A Study On The Use Of Basic Level Verbs By Chinese College English Learners

Since the 1980s the theory of categorization and the theory of levels of categorization have been valued and studied widely. The theory of categorization mainly includes the theory of prototype and the theory of basic level categories while levels of categorization consist of superordinate categories, basic level categories and subordinate categories. Related studies and works concerning the theory of prototypes at home and abroad prove numerous, while researches on basic level categories are quite limited, especially those on the use of basic level terms in a language.Basic level categories are the categories that are in the center of levels of categorization and are most frequently used by people. They have gestalt and overall shapes; besides, basic level categories are first learned by children, while superordinate and subordinate categories, which are too abstract or too detailed, come into being behind basic level categories. Basic level terms are the representation of basic level categories in language, including nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc., which are mainly made up of simple, monosyllabic and Anglo¨CSaxon vocabularies. Normally, basic level terms are associated with specific imagery, while superordinate and subordinate terms are complex in etymology and word¨Cbuilding, and superordinate terms in particular are not associated with specific imagery. Researches on basic level terms at home and abroad generally focus on nouns and adjectives, while researches on basic level verbs are far from enough. This thesis, on the basis of the previous studies of categories, the theory of categorization, basic level categories and basic level terms, attempts to explore the features of basic level verbs and the use of basic level verbs by L2 learners. That is, it attempts to answer such questions: Are basic level verbs basic in use by L2 learners? How about superordinate and subordinate verbs? If basic level verbs are used frequently, how about their variety and diversity? How about the correctness and appropriateness of basic level verbs? Is their use characterized by certain grammatical colligation or constructions? And finally is there any connection between a learner?ˉs proficiency level and his or her use of basic level verbs and of verbs at the other levels?The empirical study in this paper is conducted in the following steps: a) Writing corpora are collected by means of written assignments based on series of pictures given to English majors and non¨CEnglish majors at Ningbo University, who are named as Group A and Group B with a total subject number for each group of 40; b) the two corpora are read word by word and all verbs used in the two corpora are marked out and counted; c) superordinate verbs, basic level verbs and subordinate verbs are defined and identified from the corpora according to their respective features; d) the frequency and ratio of basic level verbs and those of the other verbs are counted and further analyzed specifically.Major findings of the study are as follows:First, basic level verbs are most frequently used by both groups, while superordinate and subordinate verbs are used to a very limited extent in the two corpora.Second, a closer look at the top ten basic level verbs used most frequently by each group and their high frequencies in each group demonstrates that L2 learners tend to overuse those that are the simplest and the most familiar to them.Third, there are many spelling mistakes, verbal form mistakes, inappropriate collocations concerning the use of basic level verbs, etc. in the two corpora.Fourth, such grammatical colligations or constructions as basic level verb + adjunct are often found in the two corpora.Last, as it is discovered, there is a direct link between a learner?ˉs English proficiency level and basic level verbs, between a learner?ˉs proficiency level and his use of many subordinate verbs.This thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter One introduces the background and motivation of the study, research methodology and organization of this paper. Chapter Two is the literature review, mainly concerning previous studies on the theory of categorization, levels of categorization, the theory of basic level categories and basic level terms. Chapter Three further investigates into the theory of categorization, the theory of basic level categories and basic level verbs. Chapter Four is the empirical study, and Chapter Six states the conclusions of the study, its implications and limitations.This study is significant for language teaching and learning. Teachers can better teach and L2 learners can better master basic level verbs by means of the main findings mentioned above. There are still many issues that have not yet been touched upon in the present work due to limited time and energy, but it is expected that they will be addressed in some future researches.