DOCSLIB.ORG

The Acquisition of Verb + Noun Collocations by Japanese Learners of English

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

INVESTIGATING ESL LEARNERS’ LEXICAL COLLOCATIONS: THE ACQUISITION OF VERB + NOUN COLLOCATIONS BY JAPANESE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN LINGUISTICS MAY 2009 By Tomoko Miyakoshi Dissertation Committee: Ann M. Peters, Chairperson Robert Bley-Vroman Patricia A. Lee Robert E. Gibson Richard J. Guillory ii © Copyright 2009 by Tomoko Miyakoshi iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to my teachers and friends who inspired and encouraged me throughout the period of my doctoral study. First and foremost, I would like to thank my chair Ann Peters. Ann has been my advisor and a wonderful mentor since I started my doctorate study at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Her pioneering views on the units of language acquisition have inspired me to investigate the development of collocational knowledge by second language learners. She is open- minded, energetic, and extremely patient. She carefully read all my drafts and conference abstracts, spent a lot of time analyzing and discussing my data and encouraged me to consider in various view points. Thanks to her guidance and support, my journey to the doctorate was very rewarding and successful. Next my thanks go to Robert Bley-Vroman. I am grateful to Robert for teaching me second language acquisition theories and corpus linguistics. He always helped my progres by giving me valuable comments on my experimental designs, research materials and instruction methods. His comments and advice often led me to reconsider my methodology and encouraged me to improve my teaching methods. I am very thankful to Patricia Lee for introducing me to the study of semantics and pragmatics. Pat is very enthusiastic, friendly, has a great sense of humor. It was a great joy for me to broaden my knowledge by taking her stimulating courses and I truly enjoyed having discussions with her. I would like to thank Robert Gibson for giving me thoughtful comments and constant encouragement. I was very happy to receive feedback from Robert who is proficient in Japanese and is very open to both practical and theoretical points of views. I am very thankful to Richard Guillory for being supportive and for sharing his insights iv from a more outside point of view. I would like to extend my special thanks to John Haig, Dina Yoshimi, Richard Schmidt, James Brown, Zoya Proshina, Liubov’ Konstanovna, Yasuko Ito and Mari Miyao for discussing the ideas in my research at various stages. I am grateful to Laurie Durand for editing my drafts. I would like to express my gratitude to all the participants in my experiments of this study. I am very thankful to Hiroko Sato, Mai Takemoto and Satoko Kimura for their kind cooperation in recruiting subjects for my experiments. I thank the Department of Linguistics of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa for generous financial support during my years at UH. Additional support was provided by the East-West Center, Arts and Science Advisory Council and Graduate Student Organization (both at UH). I would like to thank all my friends, inside and outside the University of Hawai‘i, for their support and friendship: Emily Bartelson, Jin-Sun Choe, Yumiko Enyo, Toshiaki Furukawa, Yukie Hara, Ryoko Hattori, Elena Indjieva, Tatjana Ilic, Aya Inoue, Kyuseek Hwang, Jason Jackson, Sang-Gu Kang, On-Soon Lee, Tsai-Hsiu Liu (Dorinda), Jun Nomura, Manami Sato, Yoongsang Song, Diana Stojanovic, Jennie Tran, Kaori Ueki, and Qinglian Zhao. And I am very thankful to Seiichi Nakada, my undergraduate advisor, my first teacher of linguistics and an alumnus of UH linguistics, for his strong encouragement that made me decide to come to Hawai‘i. Finally, my greatest thanks are reserved for my family who has given me the opportunity to pursue my academic career. Especially, I would like to thank my parents Kazuhiro and Yoko Miyakoshi for their unconditional and understanding support and my sister Kyoko Momiyama for her warm-hearted encouragement. v ABSTRACT Although it is widely acknowledged that collocations play an important part in second language learning, especially at intermediate-advanced levels, learners’ difficulties with collocations have not been investigated in much detail so far. The present study examines ESL learners’ use of verb-noun collocations, such as take notes, place an order, cut corners and make a discovery, and the effects of instructions which direct learners’ attention to input and to restrictions of combinations. Sixty Japanese students (30 intermediate, 30 advanced) took fill-in-the-blank tests followed by one session of instruction, involving a brief introduction to collocations and a discussion of common mistakes with collocations and differences in the collocational