A Corpus-based Study Of Delexical Verb-noun Collocations In Chinese English Majors’ Writing

Lexis has become a renewed focus in SLA area within the past thirtyyears. As one of the most important constituents of lexis, collocation hasattracted many linguists and researchers‘attention and poses aproblematic area for successful acquisition of English. Based on thetheoretical framework of CIA and corpus-based approach, the presentstudy aims at investigating delexical verb-noun collocations made byChinese English majors.In the present study, two sub-corpora of the learner corpus CLECand the native language corpus LOCNESS are employed to makecomparison between Chinese English majors and native speakers, andbetween two proficiency levels of English majors in the hope of revealingdistinctive features and developmental patterns of delexical verb-nouncollocations produced by Chinese English majors. Three delexical verbs(do, make and take) are selected for detailed investigation. The researchquestions addressed in the study are as follows：(1) What are the overallfrequencies of particular delexical verbs (do, make and take) and theircollocations with nouns in LOCNESS, ST5and ST6of CLEC?(2) Whatare Chinese English majors‘distinctive characteristics in using delexical verb-noun collocations? Is there any phenomenon of overuse or underuse?(3) Are there significant differences between Chinese English majors andnative speakers in producing delexical verb-noun collocaitons? If so,what causes Chinese English majors‘deviant performance?(4) Are theresignificant differences between Chinese English majors of high level andlow level in using delexical verb-noun collocations? Is Chinese learners‘collocational capability improved along with their language proficiency?The major findings are as follows: Chinese English majors tend tooveruse delexical verb-noun collocations; though the performance oneach specific delexical verb varies, Chinese English majors‘collocationcapability on the whole doesn‘t approach to the native-like level. There isstill a great gap between Chinese learners and natives whether in totaltypes or in the number of shared delexical verb-noun collocations by twocomparative groups; through the examination of the entire collocationalpatterns and deviant forms made by Chinese English majors, the tentativeanalysis shows that L1influence could both facilitate and handcuff theeffective acquisition of delexical verb-noun collocations. The generalverb effect, overgeneralization and overemphasis on communicativestrategies are attributable to deviance; in addition, although the signs ofprogression in terms of three delexical verbs collocational competenceare found between Chinese English majors at two different proficiencylevels, the degree of the development is not significant. Based on the results of the study, some helpful and effectivepedagogical suggestions and solutions are proposed for collocationsteaching. English majors‘awareness of collocations should be enhanced.They should be encouraged to expand their collocational knowledge andincrease their collocational output as much as possible. It is alsoadvocated that teachers teach collocations with reference to Chineselanguage. Conditions permitted, they can use corpus for collocationsclass-teaching or to construct their own corpus for further research oncollocations acquisition.