| There are many similarities between first and second language acquisition. People are born with language instinct and have ability to learn second language. In the material world, motion is ubiquitous and plays a very special role in the human mind. The study of motion reveals the rules of human cognitive thinking. Moreover, cognitive rules pass out through language. As we all know, the similarities and differences between languages are often dependent on the performance of verbs. Motion verbs, the most characteristic of verbs, naturally play a decisive role.With the development of vocabulary acquisition research, more and more researchers pay attention to the study of verbs. Some of them have come to scrutinize motion verbs in their studies. However, influenced by study of traditional linguistics, most research came out of elaborating the grammatical meaning of motion verbs and analyzing the reasons of learners' misuse and teachers' false teaching. Judging from these studies, the general problem of English learners at home is that learners study terms of grammar by rote instead of making flexible use of verbs. A large number of verbs are misused in their writing. It can be seen that studying motion verbs has considerable significance both in theory and practice. More importantly, studying motion verbs from a cognitive approach is more challenging.Cognitive linguistics is not only a theory but a methodology that observes the rules and organization of vocabulary from a cognitive perspective. Based on human experience and cognition, it describes the internal mechanism of vocabulary production, development and acquisition, as well as reflects the orderly manner of human thinking and the different status and roles of vocabulary in the brain. Therefore, studying motion verbs from a cognitive approach is not only a breakthrough in theory but an innovative development on methodology.With the categorization and prototype theory, motion orientation-frames, motion event-frames and blended space theory as the theory foundation, and the corpus study with error analysis as the study methodology, the present dissertation attempts to discuss the following issues: 1) Whether there is any developmental rules of motion verbs acquisition or not? If so, what are they? 2) Whether the acquisition of familiar motion verbs is easier than those of unfamiliar ones by Chinese English learners? 3) How about Chinese English learners' sensitivity to those rules? Will sensitivity develop with the growth of English language proficiency?Based on corpus study and cognitive theory description, we came up with the following findings: 1) Studying motion verbs must follow the different characteristics of different types of motion verbs themselves. The grammatical forms of motion verbs directly reflect a cognitive model that also determines the different expressions of motion verbs. The grammatical forms, syntax behavior, semantic and pragmatic effects of motion verbs are close related. Therefore, establishing a cognitive model is the key point in order to better grasp motion verbs. 2) There is no evidence to prove that the acquisition of familiar motion verbs is easier than those of unfamiliar ones by Chinese English learners. 3) The sensibility of the rules of motion verbs will develop with the growth of English language proficiency.This dissertation consists of seven chapters:Chapter One serves as an introduction. In this chapter, the author briefly introduces the research purpose, research questions, research methodology and the structure of this dissertation.Chapter Two presents a selective literature review, which covers the theoretical foundations for the present study on motion verbs. It starts with the classification of English verbs. The author chooses different kinds of classifications from the linguistic approach, morphological approach, and semantic approach. In addition, the definitions and classifications of motion verbs are presented. The focus of this chapter is the acquisition research on verbs and motion verbs at home and abroad. Chapter Three discusses the motion verbs in cognitive linguistics. Language ability in cognitive linguistics is regarded as a cognitive ability. From the narrow point of view, cognitive linguistics is not just a simple theory, but represents a new research paradigm. The most import feature is that there is a very close relationship between language and human cognitive ability. Thus, motion verbs as an important part of language surely reflects the human thinking model and cognitive ability. In this chapter, the four different cognitive theories which describe motion verbs are a propriately introduced in detail.Chapter Four begins with the research design that deals with the corpus study, error analysis and the research questions. BNC, CLEC and LOB are presented in this chapter.Chapter Five deals with motion verbs study based on BNC corpus. In this chapter, the author chooses four different types of motion verbs, including escape, leave, roll and run as the research objects. Through the analysis, we can sum up the following finding: when using motion verbs, English native speakers naturally express their semantic and pragmatic effects in addition to following the rules of grammar. Cognitive mechanism plays a very important role by means of such general cognitive principles such as metaphor and metonymy, etc.Chapter Six focuses on a CLEC based study of motion verbs by Chinese learners. Through comparative analysis between native speakers and Chinese learners, it can be found that there are some differences in using motion verbs. In addition, some misuses of motion verbs by Chinese learners are cited according to CLEC. We can gather the following conclusion: compared with native speakers, Chinese learners tend to express more complete framework of motions when using motion verbs. Most errors are grammar mistakes. Different levels of English learners demonstrate different types of errors.Chapter Seven is the conclusion of this dissertation, in which the major findings of the study are summarized. Furthermore, it points out the implications for English learning and teaching. In describing the limitations of the present study, the author puts forward some suggestions for further studies in this research field.
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