A Corpus-Based Study On The Use Of Subjectivizers In Spoken English

Subjectivizers are frequently used in daily conversation. However, as an important linguistic device, the teaching of subjectivizer is negelected in traditional English classrooms, which leads to the unsatisfactory use of them by Chinese EFL learners. The present study has adopted a corpus-based method to investigate the use of subjectivizers by native speakers and to discuss which aspects differentiate the Chinese EFL learners from native speakers in using them.After a brief mention of the theoretical ground of subjectivizers, this thesis presents a critical review of previous studies on subjectivizers in the areas of descriptive linguistics, semantics and cross-cultural pragmatics. A working definition of subjectivizer is proposed and the subjectivizers are relegated into three types according to their form. Based on the authentic language data extracted from the BNC spoken subcorpus, categorization of subjectivizers based on propositional attitude is discussed and their pragmatic functions are also analyzed to a great length. It is found that, basically, subjectivizers perform interpersonal functions and textual functions, serving as hedging device, indicator of politeness, discourse connector, pause filler or turn shifter when used. In the comparative study, we notice that Chinese EFL have overused some subjectivizers while underusing others. They also have problems with the collocations of subjectivizers. Finally, possible causes for these differences, such as L1 transfer, learning strategies, are discussed with a view to providing implications for EFL teaching in China.