20.746, Diss: Applied Ling/Lang Acq/Text/Corpus Ling: Guo: 'Verbs in the ...'

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LINGUIST List: Vol-20-746. Mon Mar 09 2009. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 20.746, Diss: Applied Ling/Lang Acq/Text/Corpus Ling: Guo: 'Verbs in the ...'

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1)
Date: 09-Mar-2009
From: Xiaotian Guo < garlickfred at gmail.com >
Subject: Verbs in the Written English of Chinese Learners: A corpus-based comparison
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Mon, 09 Mar 2009 10:25:26
From: Xiaotian Guo [garlickfred at gmail.com]
Subject: Verbs in the Written English of Chinese Learners: A corpus-based comparison

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Institution: University of Birmingham 
Program: English Department 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2006 

Author: Xiaotian Guo

Dissertation Title: Verbs in the Written English of Chinese Learners: A
corpus-based comparison 

Dissertation URL:  www.linguistics-journal.com/thesis_Guo.pdf

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics
                     Language Acquisition
                     Text/Corpus Linguistics

Subject Language(s): Chinese, Mandarin (cmn)
                     English (eng)


Dissertation Director(s):
Susan Hunston

Dissertation Abstract:

This thesis consists of ten chapters and its research methodology is a
combination of quantitative and qualitative. Chapter One introduces the
theme of the thesis, a demonstration of a corpus-based comparative approach
in detecting the needs of the learners by looking for the similarities and
disparities between the learner English (the COLEC corpus) and the NS
English (the LOCNESS corpus). Chapter Two reviews the literature in
relevant learner language studies and indicates the tasks of the research.
The data and technology are introduced in Chapter Three. Chapter Four shows
how two verb lemma lists can be made by using the Wordsmith Tools supported
by other corpus and IT tools. How to make sense of the verb lemma lists is
the focus of the second part of this chapter. Chapter Five deals with the
individual forms of verbs and the findings suggest that there is less
homogeneity in the learner English than the NS English. Chapter Six extends
the research to verb-noun relationships in the learner English and the NS
English and the result shows that the learners prioritise verbs over nouns.
Chapter Seven studies the learners' preferences in using the patterns of
KEEP compared with those of the NSs, and finds that the learners have
various problems in using this simple verb. In this chapter, too, my
reservations about the traditional use of 'overuse' and 'underuse' are
expressed and a finer classification system is suggested. Chapter Eight
compares another frequently-occurring verb, TAKE, in the aspect of
collocates and yields similar findings that the learners have problems even
with such simple vocabulary. In Chapter Nine, the research findings from
Chapter Four to Chapter Eight are revisited and discussed in relation to
the theme of the thesis. The concluding chapter, Chapter Ten, summarises
the previous chapters and envisages how learner language studies will
develop in the coming few years. 






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