Comparing and Contrasting Expressions of Asking Opinions

Rika Mutiara

, Prayogo Hadi Sulistio

, Nuryansyah Adijaya

and Ratnawati Susanto

English Department, Esa Ungggul University, Jl. Arjuna Utara No. 9, Jakarta, Indonesia

Keywords: Corpus, Phraseology, and Learning Materials

Abstract: This study aims at comparing and contrasting expressions of asking opinions in the textbook and corpora. It,

moreover, gives a suggestion which expressions could be given for English learning purposes based on the

findings in the corpora. Corpus-assisted discourse study was used as the method. The corpora used in this

study are COCA, BYU-BNC, SOAP, and Strathy. The frequency, positions, and characteristics of dialogues

in which the expressions occur are the focus of the investigation. Some expressions for instance what is

your point of view about… never occur in the corpora. The textbook only presented the expressions to

occur in initial positions. However, other positions also can be found in the corpora. Based on the corpus

finding, the interlocutors tend to find more information related to the topics, extend the topics, and make

comparison when they ask opinions. Other expressions such as do you have an opinion … and in your

opinion … were possible to use based on the findings in the corpora.

1 INTRODUCTION

Learning a foreign language is a complex process

that depends on several aspects such as learning

activities and materials. When it is conducted in a

formal education such as in higher education, most

activities are designed to be conducted in the

classroom. A learning material was also provided by

a course developer. Tomlinson (2011) gave a

definition of learning material as follows: “it can be

linguistic, visual, auditory, or kinesthetic and they

can be represented in print through live

performance, or display, or a cassette, CD-ROM,

DVD, or the internet.” A textbook is commonly used

as the source of learning in which the foreign

language learners get input of the target language. A

textbook provides texts in which the students can

observe vocabulary, phrases, text structures, and

sociolinguistic aspects of the target language. It

provides both spoken and written language input.

This study focuses on conversations in the textbook

used in a university. As conversations belong to

spoken language use, the language used in the

conversations is expected to represent the

characteristics of spoken language.

Learning materials in the textbook are designed

for language learning. The language can be different

from the language used in real conversation.

Studying the language in the textbook could be

conducted by comparing and contrasting the

language in the textbook with the ones in the

corpus/corpora. Corpus is a group of texts that are

compiled and saved using an electronic device

(Conrad, 2005). Corpus can be general or specific.

The general corpus contains language in various

registers such as in Corpus of Contemporary

American English (COCA). COCA has spoken,

fiction, magazine, newspaper, and academic

registers. The language of the specific corpus is only

in one particular register such as in SOAP corpus

which covers language of soap operas. The language

variation in the corpus might consist only in one

specific variety. For instance, COCA has American

English,and BYU-BNC (Brigham Young University

British National Corpus) has British English.

The language of the corpora mentioned above is

authentic language in which language users use it for

communicative functions. Using authentic texts in

selecting materials will give input that is appropriate

for the students when they use language for

communication (Gottheim, 2010). Therefore, the

purpose of corpus study in language learning is to

see whether the language in the textbook is natural

or unnatural. Based on the corpus findings, learning

materials developer get suggestion what should be

given or not (Walsh, 2010).

2858

Mutiara, R., Hadi Sulistio, P., Adijaya, N. and Susanto, R.

Comparing and Contrasting Expressions of Asking Opinions.

DOI: 10.5220/0009953728582864

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Recent Innovations (ICRI 2018), pages 2858-2864

ISBN: 978-989-758-458-9

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Some elements that might be the focus of a corpus

study are words or phrases. The frequency of a word

in the textbook and corpus can be studied to see

whether the words are commonly used. It might also

be used to find the words that become the main

features in a register. Counting the word frequency

in a specific register also gives pictures which words

are important to be learnt by the students.

Some words tend to co-occur with other words.

Such kinds of words are called collocations.

Collocations of the words tend to be investigated

especially the ones in learners’ writing and corpus.

The use of appropriate collocations makes learners’

writing sounds natural. For instance, to describe

applying research, word research can be used with

conduct. It forms the collocation conduct research.

Words that become the members of collocations

might occur in sequence or another element might

occur between them. The span is four or five words

to the left or right. Sometimes, the learners do the

translation when dealing with collocations. They

translated the phrases word by word in their mother

tongue into the target language. It might result in

unnatural language.

