A Corpus-based Comparative Study On Chinese EFL Learners’ And Native English Speakers’ Use Of Copular Verb REMAIN

Copular verb occupies a unique place in the entire English verbal system, since it not only links the Subject and Complement, which together with the Predicative indicates properties of the Subject, such as quantity, identity, status, etc., but also possess the function to express rich and subtle meaning, which can reflect the Subject’s characteristics appropriately. Thus, it is also a language focus for students. It can be classified into several sub-categories, in which type of remaining copular verb is included. Copular verb REMAIN is a member of remaining copular verbs. Previous studies on English copular verbs mainly focus on copula BE. Some other specific words are also explored, such as becoming copular verbs BECOME, GO, GET, as well as seeming copular verbs SEEM, LOOK, APPEAR. However, there are rarely studies on remaining copular verbs. But research of remaining copular verbs from the perspective of co-selection theory has been seldom conducted.Therefore, this study focuses on remaining copular verbs, takes copular verb REMAIN as the research object, and mainly probes into the following three questions:(1) What are the features of native English speakers’ use of copular verb REMAIN?(2) What are the features of Chinese EFL learners’ use of copular verb REMAIN?(3) How do Chinese EFL learners differ from native English speakers in the use of copular verb REMAIN, if there exist any?In order to answer the above questions, this study adopts a corpus-based methodology. It uses non-English major freshmen and sophomores(ST3) and non-English major juniors and seniors(ST4) in Chinese Learner English Corpus(CLEC) as well as academic journals in Corpus of Contemporary American English(COCA). Search the node word REMAIN in two sets of corpora respectively and then analyze the retrieval results from four aspects of co-selection theory, i.e. collocation, colligation, semantic preference and semantic prosody.Through this study, it can be found that Chinese EFL learners and native English speakers share some similarities in the use of copular verb REMAIN, but there are significant differences between both of them as well. With regard to collocation, Chinese EFL learners choose fewer and more monotonous collocates, while the native English speakers use its collocates flexibly and diversely. With regard to colligation, Chinese EFL learners adopt fewer colligation forms than native English speakers do, mainly adopting REMAIN +(N.) or REMAIN +(ADJ.). With regard to semantic preference, collocates of copular verb REMAIN used by Chinese EFL learners reflect less extensive and less flexible semantic attributes, while collocates used by native English speakers reflect more extensive, broad and open semantic attributes. With regard to semantic prosody, both Chinese EFL learners and native English speakers have adopted a mixture of positive and negative semantic prosody. But as a whole, obvious semantic prosody can’t be reflected in the use by Chinese EFL learners, while native English speakers tend to extensively use positive as well as negative collocates, which reflects a balance of semantic prosody.This research has some theoretical and pedagogical implications. In terms of theory, this study contributes to the enrichment and further development of co-selection theory. And it reconstructs the perspective and framework for language description and further proves that co-selection theory is the core mechanism of language description. In terms of pedagogy, it provides a new channel and method to improve the efficiency of vocabulary teaching, foreign language teaching, etc., as well as optimizes the teaching materials and methods. Co-selection theory needs to be explained in vocabulary teaching, and various co-selective relations should be paid more attention to. EFL teachers should attach importance to the teaching of collocation, colligation, semantic preference and semantic prosody.