A Corpus-driven Comparative Study Of Uses Of TAKE

This thesis is a corpus-driven research. With the evidences obtained from corpora and by adopting interlanguage theory, contrastive theory and error analysis theory, the research aims to explore features of the verb TAKE employed by Chinese non-English-major students and English-major students. Three corpora are involved in the thesis. They are LOCNESS which represents the native speakers, St.4 in CLEC which stands for Chinese non-English-major students and St.6 in CLEC which stands for Chinese English-major students. In comparison with the native speakers, the thesis lists and analyzes the meanings of TAKE, phrasal verbs formed with TAKE, and its idioms and collocations. Besides, TAKE errors that are committed by Chinese English learners are also analyzed here.The study find out that in comparison with the native speakers, both Chinese non-English-major students and English-major students do not have a good command of the uses of the verb TAKE, including the understanding of its meanings, the phrasal verbs formed with TAKE, its idioms and collocations. Students either overuse or underuse the word. In terms of variety and accuracy, Chinese English learners display dramatic differences from native speakers. They understand only a limited number of the word meanings and can use a few phrasal verbs, idioms and collocations. In the process of using TAKE, Chinese learners of English committed errors. The major sources of these errors are mother tongue interference, overgeneralization and ignorance of rule restrictions. According to above analyses, some tentative suggestions are offered on college English teaching.