Investigating collocations might reveal the

characteristics of language function in conversation.

Studying collocations of disagreeing shows that the

speakers tend to have respected and give reasons in

giving disagreement (Mutiara, 2017). These two

functions are related to maintaining the

relationshipbetween the speakers and the

interlocutors. This finding can be accommodated

when developing the syllabus and learning materials.

By doing so, the learners are exposed to the nature

of disagreement in real life. They become to realize

that language is not only structures but also social

functions.

Phrases are also investigated in the corpus. Some

phrases are formed by definite words,and it was

realized as a unit. According to Gläser (1998), it is

“a phraseological unit is a lexicalized, reproducible

bilexemic or polylexemic word group in common

use, which has relative syntactic and semantic

stability.” Therefore, such phrases have forms like a

sentence that carry language functions. They have

essential roles in texts (Biber and Conrad, 1999).

They can consist of three, four, or five words. For

example, do you agree with me is a phrase consists

of 5 words and I strongly disagree is a phrase that

consists of 3 words.

Those phrases occur in the textbooks as language

models. They are labeled as expressions, for

instance, expressions of giving agreement,

requesting, asking opinions, etc. Expressions in the

textbook can be compared and contrasted to the ones

from the corpora. Sznajder (2010) studied words

and phrases that carry metaphoric meanings. It was

found that almost a third of the words and phrases in

the textbook do not occur in the corpus. In another

case, Seto (2009) examined expressions of

agreement in 5 textbooks and corpus. He focused on

similarities and differences among them. Out of 54

expressions, there is 7 percent of expressions that

can be found in the corpus. Furthermore, the

expressions in the textbook tend to appear as a long

phrase while the ones in the corpus are in the forms

of one-word expressions.

For comparing and contrasting language

elements, the corpus must be selected carefully.

Some corpora cover both spoken and written

languages while the others only include one of them.

For the corpus study, the similar characteristic of the

language in the textbook and corpus is necessary.

For instance, when studying phrases in the spoken

language, the language in the corpus is the spoken

language. Thus, a balanced comparison can be

established. This study focuses on phrases that are

used to ask opinions in spoken language.

Asking opinions is one of the expressions in the

textbook. In interaction, asking opinions is a way to

give an opportunity for the interlocutors to speak up

their mind. Two ways interactions are developed in

such a way. In a conversation, they give equal

position both for the listeners and speakers in the

dialogues. To accommodate this issue, it is

necessary to examine the characteristics of dialogues

in which asking opinions occur. It deals with what

other language functions that the speakers produce

when they ask opinions. Having information about it

will be an advantage for developing the learning

materials. Dialogues constructed in the textbook will

have the same characteristics as the ones in the

corpus. Besides, finding other possible expressions

of asking opinions is necessary to provide more

various expressions to enrich language input for the

learners.

Based on the discussion above, the study sought

to answer some questions as can be seen below. Do

expressions of asking opinions in the textbook occur

in the corpora? How are the positions of the

expressions in the textbook compared to the ones in

the corpora? How are the characteristics of the

dialogues in which the expressions of asking

opinions occur? What are possible expressions to

ask opinions based on the findings in the corpora?

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3 RESEARCH METHOD

In this study, analyzing texts is conducted through

corpus-assisted discourse study. Corpus linguistics,

thus, is applied to study discourse. The focus of

corpus linguistics is finding the frequency of the

words/phrases, analyzing the concordance lines, and

finding any other patterns of the words/phrases such

as collocations and n-grams (Romero-Trillo, 2013).

The data was taken from COCA (Corpus of

Contemporary American English), BYU-BNC

(Brigham Young University-British National

Corpus), SOAP, Strathy, and HKCSE (Hong Kong

Corpus of Spoken English). COCA, BYU-BNC and

Strathy have spoken and written language sections.

In comparing and contrasting language to those

corpora, the written language was excluded. The

expressions from the textbook exist in the context of

spoken language.

The data were gathered by listing all of the

expressions in the textbook and the corpora. Then,

those expressions were checked in the corpora. The

findings from the corpora were then analyzed to see

the occurrences, positions, and language functions

that tend to co-occur with expressions of asking

opinions. The categorization of position is divided

into two namely initial and non-initial positions.

