A Multifactorial Study On The Competition Patterns Of Chinese EFL Learners' Logical Adverbial Clause Positioning

English logical adverbial clauses reflect people's cognition on logical relationships in the content and epistemic worlds.The adverbial clause positioning usually poses a problem for Chinese EFL learners,which deserves our attentionLogical adverbial clause positioning is underlain by the competition of cognitive and functional motivations,which are reflected by competition among linguistic forms(e.g.,the influence competition between adverbial clause and matrix ratio,and the anaphoric devices in adverbial clauses).Recent studies on logical adverbial clause positioning are enlightening,yet gaps exist in that(1)they did not study the logical adverbial clause positioning in the overarching logical subordination hierarchical system;and(2)discussions of and empirical studies on how motivations tune the logical adverbial clause positions are not comprehensive.In light of the existing gaps,this thesis adopts corpus methods and multifactorial analyses to examine and explore the competition patterns in logical adverbial clause positioning by Chinese EFL learners,in comparison with those of native speakers.Three logical subordinations studied in the present research include cause(with subordinators of because and since),condition(with one subordinator of if),and concession(with subordinators of although and though).These subordinations interrelate with each other on the meaning base cause and share the same hierarchical structure of logical relationships(general subordination?respective subordination?subordinator? specific clausal relationship).Specifically,each clausal relationship can be marked by these logical relationships,either alone(e.g.,cause or because)or intertwined(e.g.cause.direct or because.indirect).In total,4,572 data points from Chinese learner corpora WECCL and TECCL and 4,020 data points of the native corpora BAWE,NESSIE and LOCNESS were retrieved.Eight independent variables(clau.rel,bridging,hedging,embeddedness,ini.adv,deranking,complexity and sub.main.ratio)and one dependent variable(position of the adverbial clause)were annotated.Based on variable distribution and motivator competition patterns,learners'cognitive capacity allocation was depicted and their competition mechanisms in logical adverbial clause positioning generalized.It is found that in placing logical adverbial clauses,learners prioritize conveying meaning.Specifically,(1)learners observe the principle of iconicity of markedness and are affected by the salience of the clausal relationships;(2)in complicated tasks(with features of and learners would optimize limited cognitive capacity and place matrices before adverbial clauses to convey the main meaning directly;and(3)learners observe the principle of iconicity of sequence.Compared with native speakers,learners'performance is affected by L1,effects of frequency,contingency,and salience.Specifically,(1)learners do not observe end-weight principle as much as native speakers,due to their L1 's typology influence;(2)learners do not use as many anaphoric clauses referring to preceding clauses as native speakers do,due to the diversified cohesive patterns in Chinese;(3)the preposing ratio of the adverbial clauses in the learner corpora is a bit higher than in the native corpora,due to the ground-figure pattern of information organization found in Chinese;(4)due to effects of frequency and contingency,learners overgeneralize on because and although,but deviate from native speakers on since and though;and(5)due to the Chinese illustration from dictionaries,learners have unique performance on since adverbial clauses.Other learner features in logical adverbial clause positioning include the underuse of meaning decoration strategies of hedging,deranking,and metadiscursive devices.However,the correspondence between clause positions and these strategies are identical to native speakers'.Overall,in their logical adverbial clause positioning,learners pay great deal of attention to conveying meaning,do not give enough attention to anaphoric cohesion,and rarely employ meaning decoration-clause position mapping in their texts.The motivation competition process is also affected by L1 influence,frequency effects,contingency effects,and salience effects.