A Corpus-based Study Of The Lexical Bundle Going To Be A

Lcxical bundles are “the recurrent sequences of word combination of three ormore words"(Biber et al.2000). They are structural and semantic units. With thedevelopment of corpus linguistics, it is found that there arc large quantities of fixed orsemi-fixed expressions stored in human brain. Lcxical bundles are the smallest unitsof meaning and form that can accomplish the grammatical, discourse and pragmaticfunctions and they play a very important role in promoting the fluency of languageproduction. Lexical bundles can reduce processing time and effort and supportcommunication. This thesis does a detailed analysis of the lexical bundle going to bea (including gonna be a).This study，based on the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA)and a corpus-based approach, tries to investigate and make an analysis of thefrequency and usage of the iexical bundle going to be a. In addition, the thesis also’surveys the frequency and usage of going to be a in the College Learners SpokenEnglish Corpus and Spoken English Corpus of Chinese Learners with the help of thesotfware AntConct to ifnd similarities and differences between native speakers andChinese English learners. The study includes1) the frequency, collocations andfunctions of the lexical bundle goin"g to be a in the Corpus of Contemporary AmericanEnglish;2) the frequency and usage of going io be a among Chinese English learners,as well as the similarities and differences between native speakers and ChineseEnglish learners.The results show that1) the frequency of the lexical bundle going to be a isextremely high as many as6983in the oral communication in the Corpus ofContemporary American English. Moreover, the collocation and usage of going to hea arc flexible;2) Compared with native speakers, the frequency of going to he a ismuch lower among Chinese English learners. It can be said that Chinese Englishlearners are quite unfamiliar with the usage of the lexical bundle. The obviousdifferences also exist between native speakers and Chinese English learners.