A Contrastive Analysis Of The Use Of English High-frequency Verb Make

This thesis mainly investigates the high-frequency verb make used by Chinese L2 learners and English L1 speakers. Comparison between the two corpora ST4 (sub-corpus of CLEC) which stands for Chinese L2 Learners and BROWN which stands for English L1 speakers is done. This research is based on the following theories:interlanguage theory, contrastive analysis theory and error analysis theory. Meanwhile, corpus-based approach is adopted. The book Vocabulary Syllabus of College English Teaching is used for reference. It intends to explore the similarities and differences in using the verb make and its idioms/phrases/collocations by Chinese L2 learners and English L1 speakers, to check if Chinese L2 learners have grasped the make senses and idioms/phrases/collocations listed in the vocabulary syllabus, and to offer some suggestions for revising the vocabulary syllabus. What's more, make errors committed by Chinese L2 learners are described and explained in this research.The results of this research show that (1) generally, compared with English L1 speakers, Chinese L2 learners tend to overuse the verb make. However, they tend to underuse the make idioms/phrases/collocations; (2) specifically, Chinese L2 learners have not fully grasped the 9 senses of make and the 9 idioms/phrases/collocations of make which are instructed in the vocabulary syllabus. Chinese L2 learners use make and its idioms/phrases/collocations differently from English L1 speakers. Some typical senses and collocations which are frequently used by English L1 speakers are seldom or never used by Chinese L2 learners, and not instructed in the vocabulary syllabus. Chinese L2 learners use make idioms/phrases/collocations in a narrow range, while English L1 speakers use make idioms/phrases/collocations in a wide range; (3) both interlingual errors and intralingual errors of make are committed by Chinese L2 learners. Furthermore, intralingual errors are more than interlingual errors. Based on the findings, some suggestions are given to revise the vocabulary syllabus.130 make errors are classified and the error sources are identified. The results show that negative transfer of mother tongue and overgeneralization are the main sources of make errors. To be all-round, negative transfer of mother tongue, overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restrictions, incomplete application of rules, and false concepts hypothesized are the sources of make errors.