A Corpus-based Study Of Conceptal Transfer In Chinese Learners’ English

The relationship between language and cognition (thought) is perhaps the most debatedand controversial topic in linguistic studies. Some linguists believe that language is anarbitrary symbolic system that truthfully reflects the real objective world. Consequently, thethought expressed by a human language would be the same as long as the object in the naturalworld is the same. However, some others argue that human language could not exactly reflectthe objective world, but it could influence people’s habitual thought and world view. Thisbelief has been argued and studied by many scholars for several generations during the pasttwo hundred years, and has been developed into “Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis” through Hamannto Whorf. Though the “Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis” has encountered much criticism and it wassilent for more than two decades, it has been recently rerecognized by many scholars. Forexample, the new cognitive linguistics has carried out many experimental studies which haveyielded convincing results to support the Neo-Whorfianist hypothesis of linguistic relativity.Influenced by the Neo-Whorfianist hypothesis of linguistic relativity, some scholars haverecently constructed a L2conceptual transfer theory in L2acquisition studies and carried outsome studies to verify the theory. However, up till now there are no theoretical and empiricalstudies that have been done in this area in China. Therefore, this study intends to examine therelationship between English learning and conceptual transfer in the English production ofChinese learners of English as a L2/foreign language. Specifically, the study identifies thesystematic features of the most frequently used English lexicon, grammar and grammaticalmetaphors in ICCI and its extended corpus by Chinese learners of English compared withthose of the beginning German-speaking learners of English from a conceptual transferperspective. The identified systematic features of these most frequently used English words,sentence structures and grammatical metaphors are analyzed by a corpus-based approach, anddiscussed in terms of conceptual or categorization system within the conceptual transfertheory in SLA.After having highlighted the research background, research questions, research methodand significance (Chapter1), I review the theoretical foundations of this study (see Chapter2).In the review, I trace the development of the Neo-linguistic relativity hypothesis and discussthe understanding and misunderstanding of it. More specifically, Linguistic RelativityHypothesis has been criticized by many scholars since its birth. The current theoreticalreview (Chapter2) examines its ups and downs, and analyzes the main reasons for thecontroversies. In the examination, it is pointed out that some empirical studies have largelytestified the hypothesis and more studies should be carried out to further validate the hypothesis. In the review I argue that the hypothesis is rationale in relation to the review ofrecent findings/works of cognitive linguists and the Neo-Whorfianists. In the review I alsoargue that this hypothesis has provided a philosophical foundation and background for thenewly developed conceptual Transfer theory in SLA studies.Based upon the review of the hypothesis and the conceptual transfer theory, I develop atheoretical framework for the current study in relation to the context of English learning inChina, and at the same time for a better understanding of this theory in order to carry outmore extended empirical studies in the cultural context of China.Language transfer has long been regarded as one of the most important areas in SLA,but most of the studies in this area are UG driven and formal error analysis based with a focuson the L2forms rather than meaning and cognition. As mentioned earlier, recently informedby the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis, scholars in SLA have developed the ConceptualTransfer Theory. Therefore, in Chapter3, I firstly review the development of languagetransfer studies with a focus on its definitions and relevant empirical studies. Languagetransfer studies have been developed from behavioral psychology and structurallinguistics-based contrastive analysis to interlanguage theory-based error analysis, and to theNeo-linguistic relativity hypothesis-informed conceptual transfer framework.Based on the review, it is pointed out that the Conceptual Transfer Theory can providean important theoretical perspective for the current study. Drawing upon the conceptualtransfer theory in SLA, I develop the theoretical framework (“Conceptual TransferTheoretical Framework in English Learning”) in consideration of the context of Englishlearning in China. The theoretical framework consists of three dimensions, namely thedimension of “language, culture and thought”; the dimension of “English learning process”;the dimension of “representations on linguistic level”.The dimension of “language, culture and thought” refers to the complicated relations attwo levels, one is the relationship of mutual influence and reflection between Chinese cultureand Chinese language category systems, and the other is the relationship between Chineselanguage category systems and conceptual category systems. In the discussion of thedimension, it is argued that the characteristics of the Chinese and English language