N1 of N2 constructions in academic written discourse: A pattern grammar analysis

This paper presents a corpus-based, pattern grammar-driven analysis of N1 of N2 constructions in academic written discourse. Different from other approaches to phraseology, the pattern grammar approach focuses on schematic grammatical patterns with a high degree of lexical variation rather than continuous word sequences or word sequences with a single open lexical slot. Using a corpus of research article introductions in applied linguistics annotated for rhetorical moves and steps, we identified instances of the N1 of N2 pattern and analyzed these instances in terms of frequency distribution, general discourse functions, and the rhetorical functions with which they were strongly associated. The analysis provides a comprehensive functional description of the N1 of N2 pattern in the context of disciplinary academic writing. Our findings have methodological implications for phraseology analysis and the development of pedagogically useful constructicons of academic English.