoustically, the candidates
that come to your mind to complete this would be /n/, /k/, /ng/, /l/, /t/,
/s/, /cture/, /ttance, etc. The COHORT model includes all possible
endings to /p/, /l/.
After the word comes to your mind, then semantics comes along to play
their role in the context of the COHORT you have created. You will look at
the sentence where the COHORT should be included and choose the
best candidate from the many options you found out with the modular
model of COHORT.
Traces and ELT
How can traces impact and aid in English language learning? Professor
Fabiana Ferreira will tell you all about traces!

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You are very close to reaching your goals.
Let’s practice!
Question 1
In Linguistics, a trace refers to an empty category that fills in a
position in a structure. Wh-movement and passive show how traces
work in syntactic structures. Which sentence presents a movement?
Parabéns! A alternativa D está correta.
In “She’s a good girl”, there’s no movement of words. The same
happens in “I’ve never seen anything like it”; “I shoud’ve been there”
or “I should’ve known.” However, in “Who does Mary want to see?”,
we imagine that Mary wants to see someone so, “who” takes the
place of the object, “Mary” changes place and, because the
A She’s a good girl.
B I’ve never seen anything like it.
C I should’ve been there.
D Who does Mary want to see?
E I should’ve known.
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sentence is in third person singular, the trace of the “s” (Mary wants)
is inaudible, but it is still there.
Question 2
Since traces refer to empty categories in a specific language,
Brazilian students learning English might get confused and
frustrated when trying to make use of certain structures. Choose the
option that makes students confused:
Parabéns! A alternativa B está correta.
The fact that some sentences do not use an auxiliary verb and use
the verb in the third person singular confuses students, who usually
believe all questions must have an auxiliary or should not have the
“s” mark of third person singular since the answer might be plural.
That is why the sentence “who wants to go to the playground?”
would confuse EFL students. That happens because they do not
understand the inaudible trace is there, but that replaces a subject,
which might be singular or plural. “What do you want?”; “What do
you think you see?” and “What does she know about it?” all follow a
structure they are used to. “The Lannisters send their regards” might
confuse them in relation to the name of the family (The Lannisters)
and the use of the verb, but it is quite understandable to them that
the name of the family is plural and the verb goes along with it.
A What do you want?
B Who wants to go to the playground?
C What do you think you see?
D The Lannisters send their regards.
E What does she know about it?
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Final issues
The purpose of this Unit was to make you aware of a few things
concerning syntax, semantics and EFL, trying to make you see how these
two can help you since they are, actually, part of the teaching process of
EFL, making it easier. It was important to remember what syntax deals
with (the order of the sentences), semantics (the meaning) and how they
can help EFL learners deal with the configurations of the utterancesthey
will have to be able to use.
We also understood lexical relativity, how it works and how it is
connected to culture and anthropology. It was mentioned how language
and thought are intertwined, affecting the way we use language and how
we see the world. It was important to have learners understand that
culture plays a major part in language use and how it is also important
that EFL learners comprehend the importance of culture when acquiring
L2.
We, then, covered lexical transfer and how EFL learners do it consciously
or unconsciously (which tends to happen with avid readers of L2). Native
speakers do it unconsciously and we also discussed how lexical transfer
might interfere with language acquisition. However, more suggestions
were given on the topic of transfer and motivation. We tried to show how
scholars understand and analyze these points of view, but we also talked
about suggestions that go against these points of view. Is motivation
worth it or not? – you can think it over.
We moved on to types of lexical transfers, which were very enlightening
to comprehend how these transfers occurred and the way they affected
EFL learners. Also, one of the aspects that were necessary to approach
were “calques and their types”, which also plays a big part in EFL
studies. Moving on, we talked about a very controversial subject which
was trace. We talked about what it was and discussed how it worked
with syntax, questions and its connection to Brazilian Portuguese. We
talked about some of the scholars that disagree with the existence of
the topic and recommended the use of the cohort model. This model
sounded very complicated and difficult to put into practice. However, our
point showing this is to make you aware that not all concepts presented
were established within linguistics studies, and that some of them, such
as “trace” itself, were still not accepted by the academic community. We
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would like you to compare both models and compare which one sounds
better and more reliable to you.
Podcast
Give this podcast a listen to recap the main content of the Unit!

Go Further
For those interested in error analysis and a bunch of other subjects
related to ELT, the book The Context of Language Teaching by Jack
Richards may come quite in handy. The book contains a collection of
papers whose topics range from second language acquisition to
vocabulary and grammar.
The book The Study of Second Language Acquisition by Rod Ellis is
aimed at future second/foreign language teachers who, according to the
author would benefit from knowledge of Applied Linguistics. The book
provides a great theoretical overview for those who would like to reflect
on their teaching practices.
References
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Washington: Government Print Office (Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of
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ROBSON, David. There really are 50 Eskimo words for ‘snow’. The
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BLUM, S., & LEVENSTON, E. Strategies of Communication through
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SWALES, J.M. Genre analysis: English in academic and research
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WEINREICH, U. Languages in contact: findings and problems. The
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YU, L. The Role of L1 in the Acquisition of Motion Verbs in English by
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