A Corpus-based Study Of Shell Nouns In The Argumentative Essays By English Majors:From The Perspective Of Construction Grammar

The accessibility to the abundant authentic texts in corpora provides us with a favorable chance to explore the actual uses of various strata of language.Undoubtedly lexical researches account for the most part of corpus-based studies,among which collocation studies gain great popularity.Construction Grammar proposes that lexical items and syntactic patterns,both pairings of forms and meanings(functions),are actually linguistic units in a continuum.The associations between lexical items and syntactic patterns are thus focused by some researches.Shell nouns are one group of the targeted lexical items owing to their interdependent relationship with the syntactic patterns(clause constructions).In addition,such shell nouns are abundantly employed in the argumentative essays thanks to their cognitive,semantic and textual functions.Nonetheless,researches are still in a small number in terms of shell noun uses by foreign English learners,especially scant by Chinese English majors.As a result,this study intends to investigate shell noun uses in the argumentative essays by Chinese English majors from the advantageous perspective of Construction Grammar,with those uses by native English students as the reference.Three research questions in the following will be the focus in this study:1.To what extent do the clause constructions attract shell nouns in the argumentative essays by native English students and by Chinese English majors?2.To what degree do shell nouns rely on their co-existing clause constructions in the argumentative essays by native English students and by Chinese English majors?3.What are the differences and similarities of shell noun uses in the argumentative essays by native English students and by Chinese English majors?To answer the above questions,a corpus-based method has been adopted in this study,with the argumentative essays in the corpora LOCNESS and WECCL as the focus.The shell nouns and the clause constructions are identified,their frequency then obtained and the scores of attraction and reliance calculated in both corpora.Based on the above data,this study further analyzes the differences and similarities of shell noun uses by two groups of students.The following conclusions are summarized from this study.Firstly,according to attraction scores,clause constructions attract typical categories of shell nouns that are semantically compatible with them in both corpora,but the forces of attraction to these prototypical shell nouns are weaker in WECCL than those in LOCNESS.Secondly,shell nouns rely on a similar distribution of constructions in both corpora,with lower reliance scores on dominating constructions in WECCL than those in LOCNESS.Thirdly,the differences of shell noun uses between the two groups of students are represented in semantic compatibility,semantic ranges and emergent meanings.Chinese English majors tend to misuse shell nouns by co-occurring them with semantically incompatible clause constructions.Moreover,closely related to their roles in argumentative essays,semantic ranges are generally constructed by more peripheral shell nouns in WECCL,with those in LOCNESS as the reference.In terms of N that-clause construction,shell nouns characterized by the meanings of PHENOMENON and INTENDED CONCLUSION are overused,with those of VIEW and SUPPORTING underused in WECCL.As for N be that-clause construction,Chinese English majors tend to profile general and specific supporting evidence,different from those convincing and counter evidence emphasized by native English students.With regard to N to-infinitive construction,the shell nouns characterized by MOTIVATION and MEANS are underused in WECCL,with more focus on the characterization of SITUATION.As to N be to-infinitive construction,the expected characterizations of MEANS are also underused in WECCL,with excessive focus on INTENDED RESULTS of the actions.Furthermore,the emergent meanings from the four variants of shell-content construction are less prototypical in the argumentative essays by Chinese English majors with reference to those by native English students.Finally,similarities of shell noun uses in the two corpora are embodied in the frame of argumentative essays writing.Both groups of students propose standpoints,provide supporting evidence,and profile certain views or supporting evidence as well as specific events or actions with the help of shell nouns and the clause constructions.This study offers more evidence for shell noun uses in the argumentative essays by Chinese English majors from a cognitive view.Moreover,it provides beneficial suggestions for argumentative essays writing and teaching to Chinese English majors.