| Based on corpus linguistics, this thesis aims to investigate the different categoriesand pragmatic functions of formulaic sequences used by first-year and fourth-yearEnglish majors in their narratives. SWECCL1.0was taken as the database of thisstudy. With the help of AntConc3.2.4and manual filtering procedure, all formulaicsequences composed of3to6words were extracted from the corpus. Based onNattinger and Decarrico’s classification (1992), all these formulaic sequences wereclassified into four categories, that is, polywords, institutionalized expressions,phrasal constraints and sentence builders. The distribution of these four types offormulaic sequences used by first-year and fourth-year English majors was compared.Then, based on Biber et al.’s taxonomy (2003), the functions of the most frequentlyused formulaic sequences were analyzed.The results indicate that:(1) First-year English majors employ more formulaicsequences in their narratives and there are significant differences in the use ofpolywords, phrasal constraints and sentence builders between first-year andfourth-year English majors. First-year English majors use more polywords and phrasalconstraints, but less sentence builders than fourth-year English majors. Fewinstitutionalized expressions are used by both groups of students.(2) In terms of thefunctions of formulaic sequences, both groups use referential bundles most frequently,while discourse organizers are used least frequently. The frequent use of referentialbundles is one of the characteristics of narratives. In general, both groups have theawareness of formulaic sequences to a certain degree. Though fourth-year Englishmajors employ less formulaic sequences, they are more capable of using sentencebuilders to help diversify their ways of expression.This thesis falls into five parts. Chapter1is a brief introduction of the background, significance and framework of the research. Chapter2is the literaturereview. The definition and classification of formulaic sequences together withprevious studies both at home and abroad are presented. Chapter3is about theresearch methodology of the present study. The research questions, the softwareemployed and data collection are discussed. Chapter4presents the results of thepresent study followed by a discussion of the results. The last chapter summarizes themajor findings. Suggestions for future research are also explicated. |