Initial means it is located in the first part of the

utterances such as in what do you think, guys? While

in non-initial, the expression is not the first words

uttered. For instance, in if so, what do you think,

guys? The expression of asking opinion occupies the

non-initial position. Besides, by using words namely

opinion and think, other expressions that were

possible to be used in asking opinions were used.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

There are some differences of expressions in the

textbook and corpora. Several expressions were not

found in several corpora. For the positions of the

expressions, several expressions occur in initial and

non-initial positions. Some others can be found only

in one of the positions. Finding any other relevant

information from the interlocutors, extending the

topics, and comparing can be found when the

speakers ask opinions. Furthermore, there are some

possible expressions of asking opinions in the

corpora.

4.1 The Occurrences of Expressions of

Asking Opinions

There are six expressions in the textbook that were

checked in the corpora. What is your point of view

about…andwhat is your comment about… never

occur in the corpora. As far as you know, what…

occurs one in BYU-BNC. The frequency of what

can you say about in the corpora is as follows: 23

(COCA), 1 (BNC), 4 (SOAP). While the frequency

of what do you think about is as follows: 1,517

(COCA), 38 (BNC), 606 (SOAP), and 11(Strathy).

The occurrence of what is your opinion about… was

only found in COCA. It occurs for 4 times. The

frequency of as far as you know, what …was only

found in BYU-BNC. It occurs only in a single

occurrence. What is your point of view about…and

what is your comment about … were not found in all

corpora. Based on the findings in the corpora, it can

be said that what do you think about…and what can

you say about… ? are the common expressions in

real life.

All the expressions in the textbook occur with

preposition about. I suggested that the occurrences

of prepositions in the expressions made the

frequencies lower. I, thus, removed the prepositions

from the expressions. The findings show that the

frequencies of the shorter expressions are higher.

The frequencies of what do you think … are as

follows: 10,397 (COCA), 506 (BYU-BNC), 11,025

(SOAP), and 86 (Strathy). What can you say … also

can be found in all corpora with the frequencies as

follows: 101 (COCA), 6 (BYU-BNC), 21 (SOAP),

and 1 (Strathy). What is your comment now occurs

in three corpora as follows: 11 (COCA), 1 (SOAP),

and 2 (Strathy). What is your opinion appears in two

corpora as follows: 38 (COCA) and 5 (SOAP). What

is your point of view … occurs only once in

BYUBNC. It can be concluded that the existence of

the prepositions limit the frequencies of the

expressions. In the real use of language, the use of

the expressions without prepositions is more

common.

4.2 The Positions of Expressions of

Asking Opinions

For the next investigation, the expressions of giving

opinions without prepositions were used in the

query. In the textbook, all expressions occur in the

initial position. Among six expressions, five

expressions begin with question words what.

However, the findings from the corpus show that it

is possible for the expressions to occur in non-initial

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position. Table 1 until Table 6 shows all possible

positions were reported.

What is your opinion occupies two possible

positions.

Table 1: The positions of what is your opinion

Corpus

Initial

Non-initial

COCA

√

BYU-BNC

SOAP

Strathy

√

What do you think also occurs in initial and non-

initial.

Table 2: The positions of what do you think

Corpus

Initial

Non-initial

COCA

√

BYU-BNC

√

SOAP

√

Strathy

√

What is your point of view only occurs in non- initial

position.

Table 3: The positions of what is your point of view

Corpus

Initial

Non-initial

COCA

BYU-BNC

SOAP

Strathy

√

What can you say occurs in both positions in COCA,

BYU-BNC, and SOAP. However, it only occupies

initial position in Strathy.

Table 4: The positions of what can you say

Corpus

Initial

Non-initial

COCA

√

BYU-BNC

√

SOAP

√

Strathy

√

What is your comment occurs in both positions in

COCA and Strathy but it was only found in initial

position in SOAP.

Table 5: The positions of what is your comment

Corpus

Initial

Non-initial

COCA

√

BYU-BNC

SOAP

√

Strathy

√

As far as you knowwas found only in BYU-BNC in

non-initial position.

