A Corpus-Based Analysis of BE + Being + Adjective in English from the Appraisal Framework Perspective
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Abstract
This paper investigates the phraseological pattern BE + being + adjective. Specifically, it looks at the types of adjective meanings that can occur in this pattern, using Martin & White’s (2005) appraisal framework as the classification scheme, the grammatical subjects, tenses and engagement resources co-occurring with this phraseological pattern. The interplay of these linguistic features is investigated to shed light on the meaning and functions of the phraseological pattern. Data was drawn from the British National Corpus. The results indicate that there are 1,218 instances of this phraseological pattern in the corpus. The type of adjectives that occur in this pattern with the highest frequency is Judgment. Third person subjects, the present tense and Monogloss have the highest frequency in comparison with other categories of grammatical subject, tense and engagement resource, respectively. A closer look at the interrelation between different linguistic features leads to further findings and complex picture of how clusters of linguistic features can influence the meaning and function of this phraseological pattern.
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