categorysystems are influenced by the paratactic or hypotactic way of language organization, andtherefore the acquisition of Chinese conceptual categories are influenced by Chinese integralway of thinking.The dimension of “English learning process” refers to the learning process where certainChinese lexicalized concepts, grammatical concepts and grammatical metaphoricalizedconcepts might be automatically transferred into the second language (English). In thediscussion of the dimension, the relationship between meaning transfer and conceptualtransfer are distinguished with examples. The dimension of “Representations on linguistic level” refers to the characteristics oflearners’ errors committed in their interlanguage in terms of lexicon morphosyntactics andgrammatical metaphors. In the discussion of the dimension, how the transfer of theseconcepts is analyzed is discussed in relation to their linguistic representations or realizations.After the theoretical framework is established, I review the previous corpus basedresearch in SLA in order to provide a rationale for the corpus approach adopted by the currentstudy (Chapter4). The review starts with why a corpus-based approach is important and whatresearch questions that corpus can answer in SLA studies. And then the corpus-based SLAstudies are summarized with comments. The literature review shows that corpus has becomethe most widely used research method in the SLA empirical studies. Although thecorpus-based studies are involved with a wide range of research domains, such as lexicon,grammar/syntax and discourse, there has been no study on Chinese learners of English from aconceptual transfer perspective. The detailed review not only provides a necessary academicbackground for this study, but it also supports the corpus approach this study has chosen as aresearch method. After the discussion of the rationale for the corpus-based approach, Idescribe in detail (Chapter5) the corpora, retrieval methods, statistical methods, concordancesoftwares used in the current study in relation to the research procedures.Through the corpus-based quantitative and qualitative analysis, this study finds:1) the conceptual transfer errors in terms of lexicon such as verbs, prepositions, adverbs,and articles made by the Chinese beginning learners of English as an interlanguage are veryhigh in frequency, and the transfers are mainly involved with lexicalized conceptual transferand grammaticalized conceptual transfer.2) grammaticalized conceptual transfer errors in adverbs made by Chinese beginninglearners of English are high in frequency. They are mainly involved with threegrammaticalized conceptual categories/representations, that is,[POSITION][POSITIVITY]and [SCP STRUCTURE]. Besides, Chinese learners of English very often omit the definite orindefinite articles before singular countable nouns in the use of articles. Furthermore, theyfrequently commit some grammaticalized conceptual transfer errors represented on thesyntactic level, such as, run-on sentences, tense errors, word order errors, number errors, theomission of “be” in “be sentence”, subject-verb disagreement, the omission of subject/predicate/object. Through the detailed analyses, it is found that the syntactic errors made arequite similar with the syntactic features of Chinese, and since it involves the changing orrestructuring of the original conceptual categories to avoid or lessen the errors, all the errorsin question are due to the L1negative transfer of grammaticalized concepts, which is viewedas a proof of L1negative transfer of concepts as well as L1transfer of form and meaning.Thus generally speaking, the negative transfer of grammaticalized concepts can be attributedto the essential differences between the conceptual category systems in the two languages. 3) the use of Grammatical Metaphor (GM) by the beginning learners of English in seniormiddle schools is comparatively low and simple (most of GM types were not used or rarelyused), and the use of GM by the intermediate learners in first two grades of English-Majors asa group has no significant improvement compared with that of the middle school students.However, the use of GM by the advanced learners in the last two grades of English-Majorshas significant improvement compared with the former two groups both in terms of frequencyand diversity. This phenomenon, on the one hand, can be also attributed to the L1positiveand negative transfer of grammatical metaphoricalized concepts; and on the other itdemonstrates that learners’ conceptual transfer errors are developmental, that is, learners atdifferent developing stages might commit different errors in terms of the grammatical andmetaphoricalized concepts.Based on the findings, this study concludes:1) both the positive and negative transfersfound in interlanguage (English) of Chinese learners in terms of lexicon, grammar, andgrammatical metaphors can be attributed to the similarity and differences of theconceptualization and categorization between Chinese and English.2) all the conceptualtransfer errors are systematic, regular and unique compared with those of German beginninglearners of English.3) these findings have largely testified the “conceptual transfer theoreticalframework in English learning” and laid a foundation for a further more sophisticatedresearch of conceptual transfer in SLA. Based upon the findings and conclusions, someimplications for English learning and teaching are also offered.