restrictions between English and Japanese. At home the subjects studied collocations using paper-based exercises provided after the pretest and/or online flashcards. Within two weeks after the pretest and instruction, the subjects came back to take a second fill- in-the blank test which served as the posttest. Statistical analyses show significant influences of various attributes, including overall frequency, literal vs. abstract meaning, the existence of L1 equivalents, and the presence of light vs. content verbs. The following eleven error types were identified: (1) Inappropriate paraphrases; (2) Misuse of light verbs; (3) Interference of the native language Japanese; (4) Blending two collocations with similar meaning; (5) Mistakes by using morphological synonymy; (6) Use of words other than verbs; (7) Inserting unnecessary articles, particles and prepositions between verbs and nouns; (8) Mistake in distinguishing intransitive and vi transitive verbs; (9) Creating collocations from compound nouns; (10) Misunderstanding actor-patient relations of verbs; and (11) Phonological errors. Among these error types, it was found that paraphrases, misuse of light verbs and interference of the native language are the strongest indicators of difficulty of collocations for the learners. Significant improvements were observed in the learners’ performance in the posttest. These findings highlight the efficacy of improving second language learners’ collocational knowledge to enhance their proficiency in the target language, and show that explicit instruction using learners’ selective attention to input indeed improves their collocational competence in the target language. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………..iv Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………...vi List of tables……………………………………………………………………………....xi List of figures…………………………………………………………………………….xv Chapter1:Introduction……………………....………………………...……...……1 1.1. Collocations…………………………………………………….………….1 1.2. Studies on acquisition of collocations…………………………………...7 1.2.1. Research on collocations in first language acquisition...…........…7 1.2.2. Research on collocations in second language learning……….....13 1.2.3. Functions of collocations in second language acquisition…..….18 1.3. Purpose of this study: What factors may affect the acquisition of lexical collocations?…………………………………………………...…………..22 Chapter 2: Preliminary survey: Categorization of L2 learners’ problems in acquiring collocations………………………………………………………………………….….28 2.1. Purpose of the survey and research questions……………………………28 2.2. Method.……………………………………………………………….….29 2.2.1. Subjects……………...……………………………….……...….29 2.2.2. Stimuli and procedure………………………………….………..29 2.3. Results……………………………………………………….…………...30 2.4. Summary: Implication for the experiments……………………………..….38 Chapter 3: The roles of frequency and meaning in acquiring Verb + Noun collocations.41 3.1. Purpose of frequency and meaning studies: research questions and hypotheses……...………………………………………………………….….41 3.2. General method………………………………….………………..….….44 3.2.1. Subjects…………………………………………………….......….44 3.2.2. Stimuli and procedure…………………………………..….……45 Chapter 4: Experiment 1: The role of frequency in acquiring Verb + Noun collocations.49 4.1. Stimuli.………………………..……………………………………….49 4.2. Overall results and single variable analyses of results for the number of collocations produced by Japanese learners………………………….…….50 4.3. Native speakers’ Judgments of Grammaticality…………...….….…....57 4.3.1. Average scores of native speakers’ Grammaticality Judgments……..57 4.3.2. Three-scale analysis of Grammaticality Judgments……………....62 4.3.3. Two-scale analysis of Grammaticality Judgments…………...........…67 4.3.4. Hierarchy of difficulty based on Grammaticality Judgments….…….73 4.4. Adequacy of meaning conveyed……………………………………....…....75 4.4.1. Average scores of native speakers’ Meaning Conveyed….………….75 4.4.2. Three-scale analysis of Meaning Conveyed……..........................…81 viii 4.4.3. Two-scale analysis of Meaning Conveyed………….…….......…..…85 4.4.4. Hierarchy of difficulty based on Meaning Conveyed……………….91 4.5. Learners’ confidence in their own productions………..………….………...92 4.6. Learners’ familiarity with their own productions……...…....….…………...97 4.7. Multi-variable analyses of results……………………...…....….……...…..103 4.7.1. Grammaticality Judgments vs. learners’ confidence………......….103 4.7.2. Meaning Conveyed vs. Learners’ confidence…………..…......….106 4.7.3. Learners’ confidence vs. Heard or Read……………………....….109 4.8. Discussion of Experiment 1…………………………………………..113 4.8.1. Number of collocations produced…………….………….………114 4.8.2. Observed frequency………………...…………………………..…..115 4.8.3. With vs. without
Recommended publications
  • CHAPTER 1 the STUDY of COLLOCATIONS 1.0 Introduction 'Collocations' Are Usually Described As "Sequences of Lexical Items W

