An Error Analysis Of Adjective-noun Collocation In English Majors’ Writing

Vocabulary is the central part in the English learning and teaching. Nevertheless, only learning the forms and meanings of words is not enough and it can not do much to improve the second language proficiency. Although the learners have learned English for many years and have mastered a large amount of words, they still commit errors on lexical collocation which have influenced their English communication and writings.Many researchers study lexical collocation especially verb-noun collocation abroad and at home. However, adjective-noun collocation is next only to verb-noun collocation. Therefore, it can not ignore the study of adjective-noun collocation.Based on lexical collocation, error analysis and the corpus approach, this thesis studies adjective-noun collocation errors of the compositions from English majors’ sophomore in certain Normal University. In the present study, the collocation errors are extracted by the software AntConc 3.2.1 in the self-made corpus. Then, Excel 2003 is used to process data and chart a histogram and tables is convenient for analyzing data. All of these procedures aim at answering the following two questions.1. What are the major types and frequency of adjective-noun collocation errors found in English majors’ writings?2. What are the major causes for these adjective-noun collocation errors?The major research findings are as follows:The adjective-noun collocation errors are classified into 7 types. They are misuse predicative adjective, misuse noun in adjective-noun collocation, misuse adjective in the adjective-noun collocation, overgeneralize adjective-noun collocation, adjective-noun collocation errors caused by literal translation, misuse the adjective or noun that their meanings are overlapped with each other and misuse verb-ed adjective in adjective-noun collocation respectively. And each type of error is illustrated in detail. The data presents the most remarkable three error types which are respectively adjective-noun collocation errors caused by literal translation, misuse verb-ed adjective in adjective-noun collocation and misuse adjective in the adjective-noun collocation. Their frequencies are 56.3%, 19.7% and 14.1%. Through the analysis of data, the interviews and questionnaire, the possible causes of adjective-noun collocation errors are found. They are mainly language transfer, overgeneralization, confusion of synonyms and culture difference. Moreover, the suggestions are proposed to avoid adjective-noun collocation errors on both learning and teaching.This thesis studies adjective-noun collocation errors from the perspective of error analysis and finds the possible causes. It is hoped that both teachers and students can attach importance to the lexical collocation, especially adjective-noun collocation.