Table 6: The positions of as far as you know, what

Corpus

Initial

Non-initial

COCA

BYU-BNC

SOAP

Strathy

√

In the case of the expressions that only have one

occurrence such as what is your point of view… and

what can you say … , they are in non-initial

positions. The other expression that has one

occurrence is what is your comment … in SOAP. It

is in initial position.

When it does not occur in initial position, some

conjunctions such as so and but exist in the

beginning of the utterances such as in the examples

below.

So what do you think about that? (BYU-BNC) So,

what do you think the Board should do with that

kind of information? (Strathy)

But what can you say? (COCA)

A clause such as I mean might occur in the

beginning of the utterance.

I mean, what can you say? You know, you messed

up. (SOAP)

Also, names of the interlocutors might appear at the

beginning of the utterances such as in the following

example.

Ms Schwartz, what is your comment on the solutions

you have heard from the experts and the policy

makers? (COCA)

4.3 The Characteristics of the

Conversation

To find the characteristics of a dialogue of asking

opinions, the collocations of what do you think and

what can you saywere obtained. These two

Comparing and Contrasting Expressions of Asking Opinions

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expressions are the commonest expressions

compared to other expressions. What do you think

were investigated in all corpora while what can you

say were searched only in COCA due to its low

frequencies in the other corpora. Table 7 until Table

9 shows information about the collocates and their

frequencies of what do you think.

Table 7: Left collocates of what do you think

Corpus

Collocate

(frequency)

COCA

so (345)

and (292) but

(151)

BNC

well (22)

and (10)

said (6)

but (6)

SOAP

so (917)

and (169) but

(58)

now (25) just

(19) then

(17)

Strathy

and (4)

or (3)

so (3)

Right collocates of what do you think are

prepositions as can be seen in the table below.

Table 8: Right collocates of what do you think

Corpus

Collocate

(frequency)

COCA

of (1,900)

about (1,697)

that (1,356)

is (1,151)

to (712)

this (665)

BNC

of (114)

that (57) about

(47)

SOAP

that (825)

about (797) doing

(794)

is (692) to

(670)

Strathy

about (13) of

(11)

The following table shows collocates to the left and

right of what can you say in COCA.

Table 9: Left and right collocates of what can you say

Left collocate

Right collocate

but (6)

to (34)

about (25) that

(12)

Based on the collocations, three characteristics

that can be found in which the expressions of asking

opinions occur are finding more information from

the interlocutors, extending the topic, and

comparing. Those characteristics cannot be seen in

the dialogues of asking opinions in the textbook. In

the textbook, asking opinions is a single language

function in the dialogue.

Speakers might ask two questions in an

utterance. Therefore, conjunction and was used to

add another question.

A: Was it a painful decision for you? And what do

you think looking at JetBlue now? B: Well, it was

extremely painful. (COCA).

Another example shows the speakers used various

question words.

A: How did you learn the news and what do you

think?

B: I first heard the news, I had heard about the… .

(COCA)

Asking opinions might occur with another question.

Giving two questions in one utterance means that

the speakers tried to find as much information as

possible from the interlocutors. While discussing an

issue, the speaker did not only care of the speaker’s

opinion about the issue but also he focused on other

information related to it. In the utterance how did

you learn the news and what do you think?,the

speaker was curious to know about how the

interlocutor learn the news.

Furthermore, the speakers tend to extend the

conversation by using conjunction so. Before asking

opinions, the speaker asked another question. Based

on the answer to that question, the speaker asked a

related issue.

A: This your first child?

B: Yeah.

A: So what do you think of motherhood?

B: I love it. (COCA)

After the speaker got information that the speaker

has a child, he connected this information with

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another issue that is motherhood. The speaker built

coherence in the dialogue.

In another example, the speaker talked about

eating. Then, he continued with asking speaker’s

opinion about breakfast bar.

A: Eat your dinner. So what do you think of my

breakfast bar then Sue? B: It'svery good. (BNC)

In another case, speaker A mentioned about

setting up a date. Next, speaker B asked an opinion

about Christmas. She connected the information

given by A to extend the topic.

A: And we have already set a date.

B: So what do you think about Christmas?

C: Yay!