    CHAPTER 1 the STUDY of COLLOCATIONS 1.0 Introduction 'Collocations' Are Usually Described As "Sequences of Lexical Items W

    CHAPTER 1 THE STUDY OF COLLOCATIONS 1.0 Introduction 'Collocations' are usually described as "sequences of lexical items which habitually co-occur [i.e. occur together]" (Cruse 1986:40). Examples of English collocations are: ‘thick eyebrows’, 'sour milk', 'to collect stamps', 'to commit suicide', 'to reject a proposal'. The term collocation was first introduced by Firth, who considered that meaning by collocation is lexical meaning "at the syntagmatic level" (Firth 1957:196). The syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations of lexical items can be schematically represented by two axes: a horizontal and a vertical one. The paradigmatic axis is the vertical axis and comprises sets of words that belong to the same class and can be substituted for one another in a specific grammatical and lexical context. The horizontal axis of language is the syntagmatic axis and refers to a word's ability to combine with other words. Thus, in the sentence 'John ate the apple' the word 'apple' stands in paradigmatic relation with 'orange', 'sandwich', 'steak', 'chocolate', 'cake', etc., and in syntagmatic relation with the word 'ate' and 'John'. Collocations represent lexical relations along the syntagmatic axis. 114 Firth's attempt to describe the meaning of a word on the collocational level was innovative in that it looked at the meaning relations between lexical items, not from the old perspective of paradigmatic relations (e.g. synonyms, antonyms) but from the level of syntagmatic relations. Syntagmatic relations between sentence constituents had been widely used by structural linguists (e.g. 'John ate the apple' is an 'Subject-Verb-Object' construction), but not in the study of lexical meaning.
  • English Collocations in Use Intermediate Book with Answers

    English Collocations in Use Intermediate Book with Answers

    McCarthy and O’Dell McCarthy and ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS IN USE Collocations are combinations of words, which frequently appear together. Using Intermediate them makes your English sound more natural. Knowledge of collocations is often tested in examinations such as Cambridge FCE, CAE, CPE and IELTS. This book is suitable for ENGLISH students at good intermediate level and above. Using collocations will improve your style of written and spoken English: ENGLISH • Instead of ‘a big amount’, say ‘a substantial amount’ • Instead of ‘think about the options’, say ‘consider the options’ COLLOCATIONS • Using collocations will make your English sound more natural: • Instead of ‘get ill’, say ‘fall ill’ COLLOCATIONS • Instead of ‘a bigCURRENT fine’, say ‘a BCC heavy TOO fine’ LONG Using collocationsFOR will helpNEW you DESIGN avoid common learner errors: How words work • Instead of ‘do a choice’, say ‘make a choice’ together for fluent • Instead of ‘make your homework’, say ‘do your homework’ IN USE and natural English English Collocations in Use Intermediate Self-study and • 60 easy-to-use two-page units: collocations are presented and explained IN USE on left-hand pages with a range of practice exercises on right-hand pages. classroom use • Presents and explains approximately 1,500 collocations in typical contexts Second Edition using short texts, dialogues, tables and charts. Also available • Contains a comprehensive answer key and full index for easy reference. CAMBRIDGE LEARNER’S DICTIONARY• FOURTHHighlights EDITION register to help students choose the appropriate language for ENGLISH VOCABULARY IN USE UPPER-INTERMEDIATEparticular situations. Intermediate ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION IN USE INTERMEDIATE • Informed by the Cambridge English Corpus to ensure that the most frequently used collocations are presented.
  • A Study on English Collocations and Delexical Verbs in English Curriculum

