A Corpus-Based Study On Adjunct Usages Of "Non-Finite Clauses" In Chinese EFL Learners' Writing

Non-finite clauses are generally divided into-ing clauses,-ed clauses and to-v clauses at home and abroad,which are difficult for Chinese EFL learners in the process of grammar learning.However,when it comes to non-finite clauses as adjuncts,many grammar books do not further elaborate on clauses and their adjunctive properties or the description is not comprehensive enough.It's also found that Chinese EFL learners use non-finite clauses,especially-ing clauses as adjuncts,much less frequently than native speakers in writing.Therefore,it is of practical significance by a quantitative study on non-finite clauses as adjuncts to reveal the differences between Chinese EFL learners and native speakers,study the linguistic characteristics of Chinese EFL learners,design teaching methods in line with the features of Chinese EFL learners,and compile a grammar dictionary based on the standard writing examples of native speakers.This thesis adopts a corpus-based Contrastive Interlanguage Analysis method and chooses adjunct usages of non-finite "-ing clauses" as the research object.Data sources come from Ten-thousand English Compositions of Chinese Learners(TECCL)and Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays(LOCNESS),which are 2761 texts,about 389634 tokens from middle&high school student corpus in TECCL and 1800 texts,about 354663 tokens from college student corpus in TECCL respectively.All 14 text files are extracted from LOCNESS,of which tokens are 326838.The main corpus tools are AntConc3.5.0,Tree Tagger and Chi-square test.Combining with factors of Second Language Acquisition,this thesis explores characteristics of Chinese EFL learners' adjunct usages in non-finite-ing clauses.This thesis focuses on three questions:(1)Are there any differences in adjunct usages of non-finite "-ing clauses" between Chinese EFL learners and native speakers,as well as between Chinese EFL learners of different proficiency levels?If there are differences,what are they?(2)What are reasons behind characteristics of adjunct usages in non-finite "-ing clauses"by Chinese EFL learners?(3)What is the role studying non-finite "-ing clauses" as adjuncts playing in pedagogical instruction?The results indicate that:(1)The standard frequencies of non-finite clauses(-ing clauses)from sub-corpora are 108.6,132.0 and 160.4 respectively,and adjunct usage frequencies of high-frequency verbs are 28,69 and 32 respectively,which thus reveals differences among them.Specifically speaking,compared with Chinese College students,Chinese middle&high school students "use little"(Chi-square value is 4.6,Significant difference is"-*")in the semantic dimension of condition and "underuse" them(12.5,"-***")in the semantic dimension of reason,while compared with native speakers,Chinese college students "use more"(4.1/3.9,"+*")in cause and concomitant.According to the data,compared with college students,middle&high school students make fewer mistakes,while Chinese college students make more mistakes(12.9,"+***")compared with British and American College students.However,there is no significant difference between them in the semantic dimension of time.(2)Adjunct usages of "non-finite-ing clauses" in Chinese EFL Learners' writing are influenced by multiple factors,such as LI transfer,L2 input,learners,English proficiency and fossilization Since there is difference between Chinese and English,L1 transfer leads to usage differences in frequency.In addition,the non-finite clause frequency of taking indicating cause used by Chinese middle&high students explains that L2 input in them is not enough.It is found that the higher their English proficiency is,the closer their usage will be to native speakers.Nevertheless,the increase of the level of Chinese EFL learners has not led to a significant decrease in the frequency of language errors,which reflects the fossiiization phenomenon in the process of learning non-finite-ing clauses.(3)It is advised that teachers should instruct students to apply more adjunctive semantic usages of present participle,which is a very formal in English writing.What's more,it is suggested that teachers should base on the analysis of authentic corpus to guide teachingIt is hoped that this thesis will be helpful to deepen learners'understanding of non-finite clauses as adjuncts,providing Chinese EFL learners with diverse examples in English writing.The thesis is also enlightening for English teaching design and grammar dictionary compilation.