English Analytic Causative Constructions In Chinese Learners Of English

This paper conducts a contrastive study to analyze the variation in the use the English Analytic Causative Construction(ACC)between English native speakers and Chinese learners of English,based on data from the Written English Corpus of Chinese Learners(WECCL)and The Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays(LOCNESS).In total,we obtain 1265 ACC observations with the markers of make,cause,get and have from the two corpora after manual cleaning.For each observation,we further encode 21 variables for different slots,i.e.CAUSER,CAUSEE,EFFCTED PREDICATE and PATIENT,of the causative construction.For the data analysis,we first compare the distribution of the four causative markers,i.e.cause,make,have,and get,between WECCL and LOCNESS;we then explore the impact of each variable from the various slots on the choice of the causative marker with the help of Chi-square tests;finally,if a certain variable has a significant impact,then we use the standard residual to further determine its tendency,i.e.whether it was attracted to or repelled to the construction.The results show that make is the core verb with the strongest semantic and the highest frequency in native data.As for learner data,we also find that make is extremely overused,which indicates a “teddy bear” phenomenon in learners' use of construction.In addition,we find that the variables which significantly influence learners' use of make-ACC are shared with native speakers,however,in terms of the use of non-core constructions,i.e.cause-ACC,get-ACC,and have-ACC,the variables which are significantly influential are different between native speakers and English learners.So we may conclude that the Chinese learners of English are less proficient in the use of non-core causative constructions.Based on corpus data,this paper provides some empirical evidences to the discussion on the use of ACC in native speakers and second language learners.On the one hand,this paper theoretically supports the conclusion of previous research.On the other hand,this study may shed light on application in language teaching: non-core causative constructions should be paid attention to in the teaching practice.English learners should be guided to reduce the abuses of make-ACC so that they may reach a higher proficiency in the use of the English analytic construction.