B: Oh, she likes it. (SOAP)

In the dialogue below, speaker A stated his

judgment toward a group of people. Speaker B

realized that A has a positive attitude. He, then,

continued to extend the topic by asking an opinion

of hanging out with them.

A: They're great.

B: So what do you think about hanging out with

them more on a permanent basis? (SOAP)

The other language function is to compare.

Speaker A mentioned an issue about tulip then he

compared tulip with roses in the form of asking an

opinion.

A: You know, tulips will not work, but what do you

think about roses -- red ones -- for the church?

B: Yeah. (SOAP)

Speaker A stated speaker’s B attitude towards

George Bush. Then, he compared it with Pat

Buchanan and asked speaker’s B opinion towards

Buchanan.

A: You'restrongly supporting George W. Bush for

president, but what is your opinion of Pat

Buchanan?

B: I think Pat Buchanan has strayed … . (COCA)

In the other case, speaker A mentioned the fact

that the report is still being done. Then, he asked an

interlocutor’s opinion.

A: I know the report is still classified, but what can

you say about it? (COCA)

It can be said asking opinions tend to occur in a

discourse frame of comparing two issues.

4.4 Other Possible Expressions of

Asking Opinions

Other three possible opinions of asking opinions

were found in the corpora. They used various

question words as in how do you feel … ?; in your

opinion, what …?; and do you have an opinion … ?.

Based on the analysis of the concordance lines, not

all occurrences of how do you feel means to ask

opinions. When it functions to ask opinions, it can

be seen as in the example below.

A: When someone says ghetto, how do you feel

about that?

B: I feel like they should be more careful in their

choice. (COCA)

In the example above how do you feelwas answered

with the phrase I feel … . However, it can be

omitted. Therefore, the speaker mentioned directly

his opinion as can be seen in the examples below.

A: How do you feel about the accident?

B: Awful. I'd like the law changed. (BYU-BNC)

Like the examples taken from COCA and BYU-

BNC, an example from SOAP shows that

prepositionabout collocates with how do you feel.

A: How do you feel about London?

B: It'smy new second favorite city. (SOAP)

In your opinion, … occurs with several question

words but most of them are what. It might occur in

the initial position.

In your opinion, Chief, what mindset do you have to

have when you're in the … ? (Strathy)

The addressee term such as chief might appear as in

the example above. In addition, the clause with

question word might occur first. Then, it is followed

by in your opinion.

What is the lure of that in your opinion? (COCA).

It is possible for in your opinion to be inserted in the

clause structure. The questions occur with auxiliary

verbs namely did.

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Did he, in your opinion, accomplish what he set out

to do to fuse politics and pop culture? (COCA)

Do you have an opinion could be applied to ask

one’s opinions.

A: Do you have an opinion?!

B: No. !

A: Youdon't?

When the speakers used do you have an opinion, the

interlocutor might give more than just yes or no

answers.

A: What about you, do you have an opinion?

B: I think you need to give Robin some room.

(SOAP)

It occurs with another expression of asking opinion

(what about you?). Moreover, using do you have an

opinion seems that the speakers do not demand the

interlocutors to give opinions. When they do not

have opinions, they might easily say no.

Those three expressions are possible to be

included in the textbook to enrich the learning

materials. For in your opinion, it might be possible

for the learning materials to include all the possible

structures. By doing so, it makes the students get

various models of language use.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Several expressions of asking opinions in the

textbook have low frequencies in the corpora. It

suggests that they are not common expressions in

daily life. The occurrence of preposition about in the

expressions in the textbook limits the occurrences of

the expressions when the expressions were checked

in the corpora. Based on the findings in the corpora,

preposition of also occurs with an expression of

asking opinions. In addition, that clause is also

possible to occur with the expressions.

Positions of the expressions in the textbook are

always in initial positions. However, corpus findings

show various positions are possible. Based on the

concordance lines analysis, finding more

information, extending the topic, and comparing

exist in dialogues in which the speakers ask

opinions. It would be better if the dialogues in the

textbook are developed by considering these

characteristics. Other possible expressions are how

do you feel …, in your opinion …, and do you have

an opinion …?. They can be presented in the

textbook to provide various models. Further research

can be conducted to develop learning materials

based on the findings.

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