    A Study on English Collocations and Delexical Verbs in English Curriculum

    Pramana Research Journal ISSN NO: 2249-2976 CORPUS-BASED LINGUISTIC AND INSTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS: A STUDY ON ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS AND DELEXICAL VERBS IN ENGLISH CURRICULUM Dr. G. Shravan Kumar, Dr. Gomatam Mohana Charyulu Professor of English & Head, Associate Professor of English Controller of Examinations, VFSTR Deemed to be University PJTS Agricultural University, Vadlamudi, A.P. India Rajendranagar, Hyderabad. TS Abstract: The influence of native language on the learners of the English language is not a new issue. Moreover, expressions of colloquial native expressions into English language are also common in English speaking people in India. Introducing English Collocations into the curriculum through practice exercises at the end of the lessons at primary and secondary level is a general practice of curriculums designers to improve the skills of language learners. There is a vast scope of research on the English collocations in lessons introduced to learners at the initial stages in Telugu speakers of native India. In fact, it is a neglected area of investigation that knowledge of collocation can also improve the language competency. This paper investigates the English collocations and delexical verbs used by English learners. In order to make a perfect investigative study on the topic, this attempt was undertaken two groups of rural Ranga Reddy District of Telangana State English learners of different proficiencies who belonged to 8,9 and 10th class levels. This investigation proved that the English learners of the Rural Students in Telangana depended on three major important things. They are 1. Native language Transfer 2. Synonymy 3. Over generalization. This study also showed that the high and low proficiency learners were almost familiar with collocations and delexical verbs.
  • 6 the Major Parts of Speech

    6 the Major Parts of Speech

    6 The Major Parts of Speech KEY CONCEPTS Parts of Speech Major Parts of Speech Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs Appendix: prototypes INTRODUCTION In every language we find groups of words that share grammatical charac- teristics. These groups are called “parts of speech,” and we examine them in this chapter and the next. Though many writers onlanguage refer to “the eight parts of speech” (e.g., Weaver 1996: 254), the actual number of parts of speech we need to recognize in a language is determined by how fine- grained our analysis of the language is—the more fine-grained, the greater the number of parts of speech that will be distinguished. In this book we distinguish nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs (the major parts of speech), and pronouns, wh-words, articles, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, intensifiers, conjunctions, and particles (the minor parts of speech). Every literate person needs at least a minimal understanding of parts of speech in order to be able to use such commonplace items as diction- aries and thesauruses, which classify words according to their parts (and sub-parts) of speech. For example, the American Heritage Dictionary (4th edition, p. xxxi) distinguishes adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, definite ar- ticles, indefinite articles, interjections, nouns, prepositions, pronouns, and verbs. It also distinguishes transitive, intransitive, and auxiliary verbs. Writ- ers and writing teachers need to know about parts of speech in order to be able to use and teach about style manuals and school grammars. Regardless of their discipline, teachers need this information to be able to help students expand the contexts in which they can effectively communicate.
  • A Study on the Pragmatic Features of Collocation

