A Corpus-based Pragmatic Study On General Extenders Used By Chinese University ESL Learners

Vagueness is an intrinsic linguistic feature that is common in almost all languages.Vague language plays an important role in our daily communication.Yet,there is still a prevailing misunderstanding among people and even language educators,associating vague language with imprecision and low language proficiency.Many researchers have pointed out that vague langauge actually performs many communicative and pragmatic functions in both written and spoken English.This current study focuses on one category of vague language called general extenders.It is the category of vague language that has attracted the attention of scholars for decades.There are many types of general extenders,serving many communicative and pragmatic functions.They can be used to exemplify,indicating that the pervious mentioned item is only an example and there are more items in this category.They can also be used to indicate the speaker's uncertainty.The pragmatic functions of general extenders are closely related to Brown and Levinson's politeness theory.They can be used to indicate both positive and negative politeness.Yet,there are few studies focusing on Chinese English leaners' use of general extenders,and to the author's knowledge,no scholar has yet systematically studied the functions of general extenders used by Chinese English learners.This study attempts to fill the gap by adopting a mixed approach.The College Learners' Spoken English Corpus(COLSEC)is chosen as the data source of this study.The current study investigates the forms and frequencies of general extenders in COLSEC.Through qualitative analysis,the pragmatic functions that general extenders serve in the corpus are also studied and discussed.This thesis mainly answered the following three research questions:1.What are the most frequently used general extenders by Chinese English learners?2.What are the functions of the general extenders used by Chinese English learners?3.How can Chinese English learners use general extenders appropriately to achieve different interpersonal communicative purposes?COLSEC is chosen as the data source of this study.This seven-million-word corpus is by far the largest and most representative spoken corpus of Chinese English speakers.The corpus consists of the transcripts of the recorded oral exams of the College English Test(CET).The British National Corpus(BNC)is chosen to be the benchmark for measuring the types and frequencies of general extenders in COLSEC.The corpus software WordSmith 7.0 is used to locate the general extenders in COLSEC.And BNC's designated corpus software SARA is used to identity general extenders in BNC.Through analyzing the context and surrounding text of each general extender,the functions of general extenders in COLSEC is decided.The major findings are as following:In terms of the frequencies and types of general extenders:(1)Chinese English learners have only a limited number of general extender forms at their disposal.And when using data from BNC as a measuring benchmark,it shows that Chinese English learners' use of general extenders is less diversified.(2)Chinese English learners heavily rely on the following two forms of general extenders,and so on and etc.(etcetera).These two forms of general extenders are usually more common in academic English or in written English.(3)There are cases of inappropriate forms of general extenders in COLSEC.Chinese English learners invent non-standard forms of general extenders,possibly under the influence of their native language Chinese.Chinese English learners' underuse and overuse of general extenders and their inability to use general extenders for interpersonal functions can be caused by the limited language exposure that they get in classroom teaching.In terms of the functions of general extenders:(1)Chinese English speakers are able to use general extenders to exemplify,indicate uncertainty and indicate politeness.(2)The pragmatic functions of general extenders are rarely used by Chinese English speakers.There are few examples of Chinese English speakers using general extenders as a positive politeness strategy or as a negative politeness strategy in COLSEC.In terms of the recommended communication strategies using general extenders:(1)Using general extenders for lexical approximation can help Chinese English learners fill their lexical gaps and improve their spoken English fluency.(2)Chinese English learners can use the interpersonal functions of general extenders more frequently.In less formal contexts,Chinese English learners can use general extenders such as and stuff(like that),or and things(like that)to show positive politeness.And when making a potential face-threatening act,the speaker can use disjunctive general extenders to show negative politeness and avoid imposing on the hearer.This study has practical and theoretical meanings for domestic English teaching and research.First of all,the results can be used to raise English educators' awareness on the importance of vague language and help students understand the stylistic nuances and the various functions of general extenders.Second,this study also offers some pedagogical implications.Third,this study may provide some help for further study on Chinese English learners' use of vague language.