    A Study on the Pragmatic Features of Collocation

    1 2 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. TR ƯƠ NG VIÊN UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF DANANG ************** Examiner 1: ……………………………………… Examiner 2: ……………………………………… HOÀNGHOÀNG TH THỊ HỊ HƯƠƯƠ NGNG GIANG GIANG AA STUDY STUDY ON ON THE THE PRAGMATIC PRAGMATIC FEATURES FEATURES OFOF COLLOCATION COLLOCATION USED USED IN IN ADVERTISING ADVERTISING HAIRHAIR CARE CARE PRODUCTS PRODUCTS IN IN ENGLISH ENGLISH AND AND VIETNAMESE VIETNAMESE The thesis will be defended at the Examination Council for the M.A. thesis, University of Danang. Time: 22/08/2010 Field Study: THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE Field Study: THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE Venue: University of Danang Code : 60.22.15. Code : 60.22.15. M.A. THESIS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE M.A. THESIS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (A SUMMARY) (A SUMMARY) The original of this thesis is accessible for the purpose of reference at: - Library of the College of Foreign Languages, University of Danang. Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. TR ƯƠ NG VIÊN Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. TR ƯƠ NG VIÊN - The Information Resources Center, University of Danang. The thesis has been completed at the College of Foreign Languages, DANANG UNIVERSITY DANANG, 2010 DANANG, 2010 3 4 CHAPTER 1 because it’s about how people make sense of each other INTRODUCTION linguistically, but is can be a feustrating area of study because it 1.1 RATIONAL requires us to make sense of people and what they have in mind. Nowadays, together with the development of the society and “Collocation is the way words combine in a language to the world, communicating is an essential part in our daily life.
  • Phrasal Verbs As Learning Material in Business English Courses For

    Phrasal Verbs As Learning Material in Business English Courses For

    Phrasal verbs as learning material in Business English courses for students majoring in Linguistics Phrasal verbs as learning material in Business English by Alexander V. Litvinov, Svetlana A. Burikova and Dmitry S. Khramchenko courses for students majoring in Linguistics by Alexander V. Litvinov, Svetlana A. Burikova and Dmitry S. Khramchenko enough to sound convincingly authentic. It is ‘Phrasal verbs can serve as a rhetorical skills and ability for sophisticated good example of the kind of Alexander V. Litvinov Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) [email protected] communication that help impress British and Svetlana A. Burikova Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) [email protected] problem Russians and other American partners through expression of thoughts Dmitry S. Khramchenko Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University [email protected] and ideas in a clear way and get all necessary nationality non-native speakers Published in Training, Language and Culture Vol 1 Issue 4 (2017) pp. 84-98 doi: 10.29366/2017tlc.1.4.6 messages across. Years of teaching practice prove of English face’ Recommended citation format: Litvinov, A. V., Burikova, S. A., & Khramchenko, D. S. (2017). An acoustic that main problems for EFL students can be analysis of the production of word-initial stop /p/ by late Arab bilinguals. Training, Language and Culture, 1(4), classified into several categories: (1) English linguistics and pragmatics, most notably by 84-98. doi: 10.29366/2017tlc.1.4.6 linguistic phenomena that have direct equivalents Professor Evgeniya Ponomarenko and Professor The study highlights the existing views on the nature of English phrasal verbs and their theoretical grounding in Russian in the learners’ native tongue; (2) English language Elena Malyuga (Ponomarenko & Malyuga, 2012; and English linguistics.
  • Tenses and Conjugation (Pdf)

    Tenses and Conjugation (Pdf)

    Created by the Evergreen Writing Center Library 3407 867-6420 Tenses and Conjugation Using correct verb forms is crucial to communicating coherently. Understanding how to apply different tenses and properly conjugate verbs will give you the tools with which to craft clear, effective sentences. Conjugations A conjugation is a list of verb forms. It catalogues the person, number, tense, voice, and mood of a verb. Knowing how to conjugate verbs correctly will help you match verbs with their subjects, and give you a firmer grasp on how verbs function in different sentences. Here is a sample conjugation table: Present Tense, Active Voice, Indicative Mood: Jump Person Singular Plural 1st Person I jump we jump 2nd Person you jump you jump 3rd Person he/she/it jumps they jump Person: Person is divided into three categories (first, second, and third person), and tells the reader whether the subject is speaking, is spoken to, or is spoken about. Each person is expressed using different subjects: first person uses I or we; second person uses you; and third person uses he/she/it or they. Keep in mind that these words are not the only indicators of person; for example in the sentence “Shakespeare uses images of the divine in his sonnets to represent his own delusions of grandeur”, the verb uses is in the third person because Shakespeare could be replaced by he, an indicator of the third person. Number: Number refers to whether the verb is singular or plural. Tense: Tense tells the reader when the action of a verb takes place.
  • Constructions and Result: English Phrasal Verbs As Analysed in Construction Grammar

    Constructions and Result: English Phrasal Verbs As Analysed in Construction Grammar

    CONSTRUCTIONS AND RESULT: ENGLISH PHRASAL VERBS AS ANALYSED IN CONSTRUCTION GRAMMAR by ANNA L. OLSON A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES Master of Arts in Linguistics, Analytical Stream We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard ............................................................................... Dr. Emma Pavey, PhD; Thesis Supervisor ................................................................................ Dr. Sean Allison, Ph.D.; Second Reader ................................................................................ Dr. David Weber, Ph.D.; External Examiner TRINITY WESTERN UNIVERSITY September 2013 © Anna L. Olson i Abstract This thesis explores the difference between separable and non-separable transitive English phrasal verbs, focusing on finding a reason for the non-separable verbs’ lack of compatibility with the word order alternation which is present with the separable phrasal verbs. The analysis is formed from a synthesis of ideas based on the work of Bolinger (1971) and Gorlach (2004). A simplified version of Cognitive Construction Grammar is used to analyse and categorize the phrasal verb constructions. The results indicate that separable and non-separable transitive English phrasal verbs are similar but different constructions with specific syntactic reasons for the incompatibility of the word order alternation with the non-separable verbs. ii Table of Contents Abstract ...........................................................................................................................................
  • Corpus-Informed Descriptions: English Verbs and Their Collocates in Science Abstracts Laura Hartwell

    Corpus-Informed Descriptions: English Verbs and Their Collocates in Science Abstracts Laura Hartwell

    Corpus-informed descriptions: English verbs and their collocates in science abstracts Laura Hartwell To cite this version: Laura Hartwell. Corpus-informed descriptions: English verbs and their collocates in science abstracts. Etudes en didactique des langues, LAIRDIL, 2012. hal-02955551 HAL Id: hal-02955551 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02955551 Submitted on 2 Oct 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Corpus-informed descriptions: English verbs and their collocates in science abstracts Laura M. HARTWELL Maîtresse de conférences Laboratoire LIDILEM – Université Grenoble I In Modes of Meaning (1951/1957), Firth proposed an innovative approach to descriptive linguistics that embraces multiple levels of creating meaning including social context, syntax, vocabulary, phonology, and phonetics. He posited that the “collocation” of a word is part of its meaning and this within a particular literary form or genre. He made explicit the position of words that create meaning: “Meaning by collocation is an abstraction at the syntagmatic level and is not directly concerned with the conceptual or idea approach to the meaning of words” (1951/1957: 196). His framework contrasted with Chomsky’s perspective and others’ that linguists are concerned with the possible infinite generation of grammatical sentences stemming from human mental faculties.
  • Knowledge of English Collocations: an Analysis of Taiwanese EFL Learners

    Knowledge of English Collocations: an Analysis of Taiwanese EFL Learners

    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 465 288 FL 027 339 AUTHOR Huang, Li-Szu TITLE Knowledge of English Collocations: An Analysis of Taiwanese EFL Learners. PUB DATE 2001-00-00 NOTE 21p.; In: Luke, C. and B. Rubrecht, Eds. Texas Papers in Foreign Language Education: Selected Proceedings from the Texas Foreign Language Education Conference, 2001. Volume 6, nl, Fall 2001. For related documents, see FL 027 256-64. PUB TYPE Reports - Research (143) Speeches/Meeting Papers (150) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *English (Second Language); *Error Analysis (Language); Foreign Countries; Higher Education; *Idioms; *Interference (Language); *Second Language Learning; Undergraduate Students ABSTRACT This study investigated Taiwanese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students knowledge of English collocations and the collocational errors they made. The subjects were 60 students from a college in Taiwan. The research instrument was a self-designed Simple Completion Test that measured students knowledge of four types of lexical collocations: free combinations, restricted collocations, figurative idioms, and pure idioms. The results indicated that, for these students, free combinations created the least amount of difficulty, whereas pure idioms were the most challenging. Additionally, students performed about equally well on restricted collocations and figurative idioms. In general, the students deviant answers demonstrated their insufficient knowledge of English collocations. It is concluded that EFL learners errors in collocations can be attributed to negative first language transfer. Test items are appended. (Contains 26 references.) (Author/SM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS CENTER (ERIC) BEEN GRANTED BY O This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it.
  • Head Movement

    Head Movement

    3/23/15 Head Movement Introduc5on to Syntax Adam Szczegielniak Head Movement • Movement of X to a posi5on Y where there is no PF material – Movement is not word formaon – Head movement adjoins head to a head – Head movement is triggered by the features of the des5naon posi5on – Features include for example: +Q on C, Tense on T • Note we would not talk about head movement without phone5cally null LI’s 1 3/23/15 Case 1 seman5cs • Two structures have the same – theta roles – Arguments – Lexical items – One structures asks about the truth value of the other Q. Will John go home? A. John will go home Deep structure • If one expression is the answer to the ques5on of another expression, we assume they share a common deep structure • Deep Structure: – Same theta roles – Same case, tense features – Same lexical items, • modulo func5onal markers • One expression might have a subset of lexical items – Same truth condi5ons (a ques5on’s truth condi5ons is their answers) 2 3/23/15 Movement transformaon • Movement is an operaon on Deep Structure • Layers of grammar representaon – Deep Structure (theta roles) – Transformaons (feature driven movement) – Surface structure (Q features, EPP, case and wh, and other features sasfied) • Different surface Structures can be related at Depp Structure • This is the case with Yes/No ques5ons Deep Structure 3 3/23/15 DP movement • EPP/CASE – DP2 gets case sasfies EPP on T – For now do not worry about XP move or CASE for DP1 T->C • Q feature on C – T adjoins to C to sasfy Q feature – Note this is a problem for X-bar – two heads 4 3/23/15 • Q feature on C • EPP/CASE – T adjoins to C to sasfy – DP2 gets case sasfies EPP on T – For now do not worry about XP Q feature move or CASE for DP1 • Note EPP/Case sasfied before Q • Q.
  • Use of Verb-Noun Collocations by Advanced Learners of Chinese

    Use of Verb-Noun Collocations by Advanced Learners of Chinese

    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2016 Use of Verb-Noun Collocations by Advanced Learners of Chinese Xiaolin Peng University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Education Commons, Linguistics Commons, and the Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures Commons Recommended Citation Peng, Xiaolin, "Use of Verb-Noun Collocations by Advanced Learners of Chinese" (2016). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1940. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1940 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1940 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Use of Verb-Noun Collocations by Advanced Learners of Chinese Abstract The important role of collocations has been widely accepted in the current literature, but to date there are still relatively few studies on language learners’ collocation knowledge and development within different local contexts. The current study intends to contribute to the literature by investigating the oral production of Chinese verb-noun (V-N) collocations by a group of highly proficient learners comprised of both Chinese as a foreign language learners (CFL learners) and Chinese heritage language learners (CHL learners), as compared to Chinese native speakers (CNSs). The study brings together current literature on collocation and heritage language learners both from a Western perspective and from the Chinese linguistic and sociolinguistic perspective. Samples of spoken language data discussing both academic and non-academic topics were collected through one-on-one interviews with 10 CFL learners, 10 CHL learners and 10 CNSs. The data are analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively to yield the following three findings: (1) There is a significant difference in using Chinese verb-noun (V-N) collocations among CFL learners, CHL learners, and CNSs.